Elbow Room

Never had the food and never intend to. Even the bartender joked and said «Yeaaaaah, you don’t want that». I saw the bartender later warming up a bowl of mystery something in the microwave within the ambiance of the muted TV playing some old procedural crime drama.
There’s always a mix of a crowd here. Punk rockers, old «regulars», and others both old and young. But when I say «mix», take that lightly… the place has never been busy in the 3 or 4 times I’ve been there. Even on New Year’s Eve, there was ample seating when other bars in the area were packed.
The place isn’t very clean. It’s not abysmal, but it’s not warming, either. There’s nothing particularly interesting about the décor. One of the booths my girlfriend sat in rocked like it was going to tip over.
Realistically, the only reason to go here is to get hammed smashed faced. A well drink easily has 2+ shots in it, for like $ 3 or whatever. The pours are so heavy I’m surprised that this place hasn’t gotten into trouble.
Really though, sometimes you just want a few really strong well whiskey/​Cokes for $ 3 a pop. And for that reason, I’ll be back very soon.

I usually LOVE dive bars. But there’s something off about Paul’s Elbow Room.
Partly is that it is too-​well lit. A dive bar should be dim, to obscure the grime and create an intimate atmosphere. This place has the lights so bright as to wonder if they’ve issued last call for alcohol.
Also, the crowd is somewhat sullen — unusual for Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest, where friendliness and cheer are the norm, not the exception.
My service was quick and friendly, but I paid and left after consuming my drink — I just got a bad feeling about this place.

The food here makes me freak out dawg!!!

While with a group of five people, we had a rather disturbing and bad experience here. I don’t usually write to shame a business, but in this case, they earned it. We had arrived and ordered a drink for each person and everything was going fine, until we tried to order food, which we where told they didn’t serve any. We then pointed out the mildly amusing fact that they have little menus on the tables, and we where told if we order food she would have to go back and make it. Then she laid this nice little line on us: ‘if I have to do that, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it’. Of course after that line, we where cool with no food.
As the night wore on we noticed that many, many, many of the patrons where getting massively drunk, and just simply being over served. We then decided to leave at this point. So if you want really drunk people screaming and yelling at you and the jukebox, and some really bad service, here’s your place!
Overall, stay away!

Best place to be on a saturday night. The Elbow Room, is never packed, it is easy to find a table. The décor is bad art deco, with wood paneling, and stained glass. The drinks are strong, and cheap. On weekday mornings from 10 – 12 they offer 3.95 breakfast consisting of 2 eggs, bacon, sausage, or ham, and hashbrowns.