Halftime Tavern

On December 1^st, my girlfriend and I went to Halftime Bar and Grill to enjoy some drinks and a few games of pool. It was a Sunday evening around 6:30PM. When we arrived the place way empty, there were two women sitting at the bar and us. The place was dead. We ordered our drinks, a taco salad (which was more like nachos) and played a few games of pool. After five drinks between the two of us we began to worry about the cost of the bill. We are both young college students with very little spending money. With that said, we are on a budget and figured five drinks would be plenty to provide for a fun and interesting evening. However, the problem was we felt nothing from the drinks we just consumed. When the bill arrived we were appalled, $ 64.23 for five $ 9 drinks (that gave us nothing even remotely close to a buzz) and 1 salad.
Typically we don’t complain about anything. But this time we felt it was necessary to say something. When I explained to the bar tender/​waitress that the price of the drinks was outrageous, she blatantly lied to our faces. She told us the «small drinks are $ 5.50 and the large drinks are $ 9.00.» I asked her what size the small drinks were and she couldn’t show me a glass. Then I asked her what the large drinks were and she said, «a pint glass» I then explained that we were charged $ 9.00 for the small glasses. She then said, «Oh, no, the large glasses just have more juice and the same amount of booze.»
Needless to say, I will never return to this establishment. My family and I have eaten, drank, and played pool here many times in the past and never have we experiences such highway robbery. And all of this just before Christmas. Happy Holidays Halftime Bar and Grill.
Overall review — We were ripped off, lied to, and taken advantage of. We will not be returning and advise those who have not gone there to save their money, time, and go elsewhere.
Sad thing, my father gave a positive review of this place after a nice 6 person family lunch here… I am going to ask him to remove his positive comment after my poor experience.

I was unimpressed. Food and service were a three, value a one, hence: two stars.
I started going to the Halftime over a decade ago, usually just for drinks, but my wife and I stopped by for lunch on 3÷15÷2013 on a whim. The $ 9 «lunch special» half pulled pork sandwich with fries was unimpressive: no slaw, no onions, no pickles, just BBQ sauce and meat on half a roll. My $ 14 French Dip was sizeable, and I liked how it came with a horseradish/​mustard seed sauce on the side. But there was nothing to separate this Dip from the one I had at Halftime 10 years ago, except about $ 6. I know times change and food costs increase, but I didn’t consider this to be a good value by comparison to other pubs/​grills/​bars in the ‘Couv that serve similar sandwiches for less.
I may return to the Halftime, but it will be for their Bloody Mary’s and beer selection, not their food.

E side of NE Hazel Dell Blvd. just S of NW 78^th St.
I used to frequent this local watering hole quite a bit years ago. I had been away for awhile (different state) and I heard that the quality of their food had gone down, but I went in and found out that the establishment must have heard the feedback and did something positive about it, because I really enjoyed almost everything there!
We started off by sharing their:
Teriyaki Chicken Wings:
and these were just ok. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sauce as it just had too much of a Soy Sauce flavoring about it. I think if the sauce had some work done too it then these would be more desirable. The did have a decent amount of meat on them (maybe not as big as others, but decent) and the batter had a really nice crunch about it. As you can see the dish comes with a side of Ranch Dressing for dipping. Their wings come in a choice of either Teriyaki or regular Buffalo flavoring.
Chips with Queso:
I can’t really comment on this dish because I only had like one chip. Yeah it tasted like it came from a bag, but at least it was fresh and crunchy.
For my main entrée I chose their Club Sandwich:
This dish comes with a ton of choices from the bread to the side. I chose White Bread and asked them to substitute the White Cheese for Pepperjack Cheese. For a side you have a choice of Fries, Tots, or a Salad… as you can see I chose the tots which turned out perfect. They were really crunchy and hot on the outside and moist and hot on the inside. My sandwich came with some pretty good quality meats (a decent amount too,) fresh veggies, three kinds of cheeses (American, Cheddar, & Pepperjack,) Bacon, and Mayo. This thing was so enjoyable to eat from first bite to last.
So yeah if you heard the same things I heard then don’t believe everything you hear otherwise you’ll end up missing out.
I’ve been by here several times and they never seem to be busy.
Service is very warm and inviting. You can tell they appreciate your presence!
There is plenty of parking all around the building in their dedicated Parking Lot.
Not much in the way of décor inside or out. It’s quite minimal if you know what I mean.
They have a couple of Pool Tables to shoot some pool if you like.
They play 97.1 in the background at a level that is easily conducive to conversation.
Their prices are very reasonable for everything. They do a great job of being both a bar and a restaurant.

My hubby and I decided to check it out. We will never go back.
The bartender was a lair and also very blunt. Starting off to tell us her life story about living 60 miles away to take care of her horses, explaining to my hubby that she was single, not kids and can take care of herself… good for you! lol
She advised my hubby to get the clam chowder because she said it was really good. Then after my hubby spit the first spoonful out because it was grainy and tasted dirty, she says oh yeah i don’t like Clam chowder, i usually just pick the clams out. hahahah horrible! Didn’t even offer something else and also didn’t credit the choice.
Then as we are eating our WAY over priced slabs of dry prime rib, we look over and see two servers HOOVING their dinner down like a bunch of cows. I mean it was so bad, that when they were chatting with the bartender and one another, you could see food fly out of their month. HORRIBLE!
Beer selection licked balls, they only had i think 6 beers with 20+taps that they just didn’t have serving. Obviously cash control issues to not have enough beer on tap from other suppliers. The décor is dated and awkward. I wouldn’t recommend this place at all. Go to Applebee’s if you want an overpriced crappy steak, at least its clean, the servers are very well trained and the manager give a shit about the customers experience.

This place came up on a top ten list on Unilocal when I searched «Best restaurants in Vancouver»! It should be no surprise that a dive bar serves amazing food! This is what you might expect from a very nice higher end restaurant not a bar… black interior, pink lights, and balls cracking on the pool tables. Loved it!
My boyfriend had the prime rib and said it was incredible. I had the special of chicken parmigiana, oh my! Our meals started with cold, crisp salads plus a little veggie tray. My chicken was perfectly cooked with a lovely marinara sauce topped with melted mozzarella cheese, perfectly steamed broccoli with herb butter, pasta and garlic bread. It was way too much food! I was stuffed after half the meal! … Lunch the next day!
If you haven’t yet tried the Halftime Tavern, go there for a nicely made drink and a seriously delicious meal! I think both our entrees were $ 20.

For the purpose of full disclosure, I have to say I am biased towards the Halftime. Since we started going some 6 years ago, it has been our favorite place to eat and/​or drink on the west side of Vancouver.
Three of us went to dinner on ⁴⁄₃₀ and arrived around 6:45p. The place was packed!!! It’s really nice to see the change in clientele that has occurred over the past couple of years. The owner is working hard to make the Halftime much more of a restaurant and shake the «tavern» tag. Not sure I’m in full agreement with that, but the word is certainly out about the quality of meal you will receive here.
Anyway, back to our evening. Of the available tables, we chose one where we could watch the end of the Mariners game. I believe they have two or three converter boxes and can show multiple games, but can’t change just one TV without it affecting a few others. We were greeted promptly as always and drinks arrived right away. My wife and our friend each had fresh fruit martinis (pineapple and blueberry respectively) and the strawberry martini was tried later. I kept things much simpler.
We ordered dinner. The Schwarzkopf steak for me, prime rib for my wife, and peppercorn steak for our friend. Here’s where it gets tricky… with the recent changes, The Halftime now has probably 40% more seating… but the kitchen is the same size. On a busy Saturday night, this meant dinner took quite a while to arrive. This was NOT a big deal for us as we were enjoying our drinks and conversation, but I can see how it would be an issue for other customers. I do believe they are working on growing the kitchen, but you should plan a little extra time if going for dinner on a Fri/​Sat. evening.
The Schwarzkopf was ordered medium rare and prepared perfectly. I had it with a baked potato and a cup of clam chowder.
We do love this place and most of the people who work there. It is a very comfortable environment and you simply can not beat the food they serve!

Well, who knew? I saw Halftime Tavern listed when I did a search for Vancouver fine dining. I drive past this place all the time and just thought it was an old bar. Well, it IS an old bar– been a family business since 1903! Currently one must be 21 to enter, but they said within a few weeks they will be allowing younger folks to dine until 9pm. I can bring my teenager with us next time.
Plenty of parking, and friendly folks. Pool tables. Large screen televisions. Plentiful bar and enough choices on the menu to please everyone. No, not really «fine’ dining, but the food certainly is good! And plentiful.
My husband had the Sunday night special of prime rib, salad, mashed potatoes and garlic bread for $ 15.00. Good stuff. Appies were coconut shrimp with a tasty chili garlic sauce. Very good– not overdone and rubbery like you sometimes get. Chips and home-​made salsa were good too.
I had the blue cheese/​pepper-​jack burger with fries. The burger was massive! I could not finish it. Well, I COULD have but it would have hurt. Very tasty combination and the burger was so juicy and flavorful. The fries were amazing. Super crispy without being too hard, not greasy at all. A nice surprise.
I splurged on a blueberry lemon drop– complete with fresh muddled berries. They make ‘em potent here– be warned! lol
A great surprise to find this in our area. Will definitely be back.
A great reminder to not judge a book by it’s cover!