- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Coffee & Tea |
- All
Smuggler's Cove Pub & Liquor Store
Categories: Food Beer, Wine & Spirits Nightlife Bars Pubs Beer, Wine & Spirits, Pubs [Edit]
2581 Penrhyn StVictoria, BC V8N 1G4
(250) 477-2688
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Best Nights:
- Mon
- Happy Hour:
- Yes
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- Outdoor Area/ Patio Only
- Coat Check:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
4 reviews for Smuggler's Cove Pub & Liquor Store
4 reviews in English
-
Review from Antonia W.
Toronto, ON
9/19/2010
So despite having read this so-so review, I came here with a group of friends for dinner because one of them really liked their cajun burger and the rest of us had never been here before.
I made reservations for 12 and when we came, they already had tables set up for us. The building looks pretty big from the outside, but you climb a set of stairs to a smallish second floor area.
As people trickled in to the table, our server came by to get drink orders from those of us already there. They weren't impatient with us having to wait for everybody to get there and just made sure all of us had drinks.
So i'm not going to go over what everybody had to eat, except that we were there on a Monday and it was wings night, which means super cheap wings!! Maybe a third of our table had wings that night and they all seemed pretty happy with it. I forget how much it was, but it was an awesomely good deal for a pound of wings. I think drink prices were pretty standard, a few of us had cocktails and there was no cheaping out on pours. The drinks were all goood.
All in all, we had a greaaaat time there, atmosphere was relaxed, good service with a smile, our food came out in a decent amount of time considering our big group and they gave two yummy cake slices for the two bday girls that night!
Definitely would go back for a night out with some good friends :) Four stars to balance out the three, since I actually want to give 3.5 stars. -
Review from Christopher P.
Victoria, BC
8/3/2011
I recently went to Smuggler's Cove for wings night with friends. I had though that it was going to be a relatively large space, but when you go upstairs to the pub you find a fairly small space that has a generous, if somewhat cramped, patio. Most of us ordered wings, which were worth the $5/lb we paid and not a penny more. While they were individually small, which wasn't particularly surprising given the price, they were also incredibly dry, which was a bit surprising and disappointing. I had dry-rubbed wings, and the rub was relatively tasteless and failed to really convey the flavour of dried red-pepper and garlic. My companions, who purchased wings that had sauce-based flavouring, enjoyed their wings more than I, though their wings were also dry. The moisture of the (unevenly distributed) sauce helped to offset some of the dryness.
Smugglers has a modest beer selection, and they actually ran out of their special beer of the day just after we ordered our first pitcher. Nothing on their beer menu was unique; you can get the same (or better!) fare almost anywhere in the city.
Will I return to Smuggler's Cove again? Probably, but because it is the closest pub to where I live and thus convenient for a group of us to get to. When the graduate lounge at UVic is on 'regular' hours again I suspect that it will be my default pub, and Smuggler's will be last-ditch there-is-no-other-place-as-convieniant-and-nearby backup. If you can go somewhere else, conveniently, then do so. If you can't then bring good company and try not to focus on the food. -
Review from Beth C.
Victoria, BC
3/1/2010
***First, a Disclaimer: This visit was during 'Dine Around Victoria', which offers prix fixe menus from participating restaurants in $20, $30 or $40 denominations for a month or so each year. The aim of the event, I believe, is to get locals out to sample some new places. I can only imagine that the staff of participating restaurants are run off their feet and may even dread this time of year. BUT, that's why the third star, to be fair. If we'd had this experience at a regular time of year, I'd only have rated our visit two stars***
Now that that's out of the way - we went to Smuggler's Cove at 7pm on a Saturday night. It was packed, and we were lucky to only have to wait 5 minutes for a table.
The waiter gave us our menus, we ordered water, and....he came back 15 minutes later with our water and took our orders.
Half an hour after that, my boyfriend flagged him down and asked about our appetizers. He said he'd check, never came back, but five minutes later someone else brought them to us. But before that happened, the couple next to us, who overheard, confided: "Just so you know - our food took over forty minutes. We were STARVING."
My boyfriend's crab cakes were really good. Decently sized, with a chipotle mayo that actually had some good chipotle kick. My caesar salad was average, nothing special, but pretty good, and not drowned in dressing which I often find a problem in pubs.
Our entrees actually came fairly quickly. My boyfriend was again the big order winner for the night. His seafood crepes were absolutely delicious. He really enjoyed them. The vegetables that came with it were really good, too, and he said "that was I think the best piece of cauliflower I've ever had." The rice was meh - we both got the feeling it came out of a box. No proof of that, but it was bland, and extremely uniform in both colour and flavour.
My ravioli....well, it kind of sucked. The marinara was far too sweet and had a weird honey-flavour which didn't work and was kind of off-putting. The ravioli itself was overcooked to the point of being flaccid and mushy, and there was no discernible mushroom flavour at ALL (it was Portobello Mushroom Ravioli, in theory). The garlic foccacia bread it came with was a bit burnt, but tasty enough.
Dessert was kahlua brownies with ice cream for both of us. Unremarkable, but chocolatey and basically sound.
The food wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, for pub fare. But I have to say the service sucked. The only time our waiter asked if we were happy was when he dropped off the bill and said "And how was everything?" - long after he could have actually fixed anything we'd mentioned. We really were abandoned to our own devices almost the entire time, and our food took FOREEEEVER. Again, I acknowledge it was Dine Around time and probably more stress/larger crowds than usual, but I think good service would be to say "heads up - your wait may be a bit longer than normal", and when that is indeed the case, a smile and a "Just so you know, we haven't forgotten about you - your food will be along soon!" goes a really long way to showing you care. The truth is, we both kind got the feeling the waiter was entirely indifferent to us.
I might try it again sometime, if I happened to be hungry and in the neighbourhood - but probably not. The service really was pretty dismal, and the food wasn't good enough to make up for it. -
Review from Bill X.
Burnaby, BC
12/22/2010 2 Check-ins Here
It's not usually busy, but the selection isn't all that great. I don't usually visit liquor store, so I'm not at all experienced in these matters. The Starbucks nearby has great coffee though :D
