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The Pond
Categories: Restaurants Seafood Restaurants Tapas Bars Seafood, Tapas Bars [Edit]
1441 Commercial DriveVancouver, BC V5L 3X8
Neighbourhoods: Grandview-Woodlands, The Drive
(604) 618-1627
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
Joanne C. said: "Pink Peppercorn makes my heart (and my belly) sing. I went to the Cannery a few times with out of town family years ago, so of course we made our way to Pink Peppercorn to check it out. I've brought my parents and my boyfriend here…" read more »
5 reviews for The Pond
5 reviews in English
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Review from Jessie J.
1/19/2010
I was intrigued when this little joint appeared between my home and the skytrain early this year (I believe they opened New Year's Eve). I like the name, the decor looked inviting, and when I reached the seafood tapas tag line, I knew I would be a fan.
Finally got to try it out last week with friends from out of town. The food ranged from good to great, the prices were right, and the cocktail list affordable and creative. Our fave dishes were the penne putanesca and the calamari - but the crab cakes, garlic prawns and seafood salad were also yummy.
I had a cocktail made with basil (I want to say it was called a basher), that was delish, if a bit heavy on the ice and small on the cocktail. That said, I think it cost $5, so it's not like it was a rip-off, just not a great value either.
I think this place could work its way up to a 4 or even 5 stars, but it's not there yet. The owner helped serve us, but seemed quite nervous. The food took a bit longer than we expected, and when we ordered the Thai curry creme brulee, it turned out it's not available just yet - they don't have the right dishes to serve it in. I think most of these are kinks that can be worked out though, and they've only been open 2 weeks, so I'll go back to check again in a month or two.
The one thing I don't foresee changing are the three big flat screens on the walls. They were really distracting, and totally clashed with the ambiance. My hope is that if enough people go and ask to have the screen opposite them shut off (like we did) the lovely owner will get that they're at odds with the otherwise delightful place he's created.Listed in: My Drive
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Review from David D.
Vancouver, BC
5/9/2011
I was quite interested in trying this place when I first saw it. However, I was a little bit disappointed in the food. The menu has potential but the dishes are poorly executed.
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Review from avid c.
Vancouver, BC
9/27/2010
Local vancouverites: we can do better than this.
With so many great restaurants to choose from in Vancouver, I highly doubt that The Pond restaurant is going to survive.
With Stella's just 2 blocks down the drive : offering a much superior quality of tapas and cheaper prices, I would recommend taking a pass on Pond.
Of the dishes that we ordered, all of them were sub par.
For example, they serve a bacon-wrapped scallop using the cheapest, fattiest bacon available, and they don't bother to cook it very well.
The experience of eating a high-class specialty dish like that should be such that you don't have to pick fat off of your bite-size delicacy. Pond is trying to offer a fine-dining dish with low-quality ingredients.
Similarily, the caeser salad is a standard truck-stop pub version with flavourless croutons and watery dressing with bad after-taste on a 5-inch plate. If you were to compare this exact dish : Stella's offers a caesar salad with high-grade real parmesan (grated shavings), gourmet croutons, and a healthy portion size on a gorgeous 12-inch plate.
I agree with the last review that the 3 plasma tv screens are the wrong thing to have in what is supposed to be a warm-atmosphered restaurant. Plasma screens = low brow pub.
As far as drinks go, you can only order one choice of house wine by the glass : a gag-inducing $10 bottle ( at the liquor store) and they're charging $6 a glass.
If you want a tasty wine, you have to purchase the whole bottle.
For non-alcoholic drinks, you can only choose from the on-tap colas.
Again, this restaurant portrays itself as classy, but if you can't even order a nice bottle of water, you are NOT in a classy restaurant.
The pond - not very well considered on all levels.
Don't waste your time and money.
thanks! -
Review from anastacia w.
Vancouver, BC
10/26/2010
Oh dear god, this might have been the worst meal I've ever had. I shouldn't have paid quite honestly, while we were waiting FOREVER for the bill, prior to us going up to the bar to get it ourselves I said to my friend 'Nothing could save this restaurant for me, if they waived the bill and gave me a $50 gift certificate I would burn it"
It started out not too bad, we were the only people there, but it was a nasty rainy Monday on the Drive, it wasn't like it was a downtown restaurant that was empty, so I really didn't think much of it. The waitress/bar tender tells us to seat ourselves, I actually liked the relaxed atmosphere, I try to order a glass of wine, and she knew nothing about the wine list. My friend ordered a Diet Coke and they asked her if she wanted ice and served 1/2 a can of some diet pop that wasn't Diet Coke - she at least took that off the bill when we brought it to her attention. I hate that I've been drinking Diet Coke for 10-15 years, I know what it tastes like, don't try and charge me $2-3 for an imposter.
So we had the pan-seared chicken skewers - at the time I thought it was good in retrospect the chicken was slightly dry and the veggies were soaked in oil and both at the time and now I'm irritated that when two people say they're going to share something and they serve three skewers, 3 out of 5 dishes they served three portions, if it was a date that would be awkward, my friend and I laughed about it and split everything, but in comparison a different friend and I had gone for lunch at Cactus Club (and I'm not a huge CC fan) and we were being healthy splitting a steak dinner and a meal size salad - they split it for us, right down to cutting one of the seven prawns in half - I was super impressed with that. But back to this review.
The next dish was one giant crab cake, that was easy to split and delicious,... no complaints, at all it was cooked perfectly and flavoured without the flavouring being overpowering.
Then they served some weird artichoke heart thing that we didn't even taste, we thought the artichoke hearts were going to be a compliment to garlic cheese bread, from the way it was on the menu (speaking of which we tried to ask about it at the time and she just wrote it down on her order pad and didn't answer our question) my friend thought it was going to be a dip, I thought it would be on top of the bread bruschetta style, it was just 3 artichokes, with (i think) a 1/3 of a pickled carrot sticking up in the air from the middle of it on a bed of mixed greens with no dressing on them.
That was a theme by the way, everything was on a bed of dry mixed greens, and everything had a quartered cherry/grape tomato on the plate,..
so she took back the weird artichoke thing when we complained and offered us a replacement dish free of charge, we were contemplating and my friend said something about what about prawns? to me, the waitress said ok, wrote it down and went back to the kitchen to place the order, at this point we could here them arguing in the kitchen - awkward!
so then it spirals downhill, the prawns were gross; overcooked, dry and overgarlicky and the garlic didn't taste good - it reminded me of powdered dry garlic from my childhood. They were served with some bland orange creamy sauce that I think they thought was aioli, because they also served it with their dried up shriveled oysters that I asked for with some tomato sauce, but there was a choice between tomato and aioli and like I mentioned... she wasn't really listening when she took our orders.
So then we waited with empty waters and I had an empty wine glass forever, at least 15 mins, for her to show up with a bill, we finally went up and just paid at the bar, and quite honestly should have argued not to pay, because I said it all at the beginning of the review,... if they had waived the bill and given me a $50 gift certificate I would burn it. -
Review from Lynn F.
Vancouver, BC
7/25/2010
Excellent food and good prices. We tried it on the recommendation of a guest of ours who really liked it. They have a few main courses but main focus seems to be tapas. I had a steak served with perfect vegetables and my husband tried a chicken main dish. Each was well under $20.00 and excellent. Portions are not huge so you may want to order an appy or dessert of you're hungry. Service was very good with personable staff.
