Melissa F.'s Profile

I know I should like this place but I REALLY REALLY don't.
It reminds me of an indie Denny's.

I wouldn't even call this place better than Fran's.  At least Fran's has tackiness to it.  this place tries to be a little cool.  

I hate the service here.  I've been here a few times with groups of people and the servers here just seem to really hate their job when it's busy.

I'd rather have some crusty old lady at a quaint tacky diner serving me grease at 4am than go to this place where disappointment and sheer mediocrity fills every crevice of this sad little place they call at 24 hour diner.

Why are there so many hippies here?  I haven't seen so many hard core hippies in awhile.  But other than that- I can't believe I JUST discovered this place!

I've always known it existed but felt I could take it or leave the experience until somebody drove me here.
omgoodness. Reminds me of little india in Toronto where I had some of the nices crispiest dosas.

and 24 hours worth? I'm there.

The service is excellent.
I'd say the meat dishes are a LOT better than the veg although I tend to enjoy veg Indian food better.
And they're properly priced.

Eat here.  But if this place becomes so popular that you take MY seat at 3am I'm gonna start giving this place 1 star.

The trick of enjoying Earls is to just not expect much.
After you get over the fact that it's a painfully average restaurant that attempts to compete with Cactus Club, you'll be fine.

Honestly, Earls used to be better than its close competition Cactus.  But it's like Earls said to themselves, "why don't we get rid of all the best dishes on the menu?"  

SKIP it.

This place has existed here forever but the vibe has changed considerably.  It just keeps getting yuppier by the year.  But I'm ok with that.  It comes with the Yaletown neighbourhood.

I generally h ave 4 star experiences here but only because I always come with a group of people I like.
This is probably the better (and one of the only) bars on the East side of granville street.

Let's put it this way, i'd be happy to go if my friends chose this place but it's never ever a venue I would choose myself.

*sigh*, ok, I admit.  IT's one of the nicer looking bars on the granville strip.
It's a really hit or miss night.
Music is decent because there are different floors with slightly different vibes which work.

This bar sucks considerably less than I thought it would.
This is likely the closest thing to a comfortable + slightly flashy bar if you're from california.  It's got that vibe.

While I absolutely hate the series of Donnelly Pubs lately, this place has a warm spot in my heart for the divey FEEL that you want to get in the middle of DT without going into the far reaches of gastown.
I do have some fond nights here and admittedly, it is a great place to come with a group of friends.

I would have given it one, but it's one of those undergrad bars that I used to love when I was, yes-in undergrad.  And well, it warms the heart that everyone else on yelp hates it so much.  Wanted to keep the average up.
= )

This is as close to success as the Donnelly Group gets nowadays.  but only due to the spectacular view.

This bar has nothing going for it other than the Great View.
Oh, I should say that the service/bartenders here are the best of the Donnelly Group lot.  They are by far the nicest and very accommodating.

the pub itself has a strange dark setup inside and a very awkward seating plan. But the patio is pretty nice, greap for people watchign and watching the sun set.

So I've tried this place several times.
When it first opened it was slower and Ihoped it would pickup.  It's been a long time since the Donnelly Group had something uptown and as a loyal tried and true fan of Biminis Tap House on 4th ave I wanted to give it a try.

But to no avail.

This place is possibly the worst of all the Donnelly pubs because they attempt the EXACT same menu, dancey/pub experience but it is a COMPLETE fail.  

Well, almost a year later I come back to give it another try.  Why not?  
WRONG- I took a group of girls here for a bachelorette party.  As you can CLEARLY see from the website they say that they "take care of you" if you decide to hold your bachalorette party here.

Umm, this is what "taking care of us" meant:
-Insisting there was no room at the time we requested, booking an earlier time, and then only to find out that the resto was COMPLETELY empty for the rest of the night.
-Asked for something outside for a late dinner when making the reso.  The person gave us a "no problem".  When we showed up there was no room on the patio and the woman insisted she had no reservation for us.  when I explained what we were celebrating there was absolutely no congrats or not attempt to seat us where we had requested.

Now, this was no ordinary reservation.  Not only did I talk to the resto/manager to get the reservation, but I talked to their events coordinator person who organizes ALL of the Donnelly Group pubs.  

So I made this "special event reservation" via many levels and they STILL managed to fail.

boo.

Dear Donnelly Group,
DO BETTER.

I'm tired of going to the same bar with your standardly subpar experience.
you have to same menus, the same average service, the same annoying douchey clientele that you call "regulars" and the most confusing DJ/Dance floor setup I have ever seen attempted.

Why am I gracing you with two stars?  Because the Donnelly Group DID have a bar called Biminis Tap House once upon a time.  And it was awesome.  It was in Kits and it was the PERFECT combination of pub and club.

I'm hoping the Donnelly group can identify that their series of black interior dark, idiotic setup of a venue is a BAD model and go back to the little tap house that could.

Bring back Biminis!

Pretentious resto, AMAZING patio view PLUS a cozy pub?  Yes please!
It's everything you want out of Vancouver, no wonder tourists love it.

Alhough I'm born and raised here I don't go to Cardero because well, it's a pricier version of the kind of Vancouver you want to expereince when you don't  know Vancouver very well.
Know what I mean?  

Yeah, people come here because it's a great allround resto+pub+view.  But can you get the same elsewhere?  of course!  But you'd have to know the city as well as I do ; )

The restaurant:
Excellent service, friendly for yuppies and families alike.
Food.  Good, not VERY good but you don't feel ripped off when you pay the bill.

Pub:
Nice narrow room beside the resto.  Has a good combination of cozy and social.  Good drinks, but there aren't a lot of perks to this bar.  Meaning there is no use being ultra friendly in hopes of a special mixed drink or any extras.
But if you want egalitarian?  You got it.

Nice place overall.  Go call it a favourite if you're a tourist.  If you're a local?  Go once just to see what its all about but you probably know better places to take yourself.