canoe brewpub

two thumbs down x 2!!. my friends and i have been going to this place regularly since it opened 10 years ago. it was owned by the oak bay marina until a few years ago. the food was excellent, reasonably priced and consistent each time we went there. you know that happy and content feeling that you have when you've enjoyed great food, drinks, good service and it doesn't cost you an arm and leg? well all that started to change when canoe club was under the "truffles group" new management a few years ago. they had cut back on their portion and hiked up their price each of the last three years.
during their 4-6pm appy specials for example, for chicken wings they used to be $6 (7 years ago), then $8.50 (3 years ago) and currently now they are $13.50 (less $2) so that's $11.50 for an order of wings during this period. are you kidding me? and they call that a deal.. anyhow, we ordered it and the wings were not even the same quality like they used to be. they were really dry, little meat and pretty much a dozen of bones. good thing on the way home we had picked up some dessert to fill our hungry tummies.
my husband and i went back to give them another chance a few months later. we had to wait 5 min before a server came to ask for drinks. when they drinks came i had to ask for the menus and the server took another 5 min to bring some over, grr! we should have realized that this is not a good sign. i had ordered a green salad with grilled salmon and my hubby ordered a veggie burger with a caesar salad. my salad came with chicken instead of fish, so i had to flag down the server and she made it seem like i had made the mistake. she left with no apologies when she took the dish away. when i finally got my salmon it was way too salty. my husband's veggie burger was deep fried not grilled like they used to do it. it was just pain oily and lacked flavour.
we felt like crap after our meals and didn't sleep too well after greasy, salty meals. we finally came to realize that our favorite pub is now gone, we will never return again ever.
p.s. i must admit that they still consistently brew great beer but how can one go to a pub with lousy service and not enjoy any food?

great live music on thursdays!!!

the beer is good, as are the t-shirts, food is going downhill though, portions are getting smaller and the use or " premium" ingredients is extremely sparse. years as a customer, won't be back, see you at the mint!

wayyyyy overpriced, actually excessively so, i guess they still haven't figured out that they could make a lot more money by not relying on their architecture and patio to make them popular. appies are on average 3-4 dollars more per plate than industry standard, and nothing really special. the cobb salad is a joke: i'm all for the undressed salad concept of 1998 but at least put enough avocado, bacon, egg and such to make it fill someone up. oy. good: root vegetable chips kalamari (overpriced) wings (ridiculously overpriced) beers- excellent i never feel welcome here, which is too bad because i know they would rather have a solid long-term local and cool customer base. tourists and unimpressed patrons keep an average space meh

there are many great pubs in victoria, but few who can offer great atmosphere, a patio on victoria's inner harbour, and great handcrafted beers all in one place. well, canoe brewpub, marina & restaurant does just that. with 10 years of brewing beers of distinction and a recipient of a canadian brewing awards gold medal, if you're a beer lover, you should definitely put this pub on your "must do" list while in victoria. speaking of beer, while on our recent visit to canoe, my beer-connoisseur-friend mark tried their popular "fleet of beer" ($11.95) . fleet of beer it came with a sample of their 4 signature beers; red canoe lager, river rock bitter, beaver brown ale, and siren's song pale ale. they also normally add in another sample of one of their seasonal specialty beers, however this time they were out so mark just got an extra sample of h

good. not amazing. but good.. i have spent many a thursday night at canoe brewpub enjoying various beverages and listening to amazing live music. on thursday the beer couldn't be better priced. 12$ for a realllllly big pitcher of incredible, handcrafted, house brewed beer. this along with free live bands provides a great, affordable evening.
i feel fortunate in saying that i have visited canoe on many different occasions and all were good. i have never been extremely wowed by the food, but for the most part it is tasty and somewhat fresh but usually is quite pricey for what you get.
on a recent visit i enjoyed a caesar, extra spicy, big glass. it came fresh, expertly crafted and nice and spicy, just how i like it. the garnish was two pickled olives and a pearl onion on a skewer. i like to think that anything is better than a celery stick, and the seasoning salt rim tasted homemade and wasn't remotely stale. my partner was not drinking and had a non alcoholic ginger beer. this was freshly made, creative and a good blend of ginger and sweetness. we shared the feature main, a homage to japan featuring a sesame crusted salmon, miso dressed mixed greens salad and a side of tempura shrimp sushi. the sushi was an excellent side and the salad was a bit over dressed. the salmon was undercooked, normally i like my fish to be a bit undercooked but this was half a step up from raw...not really what you want when paying 23$. our other entree was the margherita pizza. this had a delicious flavor but it looked/tasted as though when out of the oven it had been doused in olive oil. there were pools of oil swimming amongst my grape tomatoes and i found it a bit off-putting. our bill was just under 60$ which we both agreed was a lot for what we got, but we do recognize its a trendy spot with a flare for higher priced menu items. our server was also pretty nice and helpful with our menu.
all in all, i have to give canoe brewpub a positive review as i have never had a bad time here. there have been many fun nights in the upstairs bar area, and great brunches on the sunny patio over the summer months. make sure you try a beer and maybe a caesar as well.

absolutely love this place!!! the calamari and the fish tacos are my favorites, i love that all their fish is ocean wise. the food is consistently great and the atmosphere lots of fun.

pretentious. we were there last saturday. nice room and view but we changed our mind on eating there as the service was so slow. it has become one of those places that is in love with it's self and the customers have been demoted if you know what i mean. never going back.

go somewhere else for food. a group of 12 of us headed to canoe for a birthday dinner in late 2010...i'll keep this review short and sweet: not one person was awed by their food. and when you're paying $20+ for a meal, it would be nice to enjoy it.

i was told the chef changed a few months ago so hopefully things are better now, but i can't say i want to take a chance and find out.

7.5/10. always nice to step into a unique pub environment, and you definitely get that at the canoe club. high ceilings, with beautiful brick and timber wherever you look. decent food, but a bit over priced. killer beer - some of my favourite in town. i usual get the river rock bitter.

a very different scene if i hit the canoe patio on a summer's eve. then, it's nice to slow things down and enjoy a few extra beers and enjoy the view of the waterway as the sun sinks. i am occasionally willing to spend a bit too much on the good-but-not-great food in order to enjoy the beer and the location.

great brunch. im going all the time to canoe. i love this place, the atmosphere is great. the food is actually very good and they lowered there prices too.
i tried brunch the other day and i had the best eggs benny ever. im a big eggs benny fan and this just blow me a way. definitely worth to go down to canoe for brunch.

i want to love this, but just can't. i've been to canoe about 6 times this year, and i can get behind the hype: fresh, local, in-season ingredients, a creative team in the kitchen, and a fantastic location (aka nice patio). all of which i am happy to pay a premium for... except, the food isn't all that great. the burgers have been over-cooked every time (read:really, really dry) and are otherwise forgettable, i've had chicken (also dry, served with dry roast potatoes), and salmon (also overcooked & dry, with dry roast potatoes instead of the listed smashed potatoes). the caesar salad is whole leaf, which i find awkward but that's just my personal preference.
on the plus side, there are great local beers on offer, the mojitos are very tasty, and in the summer the pitchers of sangria are a wonderful treat on the patio. and i've had great service the past few times.

just go for the beer. we dropped in for a beer after some holiday shopping and were reminded of what we enjoy at canoe. the patio. summer is what this place is about.

beer anyone?!?!. this place is my favorite place to go any night of the week. the beer they brew is sooooo good and the food meets the same level of quality. if you love beer....or heck if you don't love beer... i guarantee after going to canoe you will love beer!

great beer. but food isn't their forte. very generic "west coast fare" that costs more than it should. at least the patio is mediocre.