darby's public house

om nom nom. the library burger is delicious! very intense combination of flavours in the best way. they had trivia going on, though we missed it, but every one looked like they were having a good time. our server was helpful and remembered everything despite the fact that they were pretty packed and they were clearly a little stressed.

the location and the ambience are good. great staffs. the food was average and some of the menus are not value for money e.g. tacos. they have both quite ( patio) and loud environment (main floor) which is great.

staff is mediocre and the food is terrible. i once ordered the delicious sounding duck poutine and the cook must have been mad at me for trying to chat up his gf at the bar because he tried to kill me with salt. the barman acknowledged it was disgusting but there was no real apology and i could tell they couldn't care less what kind of experience i had there.

i used to come for a drink after i finished with clients on this side of town but i will never be back. it's just one of those horribly mediocre uninspired places that only survives because it's located in a high traffic area. vancouver is full of nice places to eat and have a drink so why anyone would come here willingly is beyond me. unfortunately places like darby's seem to be beginning to outnumber the truly inspired establishments but alas, it's the way of the world these days.

i think the only thing this place has going for it is it's patio. the food is terrible. it's obvious that the people making it are using minimal effort. i will never come back here again. it's just not worth it. i think if some care was put into the food it could be amazing, but unfortunately i don't see that happening.

great beer selection! aside from that though, i don't see what makes this such an iconic institution. maybe because of their large upstairs seating area?

went when the jays game was on. it was a very lively environment and very busy. you have to seat yourself. i ordered the smoked pulled chicken, it was okay. it is dark meat but it didn't have the pulled texture it's supposed to have and the bottom of the bun was lined with jalapeños ummm...okay. would have preferred it mixed in with chicken in bits instead. yam fries was excellent and the aoili that went with it had excellent flavor, i think it had avocado in it. i had the passionfruit flavored cider, really sour with a hint of passionfruit, it's ok. overall typical pub food. nice environment. good to go for watching the games. i'll try the tacos next time.

my wife and have ordered take out from darby's through the order it website on a regular basis for the past 18 months. it used to be well sized portions at a reasonable prize. however over the past 6 months the quality has gone down so much that i would rather go to mcdonalds. last week i ordered a pulled pork sandwich and it arrived without any pork at all, just covered in sauce . i don't know if management or the kitchen staff has changed but believe me you will get better value at burger king - too bad, it used to be good

darby’s has seen some interesting changes over the years. one of my first memories of this place was just before i moved to kits, they used to host a guitar hero night in the back section of the pub which no longer exists where we’d go every so often to show off our skills. well, okay, it was mostly me showing off, but the others did alright. since then they’ve renovated the place quite a bit, and it has a pretty awesome rooftop patio that’s great for a hot summer day. sadly i’ve been there dozens of times but i’ve yet to see this mythical patio…. one day. i did a couple visits for the sake of this blog since i wasn’t happy with the quantity of food i had after the first visit. i first went here last month with alpha nerd late in the evening after work for a few beers and snacks. it was almost completely packed despite there being no canucks game on and a regular weeknight, a lot of which appeared to be regulars. the music was blasting in typical pub fashion, a little too loud almost. our server came by in a timely manner and took our drink orders. they have a fairly extensive beer list on tap as well as bottles that’s all reasonably priced, along with a couple nitro taps.  alpha nerd has an obsession with nitro taps so he started with the american stout (6.5%) while i decided to try something new, the st. bernardus apt 12 quadrupel (10%!) which is a belgian beer. i have a thing where i generally have to order the strongest beer on the menu which generally translates to me really liking belgian beers. this is probably my new favourite beer and if could be found everywhere then fat tug would be taking a back seat a lot more often. it’s an extremely smooth beer considering it’s 10%, it doesn’t taste like it at all. my vocabulary for describing beer is quite limited, so i’m going to say it was quite complex with some fruity and spicy flavours. really

bad experience there. went there on a weekday evening, stood by the door for 5 minutes with no assistance. finally got a seat and sat down, waved at the waiter 2 times. first attempt the waiter ignored my request completely. a second attempt at another waiter got a nod, followed by her walking to the counter and chatting with her colleagues. i sat there for a good 10 minutes before a 3rd waiter brought me a menu. proceeded to order drinks, and the drink comes up to be the wrong one.
this type of service is poor and absolutely unacceptable.

up - huge beer selection. lots of good food options at decent prices. my veggie burger was perfect!

down - everyone in here was a yelly talker! i couldn't hear any of our conversations.

out - great service for such a small busy place.

as its name suggests, this place was a real pub, with tv screens everywhere playing some sport game. aside from the super loud environment, what we ate was actually quite delicious. i had a hanover hash, a mini egg benny, and a "huevos rancheros", which was mini tortillas with cheese and bean filling. the hash was crispy and it paired nicely with the hearty breakfast sausage slices. i liked the tortilla as well, it was sort of like a mini burrito, without the spanish rice of course.

hey guys! as you know, in addition to restaurants participating in dine out vancouver 2015, some restaurants also participate in official events such as a neighbourhood brunch crawl organized by vancouver foodster . hitting up 6 locations in 4 hours, team tastic went on a tasting adventure. are samplers from these restaurants enough to entice us back for a round 2 or should you stick to singular dine outs? read on to find out. momento coffee house our first stop was serving panama esmeralda coffee accompanied with a pain au chocolat and a small cup of oats (with greek yogurt, chia seeds, and mini chocolate chips). i thought the coffee tasted great black. it tastes a little watery like a light roast but the scent of coffee beans is the highlight here. the cup of oats was a healthy serving of energy and the chia seeds swished around very nicely. the chocolate was quite bitter which i liked to help wake me up. linh cafe - french cooking at linh cafe we started with a plate of  spicy baguette  (with pate and homemade sriracha hot sauce), and an order of  nem spring rolls (with pork, mushroom, shrimps, and glass noodles). the spring rolls tasted like the spring rolls you’d find at a good vietnamese restaurant (like song huong ) but the spicy baguette was a pleasant surprise. pate is hard if chilled in the fridge too long but here it was buttery smooth, indicating the speed of the restaurant is good for keeping pate out in the open.  for dessert we were given a set of  peanut macarons . these are large and denser than your usual bakery macarons so they were super filling and to plan accordingly we took a couple to go. great dessert though. 

for a pub, darby’s continues to offer food that one would not expect at a typical drinking establishment. the lamb meat was phenomenally tender and literally slid off the bone with ease. the star of the dish for me was the polenta which was fragrant and addictively delicious. chef jackson definitely understands hearty comfort food and this dish is a shining representation of that.

nice discovery!. the duck poutine, yum! the server we had, excellent!, environment, nice upper patio!

love poutine? executive chef jackson created "darby’s duck poutine" with kennebec fries, caramelized onions, duck confit, cambozola cheese, and red wine demi...