darby's public house

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 comebackhere 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.

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 thebacksection 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 abackseat 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

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 usbackfor 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. 

nice rooftop patio, great for people watching! after cruising around kits trying to find a parking spot, we ended up outside darby's, saw the rooftop patio and decided to give it a try. we were greeted warmly, promptly sent upstairs to choose a table and proceeded to enjoy everything. granted it was mid afternoon on a weekday so they weren't busy but the service was friendly and quick, the burger (veggie burger toppings but with their beef patty) with salad and polenta fries we shared was tasty and the drinks were cold. perfect on a hot, sunny, summer day. i wouldn't rushbackbut would definitely go again if i'm in the area.