pourhouse restaurant

my new joint! i received fantastic service. the staff are extremely knowledgeable and attentive. the beer was great and the bar nuts were the best i'd ever had (and i make my own). the atmosphere is wonderful as well- dark, intimate and yay- no tvs. looking forward to my next visit!

dimly lit noise bowl with a funky edge!. table for two on a friday night at 7.30pm.
we lucked out and were seated quickly., this is a busy place on a friday night. our server adamg brought us a hand of god stout and a mirror pond ale rather quickly, two very good beers. dave #2 ordered a wheat beer ale with his main course as he had to try it, major disappointment on this one, not very good at all....but wait...adam to rescue, he came by and asked how i liked the beer, told him i had made a mistake and off he went to bring me another excellent mirror pond ale, said he wanted me to be a happy customer, i am. we started with beet/quinoa salad and the pea soup, both were okay enough...a bit hard to see what's on the plate, this is a ""low lighting alert" restaurant...it was quite difficult to read the menu. main courses of chickpea croquette and spring salmon were both decent enough, again hard to see the food with the dim lighting issue....maybe that is their technique, keep you guessing. if you are looking for a quiet meal on the town then this could be the wrong spot for you. this restaurant was designed for maximum sound reflection, hence the "sound bowl" effect, wooden original beams above, hard reflective floors, walls with mirrors.
fill this bowl with 20' somethings, speaking loudly to be heard, and you can just imagine.....wow.
the customer survey that came with our bill asked us to rate the music that was playing, what music...there was music playing in the noise bowl? service was very good...thanks adam!

every last bite was enjoyed by all! pourhouse is definitely in my top ten favorite restaurants in vancouver. great food, amazing drinks, fantastic service, as well as a lovely ambiance (the decor is fabulous). nom nom!!

i’ve sat at that handsome bar many times and with various friends. it held my numerous drinks and kept my countless secrets. with one hand around a well-crafted cocktail, i’ve shared aspirations, jokes, heartaches, frustrations, fears, and achievements with my close ones.

st. patrick's day was a really busy night downtown, and not a place to be for a party of 11 with no reservations. our party grew throughout the night, and what started as 8 turned into 11. there was no way we were going to get a place together at a reasonable time. that being said, pourhouse was able to accommodate us, although way later than we had hoped. they did their best to fit us all together though. i first learned about pourhouse from a van food tour. ever since them, i love to visit this place for a quick sazerac when i'm out in gastown. this is the first time i was actually able to try the food (besides having a charcuterie plate). sure we waited a long time, but waits were long everywhere, and they were actually able to seat us in the main dining area - with all 11 of us together. i ordered the bacon mac and cheese to start, and the braised beef as my main. my friends ordered a bunch of different things - burgers, steak frites, grilled cheese and cauliflower soup,

ambiance is the name of the game at pourhouse. servers dress code is elegant hip enhanced with thick beards for men and attitude for women. decoration makes it feel you are in a different world and different era both at the same time. reading pourhouse blog you very quickly realize the sophistication pourhouse is all about. the cheese platter ($16) pricy, but again the sophistication shines through. from left to right; a gouda from chilliwack, a little qualicum cheesworks brie and a blue cheese from quebec (served with honey). t he cauliflower "steak" ($19) inventive for sure. a piece of grilled cauliflower over a bed of lentils and yogurt-mint raita. after i got over my fascination with the platter, i dug in. tasty. perfect textures. you could tell those are organic, high quality produce. but think of the price of those i

great classic cocktails. it was national grilled cheese day, searching for a great one and heard that the pourhouse was the place!
the atmosphere is cosy, the usual new urban style, we did like the view of the kitchen and noted how focused the kitchen staff were, and the floor staff were pleasant, informative and attentive.
i had a craving for a whisky sour, using wild turkey, bitters and an italian pickled cherry, yums!!
we ordered a scotch egg, ok...the evenings appies, beef samosas with a chick pea and turmeric sauce, good, the beef was tasty, it could have been a bit more seasoned and i missed that added punch that a sweet chutney sauce brings to the savory samosa...and then there is the grilled cheese, i had it with cauliflower soup, it was bland, way over blended, some texture would have been nice, my friend had the roasted squash soup and was meh! the gc...white cheddar and gruyere on a crust-less brioche, ok, but lacked that creamy gooey cheesy yumminess, the brioche over powered the cheese flavor, and the white cheddar was overwhelmed by the gruyere...
except for the whiskey sour - wow, the food lacked the wow and wasn't what we were looking for, so we left a bit disappointed.

... i got the full-meal-deal from the bartender about pourhouse and the restaurant's pre- prohibition concept, which is mostly reflected in the decor and wine. if you're interested in that, then i definitely recommend sitting at the bar on a late afternoon and quizzing the knowledgeable bartender. food-wise, it's "simply made" home-cooking and bread made in-house. i always look for strange things on the menu, so i ended up with devils on horseback, pork croquettes (okay, so this one isn't so strange), and bone marrow. being a non-drinker, i asked for a peppermint tea. the closest thing they had was a chamomile-peppermint "introspection" tea that came loose-leaf in a coffee press ($4!). devils on horseback ($6) this strange appy is prunes stuffed with gruyère (cheese), and wrapped in bacon, giving you three contrasting flavours in one bite. there was also a generous s

great cocktails!. firstly i just want to say that i love sitting and this bar and i rarely do that. its worth it! the bartenders really know there stuff and are willing to give you an amazing lesson on whatever fantastic creation they have just produced for you. i try to try something different almost everytime and im never dissapointedso informative & delicious. it is easily my favorite palce to have a nice quiet drink with a freind over a cocktail (...or five). on the other hand it is a restaurant but i rarely eat there... i just find the food to be kind of bland... not bad... but bland.... all and all id say its one of my favorite places to get a drink after work, or to get the night started. i would highly recommend checking it out!

not so great.... i was at pourhouse a couple weeks back and i was unimpressed. the food was ok but kinda heavy and the cocktails, although were good, were overpriced!
but the service was super friendly so that was a plus!

pourhouse restaurant in gastown has a good lunch deal for $14, where you get a sandwich, a beer and a side. since it does come with beer, the price isn't too bad. mandu, koreangirl and jojocake came here for lunch on a weekday, but once we sat down, we really didn't want beer since we will had some work to do in the afternoon. it would have been awkward smelling like beer in the office. pourhouse gives you the option of having other drinks instead. cappuccino was just what jojocake needed. she thought it was alright, but the temperature definitely could have been hotter. macchiato is what mandu needed. similar to jojocake, her coffee was just lukewarm and not hot. tea is what koreangirl and i needed. the tea was a good temperature and the tea cups came warmed too. pulled pork sandwich with cream of cauliflower soup . this is what everyone else at the table ordered. the pulled pork sandwich has pulled pork, bbq sauce, aged cheddar and slaw. they thought it was bit small at first, but wh

great drinks and interesting food. nice place to hang out with friends on a sat night.

on another rainy vancouver day, i met up with my lunch buddies, @dennispang , @miss_mayc and @jvoon at pourhouse in gastown. i've always wanted to try this place, and no better time than on a blustering, cold day to tuck into a warm, homey pub! pourhouse, 162 water street, vancouver lunch menu @ pourhouse, 162 water street, vancouver pourhouse has a special lunch menu and slips of paper are offered to each table so diners can check off their selections. the lunch includes one sandwich, a side and a beer. we each got something different (these guys are used to dining with snap happy food bloggers), which covers everything on the checklist except for the portobello mushroom sandwich, can you tell we don't like vegetables? white bark wheat ale, pourhouse, 162 water street, vancouver admittedly, i am not much of a beer drinker but since we were in a pub, i couldn't very well not order one! i went with the lightest

loved the pate!. went with a good pal during the afternoon for some wine and nibbles. loved the pate. we kept on asking for more toast points though as lots of pate but not enough bread to put it on. service was attentive and informative. good atmosphere and busy for how early it was. will be back!

overall, a nice find in my area for lunch, though i know that many people may like it for drinks. i’ll definitely come back at some point for dinner. more relevant to me was to have the opportunity to catch up with degan, someone who is a loved friend of mine but we rarely have enough time to hang out!