save on meats

the vancouver food scene is so diverse. take a look at the gastown neighbourhood for example. there are bars that serve $30 cocktails, sushi, italian, mexican restaurants all within a stone throw from each other. and on east hastings, a street that has the distinction of being canada’s poorest postal code, you’ll truly find gastown’s gamble: the newly revitalized save-on meats diner. the diner and butcher shop have been part of this neighbourhood for like it seems forever. owner mark brand (the brains behind such gems as monster sushi and boneta) has managed to keep the authentic feel of the place. vintage signs painted by local artists suggest to us that it’stimeto order a banana split and that the coffee is fresh. a large bar it’s the centre piece of the restaurant. the prices are ridiculous. $6 for a bacon cheeseburger and fries? sign me up! most entrees start at less than $10. the children’s menu start at $4. now some people are expecting gourmet fare. folks, this is a diner. and

great food, unappetizing atmosphere. went to save on meats diner for the firsttimefor dinner. the server and food were fantastic. however i won't be going back due to a few customers walking around with no shirt and big belly's flopping around, spraying ketchup on the bar out of the bottles, and worst of all, sucking the ketchup out of the bottle into their mouths. worst of all i used one of these ketchup bottles. unfortunately the staff didn't do anything about this.

finally i made my way to save-on-meats. i been wanting to try this place out for the longesttimenow. seeing that we had an event planned nearby, we decided to give save-on-meats a try!

low price, high quality burgers. probably the burger isn't the best burger in town, but for the price you pay ($6.95), you can't find a better deal!! the portions are ample and the ingredients are always fresh. this might be due to the fact that they have their own butcher! anyways, if it's your firsttimethere, try the "burger" with poutine (extra $ or two for substituting fries with poutine)

my husband and i have a bucket list of places to eat (we made our list from such shows as triple d and you gotta eat here). we had been meaning to come here for quite some time. so we walked in around 11:30am, not overly busy. my husband ordered the bacon double cheese burger and i ordered the beef dip. the beef dip comes with onions on the sandwich, i forgot to tell the waitress to hold the onions (as i don't care for them), but i was surprised as to how good it tasted with the caramelized onions, the au jus wasn't overly salty. i had a bite of my husbands burger, it was well seasoned. from thetimewe ordered to thetimewe got our grub was very quick. i don't know how they do it but was well worth the drive from surrey. we did go to the butcher shop attached and picked up a few items. the butcher shop is a bit pricy, however in their defence if you want quality your going to pay for it. the staff at both the restaurant and butcher shop were very friendly, accommodating, and patient with us as we decided what to get. i will be back. one pit fall, they are located in an undesirable location, however they do help out those in need with in the area.

thistimearound, chef jesse grasso from supermarine was behind the kitchen serving as the latest local cook chosen to feed diners some of his comfort food favourites for volume 13 of the monthly greasy spoon diner supper series also celebrating its one-year anniversary of dinners at save on meats.

i would go here again because the staff are friendly, the music is good and the food is straight up affordable comfort food. it's a classic dinner. don't expect to eat anything healthy here nor, don't come here is you are strapped fortimeas the service was painfully slow. however it's a perfect spot to to with a good friend or two and enjoy some good ole fashioned american cuisine.

1sttimehere & won't be my last! service right from the start was great and my burger was fantastic. side salad was fresh and decent. great downtown diner vibe with lots of chatter. look forward to trying breakfast items & more lunch/dinner dishes.

save on meats was on my list for the longest time. i’m surprise that it was not checked off anytime earlier since i literally went to school a block down the road. i heard great things about its food, and i’ve seen guy fieri on food network munching down food in his mouth in there. it was such a longtimeago, i really don’t remember what they featured on the show. i honestly was disappointed cause i always go for what is recommended. so if anyone had an idea what guy fieri ate on the show, please comment and let me know!! i will go back just for it.

do we dress low key? will i get mugged? no louboutins right? do i leave my purse in the car? these are some questions that crossed my mind when c'est la vie a maggi suggested save on meats for our next food date. jokes aside (sort of), i did not mind trying out the restaurant because honestly without her, i would never even think of going to save on meats. plus, i was set on ordering a burger way in advance to prevent wasting twenty minutes of hertimewhen we arrived, since she knows i am indecisive. after spending the morning at a spa together and maggi giving me numerous chances to choose another restaurant for lunch, we finally walked to the restaurant after parking in front of a, clinic. save on meats is located in the downtown eastside and serves homestyle diner food. in addition, the restaurant has a diner atmosphere as well. there are bar seats as well as booth seating arrangements along the wall, and a few tables at the back of the restaurant. furthermore, the restaurant was f

just take my money....please. being a steady customer of the hastings location, decided to try the pop up on cordova. food and service were great, but i waited longer in line to pay than i did for my food. the poor server had to take care of taking orders, serving tables, and bills. the system is complex in that for each bill she had to go through the customer check list order sheet and tally up the price, then enter it on a paper bill and add tax with a little calculator. very inefficient. it took 20 minutes to pay and there was only about 5 people in front of me in line. i know this is a pop up, but i don't havetimeon my lunch break to eat here unless this is made moretimeefficient.

my companion thought there was too much bun for the burger.

good hamburger/that's not poutine!. i started dropping by after those well meaning but off-base protestors (or whomever) stole the 'save on meats' sign. i enjoyed a few of the dishes but the one outstanding item was the burger. the bun was fresh, the meat juicy but not greasy, the condiments were tasty but did not make it soggy nor overwhelm the burger. the price was also excellent. the service is consistently good at the bar and they serve some nice ale on tap. onetimethe helpful bartender recommended the poutine and although what i ate tasted good, it was not poutine. poutine has cheese curds and gravy over french fries rather than being an oven-ready dish of fries topped with mozza and popped back in the over for a re-toast. it was overpriced at that.

i really wanted to like it.. we went on a weekday about 1:30 pm, the place was busy for thetimeof day. i had heard so much good about this place and could't wait to try it. i have really nothing bad to say about the service but the food was very disappointing, probably some of the worst poutine i've ever had and for the cost a very small amount. the gravy was very acidic and cheese curds were no where to be found, i think they used a shredded mozzarella instead. the burgers patties although tasty were small and virtually non-existant, there was more bun than anything else. the sandwiches which came "toasted" were horrible, the bread was hard and chewy on the corners and barely brown at all and every single one of us had cold fries...the food took over 45 minutes to arrive at our table and was very disappointing. sadly, i will never return to spend my hard earned cash here. sorry save on, i really like what you are about.

amazing!. i just wrote my review, but i also wanted to add that when i walked in a lovely young patron told me to try the tuna melt which she said was fabulous and in addition to that i sat at the counter and was surrounded by other patrons raving about the food. i guess it may have been some growing pains from thetimesome of the other reviewers went to the day i went in, but that is to be expected with all restaurants. people also have to remember that they are eating in a diner, not a five star restaurant. finally, with respect to the prices, let's not forget that this is not a soup kitchen, it's a business that has to make a profit. the prices were like most diners and very reasonable.


-----22 dec, 2012-----

amazing!. first i have to say the atmosphere was fun and busy and the people who sat and then served me were absolutely welcoming and friendly. the food was delicious and the menu was really great. i went for lunch and enjoyed a couple of glasses of white wine with their "big salad" which was butter lettuce, goat cheese and chicken served under a fresh and flavourful citrus vinegrette. i tried save on meats after seeing it on the gastown gamble and when arlene dickenson became a partner and it exceeded my expectations! all the booths were completely filled with "women who lunch" business people and students - which leads me to believe that it's become a pretty "in" place to try out. i know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but i have to wonder if those who are going a little overboard complaining are usually the ones who are always complaining about something anyway? save on meats is just up the street from my work and i parked right on hastings and abbott. the neighbourhood felt safe and is a cool mix of both people working and living in the area. i'll be back.

i've tried this place three times now, and all have been disappointing.

i can't remember exactly what i have the first time, but i sat at the counter. i think it was some type of braised beef sandwich. it was okay, but certainly wasn't any great value. for some silly reason i thought that this place was supposed to be a little bit more affordable, considering the part of the city that it was him. you know what they say about assumptions.

at best, the service was mediocre.

the secondtimei went there, i had an open faced chicken sandwich. it tasted alright, but again was certainly no great value for what i paid for it. as well, when it was brought to my table, i wasn't given any cutlery with which to eat it. i had to ask the waitress for a knife, and then after waiting over five minutes for her to bring me one so i could eat the food that she brought to me, i finally just got up and went to the counter and asked again. i was greeted with this silly little smile, and an excuse about how she had forgotten because she was busy. by this point my sandwich was almost cold.

absolutely pathetic service.

i went there again yesterday for breakfast. in all honesty if it wasn't for the fact that i had gone to three other restaurants in that part of town that were closed, and i wasn't just really really hungry, i would have set foot in the place.

needless to say, not only did they screw my order up, they screwed my friends order up. and after informing them of this, they screwed up their attempt to fix it. the waiter apologized and told us that we wouldn't have to worry about the charges for the extra product that was brought to us. in the end, they charged us for everything. had they have actually gotten the order correct, it would've cost us less money.

bottom line. the food is passable. the service is extremely lacking, and the prices are high for what you get.

if you read any number of the reviews that have been posted on urbanspoon about this restaurant, you will see the same complaints over and over and over again. the fact that nothing changes, at least as far as the service is concerned, shows that the management of this company or the owners care very very little regarding the opinions of their diners.

so i'm going to ask you directly:

save on meats owners or manager:

why do you not do something to address the concerns your diners patrons have about your establishment?

does it not concern you that i can go to your restaurant three times, and have subpar service all three times? do you really think that i'm going to recommend your restaurant to anyone else? you should be very concerned about the things that people are saying about your service and your food and your prices, but it seems that you're not.

someone wrote a review prior to this one, and i think she hit the nail on the head. vancouverites need to wake up when it comes to restaurants that offer crappy service, expensive prices, small portion sizes and mediocre food. people in this town are so used to putting up with this kind of stuff, that it just becomes the norm and they expect nothing more.

honestly, you should be embarrassed about the experience that you provide, and i as well as everybody else should be embarrassed that were naïve enough to think that this is acceptable, and to keep going back.

no more.