Ace’s Clubhouse Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Area A (Egmont/Pender Harbour)

Yesterday, we visited the Clubhouse Restaurant for the first time since it was taken over by Provisions Bistro. This company runs a successful food truck business in Sechelt and expanded to the Pender Harbour Golf Club in spring 2022. We arrived at 5:05 on a Friday evening in July and were the only patrons in the restaurant. Immediately inside the front door, we passed a counter with a sign that said, "Counter Service". A young woman was behind the counter dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. A small menu was on the counter and we were given permission to take it to our table on the patio. She came to our table within a few minutes and gave us glasses of not very cold water. We asked her if the restaurant ever offered table service. She replied that she would give us table service this evening, ("I like to get the exercise.") but when they got busy, she could only offer counter service. The menu was one small, narrow piece of paper. It contained typical pub food but very few choices. Burgers were $16 but sides such as fries, soup or salad were an extra $3. The food was OK, -- nothing special. We were surprised that the kitchen was unable to offer us any choice of salad dressings and was out of vinegar ("Our supplier shorted us on the order.") On the positive side, the view from the patio was superb, as usual, and we were surrounded by beautiful, large pots full of colourful flowers. What Provisions Bistro has done is simply transplanted its food truck model to the Clubhouse. The menu is the same but the prices have all been increased by about 30%. So when the place is busy you will pay about the same prices as other restaurants on the Sunshine Coast, but without table service. That's not good enough. This low-service model was attempted a few years ago at the Clubhouse by another company and failed. Why? Our guess is that when most people go out for dinner they do not want to have to order at a counter as if they were at Macdonald's or a food truck. If the owner retains the current business model, the Grasshopper will be our go-to restaurant. And we'll be surprised if Provisions Bistro lasts more than 2 years at the...

See pictures. We tried take out 3 times about 4 months ago to support this restaurant. The first time, they ran out of mozzarella and used cheddar on the pizza (really gross, see picture). The fish and chips were two very small burnt pieces of mostly batter, and the fries arrived in a small plastic bag full of grease (see picture). The potato skins were a burnt mess with very little cheese (see pictures). The second time we ordered, the veggie pizzas were done properly with mozzarella cheese and were actually quite tasty. Then, we ordered a third time and the dough on both pizzas was raw (we had to cook them for 30 min in our oven, which burned the cheese). Not only that, but the yam fries we ordered on the side were clearly the disgusting droppings at the bottom of the deep fryer. The portion size was one quarter of the container and they were all burnt and filled with grease (see picture -disgusting!!!). This restaurant is currently closed for the season and hopefully they'll remain closed until they figure out their quality control issues or open under new management. Until then, we'll spend our money at the Grasshopper or Back Eddy where you can get a quality meal...

Food was quite good and atmosphere was nice but the service we got left a lot to be desired. Order taking and greeting was fine but when we ask for water for the table, it was a "neat" experience.

It's a hot summer day and we have kids with us so we wanted water to start for the table. Water came without ice, nothing was said, server left them on the table and left. Meanwhile all other tables around us had water with plenty of ice. It's still a hot day, we asked for more water, and asked for "water with ice." Server came back saying that the bar is "going to get more ice" meanwhile, I'm close enough to the bar to hear ice being served with all their drinks. We finish our meals, and server was too busy talking at the bar to notice us trying to flag her down. My arm got tired so I ended up walking to the bar myself to get my own water with ice, but not too much. I didn't want the server to run out of ice again, from their Bar-sized Ice Machine!

Unfortunate experience as the food was quite delicious here. But if you want any iced drinks, you need to make sure you get it for...