Bowen Island Pub — Restaurant in Bowen Island Municipality

Just had what was easily the worst service experience that I've had in years. And I EAT OUT A LOT. From the second we arrived, I knew it would be shaky as we stood at the hostess stand for 6 minutes with no one caring to seat us. Point form will be easier to demonstrate how atrocious our sitting was:

1. told it was now the "late night menu" as other tables around us ordered and received regular menu items. Cool.
2. asked for the heater, that was DIRECTLY above our table, to be turned on. Was told that "they disconnected it to save on propane". Stupid, but okay.
3. asked for two glasses of water that never came.
4. asked for cutlery and napkins. Cutlery never came, asked for napkins twice before they did. Basically thrown on the table when she brought them over.
5. ordered a half liter of wine and the server brings it to the table, puts the glasses and wine down and walks off. Doesn't pour it out, doesn't say a word. Literally drops it and runs away. WHAT IS YOUR JOB if not to at the minimum pour the FIRST glass out for the guest???
6. ordered fries to go for my Mother. Asked for ketchup and mustard, neither were in the bag. When we walked over to the bar to ask a second time, we were told that "she would have to go downstairs to get lids for the cups that she'd put the condiments in..." Okay, AND?? JUST GO GET THEM, YOU'RE AT WORK

Farrah, our server, either hates money (her tip was clearly going to be trash after how poorly she treated us), hates her job or hates both. But there was not one part of our interaction where she demonstrated even a 10% desire to provide DECENT customer service. AT THE RESTAURANT THAT EMPLOYS HER.

Management: I own a number of businesses and if I owned your pub, I'd fire her immediately. Because there's no scenario where we were the ONLY people she provided such terrible customer service to.

1 star because the pizza we got was actually pretty good.

Good experience and you tell 1 person... Bad experience and you tell the 300,000+ followers you have on your various social...

My wife and I walked on and took the short 20 minute ferry ride to Bowen for a day trip. It had been 30 years since she had been and I had never been there, which is strange considering how close it is to where we live.

We did a long 2.5 hour hike from the ferry and around Killarney lake before collapsing in some comfy high, backed bar stools at the pub. It was early afternoon so after the lunch rush. There were some tables in use outside as it was a sunny day and 2 tables and 2 people at the bar besides us. Our server Kat was really friendly and told us to sit wherever we like and she’d bring out some menus.

We started off with drinks. My wife chose a Howling Bluff Pinot Noir, which the server said was quite dry so suggested she try a sample first. After tasting the sample she decided to go with a 9oz glass of the Dirty Laundry Cab Sav instead. We appreciated the server’s suggestion as this must have come up with other customers. I chose a 6oz glass of the Peller Estates Pinot Grigio, which went well with my meal.

For lunch my wife had the Prawn Tacos, which looked so good with the large and juicy prawns in each taco. I chose the Pacific Cod Burger as I wanted some seafood in handheld form so narrowly chose that over the Fish & Chips. The tacos were very tasty and a little messy as any good taco should be. The cod burger was fresh, crispy yet the batter was light so it went well with the tartar sauce and slaw in the burger. The fries are nice and crispy and my wife had several as she order a nice, fresh salad as the side on her tacos.

The atmosphere was great and our server Kat was amazing! The place has a nice vibe and was playing some good music to add to the ambience. They have several different seating areas chairs and booths, high back bar chair stools, bar stools and some patio furniture outside. Also like the high ceilings and industrial look of the building. It was the first but not the last time we...

We visited Bowen for the first time this past weekend and the pub was definitely one of our favourite spots! The value is great and the vibes are really fun.

We came on Friday evening so there was free live music and the musician was fantastic! His name was Steven Marriott and if you ever see that he's playing you've got to check him out. He even provided business cards with a QR code so you can request songs!

Now for the food, we actually came twice in our two day trip because we visited another restaurant one evening and it was just such small portions (and we were starving) that we were still hungry afterward! So we hit up the pub as it's one of the few places on the island that's open past 8 pm. We got the bucket list burger with fries and the salmon chowder. Both were super delicious and super filling! The chowder had a good amount of large salmon pieces and came with yummy garlic bread to soak up every lost drop. The burger had everything you could want and the patties are definitely made in house and they taste like good quality meat.

On our second visit we got the bucket list burger again (because it's that good) and the blackened mushroom swiss with yam fries. The chipotle mayo that came with the yam fries was such a big portion (the container was almost overflowing) and the fries were crispy and perfect. Sometimes yam fries are significantly less crispy than regular potato fries, but these were excellent! The burger was also really nice, the Cajun seasoning really came through nicely with the patty.

All in all, the pub was so nice we went there twice! And when we plan to visit again it will be on our list! The burgers are...