Blackfish Pub — Restaurant in Gibsons

We visited the Blackfish Pub about a month ago and I have waited 1) for my anger to subside and 2) to give Management a chance to rectify the situation. We came in with a group of 10 after the staff was gracious enough to accommodate a last minute reservation. We had my niece and nephew with us so we were seated in the kid friendly section which was once the Pool Room. Right away it was incredibly loud between the groups of children from other tables running around plus the Edmonton/Dallas game playing, there was a lot of ruckus going on.

About halfway through our visit I could see my Father having a conversation with a busser and motioning to the glasses on the table but the room was so loud that I could not hear exactly what was being said; I was only 2 seats down from him. Later my Dad and our guests sitting next to him both said he had asked them to clear some of the garbage from around our table (meaning old glasses, napkins and plates) because the server was having trouble finding places to put our drinks down.

Later on during the meal we had timing issues with our food, 2 of our guests didn’t receive their meals until at least half an hour after everybody else was eating their food. My Dad had asked the Busser if there was a Manager on site he could speak to regarding the wait time and the Busser said that the Manager, Kara was not there. My Dad concluded that “if there is no Manager on site, that’s useless to him” and dropped it. Again, I was two seats down and could not hear but after speaking with our fellow guests they assured us that was the end of it.

We ordered my Mom a piece of cake, the entire family room and many staff came in to sing Happy Birthday to her with us. We paid our bill and tipped $65 from my Father and $20 from myself to our Server, thanked her profusely for taking care of us, hugged our friends and left. No one ever came to our table after we brought up the timing issues, no one ever reached out to us or myself who the table reservation number was under.

A few days later we were informed that my Dad had been barred from the Blackfish. We had zero communication through Management and zero explanation. Kara was again not at the bar so he called her and left a voicemail and when Kara did call him back the story she told us just did not make sense.

Kara said that my Father caused such a scene that multiple staff members, fellow patrons in the kids room as well as members at the bar (who are on the other side of where I was sitting, behind a full wall) were affected. She said that the Busser had been so shaken up with the poor way he had treated her that other staff and patrons had to console her. How is it possible that he caused such a contentious scene when I was 2 seats away from him and wasn’t even aware that the conversation had taken place? She told my Dad that if he had such a big problem why didn’t he seek out one of the other staff members we knew had more authority? My question is why did she not have an active Manager on site she could go to? If her employee was so shaken up why did no one come to our table to address the issue? I have a hard time believing any of the long standing employees there would not have done something.

This only goes to show how far Kara will go to deflect the responsibility of ill prepared staff (particularly if it’s a member of her family) and how they handle legitimate complaints inside of her business. It’s an absolute shame that she would throw her staff under the bus. I have been a Manager for years and I would never expect my junior level staff to handle customer complaints, especially in a bar setting. They are all trained to seek a Supervisor with any concerns, especially when someone asks for the Manager. It’s incredibly disappointing to leave this review as my parents have been patrons for over 30 years, the employees have been friends and family; we hosted staff parties in our home. Out of respect to them, if Kara wishes to reach out and remedy this situation then I would consider removing...

I wish i could give no stars as our experience was horrific.. We had a girls weekend away and rented an Airbnb in Gibsons. Someone had recommended Blackfish Pub for us to visit. We were celebrating 3 birthdays that weekend and there were 5 of us. When we arrived, it was busy so we waited about 30 mins for a table.. We didn't mind to wait if the food and service was good. We finally sat down and ordered drinks and chose our main dishes. When the food came, the one birthday girl had ordered Chicken souvlaki and they brought Chicken pasta instead. The waitress said that rather than wait to redo it while we were all enjoying our meals.. that if she wanted to eat it , it would be complimentary. I mean it was her birthday as well.. so she said ok.. When we were done and asked for the bill, she had been charged for the meal. When asking for the manager to discuss this, a girl I believe to be named Jasmine came to the table and instead of trying to resolve the situation, she spoke condescendingly to us, saying that she could have redone the meal for her and reheated our meals so we ate at the same time?? Like is that a joke? What kind of customer service is this? She is a terrible manager.. I asked for her supervisors name. I don't ever pull a "Karen" but this is unacceptable.. She wrote the name "Kara" on a piece of paper.. and basically told us to leave. We are not 20 year olds.. we are all in our 50's.. And customer service should be a staple in any establishment.. We will be telling everyone about this lack of an...

We ate here a few weeks back. The customer service was excellent and a very clean pub with a nice layout and two patios. The back patio is dog friendly so we really appricated that during the summer travels! Im sure most of the their food is good as it has good reviews however the beef dip was only so-so sadly, pretty plain, the bun was decent but the Dip wasnt flavored enough, tasted watered down and the sandwich lacked flavor too unfortunately. Bland a tad dry, and with an upcharge for the Caesar salad my meal was around $24 for a simple plain beef dip and small salad, then add tax and tip and it wasnt an overly large dinner. Lol I could see maybe if the beef was real roast beef they do in house or was a large portion or something for the price, but it was the generic restaurant thin slice beef most places serve. Maybe it needed (more) mayo or garlic butter and more of a toasted bun?... Im generally not overly picky but a little more to it would be nice if charging those prices. The pulled pork sandwich was said to be decent enough when I asked how it was, so thats good. The servers were very friendly and a nice place. Id just prob order something else next time and get more bang for your buck. Its a tad pricer then most pubs but that could just be the...