The Sherlock Holmes Pub Campus — Restaurant in Greater Strathcona

I’ve never written a google review, but I just had to considering how bad this experience was. Went to the Campus location last night with a few friends since it was our only free night to hang out in the middle of finals season before the break. We’ve all never been here, but decided to make a reservation and try it out.

There was about 8 of us, we all ordered asap, and it took almost a hour to get our food. It looked like our waitress was the only one working, so we were trying to be understanding, but the place was literally empty. Once we got our food, the burgers tasted like they were left in the fridge for over a week then put out on the counter. For $21+ for a burger, this was completely ridiculous. My friends bun was burnt (as seen in the picture which was taken from a video which is why it’s so blurry). My bun was cold and stale, the burger had no flavour, dry & took forever to chew, had no cheese on it. There was also probably a total of 12 fries as the side as well. Portions were horrible for the price you pay. My friend got a wrap, and it was probably the same size and same flavour as the buffalo chicken ones you can get from any convenience store…Also anything “spicy” on the menu is just mixed with Franks Red Hot Sauce. The wrap and one of my friends burgers was doused in it. A couple of my other friends got the deep fried perogies as an appetizer, which was literally just frozen perogies, deep friend with a side of sour cream. No cheese, onions, chives or any toppings were put on them (and $14 for like 8 perogies???)

My other friend got a gluten free bun which was an extra $4, was literally a sponge, and fell apart. Her “choice of side” as a caesar salad was an extra $4 (when mine wasn’t for a house salad, which I’ve never been to a place where a caesar was extra??) Also the waitress never mentioned the extra charge for the caesar salad…(the bun I understand but seriously?)

I’ve never considered tipping 0-5%, but that’s what we all would’ve done if there wasn’t 18% auto gratuity for the group. The waitress also never told us there was, which they’re supposed to say before you order. I expected it since our group was over 6 people, but kinda crazy she didn’t mention it when we made the reservation or when we ordered. The service was pretty bad. She seemed like she didn’t care at all since the auto gratuity was going to be added regardless of her service. She never asked us how the food was (probably because she saw how bad it looked), and probably came to us a total of 3 times the entire 2 hours we were there. We had to ask her to bring water & drinks after our pitchers were empty for over an hour, waiting for her to come back over.

Overall, horrible experience. None of us ever complain about food or service, but for the PRICE, this place is not worth it at all. And on a University Campus, it should be a bit better considering lots of students would come here to eat if it wasn’t so bad and expensive for what you get. Also, why are the tables sticky?? Feels like they’ve had beer and drinks spilt on them so many times and never been wiped down. The menus were sticking to them. If you’re considering coming here...

The honeybunny bought a Groupon. An Oilers game gave us the perfect excuse to visit the Sherlock Holmes Pub (Campus). For those who haven't been here, it's a clean, well-lit, tidy place, spacious, with TVs mounted above head-level around the perimeter. Small, clean washrooms.

The bunny chose to sit at the bar. Duncan, bartender (and manager, we find out later) took care of us with verve right from the beginning, starting with a long, complex order. He was right on refills, for us and for all the customers around us.

We ordered a pizza, two plates of wings, and a burger.

The Big Ben Burger was delicious! The ample bacon was tasty and crispy. The bun was well done. The meat had that char-broiled taste that makes everything all right. Copious condiments, including tasty pickles and firm tomatoes.

The chicken wings were crunchy and flavorful - we had the lemon-salt and the "hotyaki" kinds.

The pizza -- two different half-pizza flavors -- was underwhelming, mediocre at best. I mean, edible, but who wants to aim for "edible" as a rating? (The honey didn't think the pizza was edible; more for me :-)

Whatever else, a full star off for charging us $1.50 for mayo. REALLY? You can't take an order for "how about some mayo" and not mention that you're going to charge. Isn't every customer enraged by unexpected charges on the bill?

(The charge is especially frustrating since we frugally asked for only one sauce for our double-order of wings; technically we were owed a sauce. Cheap bastiches.)

Extra-irritating, it turns out Duncan -- in his role as the manager -- pushed back heavily on use of a Groupon, calling the GM, because he couldn't figure out how to ring through a discount. After a long delay, the discount happened (as it should have as there's no language discounting its use), but it was a sour note to an otherwise grand evening (pizza...

Misty was my gal! She was great, attentive and chatty between dealing with other customers, had some great little chats with her. The other bar tender, seems to be just as friendly and cheery with her customers. You can definitely tell there the regulars that come in this location.

Very clean location, bathrooms are well kept.. well at least the male washroom lol I didn't go in the ladies!

I had the Shepards Pie and the flavour was there, can definitely tell it's homemade! The only issue I had with it was the shape of the dish... Haha I know seems trivial right ? Because of the curvature of the dish all I got was mashed potatoes for the first few bites so if it was up to me I'd like to see this served in a basic rectangular dish for even mash to meat ratio all the way through. And wow did this dish retain its heat good... I took about an hour to eat it and it was still worn at the end... All in all I enjoyed this item... I don't necessarily think its worth $18.00 however but that's not just Sherlock Holmes, pricing of food items everywhere is alittle out to lunch these days to be honest. For the size.of the dish and the basic nature of Shepards Pie I think I would be more comfortable paying $15.00 for this item (again I know it seems trivial ...3 dollars and all...but 3 bucks is 3 bucks.) But... I do want to reiterate that it tasted fantastic and it's definitely worth a try if you love Shepards Pie.

I do hope that my dealings bring me back to the area, I would definitely come back here... If I'm in the area. As for the location it's great if your going to the hospital for something to stop in... But I'm in st Albert and don't see myself coming here unless I. Specifically in the area which I do hope that something does bring me in the area again so I...