Penny Farthing Public House — Restaurant in Oak Bay

Relaxed dining with plenty of room and magnificent food.

Every time I visit the Penny Farthing, I leave wondering how soon I can come back again, because each time I have a great experience.

My lady and I were last here in late November, and the restaurant was already decorated for Christmas - as you can see from the photo, there's a lot of care and attention put into making the Farthing look wonderful.

We were seated up on the second level, seated at the railing so that we could enjoy the view of the downstairs and all the decorations. That titular spot is perfect for quiet dining, away from the bustle of the busier main level or other more boisterous diners nearby. It's the perfect spot for whiling away an afternoon in good company, and we're thinking that next time we'll bring a boardgame to really enjoy the quiet upstairs area.

Our meals could only be described as magnificent: I've never had a chicken pot pie so perfectly made and presented, and my lady's eggs benny looked to be straight off a Canadian Living magazine cover. My pie was spiced just right, and served in a glazed lion's-head pot that created the perfect crust on top, and the sides were the prefect portion size of bacon, potato and cooked carrots - delicious, one and all!

Special mention should be made of the staff here, some of the friendliest I've encountered in Victoria, or anywhere. They really make you feel like you're friends who have just dropped in for a meal, and make every effort to ensure that you're taken care of to truly enjoy your meal, without being over-attentive. We've had good chats with several servers to date, and never felt like they were anything other than truly interested in us as people - a rarity for busy wait staff in any restaurant, and to be prized.

There's plenty of room in the Farthing, which has rich wood paneling throughout that makes the bar a standout treat for the eye. The overhead beam design makes you feel like you're walking into an old-world pub, without the claustrophobic actual size of many such places - delightful. As well, the recently renovated rear patio area is now only partially open to the elements year-round, and with its tiled rustic design feels quite open and charming, though the small live bushes have a unique scent.

This is definitely a place to being someone for a quiet chat, or for a family to get together for a relaxed celebration; it's a rarity to see small kids scampering about, or to be bothered by loud conversations nearby. I really appreciate that fact, and we're making sure to return as often as we can, as a good good meal at the Farthing is the perfect end to a sunny afternoon's stroll through the Oak...

Went here like 2 decades ago with my second ex-fiance way back in the day when we used to date, and this same person insisted to come here again (after this experience I was reminded why I didn't want to be with him all these years ago as he suggested me where to go and in the end ignored all my suggestions).

The server was very nice and attentive but I felt so awful that despite the fact I knew exactly what I wanted to order and eat right away, the lousy accompaniment delayed ordering 3 times. The food was mid at best; I can't remember if the quality was like this all these decades ago. I normally love French onion soup but their bowl was ridiculously salty. The steak pie, well the steak pieces themselves was very well done like shoe leather, the sauce was quite greasy, and the greens were just arugula and nothing else. The wings I was looking forward to was very dry; after ingesting the third wing, I just want to pack the rest to go as I lost appetite finishing the rest at the premises. The only entrée I find satisfactory without complaints was the Yorkshire appetizer; otherwise none of the food is of value at all.

The atmosphere itself was fine but I don't know what's wrong with my experience on my visit. We were placed in the brightest room which thankfully has an outlet to charge my device with near zero battery life but I guess it was the combination of coping with the lousy accompaniment's absolutely rude table manners (full elbows on the table and kicking on the table leg, deliberate loud mastication, honking nose blowing with his handkerchief directly at my food, excessively loud belching) and overhearing one person in the opposite table of 8 going off on a debate trying to convince his unenthusiastic party that Hitler is a good man and all the history books in the education system is biased was enough to ask the sweet server to quickly pack my wings and prep my half of the bill so I could leave stat. That one person goading about Fascism was the last thing I want to hear from a strained dining experience.

It's cool coming to this restaurant on the day of the Oak Bay Tea Party parade was launched (was in the area earlier to watch my amazing daughters perform in their school's marching band) but otherwise nothing too notable for me to return as a...

Extremely disappointed. I had heard from others this pub had poor service and mediocre food; however, I wanted to check it out for myself. So here is what I experienced... Walking in, the decor was nice and that's about where my positive experience stopped. We grabbed a table and waited and waited and waited until I finally got up, went to the bar and asked if we had anybody serving our table. I was told "yes" and then we got our waitress, who was pleasant enough. From there we ordered and once again waited and waited...After 30 minutes I decided to go back to the bar to see if our order had been lost? I was told at that point, that it had only been 28 minutes (only...) and that it was their lunch rush (as I told this I looked around the entire front area had two people at the bar and maybe six at most in the front). The back of the pub looked about half full. I've been to many pubs and this was no where near what I would call a "lunch rush". I went back to our table, our lunch showed up and well, it was certainly not worth the wait. To sum it up all dishes were noticeably overcooked. So at this point I think it couldn't get any worse... LOL (I have to laugh at this point because it got to the point where it was so bad it actually became humorous and that does not happen often). ... we got the bill. From which we discovered we were charged $2 extra for "splitting a plate". There was no mention of this charge, as well they just gave us side plates and didn't actually serve the food on two separate plates (which is pretty standard for all restaurants when applying such a charge.). From what I have heard from others and now based on my own experience the little Oak Bay Avenue strip is in much need of a new pub. One with service and quality food. The only thing keeping the current one going I figure is that it must be the local watering hole, based solely on...