The Canadian Brewhouse & Grill (Prince George) — Restaurant in Prince George

It wasn’t long after we took our seats when about a dozen red beacon lights hanging from the ceiling all suddenly activated (repeating often through the evening). A friend explained it happens whenever a point is scored in a game. That’s a relief, as I was worried the Purge was about the begin. No joke, outside the pub sat a thick fog from a nearby forest fire; couple that with the beacons, and I realized how much this resembled the opening act of a Silent Hill game.

By the way, in case you missed any of the televisions, they are there. It may require a keen eye to spot one; there are only about forty of them, more than what you’ll find on sale at a Best Buy. An LED ticker scrolled across one wall; am I’m supposed to buy stock in ExxonMobil? And their menu offers a Doritos pizza—yeah, it’s going to be that kind of place.

Both my friends ordered tankards of beer. Witnessing the immense mugs of gilded liquor and foam towering over my pitiful tumbler of water, and despising barley-based fermentations though still wanting to compensate for my daunted masculinity, I decided to order a sangria, which arrived in a wine glass fringed by colorful wedges of lime, lemon, and orange—thank God, I have a girlfriend. The menu offers the standard fare including poutines and burgers, all of it admiringly lacking illustrations, though leaving me curious about portion size given how shockingly expensive it all was. I couldn’t find a single burger under $16. The steak bites I ordered cost a penny under $16, which arrived resting mockingly over a piece of lettuce and supporting a paper cup of house sauce resembling cappuccino. I followed that with a short rib shepherd’s pie, which claimed to include carrots and peas, though I could count those on one hand. My friends ordered a pound of wings, a basic poutine, and Miss Vickie's Salt & Vinegar Fish and Chips (another brand drop, nice touch).

What was shocking, however, was that the food wasn’t bad. Although the pie could’ve used a little extra finesse, the other dishes, including the poutine, were well-above average. GCB has no right being this good. It’s not great. It falters next to better pubs and pub-like establishments like Kask and Crossroads, but it’s certainly better than Don Cherry’s, maybe even Black Clover, quite the achievement for a business apparently designed by someone who dropped ecstasy while watching Speed Racer.

Although the décor does prove that Max Headroom’s Blipverts are no longer an allegory, it isn’t as intrusive as you might think. Despite having at least three screens always in view, none were loud enough to force us to scream (at least until a group of inebriated socialites sat down nearby). The televisions faded into a kaleidoscopic mélange of colors and lights, such a cacophony, I wondered how patrons could focus on any one thing. Often enough, they weren’t. Given the number of screens and the variety of channels, at least two were always airing commercials.

I haven’t discussed that deceivingly innocuous pager nestled at the side of every table we could push to summon for a refill, service, or check. Beyond any assumed accusations of this rendering staff lazy and undeserving of gratuity, imagine my surprise when I found the service commendable. Upon first seeing the button scorned on social media, I assumed GCB was a seat-yourself pub ignoring customers until beckoned with a button press. In reality, we were always waited on, only needing to push the button after I forgot to amend an order and later to receive the check. Our server was pleasant, borderline delightful. The only side-effect of the button was when we pressed it to request more utensils; another server delivered them a moment before our original server arrived. I still won’t support the practice. After already being required to wear a dress code matching short skirt with a sleeveless undershirt, now we compel servers to wear beepers. At least it’s not a...

The food was very good. I did have to send my chicken parm back because my noodles weren’t cooked, but that wasn’t an issue at all. When the dish came out with cooked noodles, it was amazing, and my husband enjoyed his ribeye. What I did have a problem with was that they sat us right beside the bar. During our dining experience, we witnessed what I would chalk up to be kids being immature. There were multiple times the bar tenders and servers would huddle around the bar bickering and swearing at each other. It wasn’t until one servers started swearing at another server in an obvious disagreement where I leaned over and reminded them that there’s a table of patrons sitting right behind them. The general manager came over, and apologized profusely, which I appreciated very much. It was disappointing to hear that she has been telling these servers for months to watch their words when in the front of house in and front of patrons. She took the male server aside to chat with him. Once they returned to the floor, him and 2 other bartenders continued to eye my husband and I down for the rest of the night. One of them actually dropped off 2 of the sweetest tasting drinks imaginable (my husband was drinking beer) and said “Merry Christmas” not an, “hey guys I’m sorry about that here’s something on me” but a “Merry Christmas” in March, and walked away. I didn’t realize it was alcohol until I drank half of it, and had to ask them to take it away because I do not drink alcohol. My husband didn’t drink his because he thought the way it was dropped off was sort of a slap in the face.

I had pulled the one boy aside who got taken back by the GM, and let him know I was very sorry and didn’t mean to get him in trouble but I was a GM of a restaurant myself and there’s a certain way to act in front of tables. My husband then piped up and said “yeah that and you’ve been giving my wife dirty looks since that happened” he pressed that he wasn’t, then once he left the table, he went back behind the bar and the 3 gentleman continued giving us dirty looks the rest of the night. I was highly uncomfortable so we just decided to pack up my food (my fixed meal came once my husband was completely finished his meal) and go home. It’s unfortunate to have to leave this review as the food was great, and the service was actually great too, but I don’t think we will come back due to a few irresponsible decisions made by kids who weren’t even our server to begin with. Our server and the GM were absolutely sweethearts and we still tipped her 20% on our $120 bill :) hoping management can fix the problems with certain staffs attitude in the future, and this would be a wonderful place to have a...

Went today for lunch there were 8 of us. Got there around 12 noon. The lower level was completely block off. No problem a great day for the upstairs patio. Made a mistake & took the elevator up. Only going up one floor it felt like we were trapped inside. 7 of us were seated. We got ice water right away. 3 order non alcoholic Corona’s and 3 assorted beers. Manager came by first then our waitress to advise that they were out of the non alcoholic Coronas no problem. The beers came and by now it’s 12:30 and we were just ordering and our 8th person showed up. Good timing in her part. Orders taken. Around 1 out came one lunch what he’d ordered plus a second similar item that no one ordered. They left it for us to try. Which we al did & it was delicious. Sat and waited with no staff interaction with our group. By 1:30 with no food insight 2 people had to leave for a prior commitment. We’d been there for an hour & half. It was not very busy. We were all contemplating leaving when our food arrived. 2 lunches at a time. 1 person ordered a Caesar salad with prawns & another ordered a small salad with the three BEEF sliders. Caesar salad came ( no prawns) side salad but no sliders.. This was mentioned. The side salad & Caesar salads were almost finished, when 3 CHICKEN sliders came & the prawns. They decided not to say they had the wrong sliders as it would take way to much time.

We called over the manager and told her our story. They did give everyone a 20% discount.

The explanation was that they were having some staffing & kitchen issues! The food was good, but the whole situation left us all feeling disappointed.

They bring the food up from the kitchen & they must have to use the slowest elevator there is!

My issue is that the manager & the district manager were onsite! No one came to explain the situation to us, until one of our group got them to come to our table.

If they need to address their staffing problem they might want to consider closing for a couple of days to train & work out the issues.

We are a group that gets together every week and like to try different restaurants around PG, but I don’t think we’ll be back.

Just to clarify this was on a Wednesday! I don’t know how they are going to handle a...