The Canadian Brewhouse & Grill (Victoria) — Restaurant in Saanich

Grab some popcorn for this one 🍿 I was genuinely excited to see what this place had to offer. After all, I am a sucker for a one-two combo of recreation and beers (I'm surely their target audience)

I arrived at the top floor after making my accent through what I can only describe as an escape route plastered with badly photoshopped canadiana icons. I take my seat, and my head swivels as if I'm watching the Olympic ping pong finals. I see a bachelor party, some couples, and a father & son using the batting cage(nothing out of the ordinary, im sure). It's now that I realize my arms have become ever so stuck to this table I've decided to call my own. Cue server stage right. We're boys, of course we're getting tankards. As we are spritzed with mist our beer arrives, you better believe we never see that employee again. I begin my second beer when I kid you not one by one. An entire youth baseball team enters the area. This is not a few kids showing up with their parents for some fun in the batting cage. This is matching shirts, backpacks with their own equipment, and clearly the coach who is supervising these kids that were just dropped off. Correct me if I'm the only one that finds this strange(it throws me off a bit) Keep in mind that 40 minutes have pasted. The third different staff has arrived to take our food order. We ask for an order of garlic fingers ( we hail from the east coast iykyk) cue 4th different staff to bring food. Any staff that wish to turn whistle blower, please pm me with what your kitchen used as a cheese alternative on the garlic fingers. A four year old could recognize that cheese does not behave like that. A basically inedible experience. After settling my bill with the never-ending supply of waitstaff, that's right, I never saw the same person twice. Confusion weighs heavy on me as I begin my shameful decent from this misty circus. The doors to freedom are in view as I receive a cesarean dagger to my back "how we're the garlic fingers"

I flee They know.. They know.. They know..

(I never go back)

Thank you for listening to...

Being a Chef by trade and part of the service industry for 30 plus years here is my observations of the Great Canadian Brewhouse for my first time . My wife and I live in Shawnigan Lake and love to experience new dining. When you first walk in , there doesn't seem to be a distinctive area for the customers to be greeted by the host. We had a ressy so that should have been easy. When we were finally greeted, I walked by a gentleman who seemed well dressed ! I looked right at him assuming he was the manager and he seemed alouf no hi how are you nothing We were shown to our dark table with one drink menu Friday night 6 pm a couple of big tables a few 4 tops and people aimlessly waiting. Took a while for our server to come to the table , we were a 6 top , and we were not in a hurry wanted to enjoy our dining experience at a new place. When we finally got service , after our out of town guests got there just arrived our server was good and attentive. Although it was hard to hear as she told us us the one special , prime rib , honestly I didn't hear anything but prime rib. Drinks were on time and ok . We ordered deep fried pickles , cause my wife loves them , as an appy we ordered the rest of our meals . Everything pretty well came out at once ! I'm assuming she fired the the orders all at once. Because the deep fried pickles came out and 5 minutes later out meals came out cold. I hate cold food that has been sitting on the passbar. I watched the manager as he walked back and forth and kept disappearing to a door in the back of the house. As I was watching people showing up and aimlessly standing by the bowling lanes not knowing where to go. Won't be back for sure. Oh yeah just an FYI the boss we were with was a huge deal in the computer science industry back East and I was embarrassed. ...

We wanted to take our friend here for her birthday because it's a new and assumedly interesting place. Didn't think it would be an issue on an early Tuesday evening. We were greeted by a long line winding down a staircase. We asked several people in line what they were waiting for, some were waiting for the bowling and some had reservations for the restaurant, but nobody really knew what was going on. So we bypassed the line to get to the top just to see what the deal was. There was no host there. But, there was a rude person at the front of the line who informed us there was only one person working the area and they were working very hard and that we should be at the back of the line. It would have been nice to have some sort of signage at the very least to create some order and set expectations. PLEASE do not open a business unless you are prepared to staff it properly.

Edit: Ok, maybe they read my review and made some changes. We happened to be in Uptown again on a Saturday and decided to see if there was a line. This time there wasn't, and there was a sign saying to go upstairs to be seated. (Yay for clear signage.) Also, there were two hostesses waiting at the top to seat people. We sat outside on a really nice patio. The service was good enough. I got the brisket poutine and it wasn't very hot but it was pretty good. Next time I'll ask for extra gravy because the bottom was very dry. The poutine is the most affordable meal on the menu. Everything else is pretty pricey but nothing out of the ordinary for Victoria. I was pleased. I'd go again if...