Carlos O'Bryan's Neighborhood Pub — Restaurant in Vancouver

Honestly, a really good place that I’ve recommended friends and MANY customers from my own store to. Of the dozen times I’ve been, always friendly waitresses and other workers. However, I cannot say the same this time.

Look, I understand at a bar you don’t want anything to happen and they’re strict about this. But my friend got sick unfortunately, and the waitress had indeed asked my friend if he was alright. At the end of the day he wasn’t. That’s fair, we were going to handle it anyway and leave. But this guy came and aggressively grabbed my already sick friend by the collar and shoved him out the door and continued screaming at him and slapping his back. My friend didn’t like that, but he didn’t do anything aggressive back. I offered to clean up the waste and everything, the waitress was happy about that. But this guy came back in after slapping my friend some more times and saying aggressive useless words, to grab me instead and shove me around and forced me to clean up, which I was going to do anyway. I asked for a tray so there’s no spilling on the floor, no he told me to clean it up with whatever we have and smacked my back again really hard. I cleaned it and then asked to wash my hand before leaving, but he continued swearing and shouting and shoving us out the door. My other friend and I continued up the hill to join my friend who was trying to catch a break, and the guy chased us out the side entrance, came up the hill and screamed at us to leave further from his bar. He was non stop getting in my friends face and calling him names and swearing.

I get the tough guy act for a night club with aggressive customers? But as he screamed after us, we are nerds in his eyes okay. Thanks. We were thankful for most of their service and tipped and everything, yet we had to put up with a guy on a power trip manhandling people. That is not okay. I have worked in food and drinks service before and this did not require a toxic masculine attitude. The waitress herself said the guy wouldn’t do anything, yet here we are. We really didn’t cause any real trouble, as we were three quiet guys that just wanted drinks after a tough day dealing with customers ourselves.

Look, this place is worth coming to because they make their drinks well and food is mid, waitresses have always been nice, but this guy is out of his mind. Just don’t get sick and you shouldn’t get this treatment. I’ll still recommend people to come to my customers, but management needs to take care of this clown. If he is part of that team, then I am sorry for those that have to work under him. No wonder the waitress turnover rate is so high.

Thank you to the lady that still treated...

I reviewed another spot recently with a sentiment similar to what I’m about to write – with a little work, this would have been 5 stars.

I love a good beef dip, and when I’m in a rush it’s my go-to meal. So I’ve eaten a lot of them, and have seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. O'Bryan's fell short, which is a shame because it had potential to be amazing.

A beef dip needs one thing above all – tender beef without any nasty gristle or globs of fat in it. On this point, O'Bryan's nailed it. The beef is fall-apart tender that’s been well carved with any unsavoury bits removed long before it arrives at the table. There was only one big problem, but we’ll come back to that.

Beef dip also needs a flavourful au jus for dipping, and O'Bryan's isn’t bad, but it is forgettable. Good au jus shouldn’t be thickened like gravy, it should literally just be the flavour-filled juices from the beef cooking pot, with bits of beef still floating around to remind you where it came from. This seemed like a packaged gravy – not offensive, but quite unremarkable in taste, texture, aroma, and appearance.

The fries that accompanied the dip were crisp and fresh, and if it weren’t for the same problem the beef suffered they’d have been great – that problem being flavour…there just wasn’t much. Nothing ruins a beef dip like too much salt, but this didn’t seem to have any. Or any spices for that matter. Those crispy fries with a bit of fresh ground pepper, onion salt, and maybe some garlic powder or smoked paprika would have been scrumptious. And the beef was crying for some zing, or at least some caramelized onions and a zippy sauce to go on the bun – a roasted garlic aioli or something.

One other thing – the bread was soft and fresh, but had no place serving as the backbone of a beef dip. The second I grabbed it (it wasn’t even cut in half – a no-brainer for a beef dip) it mushed together and was nearly impossible to pick up and dip. I ended up pouring the au jus on the sandwich and guiding the whole mushy mess into my mouth.

Was it a bad lunch? Not at all. But with a little love this could have been one of the best beef dips I’ve had – if only some flavour had been introduced, some real au jus was served, and a fresh crusty baguette (cut in half!) had been used so it was possible to pick up.

One HUGE thumbs up for the patio though – sitting in the sun this afternoon…even a sub-par beef dip was perfect when served by a friendly server as I soaked up the last...

Staff member was incredibly hostile for no understandable reason. I was in line with two of my friends in the late afternoon on St. Pat's - we were out for food and some Guinness, and the front-of-house took my name and phone number and said it would be about an hour. We went for a wander, and no calls had come in so we came back an hour later to see where we were on the list. I saw that my name had been crossed off, and I said, "but we didn't get a call". He told us how he had shouted out my name over and over. I reiterated that he hadn't called, and he said that he had called, he went behind the bar and used the phone to call. I went to show him my phone, and then he started yelling at me, telling me "don't you tell me what I've done", and I couldn't get a full sentence out, he started moving towards me so that I would back up until I was out of the door, repeating over and over in a hostile manner "don't you tell me what I've done" - I couldn't understand what was happening and why this situation went straight to 11. I did show him my phone, and he pointed to my husband's number when he called me two days before (I guess they share a name), and said, "see, that's me" - I said it was my husband (thinking in my head, didn't you say you called from the bar phone), and then he started in again with the aggression and the "don't you tell me what I've done" - so I asked, well, can we get put back on the list, and he then smirked and said "no, you're out". We used to come here all the time for my uncle's BD, where we would have a couple of tables full of people, or to get a quick bite before a movie. Never again. I worked in the service industry for year, and I know how stressful certain days can be, but he wasn't acting in a stressed out way - he was behaving with the hyped-up aggression of someone who would have been escorted from the pub for our safety at 1am. Never...