Howe Sound Taphouse & Kitchen - East Van — Restaurant in Vancouver

We ordered a burger with mixed greens, and a pasta with cream sauce. Very disappointing! If you're in the area and desperate, maybe give the pizza a shot (ordering a burger at an Italian restaurant may have been my first error...)

Pros: Service was great!

Cons: Overpriced Flavourless and poorly prepared food

$15 burger w/ mixed greens: I know it's an Italian restaurant, but it was surprisingly bad. The patty was overdone - burnt flavour, dry texture - and the toppings didn't seem fresh - the pickle wasn't crunchy and the tomato had that weird, crumbly texture. Bun had no substance or flavour, and had nearly dissolved by the end of the meal. The "mixed greens" was just half a tomato sliced over a pile of white romaine lettuce cores - not a dark leaf in sight - and it tasted bitter, as if not properly washed. Nail in the coffin was when I found the actual base of the romaine core... You know the bit at the very bottom that you would never serve to a guest so you make sure goes in your own dish, if not the compost? Might even be able to see it in the photo...

$15 pasta with egg and cream sauce: Noodles had good texture, but the dish was pretty bland. Slightly salty, but no rich notes to the meal, even for the meat. Not much else to say about it.

Normally, the location/atmosphere is the excuse for why places like this charge so much for such poor quality food, but the decor is somewhat mismatched, the music selection was mostly 90's pop songs (Limp Bizkit, anyone?), and the dominating focus point of the view is my beloved discount grocery store, No Frills. I don't have "high taste", but I do expect to be fed a meal at least as good as I can make at home in my relatively under-equipped kitchen in 15 minutes.

Points to the server though, as when he came back to check on us and we dropped clear hints that we were not enjoying the meal (politely, of course, as none of the issues were the server's fault), he retrieved some oil and balsamic in case I wanted to "adjust the flavour" to my preferences and kept the water coming. Very professional; should be working somewhere much...

I was just here, weekend of 8/2-3 staying at the hotel next door with my girlfriend. Both myself and my gf are in the Bar/Beer industry so naturally we came to Howe Sound because it's attached to the hotel and I love craft beer. We came three times and each time Junie was our bartender/Rad Person on duty. She is how bartenders and people who interact with the public should always be like. She was super friendly, funny, and was always attentive, she even found time to banter back and forth with us while she was staying super busy. We got the Roni pizza twice because of how good it is, it has this jalapeño honey drizzle on top that just knocks it out of the park, the crust was perfect with zero flop. There was little to no grease and the toppings stayed put. As for the beer? It was super good. Clean lines and clean beer. You can always tell how good a beer is by how it comes to room temperature, these were spot on. Thanks again, Junie and East...

We hadn't visited the original Howe Sound brewery in ages, so we figured stopping by their Vancouver outpost on our way to a game would be a nostalgic nod to the past, considering the iconic Waldorf location. Sadly, nostalgia was about the only thing that didn't disappoint. The service was painfully slow, largely due to the lone staff member who was left to juggle orders and bartend for the entire floor. This one-man show resulted in us arriving at the stadium later than planned. Oddly enough, the table next to us got their drinks before us, despite arriving later—go figure.

The food was passable until the cheese and wild mushroom pizza showed up. The dough was lackluster, and the overly sweet honey truffle drizzle clashed horribly with the mushrooms. It might work on a pear and Gorgonzola pizza, but definitely not this one.

All told, it wasn't the revival of good times we'd hoped for, and I'm afraid we won't be making a...