The Ballyhoo Public House — Restaurant in Vancouver

Absolutely horrible service, after trying to pay on my card twice, which didn’t work - I payed in cash. The waitress then shorted my change. I kindly told the server that I wont accept being shorted change despite it being a small amount of money. She told me to use my card then (which I had already done twice & clearly it wasn’t working) so I told her to get the manager. The manager came over and told us some excuse, and during my interaction with the manager the waitress (some entitled blonde lady) came over and handed me the extra change which she originally said she didn’t have. She said they usually round up or down if they don’t have exact change, so I told the staff they are going to need to round up for me as I wasn’t willing to be short changed at this restaurant. (They were already missing food items on the pop up Barhumbug menu that they didn’t warn us about) so I didn’t see the extra tip being deserved. The waitress then finally who brought our change during my interaction with the manager parroted some aggressive comments “not to ever talk to her like that again” and obviously made up some lies to her manager who proceeded to treat me and my guest at the restaurant like we were dangerous unwanted criminals. The manager also said for us to never come back, as if we had done something wrong. We finished our drinks that we purchased, which took us about 20 minutes… as the manager hovered over us waiting for us to leave which was extremely uncomfortable as he continued to stare at us. We weren’t quite done our drinks and he asked us to leave. I asked the manager what the issue was and he said he sided with his staff, which I accepted, and wished him a Merry Christmas and left. I highly reccomend people avoid this establishment as the service is horrible. Drinks are bad and overpriced, and food options are misleading, not the mention the staff being extremely rude. Merry Christmas, just don’t go to the barhumbug, or...

A message to guests and ownership of The Ballyhoo / Bar Humbug.

Any establishment where staff and management don't believe in "the customer is always right", doesn't understand what good service is. The Ballyhoo / Bar Humbug is the kind of place which doesn't grasp their guests are the ones keeping them in operations, with staff and management clearly displaying a gross lack of respect towards their guests.

Reviews say a lot and seeing how overwhelmingly bad reviews are for food and service, with positive reviews being for beer drinkers, generic "no comment" 5 star reviews, or "#contestentry" reviews —tells me a lot.

Consistently rude and unfriendly staff reflect poorly on the establishments' management —everything starts at the top. If management doesn't provide good service and possess a poor attitude, staff whom share the same negative traits will be following close behind. The Ballyhoo / Bar Humbug desperately needs an intervention if they want to cling on to any remaining fragment of good reputation in the City of Vancouver. Our city has no space for careless and negative staff and management. We pay top dollar for experiences plus goods and services — places like The Ballyhoo / Bar Humbug are a hard miss of anything near good. Guests deserve better and revamping the leadership team of The Ballyhoo / Bar Humbug should be done ASAP. Incredibly disappointed in their clear steep shortfall of knowing how to operate or treat guests.

Any guest who wants good service, food or drinks, or a welcoming place to go (or even a nominally basic level of respect), should stay clear of The Ballyhoo...

visited the bar humbug pop-up bar tonight, and had a very disappointing experience. we ordered the ferrero roche old fashioned (bourbon, hazelnut, chocolate, fino sherry, angostura, orange oil, and ferrero roche are listed as ingredients in the cocktail) and another drink.

but we were served a shockingly pale old fashioned instead. we asked the waitress why the drink looked so pale (unlike the photos seen online) to which she explained that they were out of chocolate bitters and that it was basically still the same drink. aren’t bitters a pretty important part of an old fashioned?

then, she proceeded to ask, “you’ve had an old fashioned before, right?” yes, i’ve had an old fashioned before. which is why this looks like nothing i’ve ever had!

she mostly ignored us the rest of the night, checking on her other tables but walking past ours without so much a glance. she did stop by one time though, to ask if we had any last order. well, we were a party of four that only ordered two drinks, so fine, whatever.

two in our group left after we finished our drinks and the other two of us waited to get the check. she walked past multiple times without glancing at our table. we eventually caught her attention and got the check, but this was annoying as well.

overall, frustrating experience and i unfortunately won’t be back. such a pity since i was so excited to check out bar humbug after all i had...