Guinness Open Gate Brewery — Restaurant in Arbutus

• I am updating the review from below (from my visit on 11/2/24) to reflect the excellent response and customer service received by Open Gate Brewery-Mary to be specific. I was reached out to immediately after my review and offered to come back for a new experience. A friend and I went back this past weekend and had the best experience we could've imagined. Not only did the special I mentioned below get removed from the menu, but it was revamped, and we were provided with that new special to try. It was excellent! Also, I had the beef stew, and my friend had brown bread and the chicken pot pie. Both are recommended. Thank you so much to Open Gate Brewery for the excellent customer service and for listening to customer feedback. I will be back many times in the future. A special shout out to Jane, who really went out of her way to ensure everything was smooth that day. I was so amazed at how awesome everyone was to make the situation right. Also, my friend who was in from out of town on the original visit was refunded. Thank you so much, I look forward to my next visit!!!

Well, I have been here several times over the years and am so excited the organization and quality of food has gotten better. Yesterday (Saturday) had a daily special that my friend (from out of town) and I had to fight for 45 mins. to even get ordered because of the manager not "setting the right button" on the app to order. We kept asking for staff repeatedly to help, and just when we were giving up, I walked over to the food area for one last attempt. Very helpful service after consistently telling two of us at the table we were just not using the app. right. I have to tell anyone and everyone that if you are here and order the $19 "Sheppard pie baked potato 🥔" it's not even a baked potato. Please do not put yourself through what we did, which was to get a large overdone potato skin (prob frozen and hard as a rock) with slop on it. We would have talked to a manager because we thought, based on the description of a loaded baked potato with braised beef and lamb, that we would at least like it. The frozen 🥔 skin and flavorless stuff on top was horrific. DO NOT order this!! What a scam!! We would have tried to work this out but the manager/food manager just kept running away-also the servers-I think they knew it was nasty!! Would LOVE a refund but not needed since we didn't expect it while there. It won't stop us from coming back for the nice ambiance, but definitely not ordering a special again. Btw, the $10 basket of fries (since we didn't actually get a baked potato loaded for $19)...

EDIT- Changed review from 2 to 5 stars. Mary, the food and beverage manager, reached out to me directly and offered my friend a full refund, a refund for my burger, and a round of drinks for my trivia team. Btw, if you are also a thick patty burger person, you can request one big patty, and also change your cheese!

Mary said that the employee who spoke to my friend would also be receiving training on inclusion and customer service.

I am very happy that Guinness Open Gate Brewery has a kind and caring manager like Mary who took time to reach out to us directly and was professional!

ORIGINAL REVIEW

A few friends and I come almost weekly for trivia on Wednesdays. Over time, we've noticed that the food quality has been getting worse. The food is getting saltier and saltier, and their burger, once a guaranteed hit, has been replaced with two thin patties that will get overcooked no matter what (I ordered my burger medium rare and there was NO pink, I included my burger cooking preference in the notes) when the burger patty used to be a very thick patty.

I expressed my dissatisfaction to the waitstaff, but I wasn't offered compensation, a new burger, or well even a consolation brew/dessert.

Last night though, we had an uncomfortable encounter with management. The dress code is listed as casual on Opentable. Now this could be Interpreted as a wide range of things, but casual for a brewery seems to be best interpreted as jeans/sweats/etc+comfy top.

A friend was wearing a sports bra that was more like a crop top since it was wide and covering their chest, although they're a big chested individual. Our friend did not have any intention of being provocative. They had on an open plaid long sleeved shirt on top of the sports bra.

Here we were, debating trivia questions at past 8pm (trivia gets done at 9pm), and then management whispers in their ear to button their shirt up since it's a family friendly establishment. I appreciate that management tried to inform our friend discreetly, but given how late it was on a school night, I doubt any kiddos were oogling at our friend and having an issue with it. Also, it's jarring going into someone's space like that.

We've enjoyed coming on Wednesday nights to catch up, eat, and enjoy the brews, but last night's experience has left my trivia group feeling uncomfortable and unappreciated. It might be time to start looking for another...

I did a brunch in the taproom on a Sunday with the wife and kids. The Q/R code ordering at the table is very convenient unless something is wrong (or you need a water refill) and then you have to flag someone down as they walk. We had two instances during our visit where the food that arrived didn't match what we ordered (wrong side with a brunch burger, and wrong beverage with the milk n cookies dessert), so we had to wait until someone walked by to get it fixed because the food runners just drop-and-go. Overall the food was good but not great. The pretzel app is always a hit with my kids, but the one received was inconsistent. Half of the pretzel was big and thick and it was cooked perfectly, but the top half was much thinner and it was very dry/crunchy/inedible inside. A manager did stop by the table later and comped us a few bucks on the bill after I informed him of the 1/2-dry pretzel. The cheese and mustard dips that accompanied the pretzel were both good. I also ordered garlic rosemary fries and it arrived completely covered in scallions, which strangely aren't mentioned in its menu description at all. I dislike scallions and can usually pick around them, but it would've been impossible to get a non-scallion bite so I had to send it back for a scallion-free version. The fries I got were very crispy and hot, and covered in parmesean while I couldn't see or taste if garlic or rosemary was even on the plate. It comes with a house-made ketchup that has a little bit of a spicy kick to it. I didn't mind it but it's definitely not kid-friendly. If you don't drink beer, there are basic soda/tea options but be advised that there are no free refills. I've been to other Q/R code ordering restaurants that allow you to do refills on basic beverages like this and I'm not sure why Guiness can't figure it out (or is unwilling to forego raking in $3 for each cup of soda served). Overall, the service team that you could see were excellent, but my rating can't go higher than a 3 due to the issues with inaccurate order fulfillment, food consistency issues, and lack of refills...