Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The great bear pub

Ohh the Great Bear pub... full of memories :)
I still remember when I was (sort of) underage and Jordan and I often visited there for their 25cents wings on Wednesdays.  Back then the place served up your standard pub fair from $6.25 stuffed potato skins to $9.95 steak dinners - the portions were huge, not necessarily for those with a refined taste buds but did the job to fill you up and the food was piping hot.

They changed quite a bit after their renovation as the place looks a lot brighter and cleaner now - but due to the location and the ambiance of the pub, it seems almost awkward to see that this place is trying to market itself as a more sophisticated and higher priced lounge rather than a bar. Anyways... 

Their wings are now 39 cents each and only on Wednesdays.  You must order a drink with the daily special and soft drinks are only refillable up to 2 glasses.  Jordan and I haven't been back for a long time because we have been doing this group work out session on Wednesdays with his personal trainer friend.  This time we went because I picked up a groupon, $10 for $20.

We arrived around 5pm - their appie hours!  All appetizers are $6 during 4pm to 6pm everyday.  Unfortunately the groupon was not valid for that offer but we were thinking about ordering entrees anyways... 

so we started off with 2 appetizers  


Calamari - $6 (or $9.95 regular) - lightly battered & spiced then served with tzatziki sauce & toasted garlic pita, chilli spiced or regular - 3.5/5
I can only assume that the regular size is larger than the appie hour size because if I were to be charged ~$10 for this portion at a pub, I'd be pretty upset.  

That been said, the calamari was crispy and lightly battered.  It was hot and the squid was quite tender.  The pita bread was fluffy and crispy on the outside; all the good signs of the dish been freshly prepared instead of just been heated up.

The tzatziki sauce was really nice with a hint of garlic and tangy yogurt that cut through the oily fried calamari pretty well.  I not only enjoyed dipping the calamaris into the tzatziki sauce but also dipping the pita bread into it. Yumm!!

One negative aspect (other than portion size) was that it was dusted with too much salt.  It ended up being way too salty unless you scraped some salt off the batter.  FYI, the shallot, didn't do much because the tzatziki sauce was so strong.
BC fish tacos - $6 ($9.95 regular) - Fresh halibut & wild salmon in a lime-cilantro marinade pan seared with fresh tomato & red onion, topped with crisp lettuce & chipotle sour cream - 3/5
This was a nice dish too being piping hot (indicating that it was freshly prepared).
The halibut and salmon were quite bland, I have had better seasoned fish before (fish taco from chronical tacos and cactus club cafe)

I truly hope the sauce on the side was not the same as the tzatziki sauce from the calamari dish... they did taste pretty similar.... anyways, other than that, I enjoyed the dish quite a bit :)
What can I say, I am a sucker for hot food :$
smokey mountain buffalo burger - $12.50 - 6oz of Canadian ground buffalo, flame grilled with apple smoked bacon, sauteed mushrooms, caranelized onions, cheddar cheese & smoky BBQ sauce on a toasted brioche bun - N/A
 I didn't get to try this burger as my own entree was quite large.  According to Jordan, the patty was quite dry.  The sweet potato fries was quite nice with a crispy exterior and tender interior. 
 
Perogies & Ukrainian sausage - $11.50 - Potato & cheese stuffed perogies & authentic garlic sausage grilled to perfection, served with sour cream & a fresh garden salad with your choice of dressin (2/5)


My entree was very standard and I am confident to say that almost everything on my plate was frozen/store bought items rather than made to order.  The only positive thing I am willing to say is that the food  was hot!!  Perogies tasted worse than the Cheemo perogies from Kelloggs and the garlic sausage was really really salty. 

Over all, our experience at the Great Bear pub was alright.  There was no surprise as the food items were just simple pub fairs executed pub style.  However, the items were made to order and that certainly served as a positive point.  We might be back for chicken wings on Wednesday!

Food - 3/5
Service - 2.5/5 - almost non-existent; no server
ambiance - N/A - pub

Great Bear Pub on Urbanspoon

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