Review The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant - Vancouver

Loved my experience at Sandbar When I visited a few days ago, it felt definitely different from last time I was here. I felt the place was a lot more cleaner, cozier than before. Folks were very friendly and approachable and was able to throw some good suggestions for our group. They seemed to highlight on their seafood items and it was definitely worth trying. I liked how their seafood items not too salty and well balanced (texture, portion, presentation) Would suggest to go slightly earlier than regular dinner time (like early 5pm) otherwise you might have to wait & place might be quite busy even during weekdays. They also have patio upstairs with fireplace so it won't be too cold if you were sitting near there (and I'm sure you could ask for a blanket if needed)

The food was great. Very fresh seafood. Our sever was amazing - he noticed I didn’t touch my drink and offered to take it off the tab. We had questions about the different oysters and he took the time to go and ask for clarification from the kitchen. The food was delicious and all the items were consistent. There was live music too. I would definitely recommend this place to you.

Excellent Excellent Excellent Just went there today to celebrate my sister’s birthday 🎂 and we hit a prime seat on the patio! Our server Raj was very personable and friendly. Food was delicious, we got the 6 raw oysters 🦪, French fries 🍟, and the char fish 🐟 with potatoes 🥔 and coconut 🥥 rice 🍚! Delicious! There was absolutely no downside! Exceptional service, from the hostess all the way us to the bartender! Can’t wait to come back again! 👌🏻

Big restaurant with different settings. Our server was Doug and he was super nice, always checking on us and giving us status of our food. Kudos to Doug! I recommend you make a reservation online as the place is busy and in high demand. Food was good and right sized. Do not expect big portions. I didn’t have the chance to picture the food … we were starving! Next time! 🤣🤣

It was a cold Sunday night in Vancouver ... well only because I felt like wearing a dress outside but still we stumbled upon Sandbar (we originally wanted to go to last day of Stormcrow) and we were enticed by the wooden oven pizza. They gave us a nice cozy table upstairs (even though we didn't' have reservations) and our server was very nice and accommodating. the portions were smaller than most but it was all delicious. we ordered anything with Truffle in it, the truffle fries and truffle pizza and chocolate truffle for dessert. the view from our table was amazing!

Saw the reviews and wanted fresh seafood. The service was great, but can't say the same for the food. I ordered clam chowder and seared tuna. The clam chowder was good, filled with lots of clams. The tuna, however was tasteless. I added the salsa and salt, but actually that was all I tasted. I spoke with the waiter about it, but he didn't do anything about it.

“Are steaks really my favourite food?” I asked myself after having the sablefish here. The oysters were fresh and delicious. The server was fun and respectful, and the views on the patio were to die for. On the pricier side, but you already know that. Would come back here to try their seafood boil.

Great atmosphere and service! Beets salad was excellent. Side note: if you are a fan of the traditional gnocchi I am not sure you will like their gbochhi (see photos, looks like salad).

It's in a great location along False Creek, and the service we received was wonderful. The fresh seafood menu is excellent and my dish of the Sable fish with a miso glaze was outstanding. Loved it! Highly recommend this place and the fresh Chef Creek oysters and the truffle fries are a must.

Downtown waterfront vibe what you are seeking? Then The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant is the place!The patio has an incredible view! Seafood lovers delight! Service is top notch!!

I highly recommend this place. It has great food, excellent views, very nice staff and just an overall great place!

I ordered a Dragon Boat Appetizer to share. That was very good. Food was fresh and quite tasty. For a main course my wife ordered the seafood hotpot and I ordered the Sandbar Signature grilled salmon. After we got through the appetizers, we waited a good 15 minutes for the main course which was fine. But at one point I saw a food runner walking with our dishes and just before he got to the table he looked confused and took them back to the kitchen. We waited for another 15 minutes and when our food came, of course mine was cold. My wife's was in a caste iron pot, so it was still warm, but not hot. I called the server and she immediately took it back to the kitchen and they made me a fresh dish which was delivered by the manager with apologies. I was informed that the dish would be comped. I wasn't trying to get free food, but I thought that was classy. They seemed genuinely apologetic. I would definitely go back again. A piece of advice, if you are there and are not satisfied, just let them know and give them opportunity to make it right. If that doesn't work, then write a poor review.

Heated, covered patio was warm and cozy and the views were amazing even in the rain. We had amazing service and the food was delish! Would definitely recommend it!

Great views from the restaurant, nice friendly staff and the food was really good. I will definitely recommend this place to friends and family.

Had the sablefish which was fantastic. I usually only like raw or flaky cooked ... but when it’s fresh and the chef knows the deal .... this buttery oily melty goodness cannot be beat. Great view. Great service. Great food.

Loved the location great view of the water nice menu staff were great Lovely place on a summer day

Service was pretty good as was the food - perhaps I've been spoiled having recently returned from Hawaii but I was honestly a little disappointed with the halibut special - there was enough food on the plate however I expected better for the price

A perfect meal after a perfect day. Seated promptly, wait staff excellent, food so nummy, and of course, that view.......

Pricey but totally worth it! Loved the ambiance and the view. Service was great and food were fresh and served fairly quick. Would totally go back!

When they asked if we wanted to sit on the patio on the rainy November evening we weren't quite sure what to think, but when they took us upstairs it was an amazing experience! The food was delicious and our waiter Chris went above and beyond. Will definitely be back again!

I'd give this place zero stars if it let me. Customer service is HORRIBLE. Was there for a 40th bday back on June 16th and received THE worst service our server didn't seem to care until we were paying our bill. Left multiple messages for the 'general Manager' Scott and still nothing. Tried to email The Seqouia Group and the email bounces back. Real nice.

Turned up with no reservation and got a table for 2 by the window. Crab hors d'oeuvres was fabulous (shared it). My halibut was amazing. My partners jambalaya was good too. Wine choices and suggestions were excellent as was the service. We obviously benefited from being early diners as the place was almost full as we left. Would go again if we find ourselves in Vancouver again.

The fresh cod was fantastic. The waitress was very kind and service was outstanding. The view by the water was very nice too. Perfect setting for dinner or just drinks.

Great place after or before visiting the market. We all loved the squid.salad with prawns and avocado. Lots of great appies. I had special of the day salmon and prawns very tasty. Desserts were amazing. Brownies are decadent.will be back.

The pan fried Arctic char was out of this world. So juicy and delicious. Highly recommend.

Wonderful food and service. Spirited atmosphere. Highly recommend.

Lovely!! Sit on the patio if you get the chance. Even in the winter they have heaters and blankets which makes it very comfortable. Views are stunning. We ordered the fish and chips and swordfish. Both were great!! They have happy hour from 3-6 but only if you sit in the lounge or at the bar. We went there around 330 which was perfect and not very busy. It is a staple place to eat at Grandville and the views alone make this place a worthy stop!

Had a blast tonight with my friends at the Sandbar Seafood Restaurant. The food, the ambience, and the staff just excellent. It was my birthday and they were so sweet and offered me a complimentary cake. ❤️ It was my second time there and I’m definitely coming again.

what a great restaurant! I was looking for a seafood restaurant to eat salmon in Vancouver. One of my friends recommended going to the the sandbar seafood restaurant! My friend and I went there,and the restaurant made us happy. when we arrived,the hostess greeted us with a smile, and she guided us to a table with beautiful ocean view. The menu was amazing because it describes add food, in detail. Moreover, they had a special food item on that day. The menu also listed gluten free and vegetarian food. We ordered Steelhead Salmon and Fish & Chips to share. The restaurant was a little bit busy because we were there on the weekend. However, the atmosphere in the restaurant was great because the staff always smiled and looked like having fun with customer love to work there. furthermore, the salmon was very light tasty, like making good use of the different ingredients!!! We were very happy to eat our meal! Moreover, of course! Another deal was also wonderful. I had a special time there! I really recommend visiting this restaurant. Only if you go there, can you eat awesome foods and meet perfect staffs. I hope you will enjoy spending time there. Thank you!

How wonderful!! I just arrived in Vancouver, so I do not know about this city very much. My friend often takes me nice places. Today, I wanted to eat Salmon, so she recommended “The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant.” <br/><br/>Of course, this is the first time I go there. The hostess greeted us and took us to the table with an ocean view!! After we were seated, the server gave us a glass of water immediately. Then, we ordered Fish & Chips, Mushroom & Truffle Pizza, and Steelhead Salmon. However, my friend would have preferred to order Fried Squid instead of that. Because, she does not like mushroom and cheese!! Oh, my goodness!! <br/><br/> The server brought all dishes at the same time. The meals looked attractive and tasted great!! Each meal brought out the best of the ingredients used to make it. Especially, the salmon, it was delicious!! <br/><br/>The host and server looked neat and tidy, and the restaurant’s décor in the dining room looked great!! Everything was almost perfect. I recommend “The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant” to you all!! Moreover, they serve gluten-free and vegetarian foods. I want to go there again. I hope you too will have a great time!<br/>

Sandbar @vancouver’s Granville Island. Consistently delivers delicious dishes. Great menu selection, mid level price, service is fantastic, wine menu sufficient and generous portions. Perfect location on Granville Island where you can enjoy theatre, cultural events and dinner. It’s a regular favourite hangout of mine and many others who like a casual but trendy west coast ambiance. Parking is tough on Granville Island but most make the island trip an all day walking tour event anyway.

Very good service. The staff are attentive and friendly. We ordered oysters , crab cakes, 1/2 lobster, scallop and shrimp entree and the mushroom truffle pizza . The best meal was the truffle mushroom<br/>Pizza! Amazing ! As well the best mojito I have ever had ! Don’t change a thing in that drink . Lovely wine selection and delicious warm bread. We will be back ! thank you for the experience

One of our go to restaurants in the city as food is very good as is the consistent customer service. <br/><br/>Fish and wine selection and options are excellent.<br/><br/>Nice way to spend and evening with friends or partner. <br/>

Sandbar offers a $35 Dine Out menu, with a couple of entree options that you can upgrade with $10 extra. Overall, the menu wasn’t super inspiring, but the dishes were well executed. The plating was also basic.

First time here for dinner and our experienced was very good. We had a reservation so we got seated right away. The place was very nice, with good views of the water and downtown skyline. Sound is not too loud so it’s good for conversations. Staff are friendly and our waiter was very knowledgeable and explained the menu very well which helps my decision very easy on what to get. All foods we ordered were delicious and tasty. The sauce perfectly blends with the Fish especially the mango and papaya salsa with butter sauce. A bit expensive but definitely worth it.

I have been one of regular customers at ‘Hoshi Sushi’ on the ground floor of Sandbar. When I was asked to take someone to ‘authentic’ sushi in Vancouver, I had no doubt and take them to Hoshi Sushi. The quality of food is marvelous and atmosphere to enjoy dinner was just like we were in Japan. From this May, the restaurant has been reallocated to second floor and we need to share the waiter with original sandbar restaurant.<br/>Since this change, everything has been deteriorated, I am afraid.<br/>Just behind the sushi counter, they have huge piano which bothers our conversation. Waiters are slow to take drink order while they are ultra quick to bring bill. <br/>Hoshi-San remain serving high quality sushi but If any of you wants ‘authentic’ sushi then I should recommend somewhere else because of This ambience. It is pity.<br/>

Great location in Granville Island with a great view. The seafood is fresh. There’s a kids menu for the kiddos. The patio is a little chilly even with the sun out.

Such a beautiful place! Great staff, and the view is great. The food is really good, fresh fish and tasty food. From tacos to the tuna, all good. For sure I’ll be back.

3.5/5 revisit there for the happy hour. The selection was small (at least for me). However, the food tasted okay (had shrimp avocado, lobster slider mini burger, and a mussel dish, I think).

The food was AMAZE BALLS. My server was super friendly and had a great looking mustache. Look for Ian Harvey, the food he recommended was DOPE.

Terrible experience! A few hours after dinner I had food poisoning: vomiting & watery diarrhea. I called the next day to complain. The manager said that symptoms of food poisoning do not show up until 9 or 10 hours after eating contaminated food.  Mine showed up after 4 to 5 hours, hence, I was told that the cause could not possibly be anything I had eaten in The Sandbar. This is nonsense as even Doctor Google will tell you.  But apparently the manager is a medical expert and knows better. All I had eaten before dinner in the Sandbar was toast with jam and peanut butter for breakfast and some fresh fruit (properly washed!) for lunch. The Sandbar refused to take any responsibility for what happened and offered no apologies. I don't know what they are thinking: that I'm lying and making the whole thing up? I honestly have better things to do than that. Their behaviour is truly offensive.

I don't really get it. I tried twice and both times were duds. Service was fine and the venue is really nice with great views of Granville. The food isn't bad, but certainly doesn't measure up to the prices. Seafood is fresh I guess but it's always served with an afterthought of barely warm rice and veggies on the side. The social aspect is good when you're there with friends but manage your expectations accordingly when it comes to the food.

Service was awesome, atmosphere is cool, and the food was pretty good! (The seafood chowder blew me away!) But I just can't justify paying this much money for such overpriced food. If I want good seafood, I wouldn't come back here- I'd go to the Boathouse. But if youre willing to shell out the goods for the atmosphere, location, and food, then go for it!

The place looks really inviting and they have a good menu too choose from, all gluten free. But I have to say the service was o.k. Food is mediocre especially for the price. <br/><br/>The chilli run got chocolate was a total disappointment with barely any chocolate or chilli or rum in it and the fries tasted like fish, which is an undesirable taste for someone who does not eat fish. <br/><br/>

Overpriced seafood hot pot would have been better to just get a plate of muscles. It is usually good though. Peach iced tea was okay, wouldn't suggest ordering it though, get something different

kind of disappointment! Service was perfect! Food was ok! I can taste the fresh, like I tasted in any other fresh market restaurant. Hi which makes this place is little overpriced, " fresh" is the only strength, presentation was so poor, even I can do better on that!

We weren’t too hungry yet so we just ordered the Dragon Boat Platter ($39), featuring 4 of their most popular appetisers, the Wok Squid, the BBQ Ribs, the Broccolini, and the Fried Oysters. Everything on the platter was incredibly palatable. The seafood was so fresh here and tasted even better with that light and crispy breading. The BBQ Ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender and the broccolini was green and crunchy.

Okay, wow - this place was good. Both the food and the atmosphere. We got really lucky with seating - at the top floor right by the side of the water. What a gorgeous view on what was a beautiful day. They even had blankets in case it was chilly as the sun set over the mountains in the distance. We were visiting from Toronto so we spoiled ourselves a little. For food, I don't recommend the har gow unless you really love dim sum. The clam chowder was really good. The seafood hot pot was soooo good - highly recommend. The sushi was okay, but what was cool was that the California rolls had real crab meat. We did that along with a sampler sushi platter. We shared all these amongst 2 people and it was enough. The wild goose gewiirztraminer from BC was soooo good, highly recommend if you want white wine. Finished with chocolate truffle cake and Belgian chocolate pudding. I highly recommend the truffle cake. Pudding was okay. But together amongst 2 people it was way too much dessert. Overall, a really nice experience. With coffee/tea and 2 beers and 2 servings of wine, tax and tip = $180 for 2 people.

In Vancouver for a few days from Calgary for the wife's pay the freight shoulder rebuild and hiked over to Sandbar for Sunday evening dinner. Caught them on an off night with no west coast oysters and no black cod. The staff went above and beyond to make sure we had a great evening with a taste of wild pacific fruits de mer. <br/>Terrific 3 story space on the water with spectacular views, surpassed only by the quality of the staff and servers. <br/><br/>

After our nippy and cold 2 hour photo walk of the island we headed in for some much needed warmth and food i ordered the 7oz sirloin steak cooked medium rare which was sooo delicious OMG!! was it tender(unlike boston pizza) the service was on point 8 out of 10 on food and service,i would highly recommend this place

Had a fantastic time! The food was terrific and our server Alex was amazing! She was very helpful with everything and had the best personality we have seen in a while!! Will be going back for sure!<br/><br/>Bob and Moe

The restaurant is gorgeous on the inside and has a very unique heated balcony with a great view of downtown Vancouver. The food was very good. I've been here several times and I was blown away by the oysters and the sablefish. They also offer $15 happy hour special which gets you a good beer, mussels and chips. Will be back

Great seafood, lively atmosphere, and beautiful view. Really liked the ribs on the sharing platter, and the pan-fried arctic char was some of the best fish I've ever had. Our server Mason was really friendly and managed to keep our extremely large and gregarious table well-stocked with drinks and food. Will definitely plan on coming back.

The view is amazing! You're definitely paying for the experience. The food was good but the view is even better. My seafood eggs Benny was good but buttery.

I love visiting Granville Island, it’s only of my favorite places in the city. But it’s so rare for me to visit the restaurants on the island. I’d never been to Sandbar, so today we’d address that by stopping in for a weekend lunch. Located under the Granville Street Bridge, on the pier over looking the water, Sandbar is kinda hidden, behind all the galleries.  It’s a seafood place, with very warm rustic feel.  It’s part of the Sequoia restaurant group, along with Seasons in the Park, Cardero’s and the Stanley Park Teahouse.

If you want a great view and a late night dessert, this is a great place for it. The cheese cake is decent enough, but not as amazing as cheesecake etc. Good vibe, great service. This restaurant is known for their seafood dishes. I haven't tried out their entrees yet but the weather has been very nice lately and I'll be here soon enough with my girlfriend to give a review.<br/>

Love this place! Great lobster, great steak, great shrimp, great cheesecake, great drinks, great atmosphere, great service! Everything was great! One of the best places to eat on Granville Island and in Vancouver.

just rating the music:sucked,Went in a few days before the weekend and we were told there would be 80's music.They didn't have it and the music was not so great!This place used to have a dj and it really rocked.Bring back a dj!!!!

Highly recommend this restaurant! The food is pretty good and the service is OUTSTANDING. Went there yesterday again for dinner with a friend. Our servant, Chris, did an awesome job in taking care of our table! I was really impressed by the service overall. We ordered the crab and artichoke dip, mussels and salmon. The dip and the salmon are great, but the mussels are a little tiny.. which was quite disappointing. Anyhow, had an awesome night there! Enjoyed the view, the food and the service very very much!! :)

I really enjoyed the atmosphere here! I came here for my birthday and we were seated with a great view and right beside the fireplace. It was cozy and romantic :) the seafood was delicious and the service was fine. Overall had a good experience

Ah, the Sandbar. Definitely an iconic restaurant nestled in Granville Island. Ambience is great and service is top notch here. Food wise, they are obviously known for their seafood. Don't miss the seafood tower! The chocolate mousse was also a pleasant surprise!

The Sandbar was an excellent dining experience. They offer an array of dishes from king crab to lobster that any seafood lover would drool over. The food tasted great and the service was top notch. Highly recommend the seafood tower!

One-liner: Seafood tower that meets the standards of seafood restaurants is a good place to start<br/>Highlight: Wok Squid and Sandbar Tower<br/>Recommended for: Seafood lovers<br/>Would I go back? Yes.<br/><br/>Read my blog post for the full review!

Came here with a large party and tried a whole bunch of stuff. The service is great and if you love fresh seafood platters, this place is definitely worth checking out. I'm not a fan of straight up crabs, oysters, and lobsters so the other dishes here are more interesting. I tried:<br/>Seafood Croquette: They have a great texture but the filling is way underseasoned.<br/>Spicy Green Beans: Reminded me of the sauteed green beans you can get at most Chinese Restaurant. They taste pretty awesome!<br/>Ahi Poke: So fresh but super salty.<br/>California Roll and Scallop Roll: Pretty disappointing, the rice is a bit too soggy and the filling is not flavorful enough.<br/>Wok Squid: Best part of the night! These are super flavorful, chewy and crunchy at the same time.<br/><br/>Tried a selection of dessert as well but nothing really stood out. My advice is to try the squid work.

The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant is located on Granville Island right by the public market. They are best known for their selection of fresh Oceanwise seafood, which is sustainable and ethically caught. They can seat up to 300 people in their space and you can see the Granville Street Bridge and False Creek.

Where does one go to experience some of BC's freshest seafood? Sandbar is definitely a good spot if you are on Granville Island. They have a good selection of Oceanwise seafood. You can't go wrong with oysters or their seafood platter. Do stick around for dessert since its pretty awesome too.

I've been meaning to go to the Sandbar for a while now and finally got the opportunity to for a Foodie meet up! The food was AMAZING, I'm a huge seafood fan and I was so impressed by the delicious food. My favourite was the Ahi Poke Tuna, it was so delicious, best I've ever had. The wok squid was also amazing, the batter was so crispy and delicious flavoured to perfection. Literally every item brought out to us was mouth watering. I want to go back and try everything on their menu - right now. The service was also top notch, such friendly staff! Overall it was an awesome dining experience, I can't wait to go back!

This is our "Very Special Date Night" restaurant that we usually reserve for our nights out to Bard on the Beach and Arts Club Theatre productions. While most of the time we are pleased with the service as well as the quality and presentation of our meals, we experienced an issue on the service side when we arrived for our reservation in July of this year. Once we got past the front house staff, we enjoyed a selection of oysters paired with a crisp reisling followed by a perfectly cooked steak and seafood combination. We decided to walk to vanier park to work off our dinners! They were so good we didn't want to leave a thing behind. This continues to be one of our favourite menus. Thank you!

Good things: atmosphere is busy, vibrant; service was courteous, prompt and friendly; menu is pretty diverse: the scallops shrimp special was excellent.<br/>Not so good: Pad Thai was bland, tasteless and stodgy. I often think that a restaurant which is mostly one style (west), tends to be poor when trying other styles - this appears to be the case, or just a bad night.<br/>All in all I would go back for the vibe....

First time here and I was in love. <br/><br/>We ordered <br/>Tuna Tataki<br/>Crab cakes <br/>Coconut prawns <br/>Pan fried oysters<br/>Fish tacos<br/>Har gow<br/>Halibut special<br/>Mediterranean prawn flatbread<br/>Jambalaya <br/><br/>Everything was pretty awesome. Especially the tuna Tataki. <br/>Great waiter and great overall experience. Would recommend !

The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant is one of our go-to places to dine when we visit Granville Island. Everything from the crusty complimentary bread to all of the delicious seafood dishes. <br/><br/>On this staycation, we tried the Albacore Tuna Crudo (which had some big chunks of tuna) as well as the Crab and Shrimp Louie salad (which had tons of crab and shrimp) and the Island Club... couldn't stop eating the Yukon gold fries.

I went to the sandbar for a family birthday dinner. It was super busy and we had no reservation so we got a table in the lounge since it was first come first serve. I didn't find the food presentation appetizing. I ordered the seafood hot pot with red curry and it was quite bland I was quite disappointed.

I really enjoyed this place. We had the flatbread with truffle cream and mushrooms and fries with garlic aioli. Both dishes were so good. They melted in our mouth as we ate them. We had by far the best view looking on to the water too. I highly recommend eating here.

Disappointed customers. My family and I went to the sandbar for lunch and waited for over 15 minutes before our server even greeted us. It was not very busy and our server was standing there chatting with another server. We finally asked her to come see us and she wasn't even polite. Then another table waved her over and she went to serve them after we had asked her to come see us. You expect a certain level of service with prices like this. We definitely did not receive it, so we left frustrated and hungry.

Super crowded on the patio, I literally can touch the face of the person sitting at the table next to mine.<br/><br/>Waiter knocked down the drink on the table and spilled the drink on my wife's pants and hand bag.<br/><br/>Did not apologize at all and never brought back the drink until we asked for it.<br/><br/>Horrible experience, never go back again.

She mentioned that she’d been to Sandbar earlier in the week for drinks with a girlfriend and wanted to try their food and since I didn’t have any better suggestions that was fine by me. We made a beeline straight for the rooftop patio, assuming the worst since it was beautiful out and we expected it to be full. Luckily for us, seating was handled by first-come first-serve rules. They also have an outdoor bar but luckily one of the tables in the corner next to the fire place had just opened up as we went up looking. For some reason I wasn’t in my photo-taking mindset. I completely forgot to take a photo of the venue among many other things, probably because I was so hungry and dehydrated I couldn’t think of anything but getting some food in me. Heck if Mac-and-cheese hadn’t asked if I was going to take a photo of the food I would have forgotten about them altogether! I flipped through their cocktail menu recognizing the booklet itself, it was identical to the one I saw at Cardero’s a couple months ago. It turns out Sandbar is one of four restaurants owned by the Sequoia Company of Restaurants  which includes Cardero’s. I also didn’t know is they also own The Teahouse in Stanley Park and Seasons in the Park at Queen Elizabeth Park, intereting.

Great food and atmosphere. Came here for the seafood, and was not disappointed at all. The service and the ambiance was great and food is fresh here. Definately recommend!

Great location and service but so so food. The restaurant location was great, a bit too noisy but that's expected in a busy food joint. They had a great selection of wines there was no doubt about that however i was not too excited with the food. I ordered sword fish and it was rather bland and my wife ordered the Jambalaya which was again bland . I think the restaurant lacks a good chef. The food appeared to be prep'd up by amatuers things thrown together without any thought sort like they just followed some formula on a base recipe. <br/>It was just not exciting. It just felt like the fish was thrown onto the frying pan and then straight onto a dish and then a ladle of some sort of ready made bottled pasta sauce splashed onto it with some coconut rice. The dishes lacked overall in taste and culinary quality. Other than that the wine was fantastic 9 out of 10 for the wine. Some of the appetisers were decent like the Pan fried Oysters and the wok fired Squid. Would i recommend it? Maybe if you want a casual evening out and looking for a nice spot to share a glass of wine with but if you are picky about food quality then you might want to think about it. Food quality i would score it at 6 out of 10.

May 5, 2015 / by t_topcat / in Restaurant Reviews / Post Comment I was well overdue for a trip to see my Grandma in Maple Ridge B.C., as she’s getting up in age. I used Aeroplan points for the flights and car rental (I got 25,000 points and a free companion flight from signing up for a Visa Aeroplan card (which I hardly used and subsequently cancelled before the annual renewal)!) We wanted to make sure we had opportunity to do things ourselves, including eat lots of seafood, so we packed a lot into the 2 days. Our rental car – a Dodge Challenger – fun! We landed at the Vancouver International Airport at 7:30 am on Friday and headed to The Lakeside Grill at Mayfair Lakes Golf Club in Richmond for breakfast. For $9 each, we had a hefty serving of food! There’s no way we’d find this meal for $9 in Calgary. The view was great (we golf, so we appreciated the view), and watching the two old guys argue on the practice green was entertaining! The floors needed to be vacuumed – badly. But otherwise the small restaurant was nice and bright and clean. We ordered our eggs ‘over easy’ and they came out basted. Not a big deal, but it’s not what we asked for. The whole grain toast was really good, and the fried potatoes were awesome. The 2 sausages were little, and apparently deep fried, but they had good flavour. Overall, a great deal! Breakfast at Mayfair Lakes GC We took my Grandma and Aunt out to the Black Sheep Pub in Maple Ridge for lunch. Jay and I were still full from breakfast, so we split the roast beef sandwich special with caesar salad and each got a caesar on recommendation from my aunt. The roast beef sandwich was just OK – it had lettuce, tomato, mayo & mustard with a fairly big pile of roast beef in it. The caesar salad was awesome though – one of the best I’ve had (I’m picky about my caesar and am often disappointed with restaurant caesar salads). It even had homemade croutons. I totally recommend it! My aunt got the seafood wrap. It looked like it was mostly all

Fresh Seafood in Grandville Island! Freshes oysters i've had. So good! Lobster and alaska king crab legs were tender and juicy. I did not like their drinks though. I recommend this place if you want the freshest seafood. I would like to try their sushi bar next time.

Decent Service, Good View, and Great Food!. My girlfriend and I came here for a late lunch/early dinner sort of meal and both thought the food was great! To start, we ordered their Crab and Artichoke Dip (picture attached) which, by the end of the meal, both craved for more! Its top was slightly crisped with a delicious creamy dip underneath. The tortilla chips that came with it were also very tasty on their own and together, they were a delight! For the main course I ordered the Island Club, which was decently satisfying, but I found the bread to be slightly tough, which was sort of a turn-off, but nonetheless very fresh. Hers was the Fisherman's Fettuccine, which she LOVED. Each bit of seafood, from the mussels to the fish were extremely fresh and had an abundance of flavor! The pasta was cooked to perfection and had an adequate amount of sauce both on top and underneath. All in all a great meal! (We also shared a virgin fruit drink which was also very flavourful!)<br/><br/>PS: Keep a close eye on your parking! It's tough to find a spot and the ticketers keep a hawk's eye on how long your cars been in its spot!<br/><br/>TL;DR: Get the Crab and Artichoke Dip! You won't regret it!

Went on a busy night. They were very behind. We arrived 7:45 reservation food came out 1 hour later. Sisters salmon was overly seasoned or marinated. We got it sent back and you can tell it was rushed cooked. Edged were charred and overly dry. My friends jamabala hot pot were very inconsistent in taste. One was very bland and the other edible. The clams were very sand filled. Can't really blame the restaurant for that as I don't think there's much they could have done to wash it out.<br/><br/>Bottom line, probably not coming back here again. Gave them a try before and today. Food was mediocre the first time and just bad this time

Very bad experience. No crispy fish sandwich available in the so called fish restaurant. Mussels didn't have any broth. Our waiter forgot one of the dishes and we waited for 20 minutes to get our bill. Service was really slow, I will not go back to the Sand bar again.

The worst ever !!!!!!!. The worst restaurant ever !!!!!!

Poor service. Sorry to say this place had awful service. Waited for almost 45 mins for an appy, which we ended up leaving without actually getting. There was a couple that sat down beside us and got their appy about five minuts after ordering. My drink sat on the table empty for about 20 mins, the waitress asked if i would like another so i told her yes, then she walked away and left me with my empty drink. We ended up leaving fed up, paid for the $17 bill for 2 drinks, no tip obviously. I have never written a reveiw before, but i have also never expeirienced such crappy service so there it is. Spend with caution.

This is an absolutely phenomenal restaurant. Located amongst several other high end seafood restaurants, this hidden gem offers an incredible selection of dishes for anyone who loves seafood. The restaurant itself is huge so no lines and you have the option to sit on the patio (open year round) with a very pretty view. The service is also amazing including the fact that they always update you on the fresh selections of the day and the wine/beer pairings to go with them. During my experience I had a flame grilled swordfish with vegetables and a tomato basil pesto complete with steamed muscles in a wine and curry sauce. I had no complaints about anything. Highly recommended.

Success. Not first visit and won't be last. Food is hit n miss. Know what to order. But waitress is a cutie one again this time and was game for our requests (phone numbers) and some unattached single women. Know what to order . good establishment to hide they have a nook downstairs and upstairs

The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant - Shrimp Crab St. Louis Salad Uber Good Wok Fried Squid. One of the dinning _detectives favourite eateries to get a great nibble and a nip is The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant on Grandville Island. The upper out door patio with its splendid airy view of English Bay and False Creek and the main dining area is very user friendly comfortable. Our seats offered the perfect shady lazy perch to enjoy what fare this top notch restaurant has to offer the lunch hungry crowd.<br/>For a tasty starter the Sandbar Chowder hit all the right yummy clammy/goodness flavour taste buds and was very worthy.<br/>I tried the Crab and Shrimp Louis Salad this time around and it was just the wholesome salad fix I was craving. By keeping it simple and letting all the fresh chopped ingredients do the talking tossed with a most exotic St. louis dressing made it a real party of tasty morsels. My sweetie and I shared the St. Louis salad along with some Wok Fried Squid that were done mouth-watering perfect. Great service with no attitude and great libations served with pride. We found it to be another cheerful experience with comfortable surroundings and servers who make you feel welcome. <br/>A well rehearsed great seafood eatery. <br/>It is, what it is!

1/10 Worst manager I have ever met!. Awful first experience at this restaurant. Food extremely overpriced and average, not deserving of the prices. Service was okay at first but was extremely disorganized as the night wore on: Had several occasions where a server would give us food belonging to another table, and vice versa. Concerning an issue with the food of one of our friends being served on the exact same plate as someone else's, and when another server came along and gave that plate to only one of the friends presumably to eat by themselves, the other friend was left without any food unknowingly letting the other eat their order. When we brought up this confusion, the server was understanding and communicated with us well and went to get the manager, but she was by far the worst manager I've ever encountered in the service industry. Absolutely shameful and disgusting mannerisms toward us as we attempted to explain our situation--not sure how she got to the position. She was extremely condescending about how we confused the food, and talked down to us in an extremely disrespectful manner without leaving any room for any kind of compensation or much less an apology. Where I have worked/am from any service manager would bend over backwards to try and accompany their clients--hardly a thought for her, it seems. From the moment she came to our table she had bullied us into not wanting to take the manner farther. Deplorable behaviour for such a position.Please know that I for one shall not be giving the restaurant any future business.

Dinner. I have never been to the Sand bar restaurant and was thinking of going there for a special Birthday with a lot of friends, but reading the reviews, I think I will pass. Sorry to hear that the portions were small but most of all the flavours were not in the food.

This is one place where you don't get what you pay for. The food is grossly overpriced. Also, for a place that bills itself as a seafood speciality restaurant, its amazing that the featured "cedar plank salmon" is farmed salmon - even here on the BC coast where wild salmon is available and where farmed salmon is threatening wild stocks. It is also astounding that the servers have to check to determine which of the fish they serve is farmed and which is not. I was also surprised to see that everyone at my table who ordered so-called fresh fish received the same small sides of rice, asparagus and one half of a wee tomato - all of which seemed like it had been sitting around for a while - not surprising given that hundreds of other customers were probably served the same thing. Won't go back. There are much better places to eat seafood in Vancouver.

Food at the sandbar. We were three couples dining at the Sandbar last night:) Sitting upstairs the ambience, warmth and views were all fabulous - what a great spot!! Our Waitress, Tanis, couldn't have been more accommodating and gracious. Even splitting our bills among couples - we all definitely appreciated that:) The food could have been better however, it wasn't horrible by any means just lacking some umph! The ladies shared the arugula and beet salad which had no noticeable dressing on and so was tasteless. The pad thai - decent portion , was also lackluster ( we all agreed we could do better) plus three -4 prawns total. The shrimp cocktail was puny for the price - five prawns for $16. The seafood hotpot while tasty lacked an abundance of fish and was also small for the price. In short, while we definitely enjoyed the atmosphere the food left us all unimpressed. Not sure we would go back or recommend to friends.

This restaurant is perfection, the sushi is out of this world amazing! You'd have to be crazy to not enjoy this place.

Extremely disappointing service. We were very excited to have a lovely lunch sitting outside on a patio with a view in January! Especially visiting from a bitterly cold city this time of year. That is until we realized that we had been sitting there for 20 mins without receiving ANY service, despite 3 servers and a manager walking right by our table several times. There was no "hello", no water - not a single thing! We finally got up and headed for the door. Just before exiting, we were asked how everything was. We explained what happened and the employee was completely superficial, offering no means of rectifying the situation. This was an terribly disappointing experience and we would NOT recommend this place to anyone.

Sandbar used to be my faaaaaavorite restaurant... Up until now <br/>Although our server was very sweet she kept wandering off and forgot to take out order and when food finally came they forgot bread and butter and did not help clear out plates and it just gets so irritating when my servers mind keeps wandering off and the applies come after the entree.. <br/>Super disappointed, this used to be my favourite restaurant and I feel like the food isn't as great<br/>Hm..

Not bad until the water incident.... Our party of six had reservations on Saturday for dinner. It was a school reunion and most of us hadn't seen each other in ten years. It was probably because it was a busy Saturday, but it was quite loud and this made it hard at times to be able to hear each other over the noise.<br/><br/>Our server was friendly and knowledgeable, service was about as fast as can be expected on a busy weekend night. Everyone in our party ordered drinks, appies, a main and desert and everything came out accurately.<br/><br/>I will say that the food was pretty ordinary. It was good, but I'll be honest and say that it wasn't really memorable except for the fact that it was all on the small side. I get that the restaurant is located on Granville Island, has a great view, etc. so they have to pay the rent somehow, but for the price I paid I feel the portions should have been bigger. I had the grilled Ahi tuna and it had odd tendon-type fibres in it, which I've never seen before in fish of any sort.<br/><br/>None of this bothered me per se as I was primarily there to catch up with friends and not specifically for the food. It was a good evening until the water incident...<br/><br/>At the end of the night when we were settling our tabs, our server seemed a bit overeager to grab the credit card terminal that I placed onto the table and spilled a full glass of water into my lap. He said sorry a couple of times, brought over a pile of napkins and... refilled my water glass.<br/><br/>I suppose lucky for me it was only water. And I was wearing dark pants. And it was getting dark. Not really the way I wanted to remember a ten year reunion...

Went there today for lunch and far too long for the food which ended up being mediocre. Was quite dissappointed as we have been there for dinner and it was great<br/>It is a lot to pay and I expect good food and service<br/>Not sure if I would go again

Amazing food!. Although it took a while to get it, the food was amazing.

The selection of fresh caught was excellent. A little pricey, but worth it. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. I would return.

Scenic view. Nice view, ok food. A little pricer but there's the ambience.

Great vibe. I've been to this place often for dinner but we decided to go for snacks and drinks this past weekend. We were pleasantly surprised. There was a live piano bar, great vibe, people OVER 21 (whoohoo!) and the server was excellent - not stuffy nor over zealous. The best part is that the prices were not atrocious - especially considering the location and the genre of restaurant/bar.

Under the bridge with friends. Very cozy, casual atmosphere. We have been here twice, and both times very happy with the food, wine and service. We brought my brother in law from out east, an unforgettable dining experience. The fish is always fresh and really well prepared.

Amazing!. We are only in Vancouver for 4 nights (party visiting from Toronto and Kelowna) and enjoyed our meal so much 2 nights ago that we decided to eat there again tonight!! The Ahi Tuna with a cucumber salsa was so delicious I actually ordered it a second time. Tonight we tried the fish tacos as an app...some of the finest I've enjoyed (and it's usually my staple app wherever I go). My father-in-law claimed it to be the best clam chowder he's ever tasted - same remark from my mother-in-law with regards to the salmon. (Please note these are compliments from world travellers at that.). Service was terrific (Gizelle). Atmosphere amazing. First night we sat on the patio and had hoped to be seated there again but we were just as happy on the second floor. If I had a single complaint it would be that we found it a tad too loud but seeing as how we lingered quite a while (our reso was for 8:30) , the noise had diminished substantially by 10:30. I HIGHLY recommend this restaurant!

Horrible customer service. Dear Sandbar's Management Team,<br/><br/>I am usually a person of little words but my experience at Sandbar last night was so unpleasant that I feel strongly urged to share what happened with everyone. Last night my boyfriend and I visited Sandbar for the first time for a friend's birthday dinner. We're definitely never coming back. I will also be avoiding all your company's chain restaurants. I don't know what your requirements are for employment but your staffs' customer service was shockingly awful. My boyfriend and I dine out at least 6 times a week and I must say this was the worst customer service I've ever experienced thus far. Our waitress was Daniele with blonde hair. Almost everyone at my table of 13 people ordered the 7oz CAB Sirloin Steak or the 16oz Rib Steak. I ordered a blue rare 7oz CAB Sirloin and my friend sitting across from me ordered a medium 7oz CAB Sirloin. Our food was brought out all at once by a handful of different people so I don't know the name of the person who placed down my food. Basically my friend was given the blue rare steak which I ordered and I was given the medium that he ordered. This is not what upsets me and I understand that it was an honest mistake. What upsets me is what happened afterwards. I let our waitress Daniele know of the situation and that our steaks were switched. After listening to what I said she simply replied "Oh really? They must have place it wrong" and walked away with an expressionless face. There were no apologies or any action taken to correct the situation. My friend was left to uncomfortably finish the blue rare steak in front of him. She evidently didn't care. She came by many times for the rest of the night and still ignored the fact my friend was still trying to eat the blue rare steak sitting in front of him an hour later. I'd rather eat at McDonald’s than at any of your restaurants because at least I know if I was given someone else's food or if they had my order wrong they would FIX it. <br/>Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to what I had to say.

Recommend going to this place for some good food, only thing I wouldn't recommend the sushi, sashimi was chewy, maybe it was just that one day oh well won't stop me going again for the fantastic bisque soup!

You know the service is bad when you are force to make an account just to write this review.<br/>If it were not for the food I will not be coming here. Sandbar has the worst customer service I've ever encountered. A few months ago my girlfriend and I went to Sandbar for brunch, we were greeted by the hostess and was seated at the dining table. Long story short, the seat that was assigned to us had no server serving in the section. We tried getting peoples attention from busers, to hostess "Excuese me we've been waiting and no one has acknowledged us" and the response we get "Sorry I'll get your server" waited literally 45 minutes to be serve water and bread, so we had asked to see the manager he was very apologetic if we weren't so hungry we would have booked it out of there. Then recently on the weekend same situation we were seated no problem and waited 25 minutes for our server, other guest from our section was also complaining about not seeing their server for quite sometime. So I asked the busser for our server and she said "Yeah Im actually looking for her too". Seriously? The table beside us came up to us and said "I would leave if I were you guys, we've been waiting for our over for almost 45 minutes". We are now checking Sandbar off our favourite places to eat, the service is not worth.

First timer but definitely not the last. My friends and I loved the ambience, food drinks and service. Im always given a gift card for Seasons ( my fave resto) but decided to try out this sister resto. 4 other friends were joining us for valentines evening. We all left impressed and promised to be back soon.

This is the first time we ate in this restaurant. The food is good, we like seafood but the sand barge(for two) we ordered is disappointing and expensive for just 4pcs each prawns & oysters and half of a crab. The place has a great view and good ambience. Excellent service.

Beautiful Restaurant with great food!. Definately a must try for every seafood lovers! restaurant is directly on the water with very different north american dishes, great drink menu/wine selection with fantastic view of water and boats. A tad pricey but you get what you pay for and its well worth it!

An Enjoyable Time. They only had the one predictable vegetarian option (mushroom risotto) which was nice and not too, too sticky but portion was too little, even with appetizer. It just wasn't worth the price tag. I give them a thumbs up however cause the atmosphere here was really fun, wine wasn't bad and the service was so, so on top of it. It's a Seafood place, so obviously I wouldn't expect a vast plethora of veg plates. I would sincerely welcome more though and more of a portion please. Cheers!!

Probably one of the best dining experience so far. As first time visitors in Vancouver, we could not wish for a better place to dine.<br/>The venue is clean, modern and happening.<br/>The bar is as busy as the restaurant, and the view is simply stunning.<br/>The only thing better than the view was the food; we were five to taste each other's food and we've confirmed to each other how glad we were to find this gem.<br/>Every dish was fresh and inspiring.<br/>Happy dining!

More Flash - Less Substance. Great looking restaurant in fantastic location - now concentrate on food and creativity. While food was not bad - it was not great.

Good, reliable spot on Granville Island. I usually get to the Sandbar a couple of times a year: dinner with out of town friends in the summer, and a lunch in fall or winter. Recently, we also squeezed in a late-evening trip to the lounge side, which had a lonely piano player playing to a mostly empty room.<br/>The food is consistently good here (obviously specializing in seafood), but not inexpensive. (It's a night out.) I've heard they have some good specials during Canucks games, but thanks to Gary Bettman I haven't had a chance to look into that yet!<br/>My favourite area is probably the upstairs patio, which is on the small and crowded side - and surprisingly not view-oriented - but makes up for it with a nice ambience. Throw in the heaters and a blanket and I've pretty much eaten lunch out there year round.

We enjoyed our lunch. Great view, acceptable food.

Great dinner. View is ok, atmosphere great and relaxing, foods is ok, service is good but a bit waiting...great for happy hour (sunset view) and friends gathering, won't be too formal.

Delicious. Always a great time when we go here, great seafood!!

Great place to pick up girls. Love the view and the food is good, music gets loud and it IS VERY expensive, but go easy on food, order a drink and say 'what's up where are you gals from?' to some tables with girls only and check them out. Very lucky every time. Easy. Sometimes you get them dancing and easy. I do wish management woould reduce prices tho

Not so good. We went with a party of seven Friday night and it was very noisy. The food was marginally OK--but some of my other guests would say I am overrating it--the service passable, but all in all definitely not worth the price.

A Wee Angry Scot!. Bar stool for one at 9pm on a Thursday night.<br/>After walking along the False Creek pathway from the Rogers Arena area I was ready for a cold one, I hopped on the Seabus cork barrel bobbing boat thingy for a ride over to Granville Island.<br/>Sat at the main level bar, as I sat down someone hit my Invisible customer button, I hate it when that happens!<br/>Buddy the pretty boy "Poor Excuse for a Bartender" never did acknowledge that I was there. The ladies will know who this Pretty Boy is, I'm sure they love him long time! I observed his interaction with other employees and customers, he clearly seemed bored at being there, I guess he doesn't understand how to pretend and fake his way through a shift. <br/>After 8 minutes the young female bartender finally noted my presence, there were only 4 other people seated at this bar for 12 people, slowwww service considering bar stools were mostly empty .. I had a glass of the A Wee Angry Scotch Ale, this was quite fitting as I am a wee Scot myself! <br/>After two drinks at the downstairs bar I ventured up to the patio bar, smaller bar with only a few seats, bartender with personality quickly engaged in small talk regarding the available tap beers, top marks to him.<br/>As I didn't eat here I won't offer a like or dislike rating, downstairs bar service not great, upstairs service was as it should be.

Tasty!. Excellent place for seafood! One of the best in Vancouver. Mmm the oysters and mussels are sooo good! We always start off with appies and the crab cake, ribs and clam chowder are perfect. Don't forget the desserts... really good desserts, yum! :)

What a joke! We brought t.... What a joke!<br/><br/>We brought the whole family here after hearing much praise. <br/><br/>I've rarely had such pathetic service and more disheartening food. This is the kind of food that makes eating seem like a chore.<br/><br/>-My 12oz steak was tougher than shoe leather, I've never had such a bland and tough piece of meet.<br/><br/>-The jumbo prawns had the same texture and mouth feel as chewing on an old party balloon, tasted about the same, just add a dash of liquid smoke.<br/><br/>-My dad and mom both had the "special" prime rib. Both of them agreed that it was just about the worst they had ever had.<br/><br/>-My wife had the Salmon. She doesn't like to complain so when I asked her later what she thought of her food she took a few seconds to think and then said, "well the beans were good" a few more pokes at the subject and she reluctantly revealed that the fish was dry and tasteless. SALMON.... Dry and tasteless at a place that specializes in sea food.<br/><br/>The service was pretty lame too. We got our starting dishes after a decent wait and literally 60 seconds later the runner came out with our main dishes.<br/><br/>Seeing that we had just started eating our salads he offered to take the fish dishes back and "keep them warm till we were ready". The other runner simply elected to put the early dishes on our table. So half the table had fish being kept "warm" under heat lamps and the other half of the table was crowded with appy's and mains.<br/><br/>How utterly stupid do you have to be to pull any of this off? How hard does one have to try to make fresh fish taste like nothing and have all the moisture of a gym sock. <br/><br/>This place is taking up some great real-estate right there on the water. Let's hope the sell it off to a management team that still takes pride in what they do.

Impressive views, not the best food. Crabcake and mussels were dissapointing, great views of downtown though! I'm thinking AARP members are gonna love this place, especially for the complimentary blankets.

How disappointing. With such a beautiful array of fresh seafood options on the offer, it really should have been properly prepared. <br/><br/>The oysters were improperly prepared, not to mention quite dry (calling suspicion to their freshness, although that may be my fault for ordering oysters during red tide). The cocktail sauces served with the oysters reminded me of a cheap pub. The chef who prepared them for table was obviously unaware of how the oysters should be cleaned and shucked. Very disappointing oysters. <br/><br/>The fresh fish I ordered (ling cod) was nicely cooked, but poorly seasoned. The fish arrived with the filet broken in half and hastily arranged on the plate to try and hide it. The filet still had whole salt crystals on top of the flesh, giving an extremely unpleasant salty 'crunch' to the dish. It was uninspired and quite disappointing. <br/><br/>The restaurant comes across as a classy place to eat, but the quality of the food is seriously lacking. I wouldn't return.

Lunch under the bridge. Probably scores a lot of its reputation and customers due to location and the promotion of a bit of a tourist spot. The location was kinda cool, located right under Granville Bridge - we came here for lunch, originally considered for dinner but quite pleased we didn't as it seems a better location for lunch than dinner. Food was good and service was good, but nothing out of the ordinary nor anything to write home about but enough to write a review about :-)<br/>Wouldn't go out of my way to go back, but an alright spot for a bite to eat.