Vancouver, B.C.: The Keg Restaurant

[rkacruiser]

It's my intention to patronize The Keg after a previous enjoyable experience in Montreal.

 

But, which Restaurant to make a reservation?  I will be staying at the Pan Pacific Hotel and will require a taxi to/from the restaurant.  The Granville Island location seems a bit to far from the Pan Pacific.  I think the Alberni Street restaurant would be a closer location to the Pan Pacific than the one on Dunsmuir Street.  From a taxi driver's point of view, neither would be great choices, I suspect.  I'd appreciate learning the recommendations from others who reside in Vancouver or who have visited one or the other of The Keg locations.

 

Would it be "safe" to make a reservation for a Saturday dinner on the Friday that I arrive in Vancouver?

[greatestvalue]

We visited The Keg restaurant on Granville island.

 

If you have an opportunity to go to Grandville island on Saturday morning and then stop in the keg for lunch That would be a great day. It was for us! 

 

The food was very good. atmosphere was great and the people were very friendly. 

 

Hope that helps...

 

And I wouldn't have wanted to misse Granville Island being in Vancouver. 

 

[martincath]

Given that I just tried to make a quick online reso for next Saturday, and the one after, at all three downtown Kegs and they all just told me to go take a flying leap unless I wanted to eat after 9pm, I'd suggest that you book at least a few weeks in advance!!! Back in the day the Keg didn't even take resos on Fri/Sat at all, they were always more than busy enough to not need to bother, so at least they have begun accepting them - but I'd guess they only allow a small number of tables to be reserved, hence the difficulty of getting one.

 

Either Alberni or Dunsmuir are an easy walk from the PP - the latter is only 60% as far on foot though, at 600 metres instead 1 kilometre. I've eaten in the GI keg more often than either, as it does tend to be somewhere that if I find myself on GI around dinner time unexpectedly the Keg is much easier to get a seat in than in Edible Canada (especially ~7pm, as by then all the pre-theatre diners have just left and headed to their shows). Quality-wise, it's the same old, same old at all of them - I've dined in at least a dozen different Kegs across the country and while once in a blue moon different Keg regions have different specials on, the same dish in one was damn near identical to the same dish in any other. A buddy actually became a manager with them, and likened the job to when he was a supervisor in McDs, ensuring that the food is exactly the same every time to the extent humanly possible (just with better ingredients than McDs)!!!

[rkacruiser]

I tried to make online reservations this evening at both the Alberni Street and the Dunsmore Street location.  Could not even access the date when I will be in Vancouver.  The restaurant is linked to Open Table's reservation system and I am thinking that may be the reason for the inability to make an online reservation.  I'm going to try for a phone reservation Monday or Tuesday and see if that is successful.

[martincath]

That doesn't bode well unless your cruise is next year - Open Table lets me book many months in advance including at the Keg, so I guess your date has no available tables (or if you mean the calendar won't let you choose the date at all, maybe you've got some browser scriptblocker issues?)

 

Try playing the "I am only in town for one day but I totally love you guys" card if you do have to phone; worst case if they're out of reso slots and won't give you one you can order the full menu sitting at the bar - that usually cuts the table wait down to almost zero even if you walk in on a busy night (plus, standard policy is to double the actual time estimate for the next table - we ate in the Keg ridiculously often when we first moved to Canada as there was one in our building's basement, and the frequent Saturday '45min wait' as never actually more than 25mins; our buddy confirmed that was how the hosts were trained).

[pbenjamin]

Odd that a chain restaurant would be that hard to get into. No problem getting reservations at the closest Keg here. 

[martincath]

11 hours ago, pbenjamin said:

Odd that a chain restaurant would be that hard to get into. No problem getting reservations at the closest Keg here. 

It's partly a Canadian thing... you guys have a bajillion steakhouse chains across a range of prices whereas we have pretty much just the Keg! Some fancy independents, and in big cities maybe a couple of other midrange ones, but in a lot of Canadian towns they're the only remotely-fancy Western food so there's a pretty strong emotional component just like with Timmies - they may not actually be better than others, but they are OURS (even though Timmies was bought out by Americans many years ago). 😉

 

[rkacruiser]

I tried again tonight.  I was successful in getting a reservation for dinner for the evening prior to my cruise.  This was at the Alberni Street restaurant that is closer to the Pan Pacific Hotel where I will be staying.  The reservation was through Open Table.  I am most pleased!