Shebeen Whisky House

Absolutely the most amazing whiskey experience I’ve ever had. Randy is a god of whiskey pallet navigation. He’s a savant, an artist and creator of amazement.
If you ever had a chance to visist, it’s the most amazing experience you’ll have have outside of sex or heroine.
Ask for Randy.

Whether you’re a seasoned whisky/​whiskey/​scotch lover or you’re new to it, you must visit the Shebeen.
Whoever they have behind the bar (I regrettably forget his name!) is excellent. The depth of his knowledge is crazy– you can point at pretty much any of the bottles on the shelf and he’ll be able to tell you about it and give you his own opinion on it. If you do the whisky flights, he’ll take you through them in detail. Even on a busy night he’ll take time to come over and chat whisky with you. I’m not sure if he’s on the bar every night, but each time I’ve been there he has been.
The selection is incredibly extensive, and has either the most or close to the most selection you can find anywhere in this city, including some rare and obscure bottles.

The place is really nice and the waiters are very knowledgeable about their whiskys and scotchs, which is always a plus.
They have a great selection of scotchs by the region. I had the curry fries and let me tell you: it’s pretty well served.
The ambiance is pretty cool and you can share a convo.
Bad thing, the bathroom is not in the shebeen, so you have to get out of the mood, and really bad thing: if you’re seated outside you might encounter a rat. After all it’s an alley.

Went to Shebeen for a birthday party. We were part of a group of 40 people and had great service from the bar/​serving staff. The selection of whiskey is great and some are quite reasonable. Radler breeze, Whiskey Sour, pint of Radler and Hendricks Tonic were delicious too. Appetizer crostinis (goat cheese, beef/​onions, smoked meat, smoked fish) were very tasty.

Finally managed to find this bar. This room is located at the back of the Irish Heather bar. Look for the secret corridor in the back. See pic.
Parking here is pretty horrendous.
The whiskey selection is quite decent, as you may expect. I only took a quick look, but there is quite a selection here.
I tried their pita dip appetizer. This was not very good at all. The pita was as hard as cardboard. It came with 3 sauces (maroon, white, yellow). The yellow was decent but it seemed like spicy Cheeze Whiz. The white one was my favourite — reminded me of tzatziki. The maroon one was a head scratcher — I think it was beets, but still do not know, to this day.
Not sure if I’d come back to the Shebeen per se, but the Irish Heather is pretty decent.

Definitely a unique little place worth going to!
First of all, just the experience of getting there was fun. Passed a clipboard-​toting guy standing outside of Irish Heather, through the middle of the restaurant, around a hall, back outside (?!), then into the Shebeen. It feels like a secret speakeasy.
I visited here with a group of 10 or so (some locals and the rest of us were conference attendees). More people trickled into our group throughout the night, without problems.
I only drank beers, but didn’t feel left out at all. The selection was excellent and the staff very knowledgeable about what to try. Our server never wrote anything down but juggled our constantly-​emptying glasses and food orders with ease. As soon as my drink was down to 2 or 3 gulps, she was right there ready to get me something else.
I went with the Guinness pot pie for my meal (about half our group did). What perfect drinking food! It was giant, artfully plunked on top of mashed potatoes, and with a little cow pastry cut out on the top crust. Almost too cute to eat! It’s basically stew, so I wouldn’t say it was anything fancy, but the meat chunks were plentiful, large, and tender. I was actually pleased that they didn’t waste time or money by adding sides or anything goofy. Just a big pie on potatoes. I ate the whole thing.
Our group got larger, shrank, and then we had more join us after dinner. There was never any pressure to leave. It was a great night.

I love this place. I had a birthday dinner last Friday with a group of my friends, and everyone including myself just loved the food (Pot pie! Yum!), service, and ambiance of the place.
I was kinda worried about the service since I’ve read couple of negative reviews about their service, but my friend and I had no problem with their service what-​so-​ever! We were group of 10, and a server was covering entire table but she was attentive enough to figure out when to come and check on us, and bring our drinks and food on time.
Everything went so well maybe because it was quite slow as Friday night since it was the first day of long weekend (FYI. We started around 8:40 and left around 11:00ish), but I was very satisfied and I’m going back again for sure!

The Shebeen Whisky House is a place that you try a variety of whiskies that you may not ever had the chance to try before or even have heard of. Nestled behind the Irish Heather in Gastown, the Shebeen Whiskey House has a cozy and rugged feel to it with exposed brick and hardwood. Although the selection of whiskies is very large, be prepared to pay a price and maybe have to educate some of the waitstaff, who you hope would be educating you on their product.
I am fairly new to «the world» of whisky. I thought I just didn’t like the taste of whisky and, as a result, avoided it. However, about two years ago a friend poured me a drink and I fell in love with a spirit I thought I would have nothing but dislike for. Just like beers, whiskies can have very different flavour profiles from one another. This is where the Shebeen comes into play. Having a large variety (greater than 100) of whiskies, scotches, bourbons and rye from around the world, there is a plethora of flavours to be explored — from smokey to peaty, bitter to sweet, and every combination in between.
Not only did I think I didn’t like whisky, but I didn’t want to explore more into it, since most «good» whiskies come in 750mL sizes in BC and will then run you more than $ 60 (with many being upwards of $ 150). However, the Shebeen helps here are well. A single pour of whisky will run you between $ 10 – 50 depending on the age, rarity, etc. This is great since you can try different whiskies at the Shebeen and find something you like without having to commit more than $ 100 on buying a full bottle at a liquor store.
Although the Shebeen’s whisky selection is the largest in Vancouver, it is also where problems can arise. The list of all the whiskies it is said to have can be found online. Looking at the list, we made a game plan before we went. When we arrived we tried ordering and were told out of a list of 14 we had, 6 were out of stock or they didn’t carry anymore. For lack of a better term we were disappointed, but were able to find others to try.
This is where my second «issue» arises. During the night, we asked for suggestions from two different servers and they didn’t drink whisky or didn’t know what to recommend. This really surprised me as the Shebeen promotes itself highly as being a specialized whisky bar. You would think the servers would have some knowledge or passion for the products they sold. However, the bartender knew his stuff inside and out and could make up great tasting flights depending on your preference of flavours. Unfortunately, the bartender was tied up for most of the night since 2 very large parties took up more than three quarters of the Shebeen, which also lead to incredibly slow service at times. Despite this, it wasn’t so negative that it would deter me from returning and trying drams of the drink again at a hopefully less busy time.
I will be returning to the Shebeen again and will provide an update. For now, I would say it’s a place to go and try out if you’re a whisky fan. But, you should perhaps try on a day that isn’t prone to being a large outing night, and/​or have a little bit knowledge of what you like in whiskey than going in to try something for your first time.

Confessional: I didn’t order any whiskey. Whisky. Whiskey. Whatever.
Went on a Friday night for dinner with a friend. I had originally intended to go to the Irish Heather but it was all full-​ups, so we ended up back here. There was a large party (about 15?) of middle-​agers yelling and cackling. We got there at around 8pm and this hoard was already sloshed, so clearly the whisky (whiskey?) is being tapped by someone.
Service was super slow, my friend was never offered a second beer and had to keep calling the waitress back, food was just your average pub food, and it took eons to get a bill. Meh. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was just a busy night with the larger party. I’d come back (the patio looked really cute but it was still Juneuary) but I was not impressed.

I have to say, that Shebeen Whiskey House was the worst experience I’ve had in Vancouver. When you go to a bar with a large group of people, you would think the waiter would want to be nice and get a great tip… I guess our waiter just wanted to get us out of there. I went with my partner and a group of 10+ of his classmates. They had graduated earlier that day and made reservations for the corner area. The group was not wild or crazy and everyone ordered food and/​or drinks. We got there a little late and pulled our own chair up, our server sure didn’t want to take the time to offer. Instead, he kicked and pushed our chairs telling us rudely that we were blocking his path. Heaven forbid he just ask us to move up a little. Then, he was rude again when our reservation was coming to an end. He came in and interrupted our conversations to tell us, «You guys have to go. We have another reservation at 9.» Again, rudely… There’s a way to do this without being a jerk and the time was well before 9pm. We just continued on with our conversations and discussed where we should go next. About 5 minutes later, he came in again and said rudely and with no smile or joy at all, «Okay, you guys can stand over there, but you have to go.» It was 8:45pm, not 9pm and it wasn’t like we were partying and dirtying the place… It would have taken 2 minutes to clean the table and fix the chairs. So, we got up and moved to the open area to stand around and talk. The rude waiter handed us our bills at that time.
All I know is I will not go back there again… The venue was nice and the food looked good, but rude service is a deal breaker for me… The owner needs to get the restaurant surveillance guy to make a show about his place and get some good service before everyone stops coming…
Don’t go here —
And as always, you’ll have fun… =)

When you’re in the bar business, besides the drinks you’re selling, you’re also making sure the service that you’re providing is spot on and that everyone’s having a great time. As far as I am concerned, Shebeen Whisky House severely lacks service. Or let’s just say, the server was plain darn rude!
We reserved a corner on Friday, April 13 for more than 10 of us and I was probably the last person to arrive. So I pulled a chair over and joined the group. Our server rudely kicked or hit my chair saying that I gotta scoot over because apparently I was blocking his path. OK maybe I didn’t realized that I was blocking you jackass but you didn’t have to kick my chair. Then when it was the end of our reserved time, he rudely asked us to leave because the next guests are coming in. Not a single time did he smiled or even pretend he was happy to be hosting us. It does not matter if you have a horrible time at work, you just made my experience at Shebeen even worse. I am in fact very much offended by your rudeness.
I will not return ever again nor will I recommend anybody to patronize your establishment. You pretty much lost at least 10 customers and many more potential ones because of your crappy service.

Hmmm, not sure if this totally applies but let’s go with YES!
Attended the whiskey tasting last night… is drinking that much whiskey on a week night a good idea? Well it’s not a bad one!
Showed up a bit late but still in time for cocktail hour at Shebeen! Included in our more than reasonable cost of $ 40 (tasting, dinner and dessert!) also came a yummy cocktail that tasted of deliciousness (i say this because i am notoriously bad at figuring out what is in mixed drinks). Apparently it was gin and some kind of citrus liquor… whatever it was i wanted more. But it was time for whiskey!
We were brought into the long table room at the Salty Tongue and waiting for each of us were 4 very healthy tastings of Glenrothes whiskey. Uh oh. Good thing we started early! I am only beginning to start enjoying whiskey so I can’t say I caught the notes of vanilla, coconut and orange marmalade… BUT i had a good time trying!
I’ve been to Shebeen on a few normal nights though and always had fun. Also had an event there and they were really accomodating… basically just told them to expect a wad of people… they were happy to accomodate.
I love all these tastings and dinners that this group puts on. The meals are great and drinks a plenty. I would give the event 5 stars but left Shebeen with 4… mainly because i don’t like the seating plan and wish they hadn’t gotten rid of the stand up tables… more social.

They had a huge, but kind of pricey, whiskey selection. They were otherwise very friendly. The interior was quite nice.

An Irish bar like they make ‘em in Ireland. That is to say that it’s sort of a drab hole in the wall that makes no pretense at being anything but a great little place to drink. You actually need to walk through another bar to get here, which makes it feel a bit like you’re wandering the alleys of Dublin in search of the perfect bevvie. You’ve arrived. A scotch list like nothing I’ve seen before — names I’ve never even heard, and the list goes on and on. What a lovely chance to sample some scotches I wouldn’t buy by the bottle. And with absolutely no attitude. The sole bartender (and my friend tells me that it’s always this guy working) knows every scotch and will happily answer your questions.
It might even be good to check this place out early in the evening so you can properly enjoy your treasure.

Attended a work party here last month and I was thoroughly impressed. The staff was informative and friendly despite being very busy from the number of guests at the party. Drinks were outstanding and everyone had a great experience. The food was good but one or two of our entrees were on the cool side. perhaps too many meals for the kitchen to handle all at once?
Over all I would definitely go back.

A great place for your last cocktail. The service was quick and the atmosphere was great. Drinks are a bit pricey but are definitely good. The menu is Irish Heather’s, so go for the Shepard’s Pie.

This needed an entry of its own as great whiskey needs to be above the riffraff. This is the place to end the night or take a friend who loves a dram or two and can’t keep 100 bottles of 12 – 21 year old liquid gold in the house. They have all the great whiskey and whisky producers on hand. The problem is like the kid in the candy shop, where do you start, if you have to ask talk to the bartender they will start you on the path. The filter won’t let me spell Whisk (e)y this way but you get it.

On my first visit I didn’t know blended from single-​malt. Well, I’m still no expert, but at no fault of the generous and helpful staff. Budget-​conscious me ordered a flight and put myself in the care of the bartender who explained what to do with the various accompaniments-​ice and water-​and why to do it. It turns out I like it straight on the peaty side.
I suggest one of the rotating themed flights for a beginner or someone looking to discover something new. The menu is long, varied and offers something at many price points.
The atmosphere is calm, friendly, a little dark and has lots of character. And a telly or two in case there’s a hockey game on you might be interested in!
To find it, just cruise through The Irish Heather, by the long table room and out through the courtyard. Fun!