Sylvia’s Restaurant and Lounge

we attended a wedding, and came to the sylvia hotel restaurant for post celebration dinner… i began with a molson canadian lager, and my partner had a guiness… we shared the spring salad, and added prawns, plus the blackened seared salmon with white beans, chantrells, and a splash of butternut squash soup… the drinks/​food was so tasty… the staff was friendly and efficient for our large party… the décor is amazing and vintage… comfy on a rainy night… thx!

My friend and I ate had breakfast there this morning. We both ordered the eggs benedict, a BC benedict and a traditional one. Both arrived cold, and were of pitiful portions. For $ 15, I had one slice of smoke salmon on an english muffin, cold poached eggs, tasteless hollandaise sauce, and a few, cold tasteless potatoes. There must have been $ 3 worth of food. Service was adequate but slow.
I know you’re paying for the view and history. but the place was run down and somewhat filthy. The view was not worth it for that premium. I’d rather just go outside.
Definitely a waste of money.

As a guest in the Sylvia Hotel, I felt quite spoiled getting room service from this place… Or wandering in myself to take a seat. The view is spectacular, the surroundings comfortable, the food delicious and unpretentious. You get a lot of bang for your buck here. A touch more upscale but without the snooty atmosphere most places get.
In my week stay I am only slightly ashamed to say I tried about half of the menu. Standouts to me were the braised lamb shank and seared cod dinners, as well as a prime rib special with yorkshire pudding, the crab and prawn cakes, and English Bay omelette with crab and asparagus. I was also quite a fan of the Sylvia coffee, a boozy confection of coffee, hot cocoa, peppermint schnapps, and Frangelico. Delightful!
I absolutely recommend both the restaurant and hotel to visitors, especially if you like something a bit more unique and off the beaten path but still convenient.

A good brunch is hard to find in this town. Sure you can stand in line for an hour to eat a $ 50 brunch at a few key spots, but who wants that all the time? No me.
I want a simple brunch with my very own pot of coffee all to myself, perfectly soft poached eggs and home made hollandaise sauce! I want the newspaper by a window seat and big leather chair to curl up in. I also want a Martini. Lol
Bottom line — I haven’t been here in 20 years since I was a club kid living in the west end. Now I’m 45 and you know what — I really missed this little gem.
Well done Sylvia, I’ll see you soon.

The Sylvia is cute little heritage hotel down in English Bay. They’ve got a good size restaurant with old school charm. It’s not fine dining, but its nice for a romantic night out. The dinner menu has a good variety of items to choose from including lots of seafood. However, no vegetarian entrees, so if you’re like me you may have to opt for an appetizer and salad.
As for their cocktails, they do a great job. My favourite is «The Flynn» named after the famous Errol of course. There’s also a drink named «1954» as that was the year The Sylvia opened up Vancouver’s first cocktail bar.
Be sure to check out the patio in front, I didn’t even notice it until after I left! I will definitely try and sit out there next time, the ocean view can’t be beat.

There should be no mistaking the reason for coming to Sylvia’s. Though I had no complaints about their hamburger ($ 14 Canadian), my server’s response to my order said all I needed to know: «We only do them well done. That’s just the way we do it in Vancouver. They come pre-​formed and…». I stopped listening. A well done burger would be fine but the «come pre-​formed» part let me know I wasn’t at Marlowe (SF).
You also might not want to come for the Irish Coffee ($ 7 Canadian). The Buena Vista (SF) founders, the first to recreate this classic Irish drink outside Ireland, would be rolling in their graves to see this version. It’s fine, but it’s creative (sugared rim, nutmeg whipped cream, and wafer cookie) and quite unlike what you would get elsewhere.
So why should you come to Sylvia’s? It’s the view, silly. The view, the view, the view.
Sylvia’s sits on some prime real estate directly across from English Bay Beach where the sun takes a long time to set. Settle in. One round of drinks followed by burgers followed by Irish Coffees (each ordered after the previous was consumed) still didn’t see me through the entire sunset but it didn’t matter one bit. The view up and down the beach, the view of the water, the mountain view… drink it up.
Sylvia’s is old school meaning it’s not fancy but it’s comfortable. I liked the casual, quiet vibe from the moment I entered. Of course, since they’ve been there forever (they’re Vancouver’s first cocktail bar) it was important for me to get the drink that had also been there forever: the 1954 ($ 7 Canadian) was a remarkably fresh vodka/​chambord drink littered with delicious fruit. Get it.
Sylvia’s has live music on some nights and, when I visited, excellent service. Nobody is trying to turn tables; they seemed fine with me staying as long as I desired. Lucky for me, when I finally left, the sun was still setting over the bay. Drinks, a view, a beautiful sunset; a perfect close to a perfect week in Vancouver.
Thank you Sylvia’s. Thank you Vancouver.

I was there Sunday morning 8 am, café traffic is light, 5 tables of two and there two server. No host in front reception. I was there for over 10 minutes waiting to be seated. A waitress walked by without noticing me. There are three parties behind me and one decided to leave. When someone finally showed with a poor reception, I finally decided to leave.

Second bad experience here. Dry ribs that took an hour to be brought, tasted terrible and weren’t even cooked through. Sipped on a beer for that first hour. When the ribs came, I had finished the first beer. She asked if I wanted another. I said yes. After gnawing on a couple of the ribs, I ran and found her, cancelled the second beer and asked for the bill. When she came to the table and saw the un-​eaten ribs, she asked if there was something wrong. I said yes, and described as above. She asked if I wanted them removed from the bill. I, trying to be conciliatory, said: «I’ll leave that to your judgement.» To my surprise, her judgement was to leave them on the bill! Beautiful location. Too bad its being run so unprofessionally.

five stars alone for their bloody caesar. Yum yum yum.

This restaurant does not understand the importance of providing good customer service. The entire staff needs to better understand the concept that, he who pays the piper — calls the tune. It all started with the maître d’ who does not know how to greet people with a warm and friendly attitude. The service started out horrible and it only got worse from there. We ended up leaving without eating.

My experience today totally changed my highly opinion of this restaurant. Around 2pm we were having lunch and spotted a rat eating a piece of bread under the table. I notified a man who happened to be at the bar. He said ok I will let them know, and then disappeared into the kitchen and never showed up. Another woman came out wearing a suit and was putting napkins on the tables. We pointed out the rat to her, she shrugged her shoulder and said they are everywhere.

Sensibilities here are stately and grand.
I imagine myself a vacationing industrialist — gin in hand.
A place to end your night if you have many years,
A place to begin for the night’s pioneers.
A full bar is your’s to command.

We made reservations well in advance for a special occasion and when we got there our table was off in a corner with no view. I had mentioned that it was a special occasion when I made the reservation and it was not busy.
One person ordered a Cajan chicken burger and complained that it lacked flavor. She was brought some mediocre salsa which had been made with unripe tomatoes and we were charged $ 1.50 for it. Another person had hot chocolate and the cream on it was sour. The service was slow, lacked enthusiasm and I will never go there again. Go somewhere you will be treated with respect.

We had awesome breakfast there and thoroughly recommend.
The service was outstanding!

I used to love this place! My friend lives right around the corner and we’d come in when we felt like a fancy cocktail. However, on a Saturday night a few weeks ago, I had a terrible experience with the rudest waiter /​bartender. Three of us came in, the waiter came over and rudely dumped the menu’s on our table (maybe he was bugged that he had to wait and tend bar, but there were all of three small groups in the whole place). We ordered cocktails and chatted for awhile, the bartender managed to wrangle a waitress very rudely barking at her that he needed help. We ordered a second set of cocktails from the waitress, then waited… After about 25 minutes, I went up to pay for the second round and inquire about where they were. I asked the bartender if I could pay for the second round, and he said you’re all paid up. This is how the rest of the convo went down
Me: Actually we only paid for the first round.
Him: you didn’t order a second round from me.
Me: no we ordered from the waitress about 20 minutes ago
Him: Well, she never told me, so…
Me: Well can I order them now from you?
Him: No, we’re closed.
Me: But we’ve been waiting 20 minutes.
Him: Well, I didn’t know so.
Me: Really, can you not just do us a favor because we’ve been waiting?
Him: No, I didn’t know, now we’re closed.
Me: Seriously?
Him: OH MY GOD!!!
Me: okay, nevermind bye.
Worst service experience ever!

Well worth it excellent food service & a killer view to boot
A true Vancouver Landmark well worth the visit

Even though the food was really good and I expected it to be more expensive, the service lacked in experience.
We were 8 people squeezed in a 6 people table, not being asked about any other option.
Maybe the waitress had a bad day, but she didn’t bring the drinks we order from the beginning, and at the check out time, she struggled allocating what each of us ate in our bills. Actually, I paid for another dish (more expensive, by the way), but I didn’t tell her anything, that would have been the second time that she changed my bill.
Tip was already included, something annoying taking into account that I’m used to decide how much do the service deserve.
Not a vet nice experience from a fancy and recommended place.

We’ve been here several times for breakfast, and will continue to return. Located in the lobby of the Sylvia Hotel, the views of English Bay are fantastic.
Tip: Free parking for diners and guests underneath the hotel.
I’ve had both the Stanley Park Benedict (traditional eggs benedict), and the West Coast Benedict (with salmon lox). Both are excellent, some of the best eggs benny I’ve had. At first glance, I thought the portion seemed a little small. However once I started eating, it turned out to be just the right amount of food.
Service is prompt and friendly, and the prices are very reasonable, given the location.
Overall, a 5-​star worthy experience, and I will continue to return when I feel like a cozy breakfast out.

Christmas At The Sylvia. December 2013
My review is a little delayed however here it is.
I decided in October that the upcoming dinner festivities at Christmas were becoming more challenging as my Dad was confined to a wheelchair and so was his Guest. Normally it would take pre-​booking Handi-​Dart or some other way of transporting them out to my Sister’s place and then lifting people up three flights of stairs. A bit too much as you age and my Father said he felt he didn’t want to keep trying to do this. So, as he lived most of his life in the West End of Vancouver, I came to decide that I would see if the Sylvia Hotel would be open for Christmas. This was in October.
After leaving a message with the restaurant with details that I needed seating for 3 with 2 of the people in wheelchairs who could feel comfortable and not seated near a doorway (which tends to happen unfortunately because a majority of places don’t have room between tables for wheelchairs to be places at smaller tables) I received a most wonderful message from the Food & Beverage Manager, Kim, who personally spoke to me about my needs.
Because it was so close to Christmas we would have to have our dinner quite late (8pm) but i was glad to just be able to have a place to take my Dad on Christmas.
The menu from their site showed a 3 course meal:
Starters were either Duck Salad or Butternut Soup
Main: 3 choices: Turkey, Ham or Salmon Dinners with all the fixings that you could ask for.
Desert: 2 choices: Chocolate Yule Log or Traditional Plum Pudding.
Cost: $ 40.00 per person.
Unfortunately Dad passed away however, I had promised to take his Friend, rather than leave her alone and I certainly felt that he really would have loved to have been there. So I called back and let them know about the change, again I received a very kind message from Kim who also let me know that they had a table even earlier around 7pm. I decided to invite a friend from Paris to join us.
Upon arriving, we could see how incredibly busy it was but it was beautifully decorated with classy sparkle, tasteful, traditional colors were placed throughout, just enough to make you feel like it truly was Christmas but not so overwhelming that you felt that they went way overboard where it can appear gaudy. The lighting was perfect, light enough to see, but definitely played up the candlelight at each table.
When I went up to speak to the Hostess, I was also greeted by Kim who went out of her way to introduce herself and it made my Dad’s friend feel very special which on this occasion was so sweet to do as my friend was feeling a little down since Dad wasn’t with us. I could also see that all hands were on deck, including Kim, who was assisting with everything.
The ambiance was quite, traditionally classy, you could see many groups both small and large of families, many appeared to be mixed and quite a few couples. It felt very relaxing.
The Service: The Servers were absolutely fabulous. Very attentive and obviously were also run off their feet. But each gave a hand if you needed something extra and were helping each other (we like that!).
The food was good, the salad I have to say although smaller side, was delectable, my Parisian friend had the Salmon and said it was perfectly done, both myself and my Dad’s friend had the Turkey dinner. I did find that it was plated well, but it would appear that they may have been running out of it since you could tell it portioned very tightly. I could appreciate several things: This is Christmas, they’re serving probably 300 or more people. So we didn’t really care about that much and the desert, the Chocolate Yule log was fabulous. We didn’t leave stuffed but comfortable for sure. And the best part was: No dishes to do, we weren’t dashing home to get away from obnoxious relatives and the staff didn’t hurry us out the door, there was plenty of room for the seating arrangements.
Although it was our first go at having a dinner at a restaurant at Christmas, I would return to the Sylvia in a heartbeat and we will do this next year as well.
In consideration of how far they went to accommodate us for special requests I would give them five-​stars.
What I would suggest is that you call much earlier in the year rather than what I did, in order to get an early seating. The views are beautiful and the cost was extremely reasonable.

I really really want to adore this place. I mean, I am here at least 4 times a week to sit by the window, catch up with a good friend and/​or read a good book. I also come pretty frequently for their Thursday Jazz nights. The service is friendly the view, oh… that view is just… perfect.
There is, however, one major «little» problem: «The food is… well… not good» I tried almost everything and the only thing I actually enjoyed was the potatoes served with their bennies for brunch. Their brunch menu is much better than their regular menu… I’ll give them that.
So why the 4 stars you say? Well the view, the comfort of the couches and the tranquility of the place is worth that much.
My two cents :)