Glowbal

Came for brunch today and it’s a beautiful restaurant however,
— Food quality is only so so
— All the waitresses and waiters are so new; inexperienced
— I only asked for a glass of hot water and the glass was disgusting. The waitress kept on explaining why it was dirty but seriously, all she needed to do was apologize and get me a new glass of water
— When we asked for the bill and paid in cash the waitress didn’t ask if we needed change and assumed she could keep all tips. Did she really think we would give over 20% for brunch? When we asked her if we could get some change back she said ‘oh, ok thought you said keep the change.’ But we didn’t even say a word when she took our bill away — lier.
— LASTLY, we got our umbrella stolen and it was an expensive one!
For such a customer oriented restaurant in a prime downtown location, every details count. It’s not only about the quality of food.
P. S. Wish I knew the name of the waitress and if I could, I would give zero star.

Been to the new location three times now. First was at the opening party-​best opening party I’ve ever been to.
The food is good and service I’ve gotten has been great. I think it just depends who you get. Devon our server and Rob the bartender were top notch.
Glowbals happy hour menu is extensive and a great deal. Probably the best happy hour menu in the city. I’ll definitely be back.

Service for me and my 11 friends was great. Shout out to Gavin who was very friendly and gracious about our rambunctious and growing party. We started off three people and grew to twelve, and took over the lounge area, ordered lots of food and lots of drink.
Everything came out promptly! Food was so yummy. I got the oysters, poke/​tartare and a bunch of cocktails. All superb. My friends ordered the mushroom pasta and lamb… deliciously seasoned and that lamb was just falling off the bone.
And, to top it off, the happy hour prices were great! I wish I could take this place back with me to Seattle; the décor was so pretty and upscale without being cold and pretentious. Everything was warm and inviting, and the vibe was chill. Great place for a big group like us.

Had drinks here with a friend last night. Both of our first times.
From the reviews I read beforehand, I was expecting the interiors to blow me away… they didn’t. Everything was nice and to be fair I was going for the company so I didn’t really take the time to look much around, but nothing stood out as really special. Cactus Club at Canada Place has a nicer view, and it also has a friendlier, happier environment. Glowbal honestly seemed a bit dead, whereas Cactus is always a good time any time/​day of the week. And the servers at Cactus… oh, wait, back to Glowbal:
I went in with zero expectations about food and service (hence why we decided to come for drinks in the first place, rather than a full meal), and I think this was helpful because the little food I did have was totally forgettable and the service left much to be desired.
BUT, the drinks were really good, which I why I am giving 3 stars. :-)
I ordered the pineapple and coconut mojito, which comes with a really nice foam on top and has either really high quality alcohol or very little alcohol because I felt nothing after two of those (I have a low tolerance and usually feel tipsy after one drink of anything alcoholic). My friend ordered the dark and stormy I believe, and I had a sip of his which was also quite nice. We also ordered the crab cake, which was whatever. The sauce that came with it didn’t taste great. Overall pretty flavourless dish. I wish we had gone with the fries instead.
Service-​wise, I noticed a bit of disorganisation but nothing too egregious. We had to wait for a while before getting seated because the one hostess was first absent then on the phone for a minute or so. Our server seemed taciturn but had some hilarious facial expressions and an amazingly raspy voice (I just realised maybe she was sick!?). Though far from the friendliest she was well nice enough.
Overall, the experience was A-​OK. I went on Monday evening 6−8pm and the restaurant was fairly empty, with just a few tables other than ours. Total came to $ 76 I believe, after tax and tip. Luckily I had a gift card! With a sizeable remaining balance, which means I’ll be back to try more!

Overall, I had a wonderful time. I didn’t have a problem with the service as some others complained about. Everything was pretty casual at a good paced, just like the restaurant itself. They did a good job attending to every need of guests. Be it a girls night, or a group of friends, or maybe just someone who wants to people watch. The food could use a pinch of improvement, but with time I have faith they can provide ¹⁰⁄₁₀ food & service. Well, they have to.
Check out my blog for pictures and what i ate!

The new restaurant is beautiful. Service we received was good but the food is average at best. Ordered the pappardelle pasta and burger and shared with my husband. We started off with the calamari appetizer. It was very good. Definitely not your typical calamari but more like Chinese deep fried squid which is also delicious. The burger was ok but the fries were weak. I think they use frozen fries. The bill wasn’t cheap for the quality of food. Glad I tried it but unlikely will be back due to the food quality and price.

Came here for brunch during the New Year’s weekend. We were greeted and seated as we entered the restaurant. We had a cozy table in the backroom and there was one more table with us so we had our privacy. While we took the time to browse all the brunch and lunch items, our server brought us two glasses of water and some sugar doughnuts.
–Sugar doughnuts (⁴⁄₅): These were free of charge. It’s quite a change from the bread with condiments. They were served on the warm side. Eat them before it cools down. It’s tastier that way. They were so good my friend asked for another basket.
Off of the brunch menu we ordered:
–Crispy Pancetta Benny ($ 13 – 2.5÷5): The muffin at the bottom was hard and overcooked. It was difficult to cut through. The pancetta was also overcooked to the point that it’s just too crispy. I’m glad the poached eggs were still in fact soft poached egg with a gooey center. However, they were smaller in size compared to brunch places. The hash was too try and the salad was just a simple salad with some vinaigrette.
–Duck Confit Poutine ($ 13 – 3.5÷5): Surprisingly, this had a generous amount of pulled duck, cheese curds, fries and gravy. It was topped with some dried peels of orange, two sunny side up duck eggs and roughly chopped green onions. Overall, a pretty good poutine.
It was her birthday so we got a free dessert but unlike their other locations we couldn’t choose from their menu. I guess it was a custom designed dish. It consists of raspberry jelly, dark chocolate almond bark, white chocolate tuile, passion fruit coulis, truffled chocolate, gooseberry and a macaron. The dessert was nicely presented with one flaw though. The macaron shells had holes in them. It was such a pity and took some time to angle it right so that it doesn’t show in the pictures. Overall, the dessert was on the sweet side. With the help of the passion fruit coulis and the gooseberry, it was more palatable. I’d give the dessert a 3 out of 5.
Since we came at around happy hour time, I also ordered their featured cocktail. Unfortunately, their regular cocktails were not 50% off as I thought. I did enjoy the cranberry prosecco ($ 5−5÷5).
Service at Glowbal was attentive and friendly. I most likely won’t return for brunch as I was not impressed with the benny and that’s my usual go-​to. However, the lamb shank that was served during the happy hour looked promising and the calamari looks like it’s a must order (since every table got it). There’s a slight chance I’d be coming back.

I think this is the first time I’m giving 1 star. I think everything in this restaurant is over priced. We weren’t that hungry so we ordered just the Robata Platter $ 39.99 I had the House White $ 7.50 We were thinking of having dessert but most of them are $ 12 each!
There’s really nothing special about the Robata Platter. We got 2 tiny skewers each of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp and peppers and a small serving of radish salad on the side. The meats were all bland. The platter came with 3 different sauces but even with the sauces were bland.
I guess we paid for the ambience. The music selection is pretty awesome if you’re into EDM. I find it a bit loud though.
If you’re into people watching this is a great place to be. Everywhere you look you’ll see beautiful people. No kidding!

I really wanted to give this place another chance so I was for coming to glowbal for a work Christmas party a couple of days ago.
It wasn’t our servers fault since it was so busy, but so many things went wrong. Our food orders were messed up, but a slip up like this could have been much worse. Some people got things that weren’t even ordered, and my beef tongue I ordered ended up on a colleagues plate. She doesn’t eat beef and after asking our server where it was she came back to tell us it was accidentally placed on her dish. Thankfully she’s not allergic or it’s not for religious reasons but if it was, the result would have been bad. Not to mention my other skewers just never came.
There were problems with our bill as well among other things. The food was good and I get that it was rush hour on a Friday, I all but forgave our server because it surely wasn’t her fault for the hiccups. But everything that transpired just left a sour taste in my mouth. I might be back one day for happy hour on a weekday sometime but we’ll see…

Well, with Glowbal, I was really let down with the food!
6 of us went for food and drinks and were really let down by the food! We were treating our friends who were expecting and he had to return his dish! A real disappointment and even the Irish coffees at the end were terrible!
The only saving grace of this place is that it can be classified as a great place to grab a few drinks. The atmosphere is great but I personally wouldn’t come back here for the food.

I was there for their first Christmas Buffet.
The Host was really friendly yet our waitress was not so good. We have been waiting forever for coffee refill and our request to switch table was met with «the look» and the reply of
we are too busy and that table might have already been reserved, yet that table was not cleaned up until we finished our dinner.
we had expected a bit more than this from Glowbal.
What really prompted me to write this review was that there were only 4 of us there for the buffet, no one told us gratuity was already included.
When I was paying the bill, I was asked to give gratuity again. Luckily I double checked the bill this time because I was not so happy with the service. Then I realize that gratuity was already included, I had to call our server over again and asked her if she has already put in 15% gratuity.
It was not until then she said that «all services are up for 15% gratuity».
If you have seen this post, I’d inform you to touble check your bill and see if the waiter or waitress has already included her/​his tips in your bill to avoid double tipping (well unless you received an exceptional service).
Cheers

Alright so I finally got a chance to visit the new Glowbal location. Here’s the low down ;)
Ambiance– amazing, sleek and refined. Though, I did not get to sit in the birdcage seats outside. I think I’ll wait till summer though! Lol
Happy hour drinks– First off Happy Hour is only until 530. What gives? Why not till 6? I found this a bit of a bummer. The selection? Meh. It includes a prosecco drink, house wine or beer for $ 5. Not anything to get excited over lol. There are places with a better happy hour selection.
Food– Pretty good. Its a substantial improvement from the old menu at the old location. New items include succulent beef tongue, duck poutine, prawns etc. Everything was good including the Brussel sprouts!
Service– Very lacking. It is so SLOW that I couldn’t give this restaurant more than 3 stars. Our waitress took forever to get our drinks. The food also came out incredibly slow. It was Friday evening but they should be ready to handle the rush. This was the most dissapointing aspect of my visit.
I will go back but am hoping for better service!
Visit #2-​Went back… again they kept me waiting… then they ran out of a particular cocktail… and then a dessert on thier menu… they are still at 3 stars.

Love this huge gorgeous restaurant. My Friday afternoons are usually reserved for their happy hour (2:30 to 5:30 p.m. daily) — laptop, fast wifi, $ 5 wine, half off late night menu — that’s bliss.
Pros:
+ Beautiful restaurant, big, great seating. Has a big heated outdoor patio seating as well.
+ Amazing deals on their daily happy hour. Love how it applies on weekends as well.
+ Favorite happy hour items: truffle spaghetti+meatballs, truffle fries, duck poutine, apple chopped salad, $ 5 wine.
Cons:
— Food is hit or miss. Their Friday lunch special ($ 11 for burger+beer) tastes horrible, and the same happy hour items I order can taste amazing on one visit, and average the next time.
Overall this is a must-​try spot for Downtown and I would highly recommend the happy hour for their great deals.

I so wanted this new spot to live up to its expectations, but sadly other than the ambience and décor this place has nothing going for it, especially in the service and food department, the two areas a restaurant should try and excel at.
We were seated in the front patio area. A great place to see people and be seen. Good vibe altogether. First up, drinks. Their beer selection is frankly laughable, but they did have a good selection of wine. Drink prices were on par with other similar establishments. But seemed like a very slow bar. Our appys arrived before our drinks did.
Our server didn’t arrive at the table until a good 15mins after we were seated. A respectable gentleman, but one that did not crack a single smile the entire night. There were many times we were left looking around separately trying to locate him when we wanted something. For some reason he seemed to cheer up more as the evening progressed.
Finally the food. We ordered calamari, truffle fries, and beef tongue to start. Everything arrived way faster than we expected. Leaving us thinking either they mass produce these and leave them sitting under a warmer, or the appy station is unbelievably efficient. The fries were warm rather than hot, but tasty none the less. The calamari was soft and limp. There was no crispness to it like you’d expect, and it was really oily. The beef tongue though was done right. Probably the only dish that was spot on in taste and texture.
For the main I ordered the classic spaghetti and meatballs, and considering this is the parent restaurant of the Italian Kitchen and Trattoria, boy was it a major departure and disappointment. The pasta itself was fine. At this caliber it would have been a major embarrassment if they couldn’t get pasta right, but the meatballs were small, bland and oh so dry. Left me thinking couldn’t they just copy the dish served at Italian Kitchen where the meatballs are big, juicy and flavourful?! And at $ 25, it was nowhere near the quality level a dish that expensive should be.
Overall, the new Glowbal is an overpriced failure considering the size, location and in comparison to its sister restaurants. Most definitely won’t be back for the food, but may drop in just to grab a drink and people watch.

I’ve been here for lunch on the patio, lunch in their upstairs dining area, and brunch in their downstairs dining area. So I feel like I’ve seen the whole restaurant now. The décor is dark and grand, kind of like their Black & Blue location.
So far, like the previous Glowbal, I enjoyed their brunch the best. They don’t give out free beignets and smoothie shooters to start your brunch anymore (sadness), but the brunch is still pretty good and our server was nice. I had the pork belly benedict on a croissant and what’s not to love about that combo! I also liked the truffle fries that came with hubby’s Truffle Ham & Brie Melt though I found the sandwich itself was too salty. Brunch wasn’t too busy so we had no service issues.
The first time I came for weekday lunch, they were not busy at all because they had just opened. The hostess insisted we sit out in the patio even though it looked like it was about to rain, but I guess they wanted the restaurant to look busier. It took a while to be seated but once we did, service was OK. They moved the heat lamps over but it really only heated up ¼ of our table. I had the Short Rib Fusilli (except I replaced the Fusilli with Linguine). The Short Rib Fusilli/​Linguine was pretty good– my friend ordered the same thing and we both enjoyed the sauce which was really rich and a bit spicy– definitely would get again.
My most recent lunch was again on a weekday. My friend had an appointment after lunch so we were looking for a quick lunch and ordered from the Lunch 45 menu (so you should be in-​and-​out in 45min). The restaurant is SUPER busy now for lunch with lots of diners in suits looking like they were there for business luncheons. As a result, we barely saw our server and only got out of there after 1.5hrs. I had the Glowbal Burger and it was really dry and the bun was burnt and had the top scraped off– not worth the $ 16– you could make a better burger on your own BBQ at home.
Overall, it seems the service is not consistent and you definitely notice the difference in service levels when they are busy vs not. The food is good, depending on what you order. I liked most of the dishes I tried here so I would come again. My meals have been either pretty good here or meah, OK. Hopefully, as they work out the kinks with service, there will be more «pretty good» experiences here.
Oh, for the free appie you get with their coupon, you get the Tsukune (chicken meatball). I found the chicken meat to be dry and not much flavor so if it wasn’t for free, i wouldn’t order it.

Extremely slow service. Friendly and helpful but service is super slow; for drinks, for appys, then for the entrée. We were a table of 12 and were told we had to leave in 2 hours. The restaurant wasn’t even busy. Greeters also didn’t seem warm nor friendly. Not a great first impression for a relatively new restaurant I must say.
Food is delicious but expect to pay $ 25-​$ 35 per entrée. I would prefer to have seen much more creative dishes instead of the usual tuna tartare, truffle spaghetti and meatballs, calamari but the dishes themselves, based on taste, is pretty good.
Happy hour is from 2:30 to 5:30pm and during that duration, you get 50% off their feature beer, cocktail, house red or white wine. Also a limited selection of appetizers, entrée, and sides are 50% off as well. Definitely worth coming during happy hour… if you’re not in a hurry or can tolerate a little attitude from the greeting desk.

Fine dining located at Telus building in downtown Vancouver, new place to check
underground pay parking or you can try your luck on the street metered parking…
patio seatting available plus reservation is an advantage, busy place full bar. service is excellent, decors and features inside is westernize inspired, classy… main floor plus second floor dining… wifi free…
For the appetizer we had the crispy calamari with fresno chiles and yuzu aioli and the queso fundido… a chorizo, qaxaca cheese, navajo fry bread, and charred jalopenos… both of these appetizers were very good… i love the queso fundido
for our main dish we had the Bison short ribs with rum chimichurri, avocado and turmeric mash… the meat is so soft that it fell from its bone… very good. we also had the Miso-​marinated Sablefish. it has shitake consommé, and comes with soba noodle salad. the other dish was the Chilli garlic fried seaBass a sweet chili glaze whole fish and green papaya slaw… all excellent dishes and the presentation was so awesome… for the drink we tried that cocktail with water melon… hahahha very small potent drink,
Price is just okay for the place and the food you are getting… i recommend this place for you guys to pay a visit… its a good spot to bring your friends from out of town or relatives visiting our great vancouver…
The place is good for group and family… havent seen a kid actually hahahaha…
all in all we had a very pleasant and happy experience… we are planning to come again very very soon…

Solid food, nice room, offensive dress code.
That’s my summary of the experience at Glowbal. It’s a nice (if massive) space, with an exceptionally nice patio. Be sure to follow our lead and evade the hosts who are determined to seat you next to the outdoor fireplace: yes, it’s toasty warm, but it’s more like sitting next to a fiery tornado than a warm fireplace. Too gusty!
The meal itself was good, though not extraordinary. The tuna tartare starter was a less-​good version of a dish that is done to perfection by Hapa Izakaya. The miso sablefish (now close to ubiquitous in Vancouver restaurants) didn’t live up to the the standards met elsewhere, and was quite expensive compared to other similar restaurants. I did really like the soba noodles the sablefish came with (do I detect yuzu in that dressing?) but that was the only part of the meal that was noteworthy.
Except for the waitresses, that is. If I wanted to go to a restaurant that forced its staff to put their cleavage on display, I’d go to Hooters. I thought it was remarkably tasteless that this restaurant has chosen a uniform for its waitresses that features an exceptionally plunging neckline, and while the service was good — they clearly aren’t hiring on looks alone — I couldn’t help noticing that all those plunging necklines were worn by women with something to show off. It made me feel REALLY uncomfortable, and after running this past my Facebook friends for an «am I crazy?» check, I’m clearly not the only person who dislikes the idea of a restaurant over-​exposing its waitstaff.
I certainly won’t be going back as long as Glowbal sticks with those uniforms. I’d rather patronize restaurants that actually respect women enough to let them work fully clothed.

The new Glowbal re-​opened up at the Telus Garden building in downtown Vancouver is impressive. This is a 17,000 sq foot restaurant/​lounge with floor to ceiling windows complete with gigantic golden orbs hanging down from the second story. Basically, it’s gorgeous and some might even feel that it’s a little too pretentious. Naturally, I expected the food to be just as amazing, but nothing on their menu wowed me.
We had a party of 9, came here for a birthday dinner and ordered as much as we can share from the menu. We shared the Ahi tuna tartare, beef tartare, seafood ceviche, watermelon chopped salad, beef tongue skewers, bison short ribs, cioppino, lobster & burrata ravioli and two surf & turf platters which consisted of striploain, king crab, prawns, brussels sprouts and potatoes.
Now I mentioned that the food didn’t wowed us, but it isn’t terrible. It’s just not worth the premium pricing. If I’m paying that amount and the portions are on the small side, I expect the food to be innovative and mouth-​watering good.
The only items I would recommend are the ahi tuna tartare, beef tongue skewers and brussels sprouts. The item I would avoid is the watermelon salad, which was a great idea, but tasted like soggy apple sticks with watermelon.
If you want atmosphere and enjoy the trendy crowd, head to Glowbal. You’ll still have a good time, but keep in mind the food is a huge let down.

Glowbal Group has got Telus Garden monopolized with not just the obvious Glowbal restaurant but the decidedly un-​Glowbal-​looking little Nosh café inside.
Glowbal used to have a Glowbal Grill Steaks & Satay and Grill in Yaletown, which honestly didn’t impress me with overpriced mediocre skewers.
Then they opened various other restaurants including the black-​and-​gold themed Black+Blue — still with great ambiance and mediocre food.
Now there’s Glowbal.
–Huge «patio» if you can really even call it that. It’s basically outdoor seating that will be really interesting to watch when the winter months hit. Funny birdcage booth seating available outdoors as well.
–Luxury-​invoking black and gold theme inside.
–Tight-​looking ground floor interior as a lot of space is given over to the kitchen.
–Upstairs seating.
–Thankfully spacious staircases leading to the washrooms downstairs.
–Still pricey in the Glowbal style.
[Robata Platter] ($ 39) chef selection from the robata grill
–On the day we went, if I remember correctly this was 2 skewers each of:
–Tierra Y Mar (normally $ 10 for 2 skewers) tiger prawn, chorizo, tomatillo salsa
BIG prawns, and sweet.
—One prawn and one piece of sausage of so-​so thickness (not a whole sausage!) per skewer. That’s about $ 5 per prawn.
–Bacon Wrapped Okra (normally $ 6 for 2 skewers) spicy aioli
—Two pieces per skewer. I’m going to call this $ 1.50 per piece of short bacon because okra is slimy and yucky and only made palatable to me by the bacon and dip. Waste of time.
—Where’s the «spicy» part?
–Kurobuta Pork Cheek ($ 8) spicy miso
–Ginger-​Soy Beef ($ 9) peanut sauce
–Chicken ($ 6) yogurt marinated
–Came with a token salad of shredded veggies and a couple wedges of lime.
–Hey look, no discount!
–Only got 3 sauces with the platter (tomatillo salsa, spicy aioli, and something green)
–Would have been way better if this came really hot.
[Tsukune] (normally $ 6 for two skewers) chicken meatball, cured organic egg yolk and soy
–Chicken meatballs were decent and tender all on their own, but definitely try it in the egg yolk dip
–Not sure I’d pay $ 3 per ping pong sized meatball again, though.
[Queso Fundido] ($ 14) chorizo, oaxaca cheese, navajo fry bread, charred jalapeño
–Did someone throw in avocado instead of jalapeño by accident?
–Salty!
–Comes in a hot (volcanic stone?) bowl that keeps the cheese sizzling hot for a good time. This sears the cheese into that tasty brown leathery stuff where it touches the bowl.
–While hot and the cheese is quite liquid, it is lots of fun to fork it out and watch the cheese string along, just like in pizza commercials.
–Too-​touch chewy wedges of bread. Be generous with the cheese or you won’t have enough bread.
–Great way to get a small party started while waiting for your mains.
–Feels a bit overpriced for $ 14 but its quite tasty and fun, so overall price for not just taste and portion but experience is OK. Definitely try this.
Early reviews touched on shoddy service, and maybe it was different for us because we were seated inside, but there was no shortage of servers and three hostesses at the front. Our server was very attentive with prompt water top-​ups and checking on us.
Like Black + Blue, you are basically coming here to impress your party with the space, to feel the prestige of dining in «luxury». If you are a foodie, look over the menu carefully and do not order anything that sounds boring. Like chicken skewers that taste like… just grilled chicken.
Keep your eyes open for slabs of parmesan strategically placed (exposed) on marble counters, ready to be grated onto your plate.