The Charlatan

$ 70 bill for poor service, mediocre drinks and sub par appetizers.
My partner and I went out to celebrate a professional achievement and we were extremely disappointed with the results of The Charlatan.
We got sat on the patio next two some extremely loud tribal tattoo lamesters that kept obnoxiously commenting on the server and whether she was hot enough and how to tell when a girl is anorexic versus appropriately skinny.
Then the other table was talking so loud about how the best part of a marriage is the party. I bring this up because to me it’s a reflection of the clientele.
The happy hour special was lame and the service was so and tiring. Took 10 min sites to order a drink another ten to receive it and then three appetizers took 30 mins. This wasn’t even during dinner service.
The tuna bites were way over seasoned and the duck roles tasted like they came from a can and edamame was floating Ina. Bowl of oil.
The mojito was okay the blueberry vodka drink was good a bit on the sweet side and then a vodka martini from ordering to table took twenty minutes and tasted like feet.
We then had to chase down our server to pay.
Bad food, bad service bad times.

This place has slowly become one of my go-​to pubs on the Drive. The first couple of times I went were in the evening for dinner and drinks. I usually get the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. They have a large beer selection and offer beer samplers. I came here for brunch the other day and really enjoyed it. I had the Chicken n’ Cornbread. It was sweet, savory, and definitely different from your typical brunch dishes. They sometimes serve complementary hot donuts around brunch time, which is a nice touch.
I really like the atmosphere inside. It’s cozy and the bar is located in the centre. A large group of us reserved the patio last summer and it was perfect for a sunny day.

The Charlatan is my go to bar on The Drive. I’ve been coming here way back when Phil used to be the bartender there. The food is alright, the drinks are decently priced and the servers are cool. They also have a patio off to the side that is great during the summer time.

I went there thinking they were on the Dine out list, but I guess I was mistaken. Well my boyfriend decided to stick around and try out their food anyways. I was reading he reviews and saw mentions of a 2^nd floor, all I only was able to see one floor. It was kind of packed. The service was on the slow side, but the server told us it was busier than it usually was– pretty understandable.
Food was decent, for starters we ordered The Charlatan Fries, they were nice and crispy, they had some other oil added to them, but all I tasted was the parm loaded on top.
For my main I ordered the Duck Confit Salad, was disappointed. I thought I would be getting more duck than maybe about 5 cm wide line of shredded duck buried under some unknown veggies.
May return on a day when it’s not busy, probably during lunch hour and try out some of the dishes recomended on Unilocal

Decent place when they aren’t BLASTING hockey games (and the commercials) at full volume. Favourite wing night in town, by far.

This place is horrible. The waitresses are so uneducated here. I ordered a single beer and had to wait for 20 minutes before calling her over again to find out she forgot my order. I called her out and asked her what I ordered and she finally admitted she forgot. I had to wait another 10 minutes to get it. When leaving I wanted to settle my bill and they added an additional beer on my bill. When I questioned them about it they told me it was added on my account by mistake as my friend ordered the same thing. I ultimately got stuck with the bill because I didn’t want to make a fuss about it. They also stand over you while you decide how much to tip them… so unprofessional. The food is nothing special either. The wait staff is racist at this place. Stay away!

As you will notice with a few other Unilocaler you will be entertaining the possibility of being forgotten if you come to the Charlatan and sit in the lower levels. But If you want to improve those odds and also be treated like shit as well, then make sure you get the waitress with the fake contact lenses that dresses like a pole dancer from 1987. I’m sorry but if you’re a server who wants to be unapologetically rude, condescending, full of Friday –night-​at the-​club attitude AND blame customers for your own incompetence, social media is gonna catch up with you. Especially when you flash me snide little smirk as we were trying to leave in absolute disgust of how we were treated. Brilliant. So Here it is. enjoy:

As usual, we were seated by the lower bar due to the premium seating upstairs being overrun with man-​spreading hangoverees .We placed drink and food orders with our lovely waitress. I ordered eggs over medium. We had more people coming so we moved a few tables down .We did this also to be seen because The Charlatan is famous for sitting you in the lower levels and completely forgetting about you. Hopefully unintentionally .But, Despite our calculated move, there we sat for an hour waiting for our food and completely forgotten about by our server .We watched a table of smiling man-​spreaders receive their food who had ordered and were seated long after we were. We didn’t see Ms. 1987 for at least half an hour. We were getting thirsty and got sick of waiting so some of us went up to the upper bar to order drinks. They got half their orders but waited 10 minutes for the rest. When they got sick of waiting they asked the bartender where the other drinks were and he said: «Oh. sorry I forgot … why do you need those drinks? are you going to drink all those drinks? ». after another 5 minutes of trying to convince the bartender that 2 people ordering 4 drinks is not uncommon, especially when our waitress had forgotten about our table, he obliged them. The bartender must have told her something because she magically appeared to take our drink orders. We told her that we were ok for drinks because we had to go to the upper bar to get them because she had disappeared for over 30 minutes. She gives us attitude. That entire time she didn’t peer down from the upper sections to check the kitchen if our order was up or to check on us .She didn’t seem to care that we had waited on hour for our food or come and say: «Sorry, I’ll go see whats taking the kitchen so long «as the place was far from being full. Nope. No acknowledgement whatsoever. One of our group had to get up and ask why we had been waiting for over on hour for our food .With a whole lot of unnecessary attitude, Ms 1987 says our order was next up. It came 5 minutes later. Fine. My eggs came hard. Not fine. Listen, if I’m coming to a place that charges $ 13 bucks for eggs and few potato cuts. I want that shit done right. Whats the point of asking me how I want my eggs if you won’t bother to give them to me as I ordered. Yes mistakes happen, so I went up to Ms. 1987 and said politely. «Sorry, but my eggs did’t come the way I ordered them, they were hard …». She did’t offer a redo on the eggs, she didn’t do anything accept shrug and say: «sorry». I’m annoyed now. I go sit down and eat everything except the eggs. Eggs cooked hard make me gag like a lot of people. She comes over with the bills. $ 13 for eggs cooked wrong. I pipe up «Listen, I didn’t get what I ordered, we had to wait an hour for our food, and we had to go to the bar to order most of our own drinks, I don’t think our experience has been anything close to what you are charging …» And with calculated sarcasm and the cunningest of snark she says «Do you want me to give you a discount? You shouldn’t have sit down here if you wanted me to pay attention to you. I couldn’t see you guys so I forgot about you .
Oh really ?! Where should we have sat to get the least amount of incompetence from you Ms 1987 ?
So she blamed us for being seated out of sight ?!(After we moved to the most visible location possible) and felt giving us attitude for pointing out how awful the entire experience was somehow justified? Unbelievable. She made no apologies and acted like we didn’t matter so I told Ms 1987: «I don’t want anything from you or your condescending attitude. This is the worst service I’ve ever had and thank you for convincing all 8 of us to never set foot in the Charlatan ever again.»
Well Done Charlatan! There is a server in your midst who is so completely undermining everything a place of business is supposed to be. I don’t mind being forgotten about but for us to be blamed for it is inexcusable .
I highly recommend avoiding this place completely.

Okay, I was overly harsh on my first review of this place but it was warranted.
I give it another go around. The host was friendly and we got a seat at the bar. It looks like the last bartender who served us at this place is long gone (hopefully). We had a pretty cool bartender, he was attentive and offered lots of suggestions. Even charged some guys phone for him. Great guy who loves his job.
We had the wings. Very cheap on Tuesday’s. 50 percent each I believe. They were actually really good for wings too, not gross, well cooked. They tasted great.
The beer was fresh and good too. Lots of decent selections if you’re wanting craft or what not.
I’m a fan of this place now. Redeemed for sure.

Nosh and Nibble came here for a late dinner and I had the following:
Jameson shot ($ 5)
Bacon Cheeseburger subbing in Poutine ($ 15 + $ 3)
The special tonight was $ 5 Jameson shots so how could I say no? Jameson is an Irish Whiskey. This was a pretty sweet spirit in my opinion but it was smoother than I expected. Nothing hit me harder than the initial gulp and the whiskey melting slowly onto my tongue had a good fire to it. Being a $ 5 shot I can see this getting out of hand really quickly.
The Bacon Cheeseburger was the highlight of my night. This came with lettuce, tomato, red onion, dill pickle, smoked jalapeño ranch and sweet corn aioli. Needless to say, it was a loaded burger, better looking vegetables than Colony Bar, and was presented in an attractive way with the bacon and cheese on one half and the rest of the ingredients on the other. The patty was juicy and the vegetables tasted pretty fresh. The gooey cheese bit off in strings and the bun was fluffy.
The Poutine was a little less exciting than I anticipated. It came with a little pool of cheese and gravy in the middle but this was only a thin layer. Once I dug deep enough, I noticed the fries were getting drier and it was because I had exhausted all of the cheese curds and gravy on top. If you choose to have this poutine, be warned that the cheese and gravy experience may end quickly.

Just had the worst service I’ve ever had! Server took forever to take our drink order and then food order. Took forever to come back to refresh our drinks and she gave an excuse every time. She said it was soooo busy but it was not at all especially for a sunny Saturday. My friend left and I went to the washroom for 3 mins max. My beer, leftovers and tshirt were on the table. When I returned the table was cleared and wiped. That was that fastest part of the visit! Luckily I got all 3 things back but I’m not sure if my leftovers didn’t hit the garbage before they returned them to me as there was food on the outside of the box that wasn’t there before. Not impressed!

Great place to go for food and/​or drinks. Good service, interesting people every where, good choice of beers and food. I was impressed with the menu choices and would love to go back to try the different plates they had there. I ordered the Duck Confit Salad and it was pretty tasty.

«It was a solid fruity drink.» — Girlfriend. I will take her word for it.

The Char is a can’t miss spot on commercial. It doesn’t matter the time of day, you’ll always leave with a smile on your face. Make sure to stop in on evenings Ali is working, he may be the best bartender in the city, let alone the drive (since Maarten left Falcs). Decent pub fare with thoughtful specials and the beer Is always cold and quick, with a fantastic selection. What more do you want, really?

If you’re down for spending a few bucks and some time on the best patio on commercial drive then this is where you want to be. The food is yummy too. Good specials and happy hour stuff too. Best vegetarian poutine I’ve had in Vancouver. Who knew. Plus eye candy.

I came here for the first time last week, and I can’t wait to come back! They have a great sandwich selection, and offer gluten free buns for those of us who can’t stomach the dreaded wheat. It wasn’t one that was secretly cardboard masquerading as a bun, either! Always a relief for someone who just wants to enjoy a sandwich every now and again.
I ordered the smoked turkey sandwich, and it was SO savoury and delightful. The only complaint I have is that the turkey had just come from the smoker and still had some string wrapped around it. Totally not an issue, but I would’ve probably had a worse time if I’d accidentally swallowed it. Staff were incredibly apologetic and offered to re-​make them, but I was having too nice of a time eating the sandwich to give it back.
I hear they have some of the best brunch on the Drive, so I will definitely be returning!

Not only was the food and service great, my phone fell out of my bag during our time there… they took a fantastic selfie and got back to a friend of mine, so my panic at losing my phone was, thankfully, minimal. Seriously, try their tofu dish… absolutely delicious! All around a great evening, even with the panic of a lost phone that was totally my fault.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This place was really busy. and there were seven of us. so we needed a place with room
They found us a spot in the lower lounge area. which was cool
Really liked the atmosphere. seemed to be a pretty happening place
Server started out well. was very attentive. despite the busy night
However, she totally forgot about our additional beverage orders. TWICE
For me, that’s unforgivable

I love The Charlatan! Delicious specials, great food, a nice selection of local craft beers, plus the best brunch special in town! $ 10 for a basic breakfast AND a Caesar basically feels like stealing. You know what’s even better? Go during the week and save your receipt and you get TWO breakfasts for $ 10… that’s two meals and two Caesars for literally less than the price of one Caesar regularly.
I also love their breakfast burrito — it’s to die for (and bring 3 friends to help you eat it because it is MASSIVE!) The Drive Burger is an excellent and tasty veggie burger, the quesadilla is yummy, the Charlatan poutine is so good it should be illegal (plus your heart may explode, both from joy, and from pulled pork/​cheese/​carb overload!) and I won’t even tell you about the poutine grilled cheese. No, seriously. Try it for yourselves, maybe after a very, very long run…
A super well-​rounded, delicious pub, with lovely staff and a vibrant atmosphere. Plus the patio is pretty perfect too!

After hearing the disappointing news of a one hour wait at Storm Crow Tavern, my roomies and I decided to traverse the Drive and see what else could offer us refreshing bevvies and tasty eats. The Charlatan looked interesting!
Nice ambience, vintage décor and general good vibe. The waitresses were pleasant enough. We browsed the menu and were instantly enticed by the plethora of offerings. Ordered the bison gravy poutine and the seared tuna buger. It TOOK 45 MINUTES TO SEE IF THIS ACTUALLY EXISTED IN LIFE.
During our wait we manage to down our first bottle of wine, fit in two smoke breaks, and do a little looky loo round the joint. UM we definitely did not get the best seats of the house. We were stuck in a corner behind the hostess where there was no air circulation and clearly were easy to forget about with the waitress.
The restaurant looked so nice! Different levels, an outdoor patio (which the waitress said they didn’t have one?!?) and the vibe seemed way cooler in the other areas of the restaurant. I get that a spot gets busy, but it’s so essential during those times to still treat each guest with care.
When we finally got our food we immediately had to ask for some salt and pepper. That poutine was a bit blandy bland bland. Finished our meals and waited for our bills forever, then waited for our server for the debit machine forever, only to find out that we had To go up to the front… Thanks for telling us, homie. Whatever.
I think for exceptional service a place should offer something on the house to make up for a ridiculously long wait.
The whole time we were there we were trying to figure out what a «charlatan» was — apparently means a «cheat, deceiver, master of deception.» How frickin fitting to how I feel… HA!

Tried the nachos here. Oh geez this dish is awful. Bland toppings, soggy chips. the memory is still seared into my mind. 1.5 stars for the dish.
The other dishes I’ve tried here were good, hence the 3-​star average.
If I had a working camera on me I would’ve taken a picture. Seriously, avoid the nachos. I don’t know how or why they managed to get this wrong so badly.