Dover Arms Pub

Dover Arms Pub
961 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Following my post on Wednesday on Fogg N’ Suds, on another day, PO and I were out for lunch and, once again, we chose to go to a place were you could watch the football games. Of course, in the West End, that translated into a pub. Instead of going to a place in Robson, we chose to Denman and that resulted in Dover Arms Pub, an English theme restaurant/pub. With such a large exterior location, I can’t help wonder myself why it has taken me so long to visit it!

When we arrived, the game has already started and there were a lot of customer seated on one side of the pub. I chose to seat on the other end because, well, I wanted some sunlight! One thing that became quite evident is that you have to be patient. The waitress took her time to come over to do anything, from bringing the menu, to drinks and the food. But, then again, probably the other customers were keeping her busy and didn’t really focus much on our side of the restaurant (which, until the end of the meal, it was pretty much PO and I).

We started up with an appetizer, which ended up being something not necessarily English: hummus (and, at the same time, some drinks, which, were Molson Canadian and pop). I will have to say the full description of this dish was quite interesting: Roasted garlic and spinach hummus. What arrived was somewhat unexpected.

First the pita bread: I was of the thick variety (if actual such thing exists, just look at the picture above). To an extent, it felt more like a filler than anything else! I would have certainly preferred the regular flat variation. The other “problem” is that it was quite bland but, hey, it is just bread so I won’t comment too much about it. As for the hummus… Well, that is the part that confused us quite a bit. Probably my expectations is a smooth paste, which I could then scoop with the pita bread. Obviously, we couldn’t do it with this thick, chunky paste. And when I mean chunky, I do mean chunky: there were still pieces of chick pea as we went through the dip. On that note, we ended up using a knife and then spread it on top of the “pita bread”. Flavourwise, it didn’t work in anyway. I mean, it was fine, just that I could taste either the garlic nor the spinach….

PO chose to go for the pulled pork sandwich, the dish I would have order as my second option. Visually, I will have to admit it does look quite good. I am not sure if serving the coleslaw on top was a good idea. It is just that it being a wet “salad”, plus the fact they added sauce to the pulled pork, it ended up being quite wet. I think it being served as a side would have worked better. As for the fries, meh, it was the generic version. I tried a piece of the pork form the exterior and it was quite… saucy. I think there was too much sauce but still decent. However, I found out a reason why: while the pieces from the outside were partially moist, the pieces from the inside weren’t so. In the end, I think I wasn’t so excited about it as I can do better…

Given I was in an English eatery, I thought I should order something English as well. Yup, that’s bangers and mash. One odd thing you will notice immediately is the carrot. Yup, that is baby-cut carrots. I won’t hold anything against them for using this. After all, this is a pub, I won’t expect much in terms of vegetables… As a result, the broccoli was OK, not much to comment about.

The mashed potatoes was good and bad. While it was smooth, it was still stiff and lacked some liquid, either milk or broth. At that point, I was wondering if this was made out of a pack… (There were some pieces of skins so, at that point, I didn’t care much). Furthermore, some spice was badly needed, as there wasn’t much taste at all. I guess that’s why it had a heavy serving of gravy… On that note, I will admit the gravy was quite good. It wasn’t salty and had a slight hint of fried goodness. I can’t pinpoint if it was beef or pork, though. Regardless, it was good. And, finally, the sausage… I won’t say it was spectacular or anything, it was just OK. It was pork based and the meat wasn’t too smooth but there weren’t much chunks either. It was crispy on the outside and, when cut, it had a slight snap on it. So, the cooking method was good, the sausage wasn’t the best.

In the end, the food wasn’t spectacular by any means but, then again, this is a pub, where food might not be the main focus. If we look from that perspective, I would call it is quite decent – the caveat, of course, is that I am not much of a drinker. Now, if I were to compare this to Fogg N’ Suds, for some reason, I prefer the later.

Tagged under: Lunch • Pork • pub • Vancouver • West End