Smuggler’s Cove Pub in Victoria BC (happyhour review)

Basically just came in so my gf could use the washroom and get a quick nibble, but I decided to check to see if predrinking dinner at Shiki made any sense (spoiler: it made sense enough).

Picked it at random based off wanting to drive to/through the area playing pokemon go.  Wasn’t sure if I’d ever ended up here (busing from campus or something back in olden times, maybe driving there with beer guy/gamer bro roomie in grad school), but now I’m 99.99% sure I’ve never been.  Absolute Gmaps find.

First look at the outside says “pirate ship.”

First thing you see inside:

Okay, so far so good.

Then you walk past the kitchen to go upstairs (because it’s a beautiful day a week before fall and the balcony beckons), and it’s also giving pirate ship:

Werk. What’s the upstairs like?  Kinda busted and dusted 🤷

The balcony is a hit, though:

We had menus by about 3:45pm and other people were already being seated.

Quick trip to the washroom:

Futuristic!

The regular menu prices felt a little high for standard pub food.  But the lager was the right price, and I assigned us snacks off the cheap menu to satisfy the lady.  The riblets for her (we had a whole convo about how appy menu ribs are never on a rack, it’s just a way of saying “bone-in pork morsel”) and the coconut shrimp for me because I felt like being bad and shrimp are very good. So is coconut.

Well, here’s one thing that nominally only hurts me:

I guess I decided the food just looked like food? And by the time it arrived we just inhaled it and bailed?  The shrimp were really good, she thought the riblets lowkey sucked.  Decent portions for the price 👌 super fresh and good quality.