Shady Island Seafood Bar & Grill

I thought the place was pretty good overall. Slow given the time of year and weather when I was there. The seafood chowder was quite good. The fish and chips… I would say average.
Service was excellent and it was clean, would definitely go again.

Filthy dirty dump the place stunk like sewage the staff were beyond clueless and the food abysmal only an idiot would eat @ SI.

Terrible service. It’s unfortunate because their food is actually good. Seafood chowder is filled with flavour.
We’ve actually seen the manager yell at the servers… Quite embarrassing for everyone. We go back once a year to make sure nothing’s changed… And of course for the soup.

Great fish and chips (pricey), the seafood melt is to be avoided at all costs however. Place is run down and dirty, wait staff was efficient but not standout. I would not go back.

Located along the heart of Steveston village, ive been to most of the restaurants around there but this one is the one in tbe bottomline, decors are so dull and place is not well lighted, service is very lousy and slow… foods arent that great aswell… sad ti say im just in the goodmood to give the place a 2 star… sorry anotherplace i will not visit again…

Food was ‘ok’. Pasta was overcooked, scalop bites were burnt with wilted salad greens. Sockeye salmon, quite expensive for a small piece but taste was ok. Asked for wifi password, never received it. Very slow service. Not sure if price was worth what we had.

This place isn’t really all that bad, I’m not sure why the reviews seem so terrible.
My friends and I went for dine out, they had the $ 28 menu which isn’t bad considering its all seafood. The food was decent, big portions and quite tasty.
The service was pretty good, the tall bald man who I assume was the manager was very personable. He told us stories about why the restaurant was called shady island. He messed up on a few orders… I asked him how many shrimp came with the skewer I ordered he said 4 it came with 3 but literally within seconds he talked to the kitchen staff. He apologized and said normally it was 4 but with dine out it was a little less so he ended giving me an extra skewer! When we ordered dessert he mixed up who had what and ended up with the wrong thing, he again apologized and we offered to just take the desserts BC we could all share but he insisted we get the right ones AND said we could keep the extras, the servers who were a group of young girls didn’t listen to his instructions and ended up taking them away and eating it themselves (THEY could use some customer service skills). Overall he was very nice the tip was included at 15% and I actually wanted to tip more but he helped us with the machines and insisted we didn’t tip because it was included.
Overall the experience was good, it was a big place, not overally crowded. I imagine in the summer the patio is probably pretty nice.
I may or may not go back, but I would recommend it!

I can see why this place only have 2 star. For the location and price, the fish & chips should be outstanding. At the end of the meal, you feel like you fell into a tourist trap:(
The fish was not fresh and you can taste it through the batter … Fries and cole sale were not bad, but halfway through meal it was already getting too greasy for me and the fish was leaving a stale taste in my mouth. The restaurant need some vacuuming and cleaning. Everything seems greasy and old worn out. Skip this place if you can.

We’ve been here about three times now and each time our visit has been worse than the previous one. My husband now refers to it as «Sh*tty Island.» Am I allowed to say that on Unilocal?
The pros: great location for people watching and a sun-​drenched patio.
The cons: slowwwwww service, mediocre food and portion sizes that are much, much smaller than the hefty price tags attached to them.
There are a lot of other truly fantastic spots along the waterfront in Steveston to eat, so don’t be suckered in by Shady Island’s enticing patio. Move along. You can thank me later.

health and hygienic concerns with how they run this shady restaurant that was brought to the attention Richmond coastal health authority. In my decades of eating out at high end & low end places I have never once had 2 call the health board. I was so disgusted eating here & had to call the health board & seriously recommend you go elsewhere.
Here is my experience on Sunday July 27, 2014.
1/​Brown hair on my small plate before even being served. Very unappetizing but took my napkin and wiped it off and thought it was no big deal.
2/​Food choices: Very limited options, fast food quality, very pricey, and very greasy. I guess u pay for the view here & not the food. My boyfriend bought the seafood chowder advertised according themselves as «the best in town» I didn’t notice any seafood in it. You have to order $ 3 bread with your soup to fill u up. Very small portions leaves u hungry still: «large size» is a $ 10 bowl. It looked very small because small is a one cup size for $ 7. These portions are not enough to fill you unless u order French fries with your meal. More grease. This adds up to a $ 20 meal with a pop and u barely ate.
3/​I ordered a $ 20 Caesar salad on the menu that include some seafood. Upon arrival took 2 bites and there was another short brown hair in the salad. I was really turned off by the experience. Just lost my appetite altogether. This was suppose to be a treat and ruined our nice day bike riding. I immediately brought this to the manager (tall bald man) attention. No apology or acknowledgement whatsoever.
4/​Substandard service. The waiter forgot about us. Food took 30 minutes to come out for pre made microwaved soup. 45 mins for a salad. I will not return for the poor service alone. Very slow service because they want you to buy drinks. It sucks when you don’t drink and came because you are actually hungry & wanted to eat!!!
5/​Most importantly, I just don’t trust that this restaurant is being run safely & properly. Too much competition at these fish & chips places everywhere quality control and management is not there. Ongoing concerns about using old oil to fry food.
6/​The carpets upstairs @ this restaurant is utterly dirty, filthy with grease stains and smelled like wet carpet. I was turned off going to the bathroom and according to the chart July 18 was the last time anyone cleaned today was the July 28^th! Almost 10 days of no attention to washroom. The health board advised to me that this is not acceptable and required the restaurant to deal with the carpet & smells.
I find this disgusting and unacceptable for an establishment and u wonder what practice is happening in the kitchen?
Definitely will never return again. My boyfriend still tipped the guy nicely for bad food and crappy experience altogether. The joke I made at the end was the ice water was pretty good.
Go to a restaurant where you will be respected and get your money’s worth. There is something seriously wrong with this place. Just too shady at so many levels @ shady island restaurant. Stay away!!!

Pajo’s was too busy, so my daughter and I gave this place a try.
In short, the cod was undercooked and hard as rubber; inedible.
FIrst cut into the cod and the entire coating slid off in one solid hollow tube.
Couldn’t actually cut the «cod» without sawing at it.
I had no idea cod could be so tough and rubbery. I don’t think it’s cod. Honestly.
Completely inedible.
I went back to the takeout window and asked for my money back.
The young girl at the window sincerely apologized and said she had to ask the supervisor what to do and disappeared inside. After a number of minutes she came back and said the supervisor had to go ask the owners upstairs what they could do.
A bunch more time went by and the supervisor came back and told the front girl she could do nothing without the receipt number. I interrupted her and gave her the receipt.
More minutes go by and finally the supervisor told the girl to give me the cash back.
She also handed a stapled bundle of receipts and said to the salesgirl «put this receipt in the till, and we will talk about this later». The supervisor glared at me, turned around and walked away.
I can only assume they’re going to throw the poor server under the bus instead of the cook who is dropping frozen solid fish into the deep fryer. The only one of the group who apologized for the awful food.
I hope the server looks around for a better job, this place is toxic.
Not surprised to see the other reviews here.

Our experience:
Saturday evening, looking for somewhere for a nice dinner, all the other places were busy but this place had a table available so we decided to give it a go.
— It took us ~15 minutes to be served
— Our calamari sauce was clearly recycled as it had an old gross bit of calamari hidden inside it
— The fried calamari tasted like it was fried in 1 year old crappy oil.
— The fish was okay, but far from great.
— We witnessed a kid get served a gin and lemonade
— We witnessed a guy get a warm beer, instead of replacing it they have him a bucket with ice
— We witnessed a guy get served a glass of water with fish scales in it.
On top of all that, the old guy with the bald head who I assume is the boss was yelling at one of the servers and made her cry.
Do yourself a favour and wait in the line for one of the other places on the boardwalk — something is really wrong with this place.

Great view of Steveston Village and the fishing boats.
We shared one order of Cod and Chips and 2 pieces of Salmon. I have never experience beer battered Salmon before and it was amazing.
My chips were cold and I advised the server, he quickly removed my chips and replaced them with hot ones. He smiled the whole time and was in an excellent mood. He kept my water glass full and my mom’s coffee full too.
The seafood chowder was delicious. Get there around 4PM on a week day to avoid the rush.

Don’t get the appetizer scallop ball! The texture of the scallop was mushy! The starter came after our entrée so really it should be called an «ender». The prawn penne with garlic bread was yummy but the service was not so good. I just waved down our server and she just said «I’ll be come back» with a really rude tone. And it also took her 15 minutes to get the credit card machine.

My wife’s aunt wanted to take us to Pajo’s for their fish and chips. Unfortunately, they closed at 8:00pm and it was already 8:30pm. So we walked along the wharf until we came to Shady Island Seafood Bar & Grill. We were browsing their menu while waiting for someone to help us at their «Take Out» window.
Well, the old guy just looked at us through the window and turned the «Open» sign around so it said «Closed». Talk about one rude dude!!! It was 8:40pm, and the sign outside said the restaurant closed at 9:00pm!
Oh well, after now reading some of the reviews… looks like we saved money by not eating here.
A 1 star experience that I will not be repeating here.

Upon seeing all the negative reviews, I regretted not using Unilocal more often in my dining out. Especially considering how seldom I eat out, I really should spend my money wisely.
We were lured by the sunny day, the patio, and the desperation you can smell on people walking by, as they were trying to find a place to eat. It looked like all the tables were filled and the seated patrons were enjoying the sun more than we could. The wait was okay, only 10 minutes. We were led to our table, and our server Tasha (?) was chirpy and smiley. It was a good start.
We got our water and beers right away, that was good too. Until we tried to order the food. The menu is really lackluster, but we thought, hey, can’t go wrong with the basics at a seafood restaurant RIGHT BY THE DOCK. I wanted to order mussels & clams, but I was told they were out of mussels. OUT OF MUSSELS. Let that sink in for a bit, for a seafood restaurant.
Then began the wait. Oh the long and arduous wait. Three other tables that were seated later than we were, got their food sooner than we did. That’s how long we waited. And under the sun, and no one came to refill our water. I was so parched. Finally our server came around to our parts, we grabbed her «Where’s our food?» She said, «I saw them putting one of the dishes up, let me go check on it.» And after about another 5 minutes, came our food.
Ah the food. It was okay. Thick crusty batter, that I had a hard time using my fork because I couldn’t cut through. And the crab croissant sandwich was not something that would take a long time to construct. And the server almost forgot our fries, we had to remind her.
Meanwhile the table behind us was trying to get the server’s attention as well. From what we heard, the man asked for pepsi twice, and never got it. So they left, without pepsi. And the table next to us, while paying with the debit pinpad, got pointed out by the server, «Oh you didn’t tip.» I didn’t want to tip after that.
I am usually quite lenient with restaurants and service staff, because I know it can be really hard work. But when you don’t even try to make the situation better, that there is zero effort put in, then it’s unacceptable. Our server could have made the day better, address the wait time, bring us water. But none of the above happened. If you are planning on eating on a patio in Steveston on a bright sunny day, try somewhere else first.

Worst food and service ever. Mussels came out cold and the server was so unfriendly. Would never come back.
She was the most unpleasant server to top it off. She basically told us F off because we told her the quality of her service is unacceptable in a high tourist area like Steveston

Went and ate here yesterday (Sunday) for lunch. Between the 4 of us we ordered 3 orders of fish and chips (1– halibut at $ 27 and 2 cod at$ 17 each) and a lobster macaroni. The food took 50 minutes to come out and when it did it was all burnt! At $ 27 we sent the Halibut back for a recook for which the waitress said it would take 2 minutes and took 10 – 15 minutes.
Not only was the food burnt but it was also extremely tasteless and bland. There was absolutely no flavor in any of our foods at all. I t wasn’t even seasoned. I had to add salt and pepper just so I could eat enough to fill myself since the food took almost an hour to come out.
The waitress gave sub-​par service and at the end of the meal after we paid she threw the receipt back at us. Very rude! The restaurant was not very busy at all so there was really no excuse as to why the food took so long and then to come out burnt.
This is not what I expect when I go out and spend good money to eat. Their prices are quite high about $$$ level and no food quality to match it.
DO NOT waste your money and go eat here.

Dine Out 2014 — $ 28 option
We have walked by here many times and finally decide to try it.
Location is great, right off the dock at Steveston Village
1^st Course:
Mama’s Seafood Chowder Cup — thick and flavorful, very filling with tons of seafood.
Calamari — perfectly fried with a light batter and tender calamari tubes.
2^nd Course:
Fisherman’s Pot — in a Miso Cream Broth, this dish is larger than it looks, at least half pound of mussels, large scallops, beautifully cooked prawns, more calamari, clams and crab leg. Comes with garlic toast to soak up all the flavorful broth.
Ribs and Prawns — half rack melt off the bones ribs and perfectly grilled Prawns, love the slaw, and crunchy fries.
3^rd Course:
Key Lime Pie — not too tart as you would expect, very light flaky crust with lime cream centre and whipped cream
Chocolate Mousse — Very smooth and chocolatey, half filled with whipped cream
Décor is Casual, Bar with TVs, it has a huge deck which is usually packed on a sunny day.
The servers were very courteous and friendly.
Dropped 1 star as one of the neighbours closed to us, loudly exclaim that she had an ant in her plate.
Regular Menu price is $$$, but the Dine Out Menu is well worth it.

What a disaster! Located on the waterfront in beautiful Steveston Village fooled us into thinking that a seafood themed restaurant would actually have decent seafood. My wife had a few bites of her $ 18 salad and my seafood melt was no better. In case you were wondering the service was every bit as bad as the food.
I could have spent my $ 50 paying one of the local fisherman to beat me over the head with a fresh cod and that would have served as a better seafood experience then the one I got at the Shady Island Bar & Grill.