Koerner’s Pub

Koerner’s is one our go to bars for drinks and food after class. They have a large selection of drinks so there should be something for everybody. As for food, we’ve had the nachos, the poutine, and the kale and quinoa salad. The poutine was nothing to write home about, but the nachos were good, and the salad was surprisingly delicious. Service is not bad considering how busy this place can get (especially during happy hour).
Portions are large and the prices are fair. One of the better pubs on campus so we have been back.

Gorgeous, family run business with probably the best patios in Vancouver in the summer. Good local craft selection at reasonable prices and 2.50 tacos every Tuesday. Friendly servers (in a warehouse or factory type of way) who keep up with the busy pace well. Clear that everyone that works here has fun together, which makes the place fun to frequent. Food is meh, burger however is one of the best I’ve had and is ground in house allowing me to get my bloody rare fix.

I hate that this is one of the main options for hanging out at UBC.
While friends seem to really enjoy the Phở Nachos, their non-​meat option would more aptly be called Soggy Disappointment Nachos. The beer selection is fine, but in sincerely doubt how often they have the lines cleared; even if I just have 2 drinks here I’m probably going feel hung over, which might actually be mild food poisoning from whatever got a ride into my mouth along with my beer.
You want to talk bad service? The grad-​students working at this place could teach a class on ineffective serving. One time I had food in my bag, which I joked about being able to finish before someone came to take my order. The joke was less funny as time went on, and, long story short, I didn’t have to pay for overpriced macaroni by the time we left…
They have these massive bench tables which are good for groups, but they will also seat people there from different groups. One time we were seated beside another, separate group of people we happened to know, and even though we ordered everything separately, when we got the tab it had an auto-​grat on it. When asked why they charged the 4 of us as a «large group» we were told, «You were talking to those other people, so you looked like a group.» Also, here’s a fun math game for you: When you get a bill with gratuity included, actually do the math on it. I did, and one time I was automatically charged more than 20% on my bill for godawful service that didn’t deserve 10.
If you get dragged here by friends too lazy to go somewhere off campus, just order drinks at the bar and take them back to your seat. You might feel bad about it a couple of times, but when you realize that it doesn’t take 20 minutes (plus however long it took someone to notice that you wanted something) to get the beer you ordered, you’ll come around.

Nosh and Nibble came here for lunch and I ordered the Koerner’s Organic Burger ($ 11.95) and added Bacon ($ 2) to it. First off, the bacon came chewy and tender, indicating that it didn’t get overcooked or too crispy for my tastes. The buns are soft and had a good bounce to them. Things I enjoy in burgers are leafy lettuce and tomatoes, neither of which was very noticeable here (there’s not even a tomato). For $ 14 and a single patty, this was a little disheartening and made me miss the Double-​Fisted Burger from Shark Club but the good news was that Koerner’s Pub staff asked me how well I wanted my beef patty done. I opted for well-​done but it’s nice to know you can customize the bloodiness of your burger here. A small bucket of fries came with the burger and while this wasn’t be as plentiful as say, To Dine For Eatery, it was still enough to fill me up to a satisfied level.

Good craft beers at good prices, wine, liquor, and a great menu for a grad student bar (you need not be a grad student to patronize the place). Enjoyed the fish tacos. Fish tacos in Canada! Not bad, eh?
Nice, expansive outdoor seating.
Bartenders warmed to me quickly and were very welcoming.
The number of patrons and a certain constant decibel level guaranteed by a certain set of musical genres mean that this is not the place you want to take your laptop and write that research paper, but who wants to be working on research papers anyway?

The ambiance is bare bones, recroom college dive. But the organic burger & perfect fries were Awesome! Service is awesome, too — friendly and professional. Try the craft beer flight. And cheap, too!

Super friendly service, great local food, and a decent selection of beers. Koerner’s Pub is my favorite place to have a drink and meet with colleagues at UBC.
Also, they have pool and shuffleboard!

Koerner’s is my favourite of the small selection of on campus pubs at UBC. Decent selection of local craft beers on tap from Howe Sound, Driftwood, and 33 Acres breweries. The prices are grad student friendly and the serving vessels are amusingly predictable: mason jars ($ 5.50) or growlers ($ 18). While the growlers are a cool idea, and certainly add to the hipster cred, traditional pitchers would be way more practical for pouring. They also serve PBR at $ 4.50/$ 15 (jar/​growler) for those looking for a deal.
The space is nicely designed, and I think the hipster adjective used by other reviewers vaguely fits. It manages to feel like neither some generic, corporate bar nor some crappy bro bar.
Koerner’s does loose a star for their disappointing food. They have a Taco Tuesday special, but the tacos are terrible and not worth it even at the discounted price. The Classic Nachos ($ 15) are overpriced, mediocre, and don’t have enough toppings. Inspired by the eponymous Vietnamese soup, the Phở Nachos ($ 17) are better and quite original, but still not worth the price.

My husband and I attended a private party here. We paid $ 50 for the tickets– $ 10 to pay the band and $ 40 for dinner. There were no appies, dessert, or coffee included. The dinner consisted of two «salads” — Caesar and a garbanzo/​edamame mixture with little or no salad dressing on it, two types of buns, a mixed fruit plate, half pieces of corn on the cob, and then a choice of veggie or beef burger or smokie type sausage on the BBQ. By the time my husband got to the buffet table there was no Caesar salad left, no fruit, and no meat/​veggie choice either. He complained to the server and was told that there was no more food. He then complained to the bartender who seemed slightly more concerned. The bartender spoke to the manager. A server finally showed up with a burger patty on a bun.
I have had better food at a beer and burger fundraiser for my kid’s school. The b&b cost $ 15 and included a beer and a donation to the school!
I’m sure it was a lot of work for the organizer in our group to set this up. The restaurant did the bare minimum! It was pathetic!!!
Toward the end of the evening a waitress even chastised the one smoker in our group for not standing in the smoking area!
For this poor performance they even included an automatic 18% tip for themselves.
Definitely stay away!

Great place to grab a beer on campus. The long communal tables provide a unique atmosphere. The beer selection is not large, but quite excellent and the burgers are very tasty. Highly recommend it after a long day of studying.

Place is a bit tucked away but definitely caters to the hipster atmosphere.
The selection of beers on taps is a leaves a bit more to be desired, but their picks of which ones are on tap are top notch. The Fat Tug IPA makes it an easy choice as to what I’m going to drink when I go here.
As for the food, I don’t find it too appetizing at all. A bit overpriced in my opinion. I’ve ordered many of the dishes here from sandwhiches to nacho plates to some of their more interesting ‘fusion’ foods, and they all sound better on paper than they do in actuality. The presentation of their plates is nice, but the taste is a bit bland. Some of these dishes need more spices thrown into the mix to keep it from being so boring.
However, for a place to go grab a beer and sit and chat with friends, this is the place to go. It’s got a great atmosphere and has ample seating both inside and outside. I’m a fan of this place for the drinks, service and location — but I don’t recommend getting food here.

Very hipster vibe coming here, 19+ so you have to show ID to get in (if you can even find the place — my friends and I were so lost because we couldn’t find the place!), and a very relaxing atmosphere at a pub.
food wise, it’s a mix of Vietnamese and western pub food. They are known for their phở nachos, pork belly sliders, and burger. I tried the first two and personally didn’t like it much myself. Phở nachos is a unique concept but maybe It wasn’t done properly for me — nachos without lots of cheese makes me sad. Could add more toppings to their dish. for the sliders, they tasted great — soft, sweet buns with a meaty inside — except if you’re Chinese/​eat a lot of BBQ pork buns, this is just a confused version of one. The type of bun they use is common in a popular Taiwanese dish, but the interior highly resembles the Chinese pork bun. Not that special. I also tried the quinoa kale salad, which I thought tasted great! Apple cider vinaigrette was used, but it wasn’t too strong or overwhelming!
Drinks, as others have mentioned, are in mason jars, which is pretty cool. Sometimes they also have live performances during certain nights, and the waiters are very casual since they know students are here. service isn’t too great, or typical pub service I guess. If you want to order faster you should go up to the bar or try to wave someone down to help you, or give you menus…
For on-​campus establishments though, koerners pub definitely adds a unique Asian flare to what we’ve got here already!

I wish this place existed (as it is now) when I was going to UBC… I would be here all the time! Kinda feels like it could be on Main Street, that kinda hipster vibe with all their drinks being served out of mason jars. They even do fresh pressed juices premade for the day. I liked the Brainiac — beet, apple, carrot, ginger (got a kick), cucumber… felt healthy even as I was eating all sorts of fried foods
We’ve tried just about everything on the menu… Phở Nacho (what a great idea! A lil spicy if you like that), the pork belly sliders (love how they are in the Chinese baos and there are 3), the burger (delish with fries), chicken wings (tasty and a dry sauce so not dripping in it in case you like that), mac n cheese with chorizo. Everything was really great. Yea, it’s a lot of pub food but they do a good job with it and we felt the prices were pretty decent for the quality of food.
We were there on a Friday night and it was packed. Also been on a Wednesday night and same thing, full! It’s going to be a great place to hang out in the summer with the big patio and the heat lamps. Can’t wait!

After defending my thesis, I finally made my way to Koerner’s. I’m so glad I did, because this is a great pub on campus! I came with a group of ~12 of us and we were easily able to find a table around 1:30 PM on a Thursday.
Koerner’s has a minimalistic, modern feel, with a few long picnic style tables in the center and smaller tables scattered around. They also appear to have a really nice seating area outside, but it was too wet to check it out. They serve all of their beer in growler bottles, and the classes are adorable jars. The craft beer selection is surprisingly good.
As for food, I opted for the poutine, which was alright. Nothing fancy, but definitely not awful. My husband had the pulled pork sliders and they were super good! They use a steam bun for the bread, which is clever. My labmates said that the tacos are very small for the price you pay, so note that.
The staff themselves are pretty friendly. Also, they kept everyone’s bill at the table separate using a number system, which worked out pretty well.
Compared to Mahoney’s and the Pit Pub, Koerner’s is the vastly superior pub on campus. It’s a bit of a walk from central campus, but definitely worth it.

This place use to be an old school looking pub for grad students who felt they were too elitist or for girls who didn’t bother to shave their legs for the Pit. Management ran the place super poorly, their hiring was super random, and it was a mess so it got shut down (reality check: don’t let hipster grad students who spend their days philosophizing about Aristotle and how that relates to the downtown eastside run a restaurant or pub business).
Anyways, it’s good now. They remodeled it, so they serve drinks in jars, the décor is way more modern and simple. They went for a more polished, uncluttered look. It’s become a very sharp looking bar.
The food quality has improved drastically. They went from serving deep fried pub fare that was passable, to pork belly, and a mix of Western and Eastern foods that would appeal to UBC’s east-​west demographic. The pork belly bao I ordered was actually close to what I’d get at a decent, busy dim sum restaurant. Service was good too. I was pleasantly surprised.

Koerner’s now looks like the product of a focus group that spent a lot of time of Main Street. But hey, at least it doesn’t look like a haunted poker club anymore. And, most importantly, it isn’t fucking Mahoney’s.
Like all grad pubs, this runs the gamut on clientele: junior and some senior faculty; loud, gregarious grad students out with friends; twitchy, maladjusted weirdo grad students sitting alone and glaring at anything they assume is hipster; drunk idiot undergrads unaware that growlers are not intended as private drinking vessels, at least in public.
Yeah, I spend a lot of time here. It’s a perfect place to do some marking or meet with grad students in the afternoons and early evenings, and a good place to socialize and complain with colleagues in the evenings. I have never run into any of my undergrad students here, which is nice because I don’t have to look over my shoulder when I’m swearing and knocking back booze to kill the sorrow inside. The management is very nice, and the servers are all smiley and chatty which balances out the fact that service is often pretty slow. Once an order is placed, it tends to arrive in a timely manner, but trying to catch the attention of a server in the first place can be challenging. That said, this has improved a great deal since the bar first opened, so I can only imagine that it will continue to get better.
The beer selection is solid, there’s wine on tap (true academic glamour), and, although I haven’t eaten there, the food looks great. See you in hell, Mahoney’s!

Shhhhhh… don’t tell the undergrads!
I was SO EXCITED to see that Koerner’s Pub had re-​opened, and even more excited when I discovered it’s better than ever! The new Koerner’s has been noticeably renovated inside, and the menu has been completely revamped. Gone are the days of crappy pitchers of Canadian, bring on the Driftwood craft brews! Some great options on the new menu, including staples such as nachos, burgers, and poutine as well as some fancy-​pants salads, gourmet mac-​n-​cheese, pulled pork tacos, and banh mi! Everything I’ve tasted on the menu so far has been great, perhaps the lemongrass chicken Banh Mi was a favourite. Expect a main, 2 beers, tax & tip to run you somewhere in the $ 25 range — well worth it! I’ve been probably 5 times now since it’s re-​opening in October, and I anticipate many more visits!
P. S. Bring your ID! Given it’s previous reputation, the new management has been very diligent about checking even those of us whose hair is starting to grey!

These guys just reopened and things are pretty great. Platter of nachos on Que Passa tortilla chips was $ 10. A great deal. The basic burger & fries at $ 12 was slightly less of a great deal. Service was a tad ditzy but no attitude, which is always great! Ambiance is the highlight. Great interior!

Loving this place! It’s 3 minutes walking distance from the UBC ANSO building, but with a Main St. vibe. On my first visit I had a glass of the Malbec ($ 8 for 6 oz, or $ 6 for 4 oz) and poutine ($ 8) — a true dinner of champions! The poutine had just the right balance of cheese, fries and gravy. On my second visit I had the yam fries ($ 5!) and a Thea’s French 75 cocktail ($ 8). Delicious!
I’m looking forward to many sunny afternoons and evenings on the patio when the spring rolls around — until then, I’ll spend some rainy afternoons eating affordable snacks and sipping tasty beverages in a charming atmosphere! Thank you, Koerner’s, for giving graduate students and faculty members the perfect place to meet and socialize. We’ll be seeing you weekly!

Booo, re-​open Koerner Pub! The best pub at UBC for sure. Loved the atmosphere, spent many good afternoons and nights here.
They lose a star for getting themselves shut down :(