Smiths Pub

My husband and I come here whenever we go to Victoria. They have great drinks, amazing poutine and it’s a great place to just hang out for a while. If you like hole-​in-​the-​wall bars, this place is perfect.

Horrible music. Could barely talk to anyone because it was so loud and was a horrible selection. Food took forever and was cold. Dessert was nice. And although small, they need a second waitress.

Nary a hipster in sight. Old fashioned pub with a DJ too. I like it.

Fantastic Pub and I love a good pub. Great beer selection and friendly staff. I travel for a living so I get to experience many places. My wife and I have joke that I am on a quest to find the best veggie burger and the hippie chick is definitely in my top 5.

Best candle service I’ve experienced. Our entourage routinely has the problem of putting out candles and” our waitresses noticed the issue and was very quick with relighting /​replacing our incompetent candles.
If you like candles and food highly recommend this joint!!!

My boyfriend and I stopped into this place while we were in Victoria for the night to check it out. We were recommended this place from a hotel staff member and had an absolutely fantastic time! It has really great space to meet up with your friends and have a couple of beers and sit around and chat.
The drinks were on the pricier side for a pub. I’m not sure if that’s just a Canada thing, or something directly about this place, but I was a little turned off by that.
The food was fantastic! We ordered the 2 piece fish and chips and the mini burgers. All of which was really full of flavor and not too greasy or small in portion size. Our server accidentally only put our ticket in for the 1 piece, not the 2 piece, but did a great job of making sure we were accommodated for her mistake.
The service is on the slower side on a busy Saturday night. We only saw one cocktail waitress going through and taking orders/​assisting guests, which made for a longer wait time and if we were in a hurry/​time frame, it would have been rather annoying. But lucky for us, we came to not watch our clocks and just enjoy each others company!
Definitely a great place to stop by if you want something good to eat and maybe a quick drink that isn’t going to have an absurd line.

First I will state that I am a pub person. By that I mean that I enjoy a fine pub with proper lighting (dim), a cozy vibe, good selection of beer, friendly service and quality food. If there happens to be good music that’s even better. A fireplace is nice to… there is one just so you know.
On my last trip to Victoria I ate here 3 or 4 times and probably grabbed a beer or two another time or so times. Can you keep up? Did I loose you? That’s how right this spot is.
One of the nights a REAL DJ playing vinyl took me on a nice ride of 60’s & 70’s era Soul with some slight Funk gems around the edges while I enjoyed a nice local Chocolate stout.
Throw a rock at the menu! You can’t go wrong. Everything I had was good! The Southern Job Chicken Sandwich, Chicken & Waffles, Bollywood Chips… etc. If you like Gins they have an incredible selection of small batch Gins. Even some local. They do flights of Gin! Crazy!
If I haven’t sold you enough the staff is quality too. I really only dealt with the same 3 ladies and the manager; all of which are awesome. If you get bad service maybe you’re just not a nice person.
I never spent any time upstairs but I did peak in and it looked pretty cozy. I saw a fireplace up there too.
Do yourself a favor and go here if you’re in Victoria. No hype with this spot (other than mine). Just quality all the way around.

It’s a city of pubs, so the competition is tough, but it would be a mistake to count Smith’s out. They’re not a brew pub, but they know their drinks and the service is really outstanding. Let me give you an example.
I ordered a Martin Miller Martini. It was generous in size, well priced, and nicely balanced, but it had been shaken and there were ice shards in it. I whined about that on Twitter and the pub’s social media person replied immediately «We will put you on our „shaken only“ list for the future. Apologies.»
I mean, pretty good. And since then even though I haven’t identified myself and the staff is different, my martinis are always stirred.
A lot of the people here are regulars who are treated like kings by the staff. Makes you want to become a regular, not that they don’t treat visitors well.
Word of advice: if you’re not looking for a hook up, avoid it on Fridays, as they do the velvet rope bouncer loud music thing.
Food is okay, basic pub food with an anglo/​indian twist, like Bollywood curry poutine which is pretty good, especially if you are recovering from a hangover.
Shabby genteel look, which I like very much. It looks like there should be a poet in the corner scribbling in a notebook.

Service was awesome! Our little American server made us kick butt Caesars. Most of the food was good. We took our meals to go and I think I had the wrong salad dressing. Everything else was awesome. They might want to consider getting a 2^nd server or bartender for dinner time. I prefer not to wait until my drink is empty to order another. It was a nice distance from our hotel too.

We were staying in the Quality Inn attached to the hotel and stopped in here after checking in. Glad we did, we went back every evening of our stay! We didn’t eat here but pub’s are for drinking and we did lots of that! Lovely staff, nice ambience, and as an English person it had one of the more authentic «English pub» themes that I’ve seen!

An evening dinner with out of town friends brought us to Smiths Pub as they were staying in the attached Quality Inn. Between the 4 of us we had:
Chicken Wings
Spiced chips
Green Salad with chicken
Hamburger
Chicken and waffles
Fish and Chips
The wings were a good size, nice and plump compared to some but the sauce was just a plain Franks Red Hot, no imagination. The spiced chips were just slices of deep fried potato dusted in curry powder, ok but nothing special.
The burger was said to be quite good as was the salad. I had the chicken and waffles. The waffle was dense and chewy while the chicken was a boneless skinless batter fried breast. I would have preferred meat on the bone, it makes much better fried chicken. There was no sausage gravy so they gave me beef gravy which was probably from a box.
My wife had the fish and chips. The fish was overdone as were the fries. Soggy and chewy at the same time.
The staff were ok, very attentive while we were eating but slow to bring the bill. We had to get her attention and there was only one other table dining at the time.
There are so many good places to eat in Victoria, so would I come back to Smiths Pub? Probably not.

Best veggie burgers ever. Ever! Whenever I come to Victoria, I make a point of coming here… the food is that good. Atmosphere is a little ratty and dark for my tastes, but the food and drinks are great!

The food was good and the menu has some solid choices. Service was decent as well as the portions but too much gravy on my poutine as my only negative. Caesar was tasty and had a baby pickle Which was awesome.

You shut your mouth, how can you say I go about pubs the wrong way?
Or maybe: there’s a pub if you’d like to go, you could eat something that really wows you.
I’m not sure how to make the requisite joke about the Smiths, but there it is. Sister to the Morrissey in Vancouver, which how can you not adore? I do wonder, though, if the Moz might have a more vegetarian menu.
The staff are great, and it’s a cozy place despite being sort of open-​plan. I, at least, felt less out-​of-​place than at most any other pub in Victoria, and I think that says as much about the place as about me. The music was all very nice and fit the scene well, and I wish I’d nagged someone to find out who the various songs were by, clearly being played from someone’s iPod or similar.
They say that Victoria doesn’t have a lesbian bar, but I think it must be the case that the Smiths is it. There were few people who weren’t women on dates or in couples there, and I’d bargain that most of them were queer, too. That’s a nice thing, and an odd thing to find just up Courtney from the Sticky Wicket.
I must admit that the food kinda sucked, but they were clearly trying and I’m sober now and still don’t really mind. It’d be a good place to take someone who really loves you, or maybe to meet someone who really loves you, or to go and sit on your own and leave on your own with songs you don’t know very well stuck in your head.
There’s much about it which could disappoint, but the things it has to offer outweigh them, and are hard to find elsewhere. If this were my local, I unquestionably would develop an acquired drinking problem. It’s unpretentious as others have said, and quirky without being ironic. It’s a very cool and comfortable place.

Love Smith’s. My boyfriend and I visit often. We love the night bartender (we call him Kenny haha). The selection of beers is great. Food is good. Love the wings. Their isn’t any distractions (tvs, games, esc) which makes for a great vibe. They have the BEST music. Highly recommend this place if you are looking to hang out.

I come here pretty often. Drinks aren’t too expensive and the atmosphere is really good. Décor could be updated though.

I have many good things to say about Smiths Pub. Smiths does not have giant tvs in every corner or annoying Top 40 music. Smiths does have friendly staff, an unpretentious vibe, and a great menu. I also loved that the layout was a bit wonky, with small dark corners and two sets of stairs (one up, then one down) to the washroom.
But overall, I felt like I was in a pub, not a British-​style pub.
Also minus one star because of the washroom setup: the stalls have old, rickety doors that open inwards making exiting a challenge, and the the waist high mirror above the washroom sink gives women a view that’s unwelcome at any time.
Will I go back? Absolutely, with a mirror in my purse and expectations of a bar, not a pub.

Decent.

Delicious sliders, good beer, good service, and live EPL matches. What else could you want from a pub?!

I popped in here before a show with a couple friends on the weekend while visiting from out of town. So this is just based on their beer and service, not food.
The wait staff and hostess were really nice and very friendly! So, full points for service.
The beer menu was good and had a nice range of choices. I was impressed that they had the chocolate porter on the menu. Not something I would expect a pub to keep on hand and tapped. I was not in the mood for porter and opted for a Driftwood amber ale instead. It was tasty.
The atmosphere is dark, but fairly comfortable. Lots of wood with long bench seats against the wall with table adjacent with a couple chairs. The bathroom left something to be desired, however. But despite that, it’s a good place, and I will have to come back next time I am in town.