Stayner’s Wharf Pub & Grill

I had supper this evening at Stayner’s Wharf Pub & Grill.
Though there were people sitting on the patio, I sat inside (I’d left my coat at the hotel).
At 8pm, there was «Open Mike».
I ordered Chicken Parma Pasta. Though it didn’t say it on the menu, it arrived with parm cheese on top. I’m not a fan of parm cheese so scraped it off. The chicken parm was okay … the chicken was a real breast, rather than processed. It was filling.
Jean Marie was my server. We started chatting and it turned out that we went to the same high school and the same university (though 30 years apart). She was friendly and nice and took good care of me.

Not horrible but next time I’m in Halifax I’ll keep looking for somewhere else. The food and service were okay but nothing special. The location was good.

Came on a Saturday afternoon and got the fried clams. Being a visitor from Ontario I don’t often get the chance to eat them and these were great. Seemed fresh and in a light crispy batter. Good service and friendly staff. My girlfriend ordered fish and chips which were also good but not extraordinary. Will visit again.

We headed to Stayner’s this evening for a rainy day dinner, Groupon in hand. The service was alright, although the server didn’t quite nail the beer order (my partner asked for whatever brown ale was on tap, and the server brought him a Rolling Rock — not at all a brown, but still fine). I had the pan-​fried haddock with veggies and whipped sweet potatoes, and my partner had the chicken parm. I was really impressed with my entire meal. The lemon on the haddock was delicious; it was definitely the best I’ve tasted it in the city so far as it’s usually pretty bland. My partner enjoyed his chicken parm, but ended up being jealous of my delicious fish. We got the brownie delight for dessert, and really, how can you mess up a brownie and vanilla ice cream? It was perfect. I also liked that it was portioned into two pieces so we avoided our usual brownie-​sharing issues. We didn’t go late enough today for the live music, but I’ve been there before while they had live jazz and it was wonderful. Overall, definitely happy with our visit!

Great musical venue with diversity of styles and size of groups though being a smallish room, it can get loud. The food, I’ve found to be consistently good and priced fairly though the turnover in staff seems to be a constant. Just as one of the staff gets familiar with you; (asks if you’d like your regular beer); they’re gone and the process begins again. The location is perfect for having dinner and a walk along the boardwalk, however.

Great service, quick food, good tasting food and great entertainment throughout the week. Will definitely come back again.

The food was finely cooked. The seafood was very fresh, the quality is definitely worth the money. Very good customer service. I highly recommand this place. It’s right by the water, there is patio available, but a bit too cold this time of the year.

My fiancé and I tried to go one night it took forever for us to be seated and then when we were we waited 25 minutes and still no one came to even take are drink orders we ended up walking out and going to gahan house the only reason they got two stars is because of location

So I had a horrible experience here the first time I went. The owner messaged me and offered some discounts but I felt guilty for considering using them. So I went back to give them a second chance because we all have bad days.
They had no idea who I was so I didn’t get special treatment and the service was 100% better and I finally got to try that burger I wanted so badly.
Make the trip here because it’s worth it.

A decent pub, in a great location. You will find better if you keep looking around in Halifax, but you will certainly find worse too. Stayner’s has a great location overlooking the water and in the center of the action. They have a large patio area for when the weather is nice, and inside seating as well.
They have a full bar, and serve various local and national/​international beers. Really can’t go wrong with the drinks. One notable is their spiked coffees are very good; best we had during our time in Halifax.
Food is decent, with generous portions. The wings were very good, but not the typical buffalo wings found in the States. Rather they were salt and pepper wings served with different dipping sauces. Very tasty. The nachos were also good, considering we were about as far from So. California as you can get on the continent. In other words, not as good as what you’d get in American southwest, but better by far than any other we had in the Maritimes.
Service was good, friendly, timely.
Overall, a decent place to stop for a drink and a bite. Good views if you sit on the patio.

Have recently rediscovered Stayners this week. We popped in to see a friend’s Sunday Jazz gig and found ourselves back on Thursday for another helping of good live musical entertainment. Great musicians and singers. This time we decides to try out the kitchen while we were there, as well.
We both ordered fish tacos and I gotta say, we were pleasantly surprised. We’ll be back again for more… Both music and food.
So nice to see artists getting some gigs around town. The bar and resto biz is tough, so it’s great to see places that are still committed to live shows and great players

Went for dinner with the familly. Good food a bit pricey for lunch but great service and nice ambiance.

I visited here once several years ago and it was not a pleasant experience. Fortunately things have improved and it is indeed «A-​OK» now.
Twenty-​four co-​workers and I had a work lunch here recently (don’t worry, we had reservations). Good thing it’s a large restaurant! They were unable to seat us all together; their seating is mostly booths so they did their best to group us in the same section. The décor is mostly many, many photos of old fishermen and boats. It’s not bad and gives you a lot to study while waiting for your food.
The menu is varied but overpriced. It’s very much a tourist-​centred place. It *is* on the waterfront, so that’s to be expected. We had three different servers who were all friendly and helpful (and did I mention cute?). Our table had honey ginger chicken, the donairger (donair meat on a burger bun), a portobello mushroom salad, fish & chips … and lots of other stuff. :-D Everyone seemed more-​or-​less happy with their food, which all came in a timely manner for such a large group. My chicken had fake grill marks on it but tasted pretty good, though my veggies were microwaved to almost liquid. It came with rice which was surprisingly good.
Overall the food was okay, service was very good and the restaurant itself is quite nice. Plus they have a good-​looking drink menu.

This is one of our regular spots for dinner partly because of the location (near the ferry terminal because who wants to try and park in Halifax) and partly because they have a decent Jazz scene. The food is good usually variations of classic pub food which is a nice change. For the most part we’ve had friendly attentive servers, however I would advise against ordering drinks that aren’t on their menu. I ordered a dirty martini one night and sent it back 3 times and it still wasn’t properly done. A good low key spot for brunch, lunch, or dinner.

Had been here once several years ago before moving away from Halifax, but don’t remember enough to comment on that experience. I do remember liking the atmosphere and live music at the time, but that’s all.
Tried it more recently for a gorgeous lunch in October, and a nice evening in June. Both times, the patio was about half full.
The Thai Penne & Romaine Salad caught my eye on the October visit and then I just had to have it (being a pasta addict). (GFO) Penne tossed with Thai peanut sauce, red and green pepper, tomatoes & onions over Szechuan dressed romaine then garnished with Mandarin oranges & peanuts. Full size. $ 10.50. Definitely tasty and filling without being TOO big a portion. Unfortunately, I think this was removed from the menu since then? Or unless it’s still on the lunch menu but not the dinner. My second, more recent visit, my partner and I split the full size «Vachos» ((GFO) Nachos with veggies! With red & green pepper, tomatoes, green & red onion, chopped spinach, jalapenos and mozzarella. Try the donair sauce on the side. Full Size 14.75 ~ Half Size 9.75) and were impressed. The chips were spread out widely to get a good topping distribution. Also, I have never heard of serving donair sauce with nachos before, but it came on a side saucer for dipping. I ventured, I liked, I would have again. For dessert, we also split the Homestyle Gingerbread with French vanilla ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce. $ 6.50 (made in house). Very fresh, moist and tasty.
Friendly, standard service. A server forgot to bring my 2^nd glass of wine, but apologized profusely when I reminded her, so all was ok.
Would go back and try the inside again.

We arrived at this ‘eatery’ as our last stop on our trip through Nova Scotia and PEI. I will start off with saying the food was pretty good (hence the 2 stars) — that is the last positive thing I can say about the establishment. It was a lunch on a nice sunny day and the other 3 members of my travel group wanted to eat outside on the patio so I agreed.
Simply put the service from our waitress (ALLY 40) was close to non existent. Our order was slow to be taken, arrived with 3 errors, even the staff bringing the food said they would correct the errors but never did. When one my group asked her for butter she explained how ‘there was already a lot of butter in the mashed potatoes…” We asked if she could anyway (she didn’t). When we informed her that one of the meals (10 minutes later when we caught her) had the wrong side dish and the other staff was going to correct but never did, she said she didn’t know who we were talking about, but said in a not so friendly manner that she wound get the right side. The side arrived as we were ready to leave for our flight.
The waitress arrived with the bill and started explaining that she brought the side and the person would didn’t bring the correction was a new staff member who had only worked there a day. I’m only summarizing the experience but it was a long string of stand off ish interactions with barely ANY service at all.
The simplest way the cover this whole experience in a nut shell is that we will NEVER return here again, and recommend people steer clear unless you like the challenge

Average-​at-​best pub that has a good location at Halifax’s waterfront, right by the ferry terminal. I sat outside on the patio. Unfortunately there’s a local delivery cul-​de-​sac right in front of the restaurant, so the harbourside view is slightly marred during the day by a fairly constant stream of vehicles dropping off things for the adjacent businesses.
The bustling tourist trade hits this place pretty hard. I don’t think many locals bother; it was certainly all tourists the Wednesday lunchtime I stopped in here.
My fish and chips was lacklustre and not especially filling, unfortunately.
Service was very good, though. Three people asked me, before I’d properly sat down, if I wanted water and two of them brought some to me.

Our last meal in Halifax was lunch at Stayner’s Wharf. This place was busy at lunch. We were lucky to get a table outside and the weather was perfect.
We really were not in the market for a huge meal, so used this to have our last chowder in Nova Scotia. Ms T had a cup of Seafood Chowder and I had a bowl of the lobster variety. Both were very good. It was nice to finish up on a good meal. The chowders were well seasoned and had good seafood flavors.
Based on one lunch, this place bears checking out more.

I tried. I really tried to like you. But you are just so mediocre. I find Stayner’s tries to be upscale in their food but it really really lacks. If you want to be a jazz lounge, then do that… focus on your average pub food, don’t charge $ 30 for mediocre dishes that sound great on paper but don’t follow through in the cooking process.
I went to Stayner’s often in the summers passed, just for a drink and some sharing of apps. This, they do well (although the apps are a tad pricey). Drinks are actually quite good and reasonably priced. The wine was a titch expensive in comparison to the cocktails, which surprised me, but I guess that’s usually the way with non-​inspired cocktails.
But when it comes down to a dining experience, for the prices charged and by the way menu items are described, you expect so so so much more. All of the menu items sounded sooo great and there were many different price points, so there really is something for everyone. However, when you want a night out, you tend to lean toward the entrees… which seem to run between $ 18 – 29. For this establishment, that seems pricey, when I could hop up to the Brooklyn Warehouse or aMano and have a great fine dining experience for the same price.
Ok, so with so much choice and fantastic descriptions it really was hard to choose. R chose the blackened salmon with risotto, and he said it was quite tasty but a little too blackened– taking away from the taste of the fish. Admittingly his did look well presented and good. Our friend P. got the pork done in a port sauce. Again, it looked good but the veggies were raw (raw zucchini, peppers and broccoli), i am not sure if this was intentional or an oversight. And his pork was completely fatty. As in fat running through it. But he ate it, lapping up the sauce, and said it was alright. His companion Ra. got the fish and chips. A safe bet. Just as you expected. However with tartar sauce coming out of a bottle. I am never a fan of this.
I chose the whole clams and mashed. I loooooove whole clams and it is hard to get them fresh. Because the menu said «when available» I assumed they were going to be fresh and done well. Well what I got was 8 clams, that were runny and slimey; full of sand; and minimal batter… as in maybe the tips had a little batter. The mashed were garlicy and quite tasty and the coleslaw was pretty good too. It was just with a waterfront resto you would think the fish would be great, but it was almost inedible. I actually left 3 clams. Couldn’t stomach the slime.
oh, and we started with calamari. You would be hard pressed to find any squid in this. It was all tiny tiny deep fried batter bits… couldn’t tell if there was any squid inside. And then dosed in a red chili sauce, which is a fine sauce but I would prefer my food to not be swimming in it.
Overall for 2 with 2 martinis ($ 5.65 ea) and 2 beer (yay for local! $ 6.50 ea) and half an app, two entrees… after tip it was $ 100. Wow, I find that insane. I guess it’s my own regrets, because I would have rather went to any of the fine dining our city has to offer.
So yah, I would hit this place up for music, drinks, and apps. But def not a night out for good food.

It’s funny, but I’ve lived in Halifax almost my entire life and up until about 9 months ago, I’d never been to Stayners. I’ve walked past it, heard the lively jazz wafting through the waterfront at night, but never gone in. A few months ago we went for a lunch meeting there, and since then I’ve been back 3 or 4 times for various work/​volunteer related meetings/​functions.
I love the atmosphere in there. It’s not tiny, but it’s smaller and feels very warm and inviting. There are multiple options for seating and we’ve always been able to find somewhere off to the side to enjoy our meal and conduct business. The staff are very friendly, and attentive and know the menu well.
Now, I’ve never had an amazing meal from Stayners but I’ve also never had a bad meal. Everything I’ve had has been fresh, hot and pretty tasty. Their Greek salad, complete with delicious pickles sliced over-​top, is excellent! Just the right amount of dressing, feta and tomatoes. YUM!
I’ll be suggesting Stayner’s next time we’re doing a working lunch and I can’t wait to try out their patio with a nice cold beer next summer!