P2b Bistro & Bar

I had an Entertainment Coupon for this place. It is attached to the Pinnacle Hotel downtown. If you’re a tourist or visitor on a business trip, this is a decent place to go. The atmosphere is nice and it can be romantic. It’s luxurious, but it was also conventional and nothing to «wow» about.
As for the food, I ordered «Creole calamari» to start, and then I had prawns and scallops over some risotto with a citrus butter cream sauce to dip. My partner had the halibut with potato spuds which I tried. Both came with the butter cream dip and both came with seasonal veggies. In general I think it was well seasoned and I loved the buttercream dip. The risotto was a favourite that even made my partner enjoy his dish less. I tried the halibut and the potato spuds too and everything was cooked and seasoned well. My only slight disappointment was the serving size was quite small, even for a casual fine dining restaurant. Nonetheless I was satisfied.
If you have the money, I would try it on a date night, but the cost of parking in Coal Horbour is ridiculous.

My experience was pretty bad. I was dining alone as I’m staying at the hotel. My steak was cold. They heated it for me, but it was fatty and just not good. I was asked if I wanted ground pepper but never got it bc my steak needed to be heated so no pepper came. I asked twice for my bill to a gentleman who was not my waiter. He said he would get my waitress, I had to go and no one seemed to care. That’s the bottom line I guess, they just don’t care.

Had the halibut– maybe the best halibut I’ve ever eaten. Average hotel bar/​restaurant, nothing special there. Nice, polite, you can eat by yourself without a lot of noise. but man that food was good…

Great spot for either lunch or dinner and perfect for groups. My last visit was with a group of friends for an early dinner.
We had a reservation and were seated pretty much right away upon arrival. It took about 5 – 10 minutes before our server took our drink order but after that, the service improved with food orders and follow-​up drinks.
I had the mussels followed by the Cobb salad, with an added order of prawns. I thought it was a bit overpriced but everything tasted really good. Other dishes at the table were the crab cakes and the pasta with meatballs — both looked really good. I’m disappointed to learn that they no longer have the amazing bread that they were so well known for, but due to changes in ownership, they don’t have them anymore. Too bad, they were pretty fantastic.

This restaurant is in the lobby of the Pinnacle Hotel and is worth a stop if you’re staying here! They have incredibly friendly service with a welcoming atmosphere. Friday nights they have live music and their appetizers are great! The crab cakes were the highlight of our experience. We’ll see about the lettuce wraps tonight!

The food here is really reasonably priced for what you get. I had the salmon and it was wild sockeye, just like the menu stated. Some places try to pass off farmed as wild, not this place. The fish was cooked perfectly, with kale and a rice pancake. I also had the crab cakes to start, and they were made with real crab not imitation crab. If you stay at the pinnacle, you should definitely go here for dinner, it’s well worth it.

We went here for Dine Out Vancouver for my birthday. The server was pleasant and friendly, however we had to sit around for about 15 minutes or so as we waited for our bottle of cava we ordered, after initially forgetting which wine we had ordered. It finally arrived to the table just as we were becoming frustrated with the wait as we felt as though we had been forgotten. The courses were decent, however the steak seemed small and not seasoned/​flavoured to its full potential. The appetisers were pretty good. We ordered both the salad and the tuna tataki, and there was a nice balance of textures and flavours. The vanilla crème brûlée was rich and lovely.

I came here with 5 other friends for dine out with no real expectations. It’s a good thing because this place was not that great.
The parking first of all is ridiculous which you can’t blame the restaurant for initially.
We got there around 7 pm. Going in, the place wasn’t busy. A few tables but overall pretty dead.
Waitress was nice but not very present at times but overall the service from her was decent.
The food I ordered was the tuna tataki, flat iron steak with mash mushrooms and asparagus and to end of was a chocolate pâté.
The appetizer came at a decent time and it was well portioned. The taste was not bad, but I’ve had better.
Then everything went south from here. The main took a very time long. Mind you we came at 7 pm, ordered at maybe 720 and we didn’t get the main till 845 to 9. Two tables that came later than us got their mains before we did. On top of this slow service, the waitress didn’t let us know it would take longer and didn’t apologize till we brought it up.
Oh and we saw a mouse inside the restaurant as well. Food safety fail?
The steak didn’t even taste that great. I had ordered rare but because of the wait time it came out medium rare. We asked for the chef and he came out eventually and apologized but did not offer any compensation.
I ended up paying parking that was close to the price of the meal.
I will never come again.
Service ¹⁄₅ food ²⁄₅ ambiance ³⁄₅

Excellent restaurant! Must try the mussels, Kobe meatballs with tagliatelle and their rib eye steak!
I was quite surprised at the end of the night how quiet the restaurant was on a Friday night, given the terrific service and the delicious food.
Our waiter was polite and hospitable throughout our meal and the restaurant was comfortable. The mussels were succulent; the Kobe meatballs (as part of a pasta dish) were the best meatballs I’ve had in Vancouver! They had just the right texture and flavour. The rib eye steak was marvelously tender and was accompanied by a delectable jus. Even the sides of mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and broccolini were perfect!
My only comment is that the restaurant should improve on the ambiance (e.g. replace the ripped up booth seats, the lighting, music), given that they’re striving for that kind of ambiance.
Give it a try if you’re looking for a nice place for dinner in the coal harbour area!

This review is for the P2b Bistro but also for one of their employees, Craig.
My fiancé and I came to have a short vacation in Canada and really had no plans at all. We arrived at the Pinnacle Hotel and were undecided on where to eat. Since we arrived late and were rather exhausted and hungry, we went to the nearest restaurant, P2b Bistro and Bar.
Craig greeted and seated us immediately and struck up a conversation about where we were from, and what we planned to do. We admitted we had no idea what to do in Vancouver, but were open to ideas. Craig took our food orders and excused himself briefly. He came back very quickly with our drinks and also a map.
Right there at our table, Craig began drawing on the map. He circled, named, and drew out perhaps a dozen locations to visit and another dozen places to eat. In literally 10 minutes, he outlined an entire itinerary for us. He also crossed out sections on the map and urged us to not visit those areas of the city. My fiancé and I were overjoyed! Craig went above and beyond the call of duty. We sincerely appreciate his help.
The food at P2b was also very good. My fiancé ate some chicken wings, and I had a arugula, watermelon, and beet salad. These were both very good. We would definitely come back since we only saw half of the things Craig recommended.
P. S. Craig… Ranch dressing ;)

Not bad, but not great. I cannot comment on the regular menu as I ordered strictly off the happy hour menu. Got the warm bread with hummus and duck spring rolls. Sadly the duck spring rolls were in reality fried duck egg rolls, but pretty tasty. The warm bread on the other hand was somewhat bland, although the hummus was not too bad.

I had a lunch date with my mother here. Unfortunately, we can right at the time when their kitchen was closed for renovation and all they had were cold sandwiches and soup.
Well, whatever, we’re already here, what the heck.
We had 2 sandwiches and 2 daily soups. Man, they love their olives at this place. Olive bread and tapenade spread… a little bit of an overkill. The sandwiches were actually good. The ministrone soup of the day was a complete fail. Tasted like watered down Campbells, but less creamy if thats possible.
Overall, I see potential in this place and will come back when their kitchen is available. For a place that did not have a kitchen, the sandwiches were actually pretty good.
A sandwich and soup is $ 15 each.
Actually you know what, I’ll have to change the rating to a 2 now. The tables are extremely scratched up and dingy and it was so hard to have a conversation with my mom even though we were the only ones in the restaurant because they were vacuuming the carpets and cleaning or doing something with their cutlery and wine glasses. Cling clang clash, rinse and repeat.

I used to work in the building beside Renaissance Hotel and would come here often. I missed their complementary fried pizza tasting rolls. Unfortunately they got rid of that. I remember one odd experience I had was their roof leaked and the water leaked on my table and because I reacted fast I didn’t get super wet. But again that was back in 2011. And since then I never went back until just beginning of this year 2015.
2 good friends and I decided to dine here because I had a coupon from the entertainment book. The food is good and fresh and like the past this place is not busy. But sometimes its hard to find service in this place.
I might come back here if I have another coupon. But not paying full price for it and thats for sure.

Went here last night with my SO and daughter for dinner. We had a travel zoo coupon for this restaurant.
Voucher was for 2 applies, 2 mains, and a dessert.
We had the mussels and charcuterie platter as starters. They were average.
For mains we had a 10 oz prime rib and a 10 oz NY steak. Came with garlic mash and broccolini.
They were done nicely.
There were only 2 servers and a hostess working on a Saturday night so the service was lacking a little bit. Even the hostess was clearing dishes off the table.
Overall it was a good evening out in down town.
Would go again.

Sigh… again, ½ stars could give a better opinion of my true feelings. I’d have gone 3 ½ stars here… Nothing is wrong with this place. The food was decent… the service was good… The pricing for what you were getting… that’s where things get out of wack.
So… addressing that issue, it is most likely because it is a hotel restaurant. A lot of times they feel they have some hostage guests that may not venture out, or are on expense accounts, but I have the run of the city to choose from… I can notice a good value, or not. This wasn’t a great value.
That being said… our night out WAS a good value… the wife had bought a GROUPON for the place. The deal was a fixed price for 2 appetizers, two mains, and a dessert to be shared. Anything on the menu… no strings attached.
For that deal… the place was a good value. The amount that would have been charged for the whole thing would have been almost double what we paid for the deal, and that wouldn’t have reflected as much value.
Wife started with crab cakes which she described as fluffy and not so densely crunchy as a lot of ones that are plopped into the deep fryer (these were pan fried and flipped… you could see the middle line). I had a charcuterie platter that had 4 types of meats… 4 cheeses, and a smattering of gherkins, and crispy things (toasts and crackers). That was pleasant as well too.
Mains… wife went for a sablefish dish, and I had a smaller striploin (could have had the larger one… but wasn’t super hungry… so why?). The wife’s fish was a huge chunk of fish on top of a bed of some sort of hash with chorizo… she was really liking it… my steak was nicely done (a touch chewy, but not bad). Mashed potatoes were creamy, and the broccoli rabe was cooked decently too. Again… everything was fine.
We paired it with a bottle of penfolds koonunga hill cab/​shiraz that was on the table already (smaller bottle)… went nicely with the meal.
So… hurrying back? Nope. Price reduction on their part, or another ‘deal’… yeah, I’d go back.

Thank you to some higher power for the voucher we received which resulted in our dining experience here. Without this voucher, I would have been even more annoyed with how much we paid (difference between the voucher and the meal), how much time we spent there, and how disappointing the food was. Oh who am I kidding, I would have preferred not to have had a voucher so I could have avoided this entire dining experience all together.
I shouldn’t be surprised that when there’s a rather empty hotel restaurant… the food must not be that great.
The service was sporadic. The server popped in here and there but was generally never around. We even asked for the bill ASAP to avoid having to wait much longer. Yes the server was nice when around but that didn’t make up for the lack of service.
Onto the food: it was mediocre at best.
— The best thing I had all night were my garlic mashed potatoes.
— $ 9 for the tiniest bowl of seafood chowder was highway robbery. Seriously? It wasn’t even a bowl, it would be the equivalent of a cup at White Spot.
— My rib eye was not cooked as ordered but I was too hungry to complain. Also, all our food had been sitting for awhile because when it arrived, it wasn’t even hot. The plates weren’t even warm.
— The portions were abysmal. You seriously want to charge these prices? Higher end restaurants in Vancouver wouldn’t even dare. If the quality was better, yes you can justify smaller portions. If your quality isn’t there and your portions are tiny, good luck being profitable or even breaking even.
After our meal, I went to McDonald’s to grab my 2^nd dinner. I sound like a hobbit by typing that but I was extremely hungry afterwards. I literally left the restaurant with my girlfriend and on the way to my car, I mentioned I needed more food.
At this price point, it’s one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in Vancouver. We both agreed that even with a free meal here, we wouldn’t be interested.

We stayed at the Renaissance hotel and it was getting late so we decided to give this a try. We had the salmon, oxtail and prawn and scallop. The prices were on the higher end which was expected but the quality and freshness were great. It’s a small place so only one waiter and busboy but they were polite and attentive.
We have had their breakfast every day. Again on the pricier end but we had free vouchers and tried almost everything on the menu. I have to say their breakfast is really good. Their benedicts, omelettes, steak and egg and pork potato hash all excellent. Great chicken and waffle too! All of it comes with juice and coffee with refills. Our waiter even let us get the continental breakfast with it too.
My only hangup is the price which I don’t think I would pay that much for breakfast. The dinner prices are ok.

Came with Travelzoo coupon.
Parking: Expensive Coal Harbour parking, meter parking $ 5 per hour
’Cheese bread’ $ 2 basically involves 2 buns with shaved cheese on top. I still can’t get over paying for bread.
Appies: Choice of any 2 appies. We chose crab cake & prawn fritter. Crab cake is good, moist and not overly done up. Simple and sweet. however they are very small I’d say around 2″ in diameter, there are 2 crab cakes. Prawn fritters are huge, the cilantro, potato and prawn combo works very well however prawns were more like tiny shrimps
Entrees: Filet mignon good size, beef quality not the best. Asked for medium rare and came more medium. Red wine sauce not really up to par with price charged *need more depth
Ribeye steak good portion but again no wow factor
Dessert: Shared a cheesecake which was pretty basic
In conclusion not too bad for hotel restaurant but would not come here @ full price for sure.

We accidently stumbled upon this restaurant and I am so glad we did. The food was fresh and local and incredibly tasty! Easily one of the best rack of lamb’s in the city!
The crispy fried rock cod and rib eye steak were top notch! I hope they advertise more because if more people knew about them they would be very busy. The service was the best service I have ever had in a restaurant! Kind, thoughtful and very generous.
Thank you for making our evening so memorable!

Went for lunch and was moderately pleased with The experience it started off well in terms of being seated and even offered a nice purse hook for use while at the table. we were given the one table that truly had the possibility of a view to the water unfortunately the day being heavily overcast made that somewhat limited. We were told by two different style of who our waiter would be in that we could see him shortly unfortunately he was literally the only waiter through the lunch hour and so it was quite some time before we actually did get to see him. The idea of going to this restaurant in particular for lunch was there wonderful oceanwide menu items truly some delicious choices also an impressive $ 12 lunch special option sadly not on the day that we arrived. We decided to use the sustainable Vancouver coupon which granted us two entrées for the price of one. We tried a delicious signature ravioli with ground pumpkin seeds and a beautiful spring salmon with roasted vegetables. Portions were moderate not overly small and an. enjoyable feature was a list of approximately eight options that could be added as side dishes for five dollars. One big item to consider if you’re not already downtown is that there is no reimbursement for parking which rings in at the amount of $ 7.50 per hour so $ 3.75 per 30 minutes. If you are prepared for a small walk the shoppers drug Mart one block further west offers one hour of unpaid parking for their clients.