Bard & Banker

1022 Government St, Victoria - V8W 1X7
149 reviews
Pubs
(250) 953-9993

Had a great time watching the 2022 Champions League Finals here (sorry Scousers!)Despite how busy it was, the servers were courteous and proficient!Love the fact that they have a beer blend. I've never seen anything like that anywhere I have been and it was just what the doctor ordered.The food was quite good too.All in all a great pub with great food, drink, atmosphere, and service.

Love the layout of the place with the two-tiered dinning area and their style of booths on the bottom paired with chairs and tables up top. Makes it feel bigger and more inviting at the same time. The booth seats were very comfortable and made you feel like you had your own space. The design of the place is elegant which made it stand out from others in the area. Wouldn't expect it looking at it from the outside so it was a pleasant surprise.Food was also delicious and reasonably priced. Both of our dishes came heavily sauced with the sauce being amazing in both cases. Not sure if sauce is a theme here because they were both sauced-up but that could be a coincidence. Good selection of drinks too, bring a small party to get saucy while eating sauce.

This place is STUNNING!The interior is absolutely gorgeous and makes for a beautiful atmosphere.Our bartender was lovely and made great drinks. She was friendly and attentive.We just popped in for some cocktails but we will for sure come back for some food. The menus looked awesome and had a good amount of variety, with lots of stuff I'd love to try.I had the pomegranate margarita & my bf had a negroni

This place has a super cool vibe. Live music was fantstic, and food is tasty with big portions.I would recommend getting a reservation for dinner for a Friday night as this place is very popular. However we didn't have to wait unreasonably long for a table.

Very beautiful historical place to grab some dinner, people were seated quite nicely spaced out and staff were very friendly and accommodating. The menu is seafood and meat centric oriented, I got the fish and chips as well as a half cesar salad - would recommend!

Stunning room . OMG !! So beautiful !! Went to the bar , Brandon or Brendan who looks like if Jason Momoa &Brendan Fraser had a baby, gave us the best service . Sampled some lovely beers from a great menu and tried a pretty good appetizer. Undercooked pork belly but the scallops and blood sausage were on point . Has live music at night . !!—-

First visit for almost two years (obvious reasons, lol). Went on a weeknight with two friends, reservations were made - and turned out necessary since it was quite busy. They have a good system at front to quickly check for vax card and id, and got seated quickly. Service was quick with water poured and menus offered right away. Beverages to start arrived quickly as well - had a couple questions and server was able to get us answers and recommendations. Once we ordered food - it arrived timely and was hot. We had a series of appetizers as our dinner. The portion of mussels was good sized for dinner for one person, came with a couple pieces of grilled naan bread. Broth had a nice spicy flavor (cumin?). Even though it was busy we weren't hustled out after eating and paying our bill. Yes, prices are more than pre-Covid; but comparable to most places and in particular not unreasonable considering the new reality of running a restaurant with higher food costs, finding staff and needing to pay them more, etc. Wouldn't hesitate to come back. One recommendation (and this is not directed as a knock towards B&B, more of a general comment) is that it would be nice to have some more non-alcoholic options on the menu - in particular dealcoholized wine (and yes I know I went to a pub-themed restaurant!). B&B did have a couple non-alcoholic beers, sodas, and coffee on the menu and I anticipate most places could probably muster some virgin cocktails. Post-pandemic I am trying out the sober life and hard to get used to not having a glass of vino to go with dinner. Maybe I should start bringing my own, lol. Apologies for being long-winded, it's my first time writing a review in a while!

Walked over town tonight looking for a bite to satisfy the hunger. Heard this was a popular stop with locals. We enjoyed a quiet table near the back of the restaurant which was nice since there seems to be a lot of ambient noise in the classic old style bar. We ordered the steak and ale pie along with the seafood pie. Both were good, a little salty, but nothing out of the ordinary - hence the rating. The pies were not actually pies at all but food topped with a dry puffy crust 4” in diameter. With lots of other choices in the neighbourhood I think we will be trying other dinners in the neighbourhood. Appreciated the server and her willingness to guide even though she did not know the menu well.

My duck wasn’t cooked properly and the dish missed part of the ingredients which it listed on the menu. My boyfriend ordered the Nashville chicken burger although it didn’t have any sauce on it! We felt like we paid a lot for the evening and we were missing half of the ingredients. Very disappointed.

We enjoyed dropping in here for fish & Chips on family day. Fish & Chips were really good. We only needed one piece. It was large and very tasty. Champagne went well together. Chowder soup had lots of fish and seafood.