The Bard and Banker. Victoria BC Canada

Its 7 PM, I’m hungry and walking aimlessly through downtown Victoria. The Pig BBQ Joint closed at 6:30PM. What the? I’ve heard many good things about the Pig and I was looking forward to some BBQ or perhaps one of their elusive burgers. Now I’m in a funk. Where to eat? Victoria, being a tourist type town has no shortage of crappy restaurants. Every chain you can think of is here, Milestones, Earls, Browns, Cactus Club. No, not tonight, I’m going to take a risk on the unknown. Tonight it’s the Bard and the Banker an upscale Scottish Pub on Government St. that screams tourist. What the heck, I’m in Victoria on business so technically speaking; I suppose I’m a tourist as well.


The bard is a great looking bar, multileveled, terraced layout and it boasts a huge tap beer selection. I’m always amazed at places like this. The amount of investment that must have gone into this place, not to mention the overhead and the revenue required to keep this place open. Now, does the food match up?


I sat at the bar ordered a beer and a lamb burger. I was told by the bartender that the lamb burger is the house specialty, the thing on the menu that they are known for. It turns out this is a very average burger. Maybe they are known for being average? Who knows? Everything was tasty just nothing too special, accept perhaps the arugula which added a nice tasty bit of bitter extra something something. This is all a bit disappointing if you believe the menu claims….


“Our food is made fresh daily using many local and seasonal products. As often as possible, our produce, meat, poultry and fish come from farms and fisheries guided by principles of sustainability”.

But the bar has a nice feel and I would definitely be back for a drink. Maybe next time I’ll order the wings. The people next to me at the bar had the wings and during idle bar chit chat asked me how my burger was. I told them it was “OK, just kinda average”. They shook their heads in agreement, leading me to believe that they nod with experience. I was indeed advised by this group to go with the wings next time because “It’s really hard to screw up wings”. What an endorsement! Ok, so next time it’s definitely wings even though in the back of my mind I’m thinking “I’ve had screwed up wings before”.

Screw it, live dangerously.