Bridges Restaurant (Bistro&Pub Floor)

It was a beautiful Saturday, my dad's old university friend and his family came to Vancouver to visit for a week. They lived in Yaletown and the aqua bus was just a few steps away from the apartment that they rented, so we decided to "transit" to Granville Island for lunch.

We were initially going to Sand Bar, but settled with Bridges since it has nicer views.

The restaurant was very busy on a Saturday afternoon. They don't open the second floor till 5 for fine dining, the dining style downstairs and at the patio was more casual. We decided to share all the dishes that we ordered.


First off, we got some appetizers.

Mixed Lettuce Salad

sundried tomatoes, dijon vinaigrette

($13 4.5/5)

I think the best parts of this salad were its dressing, crunchiness and refreshing flavours. The dish was colourful and nutritious. A healthy start! But not a must order since it's not a fancy salad.

Sizzling Garlic Prawns with cherry tomatoes 

($16 3.5/5)

I believe it was originally 6 pieces, but I couldn't take a picture when it first arrived. The prawns were cooked on point, you could add a tiny amount of salt to bring out the flavours even more, I was fine with just the sauce. However, for $16 and a rate of $2.60 per prawn (almost identical to the price of an oyster) It didn't have the "wow" factor to outweigh the cost of the dish. 

Steamed Local Mussels 

parsley, white wine & cream

($24 4/5)

I feel annoying when I repeat every time that I am not a big fan of seafood other than salmon, sashimi, shrimps/prawns, lobster, and certain types of crabs and fishes. But I will have to repeat in every blog post that has seafood featured because our opinions might differ. I usually hate mussels, I just think they have a weird flavour and texture to it, but since we were on the Island, their seafood must be fresh. Without a doubt, the mussels tasted good with the white wine sauce. Once again, didn't have the "wow" factor, but good enough that I was actually willing to take a few pieces. 

Shrimp Linguini 

Cherry tomatoes, peas & lemon cream

($21 3.5/5)

The pasta sauce itself was very creamy, which was not bad. But the dish overall had 0 flavours other than its creaminess. I had to dump loads of salt and pepper to mix with the noodles. The amount of shrimps they gave was decent, but they were less tasty than the prawns. Noodles were however, cooked al dente. So far I haven't had a pasta dish that was over or under cooked. But the sauce is just as important. The whole dish tasted well after I added seasonings, maybe the restaurant wanted people to add the right amount of flavours by their own preference, if so I would give this dish 4/5.  

Pizza Margherita

Tomato Sauce & Fresh Basil

($18 4.5/5)

My fave dish of the day! Although I can make decent pizza margharitas myself, it is still difficult to maintain the perfect crispiness of its thin crust. Bridges did a pretty good job with the crust, even though it was still a little bit on the hard side.  (That's way I deducted 0.5 points) The toppings of course was nice and simple, good portion of the cheese since I love cheesy pizzas with thin crust. I usually throw out the crust or give it to guys that need carbs, but now I can actually finish an entire slice of pizza by myself.  

Fresh Local Fish & Chips 

house made tartar sauce & winter slaw

($21 4/5)

Lastly, we shared some simple fish and chips. I like fried seafood, so fish and chips is something I enjoy, but not what I would usually order at restaurants. But again, seafood here must be fresh since it's on Granville Island so why not give it a try! Plus frying on point is not an easy task. The cod pieces were of course fresh and the color inside was white and pure. They were fried nicely, not the same type of the ones fried by Pajo's but I like either way. The winter slaw was finely added to balance all the fried food. 

Overall Experience:

A pleasant dining experience on a sunny day. Had many highlights with their dishes. The food and service were above average, but there are rooms to improve for sure. (for ex, the "wow" factor to fit its price range)  The price range is a little expensive for the quality of its food (expected all the dishes to be at least 4.5/5) since Granville Island is a tourist site, and it's a well known fine dining restaurant as well. I would revisit for dinner if I was in the area, but I won't specifically go to GI just for its food.