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Chill Winston is as the name suggests all about relaxing and sharing in their passion for good food and friends. The menu consists of small plates and entrees utilizing local ingredients. Be sure to check out their extensive wine, beer and cocktail menu. Open for lunch, dinner and late night.
I normally try to avoid Gastown for a number of reasons, but after my night out at Chill Winston I won't hesitate go there. A bunch of friends gathered there for a celebration and everyone commented on how great the space is there. It's got a great relaxed vibe and if you want to keep going late, just head downstairs to Guilt & Co which is another amazing spot for drinks. We were a large group and the service was superb (unlike most places where if you're more than 4 people the servers don't know how to handle it!). The menus for both food and drink are unique and delicious! This place is a rare find in Vancouver.
Just visited this past week after not being in that part of town for a while. Great time! And the fact the food is sourced as much as possible from organic or ethical local farmers is great too, given that the prices are not too much at all..(have you been to whole foods lately)? so I don't know where peoples sense of too expensive is coming from...hmmm too many dates out at Dennys perhaps?.
Fun place, real people, great food and I always like watching an open kitchen doing there thing.
Great music and not a TV in sight. Hate places that focus on being a "cool" place then sell out by sticking a TV up and playing the game. Its not fine dining but is relaxed, casual, as good a drinks as I could make at home, so what more could you ask for..
Recently dropped in at Chill Winston for the first time while playing tour guide for a co-worker from Hong Kong. We were walking around Gastown and needed a brunch fix...I was aware of some of the negative reviews on here but thought we'd give it a try anyway. I'm glad we did, the service was actually really good, very friendly staff, attentive but not overbearing. The food was also good, I had an eggs benedict which came with roast potatoes and salad, my friend had the pancetta & wild mushroom skillet. His only comment was the meat was a bit salty, but he's also not used to Western food, and overall we both enjoyed our meals. And we had the perfect spot to enjoy the morning, sitting at the front by the window, taking in the views of the street and people passing by. It was a great intro for someone visiting Vancouver (and Canada) for the first time.
Went by on a weekday for dinner and had a great time. Enjoyed a seat just inside but by the big windows so you can see the sites of gastown walk by. Had the pizza to share and it was quite good, also tried the poutine with pulled pork. Just average as the fries were not crispy enough. For th main, had the ravaoli with duck. Very good and different as it's in a light broth versus a heavy sauce. Service was very good and casual which fits in with the restaurant. Would return.
nice place where you can unwine for a drink at the end of a long day. I tried it for lunch and the food was average considering the prices. I tried the southern fried chicken sandwich which was good but nothing too special.
Neat atmosphere with couches and a lounge like feel. I would go back for a drink after work but not for their food.
sept 5th, eve, not busy, sunny evening, service is bordering on the worst we've experienced in Vancouver.
We eat out probably 3-4 times per week and this has to be one of the most over-rated places ever. I had the bison steak and a beer for $40 and for that amount I felt completely jipped, no service at all, the staff were dressed up in their skateboard outfits, the one server was wearing a plaid shirt with tight jeans and his undies showing! not what you expect for an average of $25 per plate. our server wasnt fussed, the place wasnt busy, loads of staff on hand but other than our order and drink order she came never came back.
We waited 45 minutes for our food, our bill for four people was over $200.
good luck is all I can say...... with that attitude , lack of service and super super overpriced menu they wont last at all. I have no problem paying $50 per person but then take a visit to Trafalgars or something of that calibre (actually trafalgars is cheaper) and the food and service our light years ahead.
dont waste your time or $ here, completely average
Tried this place with my husband.
We were greeted promptly by a server, who advised us that there would be a 20 minute wait for an outside table, but could seat us right away inside. We choose inside and she found us a nice table by the window.
The menu was interesting. We decided to go for some poutine and a pizza. We each had a glass of red wine. When I couldn't decide what wine I wanted, the server offered to let me taste one. She also let my husband taste one that he was considering. I really appreciated this.
Our food was well presented, hot and good. The fries were hand cut (although could have been a tad crisper). The pizza was delicious. It had a thin, thin crust and wonderfully flavoured beef. I did not detect a trace of grease on the crust or on my hand after I had eaten it.
I will go again.
Chill Winston should be called "Gastown Joke!!" The service is unacceptable. I work in the industry as well as opened and managed several places in the city and lets just say the front of the house staff in this establishment are staff that don't care about customers experiences nor care about the well-being of the company. In this day and age with all the competition in the city a place like Chill Winston does not have the luxury of not satisfying a customers.
Let's start off by our greeting by the hostesses..when we walked up and asked for a table the hostess told us that their was no room when in fact there was an large couch of empty tables right in front of us with two young men sitting there. My friend then asked the young men if we could sit on the other side of the tables considering the two guys were sitting at a table that could seat 8 comfortably. They said we could absolutely join so we asked the hostess if that was ok and she rolled her eyes and said I guess so and reluctantly allowed us to sit there. When we sat down our server didn't come by and take our drink order. We waited for 10min before we tracked him down and asked if he could come by when he was ready. Our drinks took another 10min to arrive to the table. Twenty minutes later and we just received our first drink. When we were ready to order our second round the hostess walks up interrupts, throws down menu's and says every second person has to eat. A couple of us said we would order food but they said that wasn't good enough for there were 7 of us and that if we didn't order food we had to leave. The guys that we joined had been there for 3hours drinking and not one word of food order was mentioned to them nor anything mentioned to my other friends sitting at the high tops. I can go on and on but my point is it was a horrible experience from beginning to end and I was and am still embarrassed that I was the one that recommended to meet at Chill Winston. Three out of the seven of us work in the industry so we just said we would just get our bill. We left without the staff knowing that we were all disappointed from beginning to end but I don't want "YOU" as the possible future client to even think about going there. Not worth it!!! U can receive great food and service anywhere so go to an establishment that actually cares about you as a customer.
September 4/2010 we hauled some equipment to Gastown for the Sixth Annual Steamworks Concours d’Elegance car show. The show was great and all of the local shops were quite accomidating to us for the fact we were there for over 12 hours for set up and tear down. I was blown away when after loading our trailers up and heading back to the Valley, I quickly asked one of the girls at "Chill Winston" if I could use the washroom and their reply after a glance towards eachother was, "Our water doesn`t work in the building!" WTF! How our you guys cooking? What are your customers doing? How to support a great event like this that brought customers to you! If it wasn`t for people like us getting up at 2am this event wouldn`t have happened! Go to "Vera`s Burger Shack" they were great all day for suppoert and I bet you`ll get a better bang for the buck! I liked their burgers we had.
I've come here a few times before (always during the dinner hour) and have likened each experience.
It's decorated like a lounge with large (and comfortable) low chairs. The washroom was an interesting layout and a bit unusual for its atmosphere. Toilets are cubicle sized and the sink is shared when you exit the stall.
The hostess and servers quickly seat you and run through some specials. They are friendly and pleasant to mingle with.
Dinner menu is kept simple but a little on the lean side. The theme of their menu seems a little misguided with pizza on it. Anyways my most recent trip with the girlfriend consisted of the Beef Tenderloin, Alaskan Scallops, Golden Beet Carpaccio, Tuna Tartar and Butter Poached Pancetta Potatoes accompanied with a couple of cocktails.
The tenderloin was delicious andthe balsamic reduction and bone marrow on top worked extremely well for flavour. The carpaccio was refreshing although unfortunate that it was the last dish that came. The tartar was an excellent appetizer with dungeness crab and a miso vinaigrette with an avocado spread. The scallops were seared perfectly and I especially like the butter poached potatoes with pancetta. It was so savoury and the best potatoes I've had.
The service is solid although I didn't quite like how they arranged our order when it came out. It's a small quibble but otherwise a great place to take it easy. The patio is inviting although always full. The menu doesn't blow you away but the dishes are prepared impeccably well. I will return to try out their brunch/lunch menus.
Sure it started Chill, but by 10 p.m the place was hot. Shrimp appie was OK, but the pan seared calamari was outstanding. A bottle of wine later... into the night. Great place to watch the Gastown street from. Decent service too.
my girlfriend and I went here the other night because we had great experiences in years past. the menu had changed a lot but i figure this was a good thing. It turned out it wasnt. The turkey wings were awful, the carpaccio was mush and the pizza was comparable to delissio. the only thing we liked was the popcorn which was 7 bucks. That being said, the employees there are still very nice and the view of the heart of gastown is nice to look at. bring back the menu from 2006-2007 and you'll be much better off.
My bf and I came here for some late night snacks last night. Our first experience here was a couple of months back and we remembered that the food was awesome but this time we came the food was just alright. The first thing that we noticed as we walked in was it's crowded in a weeknight with a different crowd, more drinking than hungry customers. The menu was also changed, they serve brunch and lunch now. So, from the dinner menu we ordered:
1. truffle oil poutine: when it came out, it was so fragrant, we could smell the truffle right away, which was awesome. Taste wise was ok, too little cheese and the poutine used pepper demi which is a little different, not too apparent difference though.
2. scallop cheviche: the scallop was chopped into very tiny bits (1/4 cm cube if not smaller) and the squid was rubbery and too chewy. It was served on toasted sandwhich bread. Taste was alright, just like another dish I can get anywhere and though it came in 3's but definitely didn't worth $13.
3. bison duo: I thought it would come as half carpaccio and half braised but instead it was like 90% braised and only 10% carpaccio so we weren't happy with it. Te braised bison was soft but not to the point of falling off bones and taste wise was just alright, just like any other restaurant, not amazing.
4. beef pizza off their regular menu: was alright, lots of beef slices and cheese on thin crust dough. I find this dish to be better than the cheviche and the bison duo but my bf didn't like it.
The cocktails like the devil's fruit was a touch too sweet compared to last time and the cocktail above it (in the menu) was also too sweet.
Service was great and very attentive. Ambiance was also great, brick walls and candles on the tables. It feels like a good dating place or hangout place.
I think I'll come back again, maybe not order the food that we ordered last night and try other stuff.
I finally got a chance to visit CW and I had such a great time.
Food: a little bit on the expensive side and the portions were small. However, great flavor! The well-portioned side dishes are definitely worth it and I highly recommend the buttered pancetta potatoes - heavenly! My boyfriend and I also shared the marinated olives, tomato-avocado salad, the ahi tuna and the cured salmon. All were very delicious. The cocktails were also small and expensive, but packed a punch.
Service: We were seated immediately on a busy Saturday night and when we asked if we could move to another spot, they were very accommodating. Our server was very friendly and I would have given a 4 if it weren't for the long wait time. We waited at least 30-40 mins for the food. Eventhough I was dining with my boyfriend, there are only so many things we can talk about without drowning in awkward silence at some moments.
Ambiance: I absolutely love this restaurant. The huge outside patio provides an excellent view of Gastown. The patio is a real attention grabber if you're walking past. The inside is gorgeous. Brick walls, hardwood floors, huge draped windows, and all the different types of chairs and tables to match anyone's preference.
The washroom is also something else to talk about. It's the first communal washing area, I've seen. Mens' and ladies' stalls separated, but everyone shares the rounded sink. Definitely something different.
I would recommend this place to anyone, and will.
If you're looking for a quiet night out, this isn't the place. But if you're looking for a fun, and upbeat place to go with some friends, be sure to try CW out!
Food: First off the menu is very very limited. I didn't really see anything I thought would be appealing but we felt it would be rude to leave (ie:// make a mad dash for Incendio down the street).
We shared the daily pizza of the day and a featured duck entree. The pizza was so bad I would have considered the pizza a "BOMB" in my own kitchen and probably wouldn't have eaten more than 1 slice out of sheer hunger and guilt over the price. The duck was so undercooked I thought I was eating duck sashimi. We saw a poorly presented bowl of mussels go by and mused about how much we missed Twisted Fork, where we customarily get Duck and Mussels. Surprised that anyone can present a classic dish like mussels in an unappealing manner.
Service: Timing was good. Service was adequate without being cloying. No complaints.
Value: Expensive. $22 for an unappetizing SMALL entree. I've had servings at tapas restaurants like Guu that were more substantial.
Ambiance: Well we came because it was listed as one of the best patios in the city and I'll give it that. Gastown is lovely in the summer. The patio was lovely, however it was also very large, and crowded. The cocktails looked yummy but I think if I wanted cocktails of that calibre I'd just go to Refinery where they make their own bitters with local handpicked ingredients and their food is more appetizing.
Over all... would not go back again... and wished I paid better heed to these reviews... It is really terrible at Chill Winston. I can't even remember a place thats worse.
Even though Chill Winston has mixed reviews I thought I would try it out for a few drinks and shared appies last night. The hostess was very nice and while there were no outside tables available she offered to move us to one as soon as they did open up. We decided just to stay inside but it was nice to be offered. She was the only good service throughout the entire night!
We sat down at our table and got greeted fairly prompty. We ordered a few beers and one appy to share but asked to be given a few minutes before we ordered another one... Well after about 10 minutes our drinks and prawns got dropped off at the same time. The prawns were tasty but nothing special.
Our plate took another 10 minutes (after we had finished eating) to be cleared. When it was cleared it was just picked up from the table. Without a word.. we hadn't even had a chance to order our next course. After about 5 minutes of staring at the multiple servers who had served us at this point someone finally came and took our order for the scallops. They were delivered fairly prompty and tasted good, not great, but good.
We had finished our drinks about half way through the scallops and yet no one even looked in our direction. We were planning on having a desert and a few more drinks however after about 15 minutes of no one clearing our plate or offering us more drinks we decided against giving Chill Winston too much more of our money.
Eventually the plate was cleared and we ordered some wine. It came out after about 5 minutes (considering it wasn't busy I felt this was too long) and there were things floating in one of the glasses! Considering we had just paid $10 for a glass of wine it would be nice if it was put into a clean glass.
After another 5 minutes trying to get a servers attention the glass got taken away to be replaced... but the replacement glass took another 5 minutes to come out... how slow is the bartender if the server can't get a class of wine filled with in five minutes.
After all this we were less than enchanted with Chill Winston. Another 5 minutes of looking around to get someones attention and we finally had the bill.. $70 for 2 beers, a glass of wine and 2 appys... with horrible service!
The atmosphere was nice however there were about 5 blow fly's and bees flying around in side that i think some bug screens would fix.
The only other thing to mention without getting into specifics would be the servers attire. I am all for being trendy and having a casual feel.. however it should be done tastefully. Trying to eat my dinner while my servers chest is in my face isn't exactly appetizing.
Will not be going back...Ever!
A really REALLY large patio. That's its only plus. Food, and service were poor and mediocre.
All the servers are dressed in the usual Gastown electic style with the 'meh-whatever' attitude. Our server never gave us eye-contact. Her eyes were always either looking at another table while talking to us or at the bill. Very odd. Can't blame her too much there are so many bodies on the patio the eyes can be easily distracted? (Trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Still left a very generous tip which I'm kind of regretting but I hear servers need the tips.)
It looks trendy. Lots of young and old folks dressed in the usual Gastown eclectic style.
Food-wise I was extremely disappointed. Had the duck breast with yam and vegetables. Sounded good but it was very rare to the point of chewy and lacked really any flavour. The yam was ok. Tasted like pureed yam. The veggies were limp and extremely salty. Portion-wise it was tiny. All this for a whopping $21!
My friend didn't have much more luck with her dish. Perhaps she'll post her review, but it was tiny as well.
After enjoying food out in the sun one should be happy. At the very least have a satisfied belly. I wasn't satiated, the food was not a joy to eat, my wallet was emptied, and the service was a disappointment. It really felt like I was tricked and then robbed. The value here is one of the worst I've experienced downtown.
I live in Gastown and have been to Chill Winston more times then I would have if it was all on my dollar. I'm wondering if they think because they have the word "Chill" in thier name that it justifies thier reasoning for the terrible service. Or maybe it's that whole "we have a great location and the tourists and film industry will keep us alive" attitude. Whatever the case may be I find the idea an insult to those of us who are local and have a mutual respect and understanding between the consumer and the restaurant owner(s)in the city. Which is, that we pay a pretty penny, we have plenty of choice, and we expect good service, good food, and consistency in both. In return, you recieve loyalty and good tips. It's pretty basic stuff. As for the food, it's good, but not so good that I feel a strong desire to return for it once again. So unless it's just really convenient for entertainment purposes, I can take it or leave it.
Our first visit to “Chill Winston” was terrible. Probably, the worst dining experience I have had in Vancouver in years.
Ambience: only thing this place has going for it.
Food: I had the curry that tasted like it was poured out of a can found in the bargain bin at Safeway. Another one of our members had the “steak and lobster”; four pieces of tough bison with under cooked ravioli. The portions were small and much overpriced. The last member of our group had what he thought was going to be a steak and when it came out it was a stew: I have made disaster crock pot creations tasting better. You would think that when he asked the server for his steak to be done medium rare she would have clued in that there was some menu confusion needing clarification.
Drinks: good but nothing to rave about
Service: Friendly but a little condescending with an over abundance of “huns” and “my dears”. Maybe she had too many tables but the service was very slow. We didn’t even have a chance to tell the server our food tasted like dog food as she dropped the bill off in a hurry and never returned.
Overall: the food was horrendous.
I went to the Chill Winston about a year ago for a friends birthday and found the experience not as nice has I had hoped. I thought I would try it out again a year later and I was disappointed once again.
While the ambience is relaxing and the location is supreme, you are still a restaurant focussing on customer service. The servers/hostesses can be very judgemental and condescending at times, not with the words they use but more the body language and face expressions.
I work in the hotel industry and work closely with the restaurant industry here in Vancouver. I used to recommend Chill Winston to guests looking for a nice local lounge/restaurant in a neat area of town. However, I realise now I no longer want to send our guest's to a restaurant that is un-vancouer like.
Try out the Irish Heather just a block away if you want to stay in the neat gastown area it has a modern Irish feel while still serving traditional Irish and Scottish lagers and ales.
| 1. | Guilt & Company (19 m) |  |
| 2. | Jewel of India (20 m) |  |
| 3. | Terracotta Modern Chinese (20 m) | |
| 4. | Diamond, The (25 m) | |
| 5. | Peckinpah (38 m) | |
| 6. | Sitar Indian Restaurant (38 m) |  |
| 7. | Six Acres (38 m) |  |
| 8. | Irish Heather (40 m) | |
| 9. | Vera's Burger Shack (43 m) | |
| 10. | Salty Tongue Cafe (43 m) | |
