I will never come back. Service was nice and it could be such a great place to sit and watch Gastown life but the
food quality is unacceptable. Everything tasted cheap and had no flavour. Very disappointing experience. Perhaps, it's a place to have a cup of coffee and leave. It's a pity, considering the location, it should be a central, amazing Gastown place but it's definitely not.

Went on a Sat night with a group of people to Gastown without reservations. Tried a few restaurants that were full and came upon Water St. Cafe and they could accomodate. That may of been a bad sign as the restaurant was less than 1/2 full. Service was very poor with very slow service from start to finish. Ordered a salad which was regular and then the gnocchi - nothing really great about it, just sort of just OK. Expected much more. Several friends ordered the salmon pasta and they would not finish as it was overly salty. Overal, a big failure in terms of food. Prices are on the higher side. Ambiance is nice as it's an older style of restaurant with big windows. Would not return.

We went there for Dine out Vancouver 2012. We came highly recommended by a friend, but it turned out to be a huge disappointment. The service started out fine when our orders were taken. But it went downhill, the food took forever to come, and it was only lukewarm though the plates were hot. I bit on hard pieces of shell on my oyster appetizer, and fished out a few bigger ones. The New York style cheesecake was nothing like the ones we've ever had. It looked and tasted like a hard baked bread, with a layer of cream cheese on top. The crab cakes were the only dish we really enjoyed. After the meal the service we sat for a good 30 mins before someone came to pick up our bill, even though we saw a few waiters come by and stare at it, but no one picked it up. Once they did, they gave the wrong change to 2 of my friends, one of them was not charged so went to the waiter to hand her the Visa...waited for another 15 mins just to hear that they had not charged it yet. Today, another friend found out they billed her Visa twice. We spent 3 hrs with the slowest, most unorganized service ever, and the most disappointing dine out experience. .5 out of 5 stars.

Service:
[-] we waited quite a while until a waitress came and serve us. The food took a bit long to wait too, especially the bread when I had to ask for it specifically! Also most of the waiters had a poker face...
[+] we got a table in the patio in the warm weather when we reserved and they gave us a table when we arrived earlier than the reserved time. When I got my veal, it was very different from what I expected. I told my server that it tasted sour to me and she asked if I would like to see the menu again. The owner was informed, and both of them came to follow up with the replacement entree which was really good service.
Service Score: 4/5

Food:
[-] My friend's halibut (the daily special) tasted like nothing, except you can taste that it's fresh. The sides are not any special at all. My Marsala Scaloppine looks good in presentation, but when I tasted it, it was sour! I'm not sure if it's just me, I was expecting something totally different. I couldn't swallow more so I decided to inform the waitress. Although, the potatoes that came with it were roasted well and I enjoyed it.
[+] So my replacement meal, by recommendation of the waitress was the Linguine with Prawns, although I was considering the gnocchi or ravioli. I liked the pasta way more than the veal. The parmesan threads was the perfect touch to the dish. The cheese and the tomatoes and the pasta tasted so good together...that I wish I had gotten more parmesan! The tomatoes were really good as they were soft and had a lot of sauce/juice. The prawns were very fresh and juicy. The pasta was done el dente but it had a bit too much of olive oil. It would have been better without the excess oil and if it had more basil and garlic taste.

We paid with entertainment card discount and two entrees came to 27 after tax. (the halibut was 23.50 I believe) I would come here again if I have another entertainment coupon, but probably not in a while. The dishes at their quality do not worth the regular price and we would have ordered desserts if they were cheaper.
Food: 3.5/5

I don't mind returning but other places could probably offer the same thing, at a lower price.
Total: 3.75/5

About 2 years ago, we went to the Water Street Cafe for a Sunday brunch and had an absolutely spectacular meal. Thumbs up.

Before Christmas, we went out for a friend's birthday. Wow, what the heck happened? The pasta was not even al dente, it was hard and chewy. The sauce was just revolting - 100 cloves of garlic does not an Italian sauce make!! Perhaps the chef and sous chef and everyone else in the kitchen should have consulted each other before they ALL dumped the garlic in. Beyond that, the sauce was sour and very unappealing. Yikes.

Everyone else at the table left most of their dinners only partially consumed.

The staff were very attentive and great, which helped! My recommendation is that you take a pass. Go to Incendio or Campagnolo if you want Italian, or almost anywhere else if you want to keep the food down. Even average pub grub would have been better.

During last weekend's Gastown Motorcycle Show my son and I chose this restaurant. We were seated quickly enough but it was all mediocre from there on. I ordered a dish that I had not tried before. Apparently our server is a world traveler who corrected my pronunciation of the dish in a rather churlish manner. Geez - sorry for trying. The cheese sauce on my gnocchi was awful. It reminded of of Cheez Whiz heated and poured over my dish. the inclusion of six or seven baby sized shrimp was laughable. The owner or manager, I am don't know who he was, stood at the front door scowling for most of our stay. We were both dressed decently and are not "bikers." Besides, if it wasn't for the bike crowd, the place would have been dead. All in all I was not impressed in anyway. If it such a hassle to be open for lunch service on a Sunday, they why do they bother? I should have stopped at the hot dog cart down the street.

I made reservations here for my birthday dinner and was offered one of their private rooms. I was VERY impressed with the venue and the room. My friends all enjoyed their meals and the ambiance was absolutely perfect.

I had the Stuffed Chicken with Pancetta and Spinach. It was fantastic. The chicken was so juicy and tender. The vegetables were cooked to perfection and the presentation was very pleasing to the eye.

I will definitely be returning to this restaurant. You must try the salmon penne with dill. So creamy, but not too rich and over-powering.

The Water Street Café is a solid place. I went there the first time with someone who is extremely picky, so when he chose to take us there, we knew it was going to be good. My subsequent visit was with my parents and they really enjoyed it, even my mother who is also very picky.

The ambiance is nice, quiet and you have a nice view of the steam clock. Sometimes though, I feel kind of bad to see the homeless people outside while I’m sipping on my nice wine, but that’s everywhere in downtown Vancouver, I guess, especially Gastown. If I remember correctly, the music was classical (piano) and it was not too loud.

The service is good, the server was helpful in suggesting what wine to pair with our meals and he was very polite.

The food is pretty basic but perfectly cooked, well presented, the ingredients are obviously fresh and of good quality and the portions are good as well. Both times I went, everyone was entirely satisfied. The wine selection is very good too.

Value is okay. It’s a little bit on the pricey side but I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it’s overpriced. It’s fair for the quality of the ingredients, especially in that area. My parents, who paid for the meal the second time I went, thought the price matched the quality of the food and the portions.

I would recommend the Water Street Café. Don’t expect anything overly creative but you can count on quality, fresh ingredients, decent prices, a good wine list and polite service.

It was early evening of a saturday night when i got there and the place was about half full.
My friend a I shared vongole pasta, seafood rissotto, and green salad.
Can't go wrong with salad.. glazed pecans in them were very tasty.. yum~
our main dishes took so much longer than usual which i thought was very odd since i ordered long before the rush started.
Anyways, finally food came to us.
As soon as the vongole was placed in front of me I tossed the pasta with my fork and it released this oily garlicky steam.... awwww it smells soooo~ gooood!
I didn't get too excited about the rissotto. It was ok.

I will definitely visit again.

I've only been to Water St. Cafe twice and both times it was great. First time was with the bf for an anniversary dinner. Only complaint is that we failed to make reservations (our bad) and ended up with a table near the door which was a little chilly. But the service was great, the appy's were delicious, main course (had a chicken dish with Brie) was very good and filling, and dessert was great as well. 2nd time I was with my fam for a grad dinner and we reserved a table so we liked our seats, the service was good again (there when you needed them but not intrusive). Food was great again, I had gnocci which is very filling so I walked out of there completely satisfied. Desserts were again wonderful (looooove the blueberry pudding cake one). The thing I love about this place is that you get very good food, good service (other reviews may beg to differ but anyone can have ONE bad experience anywhere) and the prices are completely reasonable. The price of the pasta dishes are probably only slightly more than a place like Earls or Boston Pizza and the food is wayyyyyy better.