I've been to Steamworks on a few different occasions and find it to be a mixed bag - good food, bad service, bad food, good service - the only thing that remains relatively consistent is the ambiance, as even their beers (seasonal selection) are on a rotating menu.
Generally, I would recommend not to come to Steamworks on an empty stomach...their selection seems vast but none of it is really original or well-executed. Plus their entree items seem really overpriced for what you get. Their appetizer dishes are okay to snack on which you drink, which is really the only thing I would go out of my way to go to Steamworks for. Their beer is reasonably priced (somewhat saves their value rating) and fairly good. I'm a big fan of the raspberry beer myself, it's a shame it's not available year round!
The ambiance is decent, it's a pretty nice room but some of the tables can be uncomfortably close and it does get a little loud and rambunctious at times. Basically a relatively straightforward go-to place for drinks and hanging out with friends.

Five of us went for lunch and everybody was very pleased with their food. I had the mixed green salad and was blown away with all the ingredients - it was colourful, tasty and a generous portion. One of my friends had the mini burgers as her entree and aside from being the cutest looking burger plate ever, she noted that they were very tasty. Two others had the seafood chowder and just about licked their bowls clean. My other friend had a sandwich with green salad and was very pleased.
The service was great - our server was very friendly, checked on us frequently (but not overbearing in any way), had a big smile on her face and just did everything right.
The ambiance was clean and comfortable.
I'll be back.

Since cactus bought this place it is just another CC, i.e 19 year olds serving half decent over priced food to 19 year olds. Steamworks before that wasnt anything special, but at least it was unique! Cactus is the same crap everywhere you go!!

I was shocked to read that this location was bought up by Cactus Club (which has a location right across the street). Probably got it cheap because Steamworks was terrible and couldn't have been making money. It's now just known as the Village Taphouse or something. What is really a bit sad is within 100 feet of each other you have Cactus, this place, and Browns, which are all eerily similar to each other. Kind of too bad really as no need for this many places the exact same.

OK I lifted my boycott of this place hoping it would be better with Cactus management in place. Service was definitely better, pretty much Cactus like. I think they have made some changes in the seating, etc. too, there are even pool tables in the back. It was pretty nice and happening, tons of TVs for watching games, more a pub atmosphere than restaurant.

The menu is pared way down and pretty much all different, it's more like Browns next door. About half of the items are direct Cactus imports but there are some differences. Ordered their only burger on the menu plus $17 nachos. Ate the fries and they were not great. Tried the nachos and they were very stale. My hopes were dashed. For $17 for nachos I expected a lot, and these were the worst I ever had due to the staleness - I should have complained but I'd only had a few by the time they asked and was hoping they would get better. The burger on the other hand was very good, probably in the top 5 out of the maybe 100 different places I've tried. I'd go back just for it.

Basically their kitchen needs some more work as I can't believe they let $17 nachos go out stale (maybe nobody orders them at $17 so they go stale).

I'll probably give it another try hoping I got unlucky on one item.

Ambiance - I went there for a birthday dinner with a group of friends in the beginning of may hoping to also catch the canucks game. i called up to see if we could make a reservation for 8 people. They told me they weren't taking reservations which was totally not a problem b/c i hadn't really expected them too. But just as I was saying goodbye the person on the phone changed their mind and said that they could make an exception for us. Great! so we head down to the restaurant and find out we've been put into this meeting room, basically a large room with about 10 tables in it, but it is totally cut off from the rest of the restaurant! I appreciated them making an exception, but a little forewarning of the seating arrangement would have been nice because we felt very isolated in a large room all by ourselves. we would not have chosen to sit there had we known, but it was impossible to move to another table at that point b/c the restaurant was full.

Service - very friendly and attentive, no complaints there and i know we must have been out of her section but we were never forgotten. felt a little bit rushed to place our orders tho.

Food - So so. had the calamari and nachos for appetizers, both of which were good with large portions. Dinner wasn't fabulous tho, I had the butter chicken which was good but the portions weren't huge. Food for 8 people took over 5 minutes to be brought out for everyone, which is kind of a long time when you're sitting there with half the people still waiting. 2 of my friends ordered the ravioli which neither of them liked, the sauce tasted like some powdered mix and was cold. actually all the food was lukewarm so it probably sat out for a bit, but the ravioli was outright cold. nobody really raved about what they ate.

overall tho i think the restaurant is good, and we just had a poor experience b/c of where we were seated so i would definately give this place another try.

I have thought of Steamworks as an adult pub oriented restaurant, so it came as an unpleasant surprise to have booked a co-worker's retirement party in their special side "party" room, to be surrounded by 20 or so screaming 11 year old boys and their very harried parents. We couldn't tolerate the ear-splitting noise, could not have any conversation whatsoever for the first hour until they finally left, and didn't use our second table since it was too close to them and instead crammed all of us around our far booth to stay away. We sincerely wished we had been told that a group like that was sharing this one room with us since we would have chosen another night. Our waiter was so overwhelemed himself we felt very uncomfortable. Food took a very long time as well and it was not a special occassion to remember among friends.