Bow & Stern: family-run seafood restaurant in Abbotsford

Bow & Stern has 2 locations – Abbotsford and Chilliwack. They are a family-run seafood restaurant serving up oysters, classic pub food and drinks. We came here on our way back from camping last year and we were hungry!

The vibe

We were a large group of 8 adults and didn’t have a reservation but we did come at kind of an odd hour (around 4pm) so it was before the dinner rush. We were seated outside on the patio, which wasn’t that bad although some of the tables had wobbly desks. They also have heaters on the patio (which we didn’t need because it was a hot day) but nice to know since a heater can really help when dining in the patio and it starts getting cold.

The inside looked very casual and hipster – a lot of wood elements.

Food and drinks review

Here are some of the things we all ordered. We actually made it in time for their happy hour, which ends at 5pm.

Fresh shucked oysters ($15/28)

They have happy hour specials for raw oysters – $15 for half a dozen and $28 for a dozen. That’s around $2.33 per oyster if you get a dozen. This is an ok price but I definitely do miss the days when we still had a buck a shuck oysters in downtown Vancouver (this was only a few years ago 😢).

The oysters are served with mignonette, cocktail sauce and horseradish. They were all the same type of oyster (I cannot remember what but probably either kusshi or fanny bay) and they tasted pretty sweet and fresh. No bits of sand or anything.

Cod & chips ($14)

This is a pretty solid portion of fish and chips. The cod is battered and deep fried – generally fried well, the batter wasn’t soggy or falling apart. Lots of cod meat inside, and a nice bed of french fries and some coleslaw.

Salmon gravlax ($16)

This was probably my favourite dish (although so simple) and I also found it to be the most sophisticated compared to their classic burgers and fish and chip dishes. The salmon is sockeye and cured with beet, then sprinkled with some herbed goat cheese, coulis, some sweet dill dijon mustard and servedf with some sourdough bread on the side.

It’s a nice little appetizer where you make your own little salmon toasts. They also give you quite a bit of salmon too even though it is thinly sliced.

Baja fish tacos ($12)

I got the fish tacos, which are very similar to the cod & chips except the cod is fried at smaller pieces and placed into a taco. Also in the taco, we have some cabbage, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli and an avocado crema. It also came with a side of fries.

Really good fish tacos! Even though it is not in one giant piece like the cod & chips, these are still big chunks of fish in my taco and the taco itself was also pretty large. Loved the sour and tart pico de gallo – I think I would prefer the fish tacos over the fish & chips.

Boston clam chowder ($9/14)

Kelvin can’t pass up chowder whenever he sees it on the menu. They offer a cup serving at $9 and a bowl serving at $14. This is from their regular dinner menu as the chowder wasn’t listed on the happy hour menu. He got the bowl serving.

He really liked the clam chowder and just like all our other dishes, the clam chowder in a bowl was a large serving. The chowder is made in-house and served with some bread, and Kelvin felt it had lots of clam in it and the consistency was right.

Fried oysters ($3.50 each)

Kelvin also cannot pass up fried oysters, so here are 2 he added on the side. The oysters were pretty big and panko breaded! Yummy bites and $3.50 is not a bad price.

Burger and a beer

There was some sort of promotion or maybe happy hour item that offered a burger and a beer for under $20, so many of the guys in our group ordered this. It comes with either fries or a salad.

The burgers were wolfed down pretty quickly and we had a quick discussion on whether the burger is really good or if we are really starving 😅.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We had a delicious happy hour/early dinner at Bow & Stern in Abbotsford. I was pleased that they were able to seat us quickly and our food also arrived quickly (again, we were hungry!).

All the food was delicious and generously portioned. I think their happy hour is a pretty good deal, but there are definitely more seafood options on their regular menu like seafood boils, mussels, etc. Out of everything we tried, I would recommend the salmon gravlax, fish tacos, and the burger and a beer combo (if that is still available – I don’t see it on their website menu anymore).

If we are in the Abbotsford area again, we would like to come back!

Sincerely, Loewe