Joe Fortes: Seafood happy hour in Vancouver
Joe Fortes is a seafood and chop house located in the heart of downtown Vancouver. They boast a plentiful selection of seafood dishes with a beautiful rooftop patio, main dining room and live music. They also have one of the best happy hour menus in my opinion. Over the years, their happy hour menu has become smaller but we decided to check them out to see what their latest menu includes.
This review is based on an in-dining experience.
Interior
For happy hour, you are usually seated in the bar/lounge area but that area was full so we were seated in the dining room area half a floor up. I liked the clean white tablecloth feel and the chairs were comfortable. There’s a lot of mahogany wood features and it feels like a fun New Orleans kind of vibe.
Plexiglass separated closer tables and all staff wore masks.
We were seated really close to the stairs (washrooms are upstairs) and luckily for us, there happened to be a live pianist so we also got to enjoy some nice jazz music.
Happy hour food
Drinks and cocktails are $6-7 and happy hour appetizers range from $7-10.
Moscow mule ($7)
I ordered the moscow mule and it was a nice and light refreshing drink (not too strong at all). The glasses had an interesting indent space to wrap your fingers around.
Fresh shucked oysters ($1.50 each)
We ordered a dozen oysters and because of where our table was, we got to see the oyster shucking station from our seats. The guy was really fast and presented our oysters in no time with lemon, horseradish and cocktail sauce.
Oysters were fresh and sweet and a good deal at $1.50 per osyter! We devoured them really quickly.
Mini shrimp & lobster rolls ($10)
I remember when this item used to have 3 rolls but now it’s down to 2. Oh well… the shrimp & lobster rolls are just as yummy as I remembered them to be. The bread is buttered and has a nice crunch to it, and the inside is filled with shrimp and bits of lobster with a touch of dill. They look small but it’s jam packed with seafood filling!
Truffle parmesan fries ($6)
I believe Joe Fortes is where I tried truffle fries for the first time and man it was soooo good. I could never finish the appetizer portion. The french fries are crispy and smell heavenly. The truffle and parmesan taste good together but I did feel like they lessened the amount of truffle in their fries vs in previous years. Still a good dish for potato lovers.
Crispy calamari ($8)
The calamari is battered and deep fried well. The squid inside isn’t rubbery so it’s a nicely fried dish in general. Love the sauce that goes with it – not sure if it’s a spicy aioli or some sort of mayo sauce. Reasonably large portions for an appetizer and a great price.
Crab & corn fritters ($8)
These are little deep fried balls stuffed with crab and corn inside. You can taste some of the crab flavour in there but the corn is a bit more overpowering. I also felt like the fritters looked burnt so I’m not sure if they are supposed to be that dark coloured.
Prawn tacos ($10)
These prawn tacos are really big! They have the classic filling with some slaw, cooked prawns and cilantro. The prawns looked a little burnt as well but it had this spicy paprika coating on top that made the taco spicier than I expected.
It was a little messy to eat because of the dressing or juice/water dripping out of the taco (kind of a wet bite).
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญโญโญโญ
Overall, we enjoyed our happy hour at Joe Fortes and we couldn’t finish all the food. My favourite item is definitely the shrimp & lobster roll, but if they still had their oyster rockerfellers on their happy hour menu I think that would’ve been my favourite item. I also enjoyed the fresh oysters and the fries. My least favourite is probably the crab & corn fritters – I didn’t think they were that interesting or amazing – and the prawn tacos (I don’t like messy eating).
Atmosphere was lively and wonderful and the servers were really nice and attentive. Joe Fortes still remains as one of my favourite happy hour spots!
Sincerely, Loewe