Riley’s Fish & Steak: Happy hour in Coal Harbour
I really should do a happy hour series because I love happy hour so much. It is the epitome of girl dinner because you get cocktails and appies or mains for a reduced price and then I am literally full for the rest of the day 💁🏻♀️.
Again, my requirements for a good happy hour include:
- Has to have drink AND food specials
- Has to actually be a deal (save $) vs. if you order the same item for dinner service
- Accessible hours – ideally every day, including weekends and at least 2 hrs in duration
Recently I checked out Riley’s Fish and Steak in downtown Vancouver (Coal Harbour) for their happy hour menu and had a fun girls night with some girlfriends. Here is our experience!
Riley’s Fish and Steak
200 Burrard St, Vancouver, BC V6C 3L6
Vibe
We are a table of 4 girls and seated outside on the patio. Their patio kind of wraps around the building so we actually had a pretty nice view of Coal Harbour and specifically the Vancouver Convention Centre building (made me think of Aritzia warehouse sale because I’m a basic Vancouver bitch 💀).
Our table was bar height, which if you read a lot of my reviews, you know I don’t love because I am a little short so getting on and off bar-height chairs is always a game of Will I fall on my face 😐? But once I was sitting up there, I felt comfortable since the bar stools were plush. There was a white tablecloth and flowers so everything was very nice. They also have heat lamps if you are cold.
Food and drinks
Here is everything we ordered and shared between 4 adults. Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Riley’s happy hour menu runs from 2:30-5:30pm every day.
Strawberry aperol spritzer ($9)
Riley’s happy hour menu has beer, wine and cocktails on special. All 4 of us order an aperol spritz cocktail – I started off with this strawberry one. It had house infused strawberry aperol, lillet, lime, prosecco and soda.
I am actually not a big fan of aperol spritz when it comes to cocktails, but it’s a fun summer drink and it usually looks quite pretty so I ordered this strawberry one but as expected, didn’t love the taste 😑. I find most aperol spritz cocktails taste kind of watered down/like a Whiteclaw almost.
However, my second cocktail I tried the elderflower citrus spritzer (in the first photo – purple drink), which is almost the same thing because they are both spritzers, but I liked the purple elderflower drink more because it was sweeter. The purple one uses empress elderflower gin, elderflower syrup, lemon, mint and also soda.
Fresh oysters ($1.75 each)
Again, I miss the days when Vancouver used to have a buck a shuck oysters, but I guess $1.75 is ok considering inflation. We ordered 12 oysters to share and I was happy to see they had larger oysters (I prefer larger over smaller). Oysters were fresh and tasted sweet 👍!
Wagyu beef carpaccio ($16)
The first food item that caught our eyes was the wagyu beef carpaccio for $16. For the price, it is a reasonable size and easy to share with others.
The dish came with some smoked tomato jam, onion rings, parmigiano-reggiano and chimichurri toast. Sadly, there were not 4 pieces of toast but it’s a pretty big chunk so we just had to rip it ourselves. The carpaccio was very thinly sliced and tasted good even without the bread to pair it with. Onion rings were also a nice touch for a bit of crunch. The smoked tomato jam was nice but didn’t add much (not a lot of smokiness).
Crispy brussel sprouts ($9)
For our veggie, we got the brussel sprouts. They were cheesy and roasted well with a lot of flavour! Portion size was on the smaller side.
Artisan charcuterie & cheese ($23)
This was their most expensive food item on their happy hour menu – the charcuterie & cheese board. It comes with a chef’s daily selection of meats and imported cheese, house made pickled, mustard and crostini.
Presentation-wise, I thought this was quite nice and it is a decent amount of food. I liked the crostini we got, which was 2 big loafs of this cheesy bread. The meat selection had a nice variety of 3 different meats, and the cheese were already mostly cut up into chunks to make it easy to eat. I personally just wasn’t a fan of olives, but the jam and nuts were also a nice touch.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
After tax and tip, I spent around $45 for my split of food and drinks.
For a happy hour, Riley’s Fish & Steak is not bad at all. It hits all 3 of my requirements – has food and drink specials, it is cheaper compared to the dinner menu and happy hour runs every day until 5:30pm. For those who get off work at 5pm, you can still make it.
The variety and options of food and drinks are good also. I would definitely get the elderflower cocktail again or just some wine or a simple highball. For food, oysters are a good deal and also fresh. I wouldn’t mind ordering the carpaccio or brussel sprouts again, but I may pass on the charcuterie and cheese. Some other items I would like to try on their happy hour menu include the steamed mussels for $18 (good price – curious about the size), calamari, and the mini lobster & prawn sandwich duo.
I’ve been to Riley’s before for my birthday dinner and the dinner service and food was also excellent so I’m happy to see they also have a decent happy hour menu. The interior ambiance is also really pretty!
Happy to see Riley join the Vancouver restaurant scene and it’s a great addition to the Glowbal family of restaurants.
Sincerely, Loewe