Pumphouse Taproom has the best selection of craft beer in Richmond, followed by Hog Shack and O’Hares. I don’t venture out into Richmond that often, and especially not as far as No. 2 & Blundell, where Pumphouse is located. But I had a good time and would go back for the beer if I was in the area.
They’ve got a tiny parking lot so I had to resort to parking across the street at Blundell Centre where the Safeway is.
It’s a casual pubby kind of place.
Majority of the craft beers supplied by Beerthirst. You can basically ignore the top left corner of the board. Some pleasant surprises like Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, Upright Seven and Lagunitas Sucks. Something for everybody.
It’s those Steamworks steampunk tap handles.
Sometimes you just gotta write the name of the beer on masking tape.
Big surprise for me considering the area. Good for them for trying to elevate their food.
My flight (L-R): Sorachi Ace, Upright Seven, Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye.
Sorachi Ace and Upright Seven were great saison-type beers, as usual. Bottles from Upright can be a bit pricey so I like seeing it available on-tap. I was very impressed by the Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale. It’s quite rounded and smooth, perfectly drinkable and tasty. I enjoyed the Hop Rod Rye with my burger.
Steamworks Jasmine IPA. I was surprised to see this on tap because I’ve only seen it as a guest beer in their big mingler bottle packs at BC Liquor stores. Jasmine aroma is just a whisper. Nowhere near as much jasmine presence as Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA but still a good effort.
They do special events here too! I’d be all over this if I lived in the area.
My basic beef burger. Glad to see green leaf lettuce instead of iceberg! The shapes and sizes for the fries were all over the place. I would’ve liked more colour and crispness but the potato flavour was good. Beef patty was a bit on the small side.
Good choice of bun. Just a basic, soft bun that didn’t get in the way. The patty was a bit on the lean and dry side and quite well-done, but I liked the char on the patty and the beefiness was good. A solid pub burger, perhaps a bit better than most standard pub burgers but held back by the fact that everyone in BC is afraid of cooking burgers to juicy medium/medium-rare. Our whole system unfortunately doesn’t make that a safe possibility 🙁
beer selection is good here indeed…but service could be better! sorry, had to rant with the waitress giving us all attitude. that aside, the food was decent.
Yeah, fair point about the service. They had lots of warning that we’d be coming with a huge group. The guy at the bar was good though…he was even running food to tables. But yeah, nothing worse than eye-rolling waitstaff.
That’s a sad looking burger, I prefer my meat to be twice the size of the bun for burgers (get your mind outta the gutter huh!). In my experience, most BC restaurants use poor quality beef and don’t properly spice their burgers to get the best flavour. They cook them on to high heat, don’t salt and spice enough, and worse use crappy beef. I make very flavourful grass fed beef burgers at home, cooked well done they are as juicy and flavourful. A few of the burger joints like Five Guys and Vera’s at least get their patty’s right, but majority of restaurants suck at it.
All good points, Terry 🙂 thx