The Portside Pub in Gastown is holding a fun event on Wednesday evenings in collaboration with JollyBrain Productions in the form of a rock, paper, scissors tournament. The winner takes the pot and it’s $5 to enter.

I brought Nathalie, Josh and Adrian with me that evening to not only partake in the Rock Paper Scissors competition but also to check out the food and drink selection at The Portside Pub.

We ordered The Monster Famous Nachos, Baked Potato Skins, Mini Perogies, Chicken Caesar Sandwich and Sheppard’s Pie. We also enjoyed flights.

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I asked the bartender to surprise me when it came to my flights. The flights come with a shot of Jameson, which is always a good time! The four beers I received were: The Portside Pilsner, 33 Acres of Darkness, Red Truck Lager and Steamworks Kolsch. I enjoyed all of them – my favourite one was the 33 Acres of Darkness that had this nice espresso-like smell and slight hint of flavour. As you could probably tell from my selection, I do enjoy my lighter, drier beers that have less hop to them. All of them were solid choices and were probably the best of assortment of beer I’ve had recently.

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We added the Monster option to The Famous Nachos – what’s in these nachos? Roasted jalapenos, mixed olives, local tomatoes, green onions, 5 different types of meat, a shot of Jameson and sour cream, Chipotle sour cream and fresh in-house tequila salsa on the side. These nachos are formidable and had a good ratio of chips to ingredients. One of my favourites of the evening.

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Up next are the Baked Potato Skins which are layered in cheddar, crispy smoked bacon and green onions served with a side of chipotle sour cream. These potato skins were crispy indeed but I felt the topping were slightly lacking in flavour, if it had a bit more cheddar or bacon, I think it would be great.

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The Mini Perogies were also a favourite of ours – stuffed with cheddar and then topped with Chris Bros. Pepperoni, sauteed onions and chipotle sour cream on the side. These were very flavourful and great bite sized. We wanted to order more but we were a little too full by the end of it.

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The next dish we ordered was the Chicken Caesar Sandwich – most places make this pretty standard, but The Portside Pub really has their A-game going for this particular sandwich. I think it’s the mix of spicy and citrus from the chilli lime chicken and the crunch from the bacon that really makes this sandwich fantastic.

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Finally the Sheppard’s Pie – made with local ground beef, carrots, peas and onions in a red wine sauce topped with buttermilk and chive mashed potatoes. I felt a bit underwhelmed by this dish, mostly because it was a bit on the dry side and it had some crunchy vegetables that kind of threw me off. Also, like many of the dishes previously, this is served with a micro salad – I’d love to see a bit of a tangy dressing added to give it a bit more liveliness to the dish.

After our dinner, we stuck around for the Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament and Nathalie and Josh participated. Josh was one of the finalists but eventually lost! It was a great time and the hosts were hilarious! I’d definitely recommend checking it out because it was a fun mid-week activity!

Disclaimer: I was invited by Portside Pub to check out the tournament and our dinner was paid for, however all opinions are my own.

The Portside Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato