Chewies Steam & Oyster Bar – Kits

I had the worst experience with this restaurant. I have waited for my order (oysters and brussel sprouts) for 50 minutes! After the time the order still has not arrived and I expressed distress with such service. Instead of suggesting doing anything my server just brought me the bill and that was it. The food might be good (who knows) but wasting your time with such horrible service is absolutely insane.
Also all tables around me had the same problem.

My aunt raved and raved about this place, so I had pretty high expectations when I walked in, and I wasn’t disappointed! Really friendly service right off the bat, pretty much everyone said hello to us, which was nice.
We started off with a round of drinks, the other ladies getting the caesers, while I got a margarita. My drink was super fresh tasting, good strong kick of tequila in there! The caesers were really nice too, just the right amount of spice.
The shrimp po boy I got was absurdly good, probably the best shrimp I’ve ever had, and the fries were perfectly seasoned. Everyone else seemed really pleased with their meals as well!
I can’t wait to go back and try more of the menu!

Close to the beach and slightly hidden, this place is a gem. Fast and friendly service! Great deal at happy hour too.

Food is ok but a bit overpriced. Service is terrible. Satff look bored and incovienienced by normal questions like can I have some water?
When it came was poured in and most overflowed. One in particular, seemed to really want to be somewhere else and was rude. Food was slow to come. I would not go back.

I Super Love this place… Music… Staff… Food… Booze… Art… Location… A great southern comfort feel in their hospitality. Don’t mess around and get down here and check this place out Mother Shuckers

Chewies. What isn’t to love? Close to Kits beach, friendly staff and good southern style eats.
My sisters and I brought my Dad to this local favourite for an impromptu dinner. We were greeted by a friendly hostess who let us know the wait list was anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour. We took a gamble and put our names on the list. Luckily for our grumbling stomachs we only waited 15 minutes before a table opened up. The atmosphere inside was electric and relaxed. They had live music happening which added to the feel of the room.
Our server was a pleasure. Very friendly and knowledgable about the drink list and made some very good suggestions. I was disappointed they didn’t have my favourite chestnut ale but they had a good selection of other taps. The teamwork of the staff was incredible, they all helped each other run drinks, food and be attentive to the guests. We were very impressed with the service we received from Chewies as a whole!
My dad and boyfriend both had the fried chicken. It was the perfect combination of crunchy from the buttermilk crust and sweetness from the honey. The mashed potatoes were creamy with incredible flavour. This dish was the clear winner at the table.
I had the Jambalaya which had great Cajun flavour. Although I love spicy and wish it was kicked up a notch. I also found the meat in the dish a tad dry. It was a good portion size, and if you’re hungry this is definitely a good choice.
My sisters ordered the calamari. They loved it! It wasn’t breaded, and came with a tasty chipotle aioli and cucumber jalapeño dressing side of greens! Very tasty and the perfect size appetizer!
Overall, I would definitely recommend this place for some southern style eats. Next time I will have to try the oysters. I hear they are famous for them!

Sunday 2pm patio. Stayed for happy hour. The service was so bad it was laughable (but really wasn’t funny). Forgot our drink order, brunch order took 30 minutes, dozen oysters took 40 minutes?! Our waiter simply forgot to enter our orders in, and admitted so. I can understand if they were busy, but restaurant was not busy at all. Overheard table next to us had a long wait for their food and one of their meals was forgotten.
A note to Management — I get that you hire «bros» as wait staff — but not at the cost of delivering basic service to customers. Please get some real servers who take their job seriously!
Oh yes — we asked for calamari and brussels sprouts and were told that during Happy Hour the kitchen is closed until 5pm. Would be nice if this were made clear on the menu.
Save your money. Much better places for value and/​or oysters. Will not be back.
Also — I have been to the Coal Harbour location during happy hour when it was busy, and the service was fine.

Terrible service. 2 open tables of 4 on the patio, but told we would have to wait 30 min for a 2 person table?
Have always walked by and will continue to do so.

We had a reservation and wanted to know if our friends were already here. He told us that there was no reservation under that name at all (obviously untrue because we all have the email confirmation). In any case, we went and found our friends already seated. There was no water on the table even though they were already seated.
We perused the menu and someone came and filled our glasses. Some half full, some too full etc. Obviously just wham bam thank you ma’am. Just wanted to get it done.
The kusshis were delicious and super fresh. Loved the light green mignonette they had. The red one was too much of a punch and took away from the delicate flavor of the kusshis.
The chicken and waffles were tiny. For $ 16 I expected more food. The waffles were thin and there wasn’t much drizzle. The chicken had a lot of flavor on the outside but the inside was bland. I was still very hungry. I told my girlfriend on the way home I’d probably need to get more food.
The beignets were not that amazing in fluffiness. They weren’t oily so that was a plus. The dipping sauce was delicious!
The reason for the 1 star:
— service was atrocious. Couldn’t flag someone down. Literally waited over 15 minutes before I ended up getting help at the bar.
— the grits were lumpy. Grits are never supposed to be lumpy. It’s a sign that there wasn’t proper care and attention to those grits. It was also way too watery. Grits should have the consistency of cream of wheat or congee.
— a table near us who’d gotten there before us still hadn’t gotten their food. We were all mostly done with our food. She inquired. All she got was really crappy attitude. If I had just been seated, I would have left from just watching that interaction. In fact, the table nearby that was just seated did get up and leave. Wonder if it was because of what they witnessed, the fact they hadn’t been served water and/​or because they’d been waiting over 15 mins and no one had come by to ask if they wanted to order yet. Anyway, the fact remains their «apology» to her was a non apology. Told her that his brain was fried and the kitchen was busy and it’s brunch so what’d she expect. Are you effing kidding me? How about he try this on next time, «I’m very sorry for the delay. There’s no excuse. We’re very behind in the kitchen and as an apology, can we offer you some drinks on the house?» Or comp one or two of their 5 entrees. They were so hungry that when just one of their entrees showed up, the five of them shared it. And that entrée was tiny so sharing it was like splitting a scallop among 5 people.
They used to be pretty great. Aside from the oysters and great green mignonette, there isn’t much to rave about. Come during 3−6pm buck a shuck and that’s about it. The lack of customer care and service was appalling and so were the portions.
Lastly, customer service isn’t just for buds. You should be as great with everyone as with your friends. Two of their buds showed up and we watched as they were greeted with bro hand shakes and literally bud this and bud that. Their drinks came out immediately. No joke. They had top notch service that’d make you think it was a 5 star restaurant. Way to show the rest of us that you are, in fact, capable of great service but simply choose to be selective about it.

Very classy, yet casual atmosphere for an oyster bar. Totally dug the vibe and the view from the outside seating area. After trying a little bit of everything from my other four friends, definitely have to say the most impressive dish was the fried chicken. So amazingly moist and juicy with just the right amount of crunch and seasoning to the outside breading, which too, was the perfect amount, it didn’t take away from any of the amazing meat on the inside. The honey butter was the perfect compliment to the dish, drizzled over the chicken and Mashed potatoes. Definitely a must try.

It’s worth flying to Vancouver just to come to Chewies for brunch!
Was in Vancouver for a week and friend took me around town. Thanks Janai! She took me to many restaurants and this was absolutely my fave. I loved southern food and oysters. She said she knew this would be my favourite because my mouth waters when she describe this place.
We had the Joyce Point oysters and apparently all oysters are «in season». Most were nice and big but some were a bit small.
Next was the famous Chicken Waffle! This was heaven. It was a tender piece of chicken, beaten and battered perfectly on top of huge crunchy waffle drizzle with maple syrup. It was soooo good!
My friend had the French Toast which I took a piece, it was tender and had the perfect sweetness to it.
But most importantly they had the perfect beats playing here! Great ambiance, makes you want to eat a little and dance a little. 5 for the ambiance because the music was so awesome!
Food ⁵⁄₅
Service 4.3÷5
Ambiance ⁵⁄₅
Value ⁴⁄₅
=========
Overall 4.8÷5

Saw the chef that was making the po-​boys talk on his phone while cooking. Im utterly disgusted.

Fried chicken and honey mash is sooooo delicious. This seems odd as it’s an oyster bar. Been here a few times, mostly in the summer. Most recently I came in for dine out. My brother works up the street, so we decided to do a siblings dinner here.
They have a good beer selection and a nice assortment of cocktails. I had the seafood gumbo, fried chicken (of course) and peanut butter cheesecake. The gumbo was a little too spicy for my liking, but the fried chicken was golden as always.
It was a Sunday night and we were looking to have a shorter dining experience than usual. The service was a little slower than we would have liked. It did take some time to get the bill. Our total dining time was 2.5 hours, which would have been nice if we didn’t have another commitment that night.
Overall, fried chicken is amazing and I will be back in the summer to try the oysters.

Been here a couple of times but the last two times here was taken into consideration for its not so stellar rating. The food itself is good, but the service here is very inconsistent. Previously, our order was mixed up and the wrong oysters were served. When we asked our waiter about it, he tried to pass them for the actual oysters we ordered. We are not oyster experts, but they definitely looked different from our friends’ oysters who have ordered the same thing.
We went back recently with a reservation for two at 5pm. The hostess guided us all the way to the back by the washrooms to our table. On the way there we saw a two-​seater booth which we would much rather be seated at and asked if we could sit there instead. She basically told us no and gave an excuse that didn’t make sense («just because of the way the reservations and the whole thing worked»), before I could question her more, she walked away. This was unacceptable as we were not walk-​ins; we had reservations and the tables were both for 2 people. It did not affect any reservations. In addition to that, we were only given the regular menus without the drink menu or happy hour menu. The people seated beside us offered their happy hour menu to us instead. Later on while we were eating, the hostess came by to clean and wipe the table next to us. My husband got sprayed on the arm with the cleaning agent. That meant that our food might have been sprayed too (it’s a small table). We brought it to the attention of our waiter and luckily he said the spray was only water, but still she should have been more careful with the spray while people are eating! When we left the restaurant, there was nobody waiting to be seated and the hostesses were just standing there chatting. Neither of them even said thank-​you, good night, or acknowledged we were leaving. They had one job.
The restaurant is usually pretty busy, so expect longer waits for your order, especially the oysters and especially during happy hour.
I like the oysters and the bacon infused vodka Caesar drink. But from the hit-​or-​miss service, I would think twice when I am craving some oysters.

I have tried this place for brunch as well as after work drinks and oysters.
I like the location, very close to the beach, the food is good and the services as well.
For brunch my friend ordered the Southern Fried Chiken & Waffles, which I tried. I guess waffles and fried chicken is a combo that can hardly go wrong. I had the benny style eggs, which was a good choice as well.
I have also been to their happy hour and took advantage of the 1 $ «BUCK A SHUCK». That was great! I will be coming back for more happy hours.

Short version: very comfortable booth seating with mediocre brunch.
This review is purely based on their brunch menu.
Their famous fried chicken with waffles was underwhelming. The fried chicken was very tender and crispy. Sadly, it was under seasoned and over sweetened. We also had the shrimp and grits. The grits were drowning in sauce and the shrimps were miniature and dry. The best part was their biscuits! Light and tasty!
I’ve been here for dinner in the distant past, and I would recommend that over brunch.

Buck-​a-​shuck oysters which is great since it seems like a lot of places are no longer doing this anymore. Great atmosphere and friendly service. Also serving crocodile on the menu which is just great. I’ve used ‘great’ 3 times (now 4) so I guess I rate this place ‘great’!
Paucity!

I really wanted to eat fried chicken. So searched on Unilocal,and decided to eat here because the picture of the chicken looked really good. Did not realize it is southern style restaurant until I saw the menu.
I love Gumbo so I had to try it. Forget about the chicken!
Gumbo was very very good!
Not too salty, not too spicy. It was well balanced.
My hubby got chicken and I got a bite, and it was just ok.
Glad that I got gumbo.

The winners: fried chicken. Just juicy enough. Just sweet enough.
Beef brisket. Tender. good portion.
Mussels. Steamed with a beautiful soup. We drank the soup up afterwards.

I have to say I like this place.
Food is great and service exceptionally awesome.
The tables are interesting or should I say the décor with those tables makes the place unique. They raw oysters were very fresh. Had the oyster po-​boy and it was good (I usually prefer it with more mayo or sauce). However, I did find the fries that came with it was very spicy. As well had their fried chicken. It was very tasty and crunchy. Fried perfectly. The skin was very crispy. As well i do like their mash.
Definitely coming back. As well when walking out, I did noticed about the oyster happy hour. a buck a shuck. Ok coming back for sure.

I went from at 4:30 for their buck a shuck special. Parking costs $ 2 for 60 minutes out in front, and there’s limited spots in the area. Upon arrival, the patio wasn’t open and it looked quite dead. I was disappointed to see it’s $ 1 for local oysters, and $ 2 for special oysters. However, that’s still quite cheap so we went in. Dinner food doesn’t start until 5pm and it’s mostly an afternoon bar environment. People were there for the oysters or drinks, but it definitely wasn’t packed.
The waiters are well built and very casual. The service itself was just as casual. One of the waiters explained that only the lighthouse oysters are $ 1 and two other oysters were $ 2. However, when we did order, the other waiter said three were for $ 2. In the end it’s basically a toonie a shuck for some of the oysters. Despite this extreme confusion, you can see we ordered 3 oysters of each of the 4 kinds (the 5^th kind was not on special). Three of the kinds were $ 2 oysters and the lighthouse was $ 1. So in the end, it’s still a good deal, but misleading advertisement and lots of confusion.
So 12 oysters came out to $ 21 before the usual tax and tips.
The oysters were decent with only very little sand in them, and the three sauces were interesting. Might try the other location but not in a rush since there are other Oyster places in Vancouver. My expectations have definitely been lowered though!

Found this place on the Elite members profile and it was a great suggestion! I went for a brunch and had Southern crab cake Benny. When the dish came, it thought the quantity was a bit small, but it was actually the right amount to leave enough room for the dessert! Yay!
I liked a lot the crab cake with the eggs Benedict, avocado and potatoes. But the small salad that comes in it could be better elaborated. The overall dish was delicious.
I just put down one star because of the price. $ 18 for eggs Benedict seems bit pricey to me.
Next time I plan to try the famous Southern Fried Chickens and Waffles. Hope it will come with no bones.
I also loved the quiet location in Kitsilano and the staff is very friendly.