Libra Room Café

Great spot, guy on the guitar was funny and engaging as well as a bag up musician, the waitress was friendly and on her game, good sized menu and some cool trippy décor.
Tapas were in large portions but really good, got the trio of fries and the calamari which were delicious. Also got the mussels in beer and the chicken burger, mussels were good and in a decent sized portion, chicken burger was good but the chicken could have done with a little more kick.
Stayed for another drink after food because of the musician.
Not expensive, good munch, great atmosphere, would definitely recommend.

Just came out from watching the Oscars at the RIO Theatre and took a walk along commercial drive when a gentleman outside this swanky joint said that «these guys inside have been setting up a band with original looking instruments. So here we are with a 5-​piece ol’ country band!
And a bowl of fresh West Coast muscles to boot — Thai style! Cool atmosphere and good eats!

This use to be my hangout for a few years until it got sold and the new management changed the menu and ambience. I have avoided it until recently when it seems to be coming back into its own.

I went there once.
I had linguine with mussels and shrimps. The food was really good and I was happily surprised. They have bands playing so the ambiance is nice and the crowd was friendly.
However I only put 3 stars because I found the staff almost rude and not very helpful.
It’s a shame cause it could be way better.

Another great place on the drive. Good customer service. Love the live music and great ambiance.

Okay this is my favorite place on Commercial drive to have great time weekend nights. :)
L’ambiance est toujours bonne, les groupes qui y viennent sont toujours (en tout cas les fois où j’y vais) bien, et parfois exceptionnels! Il y a toujours une piste de danse qui s’improvise, la carte n’est pas la plus variée mais très bien néanmoins!
Le personnel est agréable, et même parfois patient (à cause de gros bourins qui renversent les verres et les gens) et attentionné :)
C’est souvent bondé, mais comment ca pourrait en être autrement?! Ca permet d’entamer des conversations avec ses voisins, c’est vraiment chouette!

Ok, so the happy hour has been change to finish at 7pm, instead of 8pm. I think I can live with that. Did you know that happy hour means ALL draft beers are on sale and Highballs are just $ 3.50 per. I think I can live with that.
The menu provides options for the health conscious. Hmmm, funny that I felt the need to point that out. Is the diet of the masses so messed up that we seek out venues which provide nourishing substance?! This is not health food; it is food which is more healthy that that provided by others. I think I can live with that.
The music… oh, ya, did I mention there is LIVE music? The music ranges from ok to not bad to down right fun. I think they could hear me clapping along down the street :-) It’s strictly ‘pass the hat’ but, do, give them a tip; it is all the band makes for this gig. I think I can live with that.
We did have a misunderstanding recently; however, management put it right straight away. Thanks again.

Brutal customer service… Asked for a table and was told to wait at the bar. We had to go back and ask a host to actually seat us. Didn’t get a server for a while and had to ask again to order. Brutal… Avoid!

The Libra Room has some of the worst customer service I’ve encountered since moving back to Canada. We made a reservation for a work event on a Thursday evening. Unfortunately, of the 20 people that had RSVP’d, only 12 showed up. When we realized that we weren’t going to need all of the chairs that had been set out for us we advised our waitress. She threw a fit that carried on for the rest of the night. She was blatantly banging chairs and tables as she moved them around to accommodate for the smaller than expected group. I then overheard her very loudly complaining to the guests behind me about the fact that we overbooked. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked in the service industry and know how frustrating that can be. But we apologized and did our best to make it right. If we had booked for 10 and showed up with 20 people she probably would have been pissed too. But it was a Thursday evening, the place was only half full and it was unlikely that customers were turned away because of us holding extra seats for an hour. To top it off, this waitress continued to treat us like second class citizens for the rest of the night. She forgot to bring food for one of the people in our group. And I sat with an empty beer glass in front of me for 30 minutes before she came and retrieved it without asking if I’d like anything else. Seriously? Suck it up. Build a bridge. And try to act like a professional. I won’t ever go to this place again.

Lengthy happy hour with $ 4 pints, $ 5 house wine and $ 3.50 highballs. Lots of room to sit your butt and usually some live jazz starting around 6.

Went here for the first time — was attracted to the idea of live jazz. The music was fantastic, exactly what I was looking for, the food was meh — overly salty (to the point I couldn’t eat it). I had ordered steak with fries. It tasted like they dumped a bunch of iodized salt on the dish just before sending it out. I’ll probably be back though — the happy hour specials are good (and go until 8pm!) and the service was prompt and friendly.

I think this place is poorly managed… it has such great potential but someone is not doing their job. I have gone there 3 times at around 9 pm and each time they run out (or have failed to stock) my beer of choice. Why put it on the menu if you don’t care enough to stock it? Especially for one of your busiest nights when you only have a few choices of draft beer to begin with. It just shows laziness and organization.
The food is questionable… the standards of care are very low.

The Libra room has such a fun, down to earth atmosphere! They have live bands every night which is a reason I go there quite often! The bands will come around for donations, this kindda threw me off the first time but be nice enough to spare some change– all the bands I have seen there have been decent. Only complaint about the bands is that they can sometimes be a little too loud.
I have given up on the food at Libra room. I have tried a couple of their pastas and after I tried their burger, I decided no more. Its quite unfortunate that I have not enjoyed a meal there but I will continue to go for the drinks and for the bands!

This place gets 5 stars for actually having a proper happy hour. Plus you can bring your friends your family or who ever to this place. This is my new hole in the wall bar! It’s cool and not a hipster bar.

We went for dinner on a Friday night. We had mussels which was excellent. The dish was a bit cold, as there was only one server as far as we could tell, and she just could not keep up. She was friendly enough and brought us more bread to dip into the mussel broth without asking. The beer was cheap, as it was happy hour, at 3.50 per sleeve. We also had the skewers, but the meal was dry. It got crowded towards 7 pm as the band started to play.
This is not a bad place for some cheap beer and live music.

To clarify, we weren’t trying to get free stuff, and we didn’t touch our food past that, but the manager threatened to call the police if we didn’t pay. I later met a server there who said it happened before too.

This was the best meal I’ve had in a looong while:) I ordered the tenderloin, it was cooked to perfection and it came with phyllo wrapped Gorgonzola scalloped potatoes. Amazing.
We had the friendliest and most accommodating server named Laurie (Lola) and the live piano music was the cherry on top :)
I highly recommend!

We were waiting to get into Mezcaleria and popped in for an appie and a cocktail. It’s possible I’m being a little harsh, because we had two things I know very well… But «Meh. I’ve experience better.» pretty much encapsulates how I felt.
The mussels were great, but why did you give a table of four who were sharing tthree pieces of bread. They are mussels. You need to give a vessel, both for tthe mollusk and for that glorious sauce you’ve just worked to create. Please do not make me ask for more bread with a massive bowl of mussels, just provide it out of the gate.
And maybe it’s just me. Maybe that it’s that I’ve been spoiled by stellar, properly made cocktails (most by yours truly), but there should not be ice in my Manhattan. Not a single fleck. Why does everyone want to shake everything? It’s not like it was busy and you were in a hurry… it’s just that someone didn’t train you well. Let me help.
Stir it, gently. I promise, if it’s done well, I won’t throw it down like a frat boy.

I’m not a fan of «The Drive», and think it’s overrated. I honestly don’t know why people love it so much – perhaps it’s because I have yet to find any good restaurants and bars. I’ve been to several restaurants and bars on Commercial Drive over the years, and my experiences have been ‘meh’ at best. Not all places were awful, but there was nothing that stood out (for being good).
Anyway, Sunday night I went on a «date» with someone I was meeting from online. (I know, online dating sucks, but I haven’t had any luck meeting guys in real life. Or online, for that matter.) Unbeknownst to me, he was a hipster (hey, he has perfect vision and can’t grow facial hair – how was I supposed to know?!), and he suggested that we go somewhere on Commercial Drive. At least he had a suggestion and didn’t just say, «I dunno, where do you want to go?» His suggestion was the Libra Room, and while it wasn’t awful, I was not impressed.
I ordered a glass of Gewürztraminer, a wine I usually enjoy, and it was disgusting. It was so terrible, that I just couldn’t choke it down, which is rare for me. The reason it was so awful was because it was warm. What restaurant (aside from The Dime, also on Commercial Drive), in their right mind, serves unchilled white wine? (At least the Libra Room served it in a wine glass and not a plastic cup!) So I told the server about the problem, and she brings me a sample of the same wine, and it, too, was equally warm and disgusting.
When I told her that the new sample was just as bad as the first glass, she said that all the wines would be at the same temperature, as they are in the same fridge. (Either I need to report them to the health authority for a malfunctioning fridge, or the wine had not been in the fridge for more than 15 minutes.) So I told her that I’d just order a different wine instead, and looking at me like I was a moron, she repeated that it would not be any colder. I looked at her and said, «I know. That’s why I want to order a RED wine.» I ordered a Malbec, and while that was fine, it didn’t go with the dish I had ordered, as I had ordered it based on my initial wine selection.
I had ordered a seafood pasta dish with cream sauce, and while that wasn’t terrible, it certainly wasn’t worth the $ 17 price. There were plenty of prawns, scallops, and mussels, but no flavour. I asked the server for parmesan cheese, hoping that that would do the trick. After having to wait for quite some time, as the server had forgotten, I was not impressed when she brought me out a shaker of that powdery crap.
Maybe the Libra Room was having an off day, but it certainly did not impress me, and it is not somewhere I am eager to try again. Meh.

This fun joint in the hood has changed hands again. It now sports a more streamlined menu without all the previously yum burger choices with fancy names. It’s still has quality choices but 4 main preset options lamb, chicken, beef, veg patty. The veg is kitted out with sprouts avocado. The chicken is sans cheeses but with lettuce tomato. The beef is full on with cheese crispy onions bacon lettuce tomato and homemade pickles. All come with a decent portion of fries (dElish) and salad (tangy vinaigrette)
They still have the big selection of mussels with fries $ 14 but sadly today none. Two pasta options either Primavera $ 13 or Seafood $ 17. Entries have been paired right down to only grilled chicken $ 18, steak $ 23, fish of the day $ 18. Still ok to not have the big menu choices. Of course most important is the live music element jazz to world beat which starts at 7:30.

I am so on the fence about this place, they are a great place to go for live music and drinks. I would highly recommend not getting any of their cocktails as they seem to be made without much thought into it. I ordered the Virgo which was supposd to be made with bourbon but when it came it was a drink made of tequila. We all decided to quickly move on to beers instead since you can’t go wrong with that!
Overall we still had a great time chatting and listening to the live jazz band perfomring there.
It gets extremely busy there so it could be hard to flag soemone down to order things at times and even to get the bill. If this place can tweak their management a bit and get a better bartender I would be back more often.

Came here for some dinner, and to listen to some tunes.
Parking is available on the side street.
The layout is somewhat interesting, as the stage is put up against the front windows. In other words, the performers have their backs to the windows if you’re outside looking in. The performers were pretty decent, and the acoustics worked nicely, considering how loud the place was. You could still have a nice conversation in there. With that said, the place was pretty packed. I would recommend no more than 4 – 6 people in your group. There were some TVs showing old school black and white movies.
Special mention goes to the bar area — this has to be one of the most colourful and funky-​looking (psychedelic) ones in town, with their bright vivid colours, and a nice large lava lamp in the back. I couldn’t stop staring. It’s that cool.
The naan bread and hummus were quite decent — there were actually 3 different dips, but I had no idea what other 2 were. Everything was good.
The Black & Blue burger looked more brown to me (dim lighting), but it was very decent and filling. I was pleasantly surprised to find it came with fries AND salad. Special mention. Most places only give you one or the other. Quite tasty.
3.5 stars on average. Definitely a unique theme (music and psychedelia?) going on here. Oh, and the singer/​guitarist performed Eric Clapton’s «Cocaine» while I was there. Go figure.

No cover live music — seating is interesting, you can only call for a «reservation», but in reality it’s unlikely you’ll get a reservation. The music varied (on a Friday night) from «jazz» to all instrumental covers — not sure if all the music is purely instrumental or not. Food looked good, though I had a house salad, which was gigantic.