London Pub...cool pub, lacklustre food

The London Pub is on the edge of Chinatown on the corner of Main and Georgia is the London Pub.

It's a very cool space that mixes old and new. It's a heritage building with exposed brick arches, floor to ceiling windows, with lots of large flatscreens playing various sports games, modern juke boxes, a pin ball machine, pool table, and old school dart board set up.

They have an awesome array of beers- a wide variety of local micro breweries (yay Russell Wee Angry Scotch Ale and Howe Sound Father John's Winter Ale) and imports on tap and in bottles. It definitely would be a great place to watch a Canucks game or any type of sporting event. Our server was great- she was on top of refills and noone had an empty glass for long.

But when it comes to food....I gotta say, this pub is definitely not a gastro pub. I visited recently for a friend's birthday, most of us ordered dinner, and unfortunately, most of us were disppointed.

I ordered the daily special soup and sandwich ($10) A grilled ham, cheese and tomato sandwich with Morrocan tomato soup.
The sandwich was ghetto. The bread was not artisan- it was your standard packaged whole wheat loaf from safeway. The cheese was processed and not even really melted for a grilled sandwich. The soup was a little cold but had a nice flavour, although I didn't taste any "moroccan" or middle-eastern flavour in it. It tasted more like a fresh, chunky pasta sauce.

Poutine ($10)
I can't comment on this because I didn't try it or ask too many questions but it looked pretty standar but also, pretty good.

Vegetarian Quesadilla ($9)

This looked lame- it was really tiny and extremely thin- the plate was really "white"- white tortilla with a big glob of sour cream.

On the inside- the cheese and toppings were really chintzy. The diner who ordered this was super disappointed. Look at those tiny pepper chunks.

Bangers and Mash ($13.5) This looked pretty darn good. I tasted the gravy which had a lovely tomato flavour...not traditional, but nice. This was the birthday girl's order and she said it was just okay. She and another friend made bangers and mash at home recently, and she said their homemade version was way better.

Wild BBQ Salmon Salad ($13.5) Someone ordered this and I overheard him say the salmon was quite dry.

11" Pepperoni Pizza ($11.50) This was also on the table....and the review was "pretty good, just okay"

Beef Dip ($12.50) The diner who got this was a happy camper. She remarked that "it's hard to screw up beef dip"- but with further probing, she told me the au jus was awesome and that the ciabatta bun was really nice too.

Vegetarian Meatloaf Sandwich ($11) I almost ordered this and I wish I did because it looked good and the diner who ordered this gave it the only enthusiastic thumbs up at the table. It was essentially soy ground round formed into a loaf, with garlic mayo, crispy onions on top, and served on a toasted kaiser.
All-in-all the food here got lukewarm reviews- the soup/sandwich and veg quesadilla being the biggest disappointments. The birthday girl said it best "I can make it way better at home."