The Banter room is a great spot in Yaletown and can appeal to different types of people. One small caveat. That depends on what time of the evening you get there.
During the afternoon and early evening it’s more of a lounge. At 56 that’s our preference. However If you’re younger, you’ll probably prefer it after 10pm when they turn the music volume, take away a bunch of the seating, and turn it into a bar.
We are here about 8:30, just for a disgestivo after a lovely meal at Elisa down the street.
It’s lively, but not packed yet, and we grabbed a seat at the bar and had them put the end the Whitecaps game on.
For my first I went with a Whiskey Sour.
One of my favorites, as long as they make it with egg white. It makes the drink silky smooth and gives you that lovely foam on top. However the bartender missed the simple syrup. So rather having the nice balance of sour and sweet it was just sour. Unfortunate.
I wasn’t going to make that mistake again so I had Merilynn pick my second drink and she picked the Spring Fling for me.
This drink was great, with added bonus of the printed soccer players on the top as she knew we were interested in the game. I’ve never seen this before and it’s pretty neat. Adds a few minutes wait while they don’t be printing though.
It’s a gin based drink with Aperol, orange juice, yuzu and egg white. Almost a sour, it had a really nice balance.
Merilynn went with a classic Gin and Tonic. Empress, which is a very nice gin, but they do not have Fever Tree tonic. One thing we’ve learned as we become more familiar with the Gin world is the tonic you choose makes a huge difference. As we’re used to fever tree at home you really notice the second rate tonics when a bar doesn’t pony up for it.
So two out of the three drinks weren’t great. Pretty disappointing. We’ve had good experiences here in the past.
Still a fun spot though. Go for dinner at one of the many fantastic spots around and head here for a drink after.
5/10