EXP Restaurant & Bar
5/5
Opening at 5:00 pm
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  • English,
Location
309 Pender St W, Vancouver, BC V6B 1T3
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Meet the owner

For EXP co-owner Brian Vidovic, his lifelong interest in video games started at an early age. “The first game that absolutely stole my life was the original Mario Bros,” he laughs. “It was at a friend's house, on his NES, and any chance I could get, I'd sneak over and play Mario. Because we couldn't afford a console.”

So it's little wonder that his downtown restaurant (co-founded with partners Julianna Kolakis and Azlan Mustapha) is a gamer's paradise, featuring arcade machines, a rotating tournament console at the entrance, eight screens showing live-streamed games and a host of events that cater to gamer and geek culture. Even the menu items are appropriately themed, from the Triforce Burger to The Hadouken to the Broken Down Mario Kart. The owners all hail from backgrounds in game design and visual effects; in fact, Vidovic spent several years at Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment before leaving the company to start EXP.

“It felt like there was a big hole in the community,” he notes. “I was holding a bunch of tournaments and events myself, and it just made sense to create a space where I could bring geeky people together. It's something I still believe in. It's what games should be able to do.”

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Ratings & Reviews - EXP Restaurant & Bar

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Great place, consistently fun times

EXP is a video game themed restaurant and bar. The atmosphere and theme are all based on games, as is the food and drink menu. The food and drinks are great, and fair for the price but not cheap. My favorite are the triforce burger and phasewalk cocktail, but nothing I've tried has been bad. The service is also excellent - last time I went we arrived shortly before closing and had a large group but they were able to seat us together and even insisted on giving me a free shot for my birthday when I was on the way out AFTER we had already paid. Overall I highly recommend it, I have not been disappointed yet.

Atmosphere: 5/5
Food: 4/5
Service: 5/5
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Appears in one Smart List

Editor’s Pick
Best places in Vancouver to enjoy a film-inspired cocktail

Best places in Vancouver to enjoy a film-inspired cocktail

A gamer’s oasis in the downtown core on West Pender, EXP Restaurant and Bar is a unique video game-themed spot offering fun and nostalgic comfort food. For a sip that pays tribute to a gem of the small screen, EXP’s VIFFtail is the Song of Ice (for Game of Thrones fans), featuring a mix of peppermint vodka, chocolate liqueur and blue curaçao.

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