The Press Gang

Great night out, friendly staff and excellent food

Food is wonderful. service is amazing (to the point they called me the next day to see if my wife lost an ear ring). Would have loved to be able to hear the live duet .... but the noisy people at the next table made sure that didn't happen. I found the menu small but tasteful. Great wine list and fantastic desserts! We will be back!

Once again, the whole dinner experience was first class.
Food, Service, Atmosphere. Definitely recommend.

Service was slow. Overall the food was good although my wife’s pork chop was not good although they did I’d deducted it from the bill. Waitress and buzz boy not that attentive. Overall we had great expectations for the place and were disappointed.

This was a nice restaurant with good food. It’s unique setting makes it worth a visit.

That said. . .we were celebrating a very important event, which I noted on my reservation, I was very surprised that no mention was made of this. This type of attention to detail is what I expect from this type of restaurant.

The tables are very close together which makes privacy not possible. Our table was in a corner and I was pressed up against a vertical room fan, not exactly what I expected in a high end dining establishment. The food was good, not great, but good.

The service was adequate. . . The dishes were served so quickly that we felt rushed. Our reservation had been for 6 30 and the bill was put on our table at 7 30. . . that was for a four course dinner. . . not the leisurely dining experience we were looking forward to.

Our table was cleared of our bread basket and my husband’s drink while both still had some left that we had intended to finish. Definitely not what I expect in this level of restaurant.

In short the only reason I would recommend this location for an evening out would be for the unique location. I would suggest someone come here for a pre dinner drink and then retire to a restaurant that has 4 star service.

We enjoyed an awesome dinner at the Press Gang. We celebrated our 35th Wedding anniversary weekend dinner with them. They surprised us with two glasses of complimentary champagne and seated us in a very romantic semi-private alcove. We enjoyed craft cocktails, local Nova Scotia wines, oysters on the half shell, some of the best chowder we have ever had, and a seafood feast which included shrimp, scallops, haddock, salmon, and a grilled lobster. The food was delicious! Our server Lindsay was attentive, knowledgeable, fun, entertaining, and even laughed at my bad jokes!. A big thank you to the Press Gang and our server Lindsay for making our celebration special, amazing, and a very special evening to remember 👍🥂

Fabulous dinner included a personal chat with Chef Brian! Gorgeous food and scrumptious. Fabulous atmosphere. Service attentive without being fussy. Wow!

Building was incredible. Food and service top notch

Very expensive for small portions

The restaurant was charming and the service was great! We really enjoyed our meal and would definitely return next time we visit Halifax.

Family of four, two much harder to please than the other two! Not often we all walk away completely satisfied but you nailed it Press Gang!

Delicious food with good service. Interesting menu. Beautiful setting.

Food was well prepared with fresh ingredients. Server was helpful and professional and ambience perfect

It had been 10 years since our last visit and this one was up to expectations. Great ambiance, fine food and good service. We’ll be back.

Excellent food and service.

Given the reviews that I read, our experience was deeply disappointing. My oysters were fresh and served with the appropriate accompaniments. My halibut was cooked properly and seasoned with light herbs. My meal was served on what I think was a coupe plate and this resulted in the fish becoming mixed in with the vegetables and the cloying pink sauce for the gnocchi. It tasted horrible and, as my guest commented, looked like a $45.00 plate of macaroni and cheese.
My guest was disappointed by the presentation of her beef tenderloin dinner on a heavy, blue plate in contrast to my white one. Her meat was served medium rare and was tasty. However, the fingerling potatoes had been refried in oil and were wrinkled, dry and tasteless. In addition, the sauce,that my best guess was a horrific spinach puree, served with the meat dish was inedible. Again at $45.00, it was a big disappointment.
We shared a satisfactory chocolate dessert.
We turned down the table beside the coat rack at the front door and were seated in a quiet back room. Our server was friendly, attentive and responded quickly when my guest asked her to speak to the gentleman using his cell phone at the table.

Made reservation through Open Table months ago. Were seated by the door and hostess stand. Other tables for 2 nearby were unoccupied during our visit. As more and more people arrived our location became worse and worse.

Our waiter was helpful. He was attentive. We did not feel rushed. The food was very good. I would recommend The Press Gang. I would certainly return .

Our experience at the Press Gang was absolutely fantastic. It really has it all... historical intrigue, live music (jazz), great location, impressive menu, outstanding service, and the most mouth-watering food made by an amazing, creative and conscientious chef. We chose a menu item which was a complete mystery... basically leaving ourselves open to the Chef's creative whim. It included 4 courses... all beautifully presented and delicious beyond words. We had absolutely no regrets about choosing this unique restaurant. It was not just a meal, but a memorable experience which was an absolute highlight during our visit to Halifax.

Caution-Do not order the Drill which is described as the chef and team being creative with the available ingredients. The salad and the seafood stew were great, but the entree was very poorly executed. Maybe my expectations were way too high based on the description, but putting grill marks on half a previously cooked lobster tail and scallop isn’t chef creativity in my book and just over cooks them. The steak which accompanied the surf was OK. Properly cooked to med rare, but not memorable. At $160 for 2 it was way overpriced for a mediocre surf and turf with soup salad and dessert. I usually don’t do negative reviews and talk to the restaurant directly when I’m not satisfied, but I would have liked someone to warn me about this place. I did speak to chef Brian, but not sure he took my suggestion to heart. If you are tempted to order the Drill, be sure to ask the waitperson if the entree is just surf& turf. If you enjoy over cooked seafood, you’ll probably enjoy it. If not, order from the menu. Another curious thing that contributes to my assumption that the restaurant is taking advantage of tourists is the option of charging the bill in either Canadian or US$. What isn’t mentioned is they charge a 4% transaction fee. Which you only find out when you read the fine print on the receipt. This compares to my credit card charging 1%. The restaurant is housed in an old building that is very interesting, but unfortunately the food didn’t match the hype. Service on the other hand was exceptional.

It was a lovely atmosphere, and I liked the food very much.
Just a suggestion: Service was great, but we felt we were being rushed a bit and interrupted a lot. Although service and attention is so important, I felt this was not how I wanted to spend an evening dining out and catching up with friends who were in town from away. Not to sound “picky” but dishes were being removed with food still on them (we were not done) and server made us take last bit of food off the plate so he could take it. It felt like we had to eat fast and furious...

Our biggest problem was parking..... other than that, what a very cool, delightful and delicious experience! The restaurant is tucked into the lower level of the second oldest (circa 1759) building in Halifax, complete with the original fireplace, exposed wooden beams and rough-hewn stone walls. Our server was sweet, informative, accommodating and efficient without being at all intrusive. Our calamari appetizer was hot and crispy and we shared the sesame cabbage slaw that was slightly sweetened with a bit of shaved lychee. I had the halibut over a sort of gnocchi and vegetable ragout and my husband traded risotto for papardelle to pair with his creamy seaford. A full bar and reasonable wine list topped it all off. Comfortably full at 5 pm, the restaurant was getting quite busy by 7. We loved it, will certainly recommend it and should we ever return to Halifax, we will make a point to stop by.

We had a wonderful meal. Everything was fresh and prepared beautifully. The building that housed the restaurant was unbelievable...built in the mid 1700's! It was an outstanding experience.

Every dish was delicious from starter, appetizer, main to desert. Care was taken to present a perfect taste with pleasing aroma and delightful coloring. Pricy but well worth it.

Simply amazing! Delicious food, great staff and amazing vibe!

All food offerings were elevated to the highest degree of presentation and taste. This was the perfect ending to our Halifax holiday. Thank you to all.

Great time, good food. Waiter was nice but was not very attentive.

I really enjoyed the experience of going to the Press Gang . The live music was the plus. My fish was well prepared. The service was not attentive in the beginning but that seems to often come with the territory when one dines alone.

My meal was extremely salty. The waitress offered to get me a new meal but that would mean my wife would eat and then my meal would have been after her. They offered us a free dessert with an exception.

We had great service and good wine. Both of us ordered the lobster dinner. The lobster itself was good as well as the vegetables. The “potato salad” was absolutely terrible. Dried day old roasted potatoes like you would have after saving hash browns for a few days. I wonder if they had even tried it before serving. I would say 55$ for lobster and a few carrots was over priced and you could definitely get the same thing for a better price elsewhere.

The press gang is our favourite spot to have a romantic night out. For the last three years we’ve been celebrating our anniversary at the press gang by ordering “the drill”. The wait staff is always energetic and attentive, and the chef always puts out an incredible meal, one that we talk about for weeks

Great food, excellent service and fantatic atmosphere :-)

This was by far the best meal we have had in quite some time and by far the best meal in eastern Canada. The halibut and tuna were perfectly cooked and well seasoned! Service was fantasrix!

Incredible food. So flavorful and perfectly cooked. Highly recommend!!

Great food and service

Amazing food and great staff! Beautiful old building adds to the special atmosphere. Highly recommend for any occasion. Best Oysters we’ve ever had!

Highly recommend ordering the Chef’s Table, called the Drill. Creative and delicious! Loved it. The service was fabulous too.

excellent food, great atmosphere... waiter had poor communication skills( very short answers and did not volunteer much info)

I don’t know whether they were having an “off” night as this plAce came highly recommended. We had the seafood chowder which was also highly recommended and it wasn’t great.

excellent service
dark cavernous room
good halibut drowned in some sort
of rosé salt