Name: Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens
Address: 5251 Oak Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6M 4H1
Rating: 4.5

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens

5251 Oak Street V6M 4H1 Vancouver (British Columbia) Map · Phone number

Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, this restaurant offers a relaxing ambiance, casual elegance, and charming garden vistas to create a modern wedding experience. Shaughnessy Restaurant is an exceptional choice for couples seeking a sophisticated alternative to more traditional wedding venues. Make your wedding dreams a reality at the Shaughnessy Restaurant in the famous 55-acre VanDusen Botanical Garden.

Facilities and capacity

Shaughnessy Restaurant’s slate and wood floor reflects old-world charm and warmth. The beauty of the room, which can hold up to 200 standing guests, is enhanced by floor-to-ceiling pure drape swaths. Skylights, white gravels on the walls, and potted plants give the feeling of the lush Botanical Garden indoors. The beautiful dining room can seat up to 160 guests, and the heated covered patio offers lovely views of the garden which makes for a stunning backdrop for any wedding ceremony. The venue features plenty of space for a dance floor.

Services offered

The passionate and energetic team of Shaughnessy Restaurant will guide couples throughout the planning process to ensure a hassle-free and memorable event. Couples have the flexibility to bring in their own vendors for additional services. Complimentary provisions include the following:

Wedding cake table and cake knife
Guest book table and gift table
Printed menus for plated meals
Tented table numbers
Standard background house music
Tea light candles
Votives
Assorted plant stands

Cuisine

Shaughnessy is seasonal, innovative, and contemporary West coast inspired comfort food. We offer special menus for weddings, and the culinary team is happy to customize the menu to suit unique needs and requirements. The wedding packages include hors d’oeuvres, canapes, plated dinner, a half bottle of house red or white wine, a sparkling wine toast, and a one-hour open bar for cocktail hour.

Other services

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens can be booked for wedding ceremonies and receptions, and it also offers services for other wedding-related events. Engagement parties and bridal showers can be hosted at this venue.

History

Shaughnessy Restaurant was named after two Vancouver landmarks -- the old golf course that sat on the VanDusen Botanical Garden site in the 1940s and '50s and the surrounding neighbourhood. Renowned interior designers, including Wade King, helped in creating its vivacious yet intimate ambiance and decor.

Location

Shaughnessy Restaurant is minutes from downtown Vancouver. It is approximately 13 minutes away from Vancouver International Airport.

Wedding Venues British Columbia Restaurant Weddings British Columbia

12 Reviews for Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens

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4.5 out of 5.0

Quality of service 4.3
Professionalism 4.2
Flexibility 4.4
Value 4.8
Response time 4.6

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Kara Mcclure · Married on 06 of September of 2019

5.0
- Quality of service:
  5.0
- Responsiveness:
  5.0
- Value:
  5.0
- Flexibility:
  5.0
- Professionalism:
  5.0
Absolutely Incredible!!!

Shaughnessy Restaurant was the perfect venue for our ceremony and reception! The wedding and events manager Carlle had excellent communication throughout the entire planning process with us! She made all our requests possible at the venue! The food was Amazing, we had guests calling and texting us days after the wedding to rave about the food again! The space is adjacent to VanDusen Gardens so there are plenty of spots to take awesome photos!
Sent on 09/09/2019
Kristy Lim · Married on 08 of September of 2018

1.8
- Quality of service:
  1.0
- Responsiveness:
  3.0
- Value:
  3.0
- Flexibility:
  1.0
- Professionalism:
  1.0
I don⠹t recommend this venue!

I don’t recommend this place. Overall, their service doesn’t deserve my money. I had my wedding here recently, and there were sooo many issues.

Issue with Vendor Access - My ceremony was supposed to start at 4:30 pm and my vendors couldnt access the venue until 3:00 pm because there were lunch customers sitting in the dining area. DJ, florist, and all my friends had to rush setting everything up wihtin 1 hour and that caused sooo much stress. The timeline doesn’t make sense to me. One hour is insane. What kind of wedding venue does this?

Water leakage in our ceremony area - My wedding day was raining. Water was leaking from the roof and two of guests were affected by the rain during the ceremony. I CAN’T BELIEVE this. We complained and the owner actually said that we need to contact the City Hall because it’s their responsibility. They gave me $250 refund but that’s like nothing compared to how much I spent that evening. I spent so much on this wedding and felt like nobody from the restaurant was even trying to help or facilitate the wedding.

There was a small issue with my headtable. Based on their floor chart they sent me, I was told that 8 people can fit in to the table, but learned that it’s not the case TWO DAYS BEFORE MY WEDDING. I couldn’t change my seating chart that last minute , so two people from my wedding party had to sit on the side of the headtable. I learned that TWO DAYS BEFORE. Not acceptable.

Now, another issue- there were only two children in our wedding and they charged for three meals. The owner i spoke to was insisting that they are correct, but there’s no way that one of the kids would have eatened second meal on that evening. Again, they are givining me a trouble for such a small issue. They actually said “it’s only twenty one dollars” and what’s-the-big-deal attitude.

You get enough stress for your wedding. You don’t need your wedding venue to give you any extra stress on top. They should work with you and help you. I strongly don’t recommend here.
Sent on 29/09/2018

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:
Hi Kristy,

Thank you very much for your feedback.
We sincerely apologize that the service was not up to your standards. We have been hosting weddings for over 20 years and so this definitely comes as a surprise to hear about your experience after spending time with you on email, phone, and in person to make sure everything was in order. The contract that was signed on February 1st of this year is very clear stating that vendor access is at 3pm. We were happy to accommodate an earlier start time which is wonderful and to which we always try to do within reason. Apologies you did not have enough time. As we are a restaurant, we do serve lunch/brunch service and close early to accommodate weddings always. We have been doing weddings for a long time and this has never been an issue.

In regards to the leak, thank you for your feedback and we are looking into rectifying this with the city (our landlords). I am happy to hear that the staff refunded you some of the cost. It’s hard to ever predict rain for summer weddings and our patio is covered yet open air. As such, some rain is out of our hands. We always try to accommodate seating charts as best as we can however as the structure of the restaurant is fixed, there are maximum numbers of guests that can be placed at every table. Thank you for your understanding. Our Chef and management team sent out 3 children’s meals that evening without a return. This is where the miscommunication was and we were happy to refund you the cost.

Again, we are deeply sorry that you felt stressed after your wedding. Our wedding coordinator had such lovely things to say about the planning stages with you and so we hope that overall, you are happy and enjoying being a newlywed.

Warmly,
Shaughnessy Restaurant
Stacy · Married on 17 of August of 2019

3.2
- Quality of service:
  3.0
- Responsiveness:
  4.0
- Value:
  5.0
- Flexibility:
  2.0
- Professionalism:
  2.0
2019 wedding

I'll start by saying the actual wedding night staff were phenomenal. They were professional but fun and did a fantastic job. The food was also great the night of.
Planning the wedding at the restaurant was another story unfortunately. The coordinator was very inflexible and tried to charge us an extra $200 administration fee that we did not agree to on our original contract. She slipped it onto our final invoice without saying anything and hoped we wouldn't notice. We asked her to remove it which she did, and then she put it back on the bill we paid the night of the wedding, again hoping we wouldn't notice. Unfortunately food tastings are also not free even if you've booked your wedding, but the food is delicious. There were many other small inconveniences we experienced while working with the coordinator which were very frustrating and make me hesitant to recommend the venue.
Sent on 31/08/2019

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:
We are thrilled to hear that you thoroughly enjoyed your wedding day with us, Stacy. That's truly what matters most to us! The wedding coordinator had a lovely time helping you plan many parts of your wedding, with much email communication, phone calls, and in person meetings.

As the wedding coordinator was not there the night of your wedding, they did not slip a fee onto your final bill as it was not submitted as promised, and it is confirmed a mistake by the night-of staff in final billing. We are sorry about the confusion, and we are glad it was rectified. We will look further into this miscommunication with our staff so it does not happen again in the future. Thank you so much for your feedback! Congratulations on being newlyweds!
William Heng · Married on 28 of July of 2019

4.4
- Quality of service:
  5.0
- Responsiveness:
  3.0
- Value:
  5.0
- Flexibility:
  5.0
- Professionalism:
  4.0
Professional

This venue already looks beautiful naturally as I did not want to get married on a golf course. The staff at Shaughnessy Restaurant were very professional and the food/drink quality was superb. It is right outside VanDusen as well so very easy to take some beautiful pictures. Only 2 things, we had confirmed 93 guests but only 85 or so showed up - we still got charged for the food/drinks for the empty seats. For pictures we were not allowed on the VanDusen side.
Sent on 15/08/2019

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:
William, we are so happy to hear of how much you loved our venue and the experience at your wedding. Thank you so much for choosing us for such a special day!
We have taken your feedback very seriously and will be looking into our policies. Thank you so much for your feedback, and for choosing Shaughnessy Restaurant for your wedding venue.
Jamie Park · Married on 07 of July of 2019

5.0
- Quality of service:
  5.0
- Responsiveness:
  5.0
- Value:
  5.0
- Flexibility:
  5.0
- Professionalism:
  5.0
Beautiful Venue for our special day

We had our wedding reception here after having a ceremony at Vandusen Garden. Everyone loved the food, especially the appetizers during the cocktail reception. Carrle was very accommodating and responsive in helping us plan our reception. During the reception, one of the mangers at the restaurant (i forgot his name!), was kind enough to suggest perhaps we should stop serving shots and close the bar earlier in order to keep our costs down and to ensure everyone drinks responsibly. We really appreciated it as the bill would have been quite high if we didn't stop. I'd highly recommend this place!
Sent on 16/07/2019

Shaughnessy Restaurant at Vandusen Botanical Gardens's reply:
Jamie,

It was such a pleasure to host such a beautiful wedding reception. Thank you for choosing us for your special day. Congratulations to you and Gary! We thank you so much for the kind words and look forward to seeing you at Shaughnessy Restaurant in the future.

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