Bistro East — Restaurant in Annapolis Royal

Bad experience

Our first of its kind experience in an eating establishment! Our drive to Bistro East is approximately 50 minutes, so upon arriving there we walked into Bistro East for dinner, we both wore face masks which were donned properly as always, upon sitting down we both removed our masks and started chatting until the waitress came up to the table, or rather came in close proximity to our table, “about 8’ away from us, she just stood there until we looked at her and after pausing a few seconds asked us to put our face masks on so she could come over. We then complied with her request and put our masks on again so she could approach, after she moved on, a bit later she showed up again and stood far away until she again asked us to put our masks on once again so she could put the menu down on our table, to which we did, then she moved on once again, a few minutes later she walked by and I asked her if she could possible pull down the blind on the window as I have serious eye issues and the sun was blinding me, and her reply was that it was a really nice day out but she "reluctantly" said I guess that I could do that for you, to which had to be done behind me, so she “once again” asked us to put our masks on, "to go behind me!" which started be a bit rude in nature, “so we again complied” This was getting pretty frustrating and my wife noticed my patience getting short so she asked me if I wanted to move on to a different restaurant, to which I replied, I know by now that the waitress is extremely paranoid and taking this overboard but since we were there already we will stay. So a few minutes later on people had just walked in by us and my wife noticed the waitress once again standing her 7 or 8’ away holding a couple glasses of water and staring directly at us, when my wife looked at her, the waitress says if we want this water we have to put our masks on so she could come over, and also added that statement that it was the law to do so, and to which I replied that yes it was mandatory, and she is now getting a bit rude and says that it’s the law and we HAVE to keep our masks on. At this point let me just say that since this Covid thing came to be, we figure that we have been eating in restaurants within the same time span as Covid, in the area of 140 to 150 restaurant visits and ALL with having no mask or related "for lack of better terms" slightly confrontational issues, we comply with the mandatory ruling and we partake in safe public ethics as far as trying to stay the spread of Covid, and NEVER have we witnessed this level of paranoia what so ever. I then proceeded to tell her once again, that yes it was mandatory to do so, and before finishing my sentence she kept cutting me off and repeating, it’s the law, it’s the law, and when I tried to finish my sentence, she told me that she was starting to be uncomfortable being around us, to which we replied, that is no problem we will gladly leave "as we as well, were starting to be uncomfortable around her as well". She somewhat pointed towards the door, to which I replied this is no problem, I grabbed my jacket, “to which” I guess I was allowed to remove, and we left. WE know all about the mandatory ruling’s pertaining to masks and their requirements under the Health Protection Act which came into play since covid "and we abide by such" in order to play our part in order to help smother or alleviate Covid. This was like we were being trained in a donning and doffing ritual or exercise of sorts. If the server is that paranoid maybe she should work the kitchen, not the floor as this scenario left everyone involved uncomfortable… Not once since Covid, have we been asked to put our masks back on “repeatedly” once we had been seated! For the waitress, this enforcement practice, is going to hurt the business, as WE, along with our extended family will refrain from returning here anytime in the near future, which is sad, as it is very hard to build a customer base in the best of times.

The 1 star rating is based on...

First let me start with what was great...our server Haylie was phenomenal. It was her second day at work at despite what an awful dining experience it was she went above and beyond to try and correct it. She was friendly, outgoing, always checking in with our table and a pleasure to be served by. Second the live entertainment Teresa was a joy to listen to over dinner and truly played beautiful music. I would highly recommend you stop in and take a listen to her if you get a chance.

Now for the rest. We were going for dinner to celebrate my birthday. My dad called in advance to book reservations. When we arrived we were advised that our table was already occupied by another party. We were shuffled around from table to table attempting to accommodate but it wasn't a great start. We order two appetizers that took 30 minutes to get to us and the Brie with roasted garlic certainly was a disappointment for the price. For our main dish we all ordered a pasta dish. 2 of the 3 arrived to our table luke warm. When we said something about it our wonderful server tried to correct the problem but comping the dish but was told by the chef no she couldn't. All in all you had three customers leave the establishment very dissatisfied with the experience and we certainly will not recommend this place to...

the lobster quasadea was good , it would have been better if there was any quantity of lobster in it though , seriously when you order something with lobster there should be enough lobster in it that you can taste the lobster . the digby scallops were good but again what was served was 6 small scallops between the size of a nickel and a quarter . the bill ended up being more than we were expecting because the waitress gave us the full sized salads and potato wedges in stead of the side orders we had ordered . we didn't notice at the time as the portions were small and we assumed it was a side which is what we intended to order . if what they served us as salad was suppose to pass as a full portion then i echo my previous complaint tasty but way too small and over priced . we pointed out the error to the waitress but she said she assumed we wanted the full serving and that side salads were not available with the scallops and the quasadea . we pointed out to her that they were but she said no . so we paid for it and did not tip . ultimately we paid what we were planning to pay just over $50 for the meal but what would have been her tip went to pay for the stuff we did not order . I guess that could be considered good service when your server pays for part...