Laughing Oyster Restaurant — Restaurant in Area A (Malaspina/Toba)

We have been coming to the Laughing Oyster once a year for the past 10 years to "celebrate" our wedding anniversary and it was our favourite place. Not knowing about the change in ownership, we did the same this year. This was a huge mistake. We never write online reviews, but felt compelled to do so after our "experience" to prevent other yearly regulars of doing the same mistake.

The day of our reservation, we get a call saying that only the buffet will be served that night because of "unforseen circumstances". At $57, we asked if there is a lot of seafood in it, which the person on the phone assures us so we proceed with our reservation. We arrive and are seated by a friendly person at the door. And this is when it goes downwards.

We get assigned to a server who comes to fill out our water glasses (which will be the only time we get water that night), asked us about what we want to drink (no welcome or "happy anniversary"). We order a bottle of rosé at $71, which we found out later only cost about $25-30. We know about the mark up for restaurants, but at almost triple the price, it seems like robbery. She then tell us that we can go to the buffet and leaves. The food in the buffet was "ok' but not worth $57 (the seafood offering was quite thin, the food was lukewarm and everytime we went there were empty plates). We go a total amount of 3 time to the buffet and have to pill up our empty plates in the middle of our small table because our server does not come to pick them up (whereas other tables are empty quite regularly by friendly servers). She also never comes back to fill out our wine glasses.

After a while, we finally see her. She picks up our plate and asked if we are done (no "would you like some dessert?) Apparently (we heard this from a server serving another table close by), when you are "celebrating" an anniversary, the dessert is on the house, but we were not told of this offer by our server at all. Since we are quite full, we don't make a fuss about it and tell her that yes, we are done and would like the bill. She leaves and disappears after that, never to be seen again. After a 30 min wait, another server sees us there, waiting, and ask if we need anything else. We told her that we have been waiting for 30 min for our bill, but we cannot locate our server. She apologies, brings out our bill and we leave, vowing never to come back again.

This is such a pity because this was one of our favourite restaurant in Canada. The prices were always fair, the portions good, and the service very attentive. We got nothing out of the three last night. We left a very small tip to our server, not for her, but for the kitchen staff and the server at the buffet. You can imagine with a bill of over $200 for one bottle of wine and 2 buffet at almost $60 each, even a small % tip was a considerable amount. We lament the change in ownership, which turned a local favourite into a tourist...

One of my best childhood friends brought me to the Laughing Oyster for my Birthday this year. I hadn't been there in 24 years, since I moved to Nanaimo. It is under new ownership now. I met Scott and he is a lovely person who has a wonderful vision for the future of The Laughing Oyster. He is super friendly and personable. You can see he enjoys his career, and it really makes all the difference when dealing with staff and customers alike. The Executive Chef, Ross Olson, was absolutely wonderful. He would talk to the customers and ask if their food was alright. I heard at least three times other customers saying to him that their food was top notch, delicious and that they would be returning. Ross also takes part in the food preparation among many other things, but his cooking skills are mouth watering!! The food was absolutely delicious. I ordered the prawn linguini, with an alfredo type sauce. It had some spice in it, not too much, just right. That dish was so good. I will be ordering it again!! My friend ordered a chicken dish. I provided photos but I don't remember the name of it. It had a creamy mushroom sauce and it was also delicious. We also ordered an appetizer of bread which was nice and warm, and had cheese melted on top. I tried a piece of it, as my friend had ordered it. Let's just say, it was so good, we ended up splitting it!! Ross offered me a sample of their salted caramel Gelato for dessert and that was a real treat. Absolutely delicious. I was going to look at the dessert menu, but I was so full, I honestly couldn't eat another bite. Also, the portion sizes were excellent. I was able to take 1/2 my meal home to enjoy for another night, and let me tell you, I think it was even better the next night!! I cannot say enough good things about the food!! We also ordered one drink each. My friend had a cooler and I had a cosmopolitan. It wasn't on the menu, but they were very accommodating and were happy to make what I wanted. All the staff were super friendly. The place had wonderful ambiance. It is even accessible by boat. The view is unbeatable. I highly recommend you give this place a try, especially if it's been awhile. It had been about 25 years for me, and I didn't remember much about it from back then, but it definitely left a great impression I won't soon forget this time. Special thanks to Scott and Ross for making my...

Absolutely Terrible Experience

We came as a party of four for a friend’s birthday dinner, expecting a nice evening. Instead, it turned into one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, there was nothing else in the area — otherwise we would have left halfway through. • Service: From the start, the staff showed zero warmth or attentiveness. When we mentioned it was our friend’s birthday, there was no acknowledgment. They were out of fresh oysters, as well as the first and second choice wines on the list. When our server finally brought the third choice bottle, she set it down and left, never returning to pour. We ended up serving ourselves while she walked by our table multiple times. Requests for water and Kleenex were ignored entirely. • Appetizers: The calamari arrived as greasy, oily strips instead of crisp rings, served without lemon. The deep-fried oysters were worse — not cleaned properly, with visible green waste still inside. It was impossible not to see, and it ruined the dish entirely. • Utensils & Cleanliness: After appetizers, the waitress actually placed the dirty cutlery back on the clean tablecloth for reuse instead of replacing it. Completely unacceptable. • Mains: We ordered the seafood platter for two. Once again, no lemon was served. Instead, it came with sauces like sweet pumpkin purée and beet purée — bizarre, clashing flavors that made no sense with seafood. The melted butter was watery and tasteless. To top it off, the oysters still weren’t cleaned, and the clams had sand in them. • Final Interaction: After waiting 20 minutes for the bill, the waiter asked why we didn’t enjoy the food. When I showed him the uncleaned oyster, his baffling reply was: “The fish comes to us with skin and that’s how we cook it.” Clearly, he didn’t even know what an oyster looks like. We chose not to leave a tip for such poor service. As we were leaving, the waitress actually followed us outside to yell at us for not tipping, saying: “I know you didn’t like the food, but now I have to pay 4% to the kitchen!” and then dismissively waved us off. The entitlement was unreal.

The only positives: the view was nice, and my friend enjoyed the mac and cheese. Everything else — from food quality to hygiene to service — was shockingly bad. I would strongly advise...