Bridgemans Bistro — Restaurant in Area A (Mill Bay / Malahat)

Let me start by saying that I’m no Gordon Ramsey or an insolent grumpy old man with nothing better to do but complain. In fact, I am young and quite easy to please. Although here we are; I was not pleased. We chose the Bridgeman’s Bistro as the venue to celebrate my mother in law’s birthday dinner; we reside in Victoria and they reside in Cowichan so naturally we thought to meet in the middle. Bridgeman’s Bistro seemed to be the perfect place! We ate in the evening, so I can’t speak to the view (everyone says it’s great), and the ambience was pleasant and trendy. Our waitress was extremely friendly, attentive, and timely with our food and drink orders. The buck stops there unfortunately. The prices had me believing that the food was going to be exceptional. Now, to clarify, I went to read the reviews AFTER our experience to make sure I wasn’t being petulant; thinking perhaps this was a one-off outlier experience? Well...to my amusement, a google reviewer sarcastically wrote “Enjoy a super dry/stale brioche bun and previously frozen Presidents Choice brand patty burger for a mere $17.25!...” I laughed at his sarcasm but sadly it summed our experience. I had the B-Hot burger. The patty did not appear home made and was also very thin. B-hot? Nothing was hot (spicy) about it. The serving of fries was minuscule in a tiny dish...most of which were the size of my fingernail. Come on guys, this is basics - especially at your price point. My partner relayed a similar experience with her patty on our way home (she had the Bistro burger). She also mentioned the difficulty of consuming spiralized vegetables; although perhaps awkward to eat, the presentation is nice and in my opinion it doesn’t warrant a complaint per se. I was too embarrassed to ask how the in-laws’ meals were (her mother had Fish and Chips and her father had the Sockeye and Tuna Sald). I remarked, again, at the scarcity of fries on her plate and also noticed that he had left two untouched large pieces of tuna on his plate. However, the final straw that prompted me to write this review was when my wife walked up to another blonde-haired server (not our server) who was plugging away at the point of sale system. My wife, in a gentle and non-insistent way, kindly asked if the server would take a birthday photo of the four of us to send to grandma out east. To my incredulity - she said rather unapologetically, “No, I’m too busy”. Frankly, as management, I would be mortified to read this - she made no attempt to go above and beyond for the customer or even offer to take the photo after she had finished her task. She acted annoyed that she had been pestered. There appeared to be many empty seats in the pub at that time. Luckily our own server, #64 Kelsey P, had walked by shortly afterward and asked if everything was OK. She put away the dirty plates that she was carrying and proceeded to take our photo. The Bridgeman’s Bistro earned a star for an enjoyable ambience and another for Kelsey P. I was glad I still tipped 15% because she deserved all of it. Next time I am taking my $120 and spending it elsewhere. Cheers - order # 9481, Table...

Worst experience ever - the last few times we have been the service has been "ok" - but we continue to come back BUT not after tonights experience. Understandably they are not taking reservations (we called ahead to confirm) but when that call was made and we advised the size of the party she never said anything about their policy "that you can only have 6 ppl per table" just were told it was first come first service. So fast forward to this evening we attend the restaurant to find a sign right as you walk in the door that says only 6 at a table and as i listen to the customers in front of me talk to the staff about a table as they were a party of 8, they were refusing them as well, that is when i jumped in and said well i have to agree with what they are saying - they had then requested 2 tables of 4 and were denyed and she was not prepared to accomodate us in two different tables either. I ask the lady what she was going to do to make this right they had made an error and i expected them to offer some solution...which is when she said come back in an hour (really????).. they had numberous empty tables and could have sitted both tables ahead of us and 2 tables for us and still had room for more....but she refused. We tried and tried to reason when the solution she offered was another restuarant....i didnt want to go to another restuarant we had choosen this one we had family in town and this was a place they heard us rave about in the past that they want to try it out. I hope that you take the nessasary steps to train your staff to deal with customers - it is all in the experience for me and if you can't deliver an experience when i come there then you have lost by business forever and I will be letting everyone i know not to attend this restaurant in the future. Your asst manager should not be a manager as she has no problem solving skills and your waitresses need to...

I have had many great nights and great meals at Bridgemans Bistro in Mill Bay. While in Port Renfrew my family and I thought that we would try out the Bridgemans location out there expecting the same great level of service. We were so sadly mistaken. I am utterly horrified by our experience at the Port Renfrew locale. From the moment we arrived we could tell it was a slightly different dining atmosphere which was absolutely fine but things just went down down downhill from there. Immediately I asked for a high chair as my 1 year old daughter was with us only to be told that they “don’t have highchairs” odd but ok fine so we brought our portable camping high chair in and proceeded to order. A poutine, chicken strips and fries and a Caesar salad. Seemed simple enough. After over a 45 minute wait and watching several tables seated after us receive their food we finally received our meals. Ice cold poutine, over cooked (clearly from frozen) chicken strips, terrible French fries and a Caesar salad that was lettuce and dressing. Fine. Ok. I went to the kitchen to ask if they at the very least had some croutons, a pretty staple ingredient in a Caesar salad I’d say but I was told no they had just run out... my curiosity peaked at this point...they had bread, they had means of making croutons, surely between the 3 people (chefs? There’s no way) working in the kitchen they could have come up with something? No just a simple “we’re out” and I was clearly meant not to notice as I was not informed this when my salad was delivered. We all left so disappointed, in disbelief that Bridgemans the restaurant that we know and love was allowing such an atrocious place to be operating under the Bridgeman name. The place left a bad taste in my...