Cow Bay Marine Pub Inc — Restaurant in Area D (Cowichan Bay)

Food + drink excellent. Staff not so much.

Our server seemed okay at the start. Perhaps a bit too chatty about their day/their work and got too involved in a joke between our friends which is inappropriate.

After ordering I dropped my purse down onto the shore from the balcony. She looked over and asked me to pick up a fork that had been dropped by somebody else.. I thought it was funny and I’m happy to help others if I’m able to.

This was overshadowed by her getting two peoples orders very wrong from not hearing our friends properly. She took the orders without a notepad probably expecting to remember it all and got it wrong. Sure, this happens, but it was handled incorrectly thereafter.

She came over with the wrong food and we politely mentioned that it was wrong and gave her the order again. She then said “Oh. You said this burger right? That’s what I heard anyway. A ten dollar burger”. We all disagreed and repeated the order. She did accept responsibility and said the burger would be 10 mins but it was 15/20 instead.

I asked for regular aioli instead of the given sriracha aioli and later received my bill with a $1 charge I was not told about. She thought I wanted extra dipping sauce on the side which is extra but failed to mention the $1 charge. I asked to replace the sriracha with regular aioli when ordering. I never had sriracha aioli on my plate anyway so I have no idea how she came up with that story and probably used it to protect herself. She said she would get me a dollar coin for the dipping sauce bill mistake but I wasn’t going to wait around for it or make a big deal over a dollar.

She seemed a bit sassy for the entire experience and I don’t like how she talked to us or handled the incidents. I work in hospitality and you do not question your customers orders making them feel like they made a mistake when ordering their food, you apologize and repair the mistake. You definitely DO NOT ask a customer to pick up an old used fork from the shore just because you are too lazy to get it yourself at the end of the shift. If you are not physically able, ask another staff member.

She had black hair, brown eyes I believe, and was older. Otherwise it was a lovely experience with a gorgeous view and shaded balcony, but I’d rather go somewhere else next time because of the awful service...

Well tonight was disappointing. Waited well over an hour for our food without so much as a "thank you for your patience" from the staff. Eventually arrived but honestly probably could have rummaged through their dumpster and found a warmer meal. One of our table went to the restroom and seen some of our plates ready under the warmer but it still wasn't until some 20 mins plus that the plates came. I honestly don't know why someone would have just known it wouldn't have been good enough to serve or at least knocked a percentage off the bill. Now I know staff will read this and either not care or have a thousand excuses why this happened but none the less it happened and was allowed to happen so a degree of ownership has to be taken. If you are a staff member there and are reading this then let me ask, would you have eaten a meal you knew was only kept marginally warm by a heat lamp that it sat under for 30+ mins and paid full price and expected to tip well too? If you answered yes then I suggest you analyze your employment situation, you shouldn't be in that business as you are doing it no favours. I've eaten at all sorts of pubs and can tell you I rarely complain and I tip mostly in 20-25% area but this was exceptionally bad that it needed to...

We took a party of ten in at 930 on a Friday night to finish celebrating a 60th birthday after having dinner upstairs at cook and butcher where we had excellent service we all had two drinks with dinner and planed to finish evening at cow bay pub downstairs we all sat down were told a server would be coming when no one did we flaged down a server and she took our order for our server . Half hour later all drinks are empty and we want to order another and a round of shots .Still no server has come to check on drinks and we went for a smoke came back still no server asked if we could get services were told they are busy when the place is empty except for two there couples when are server did arrive she snapped at us "is there a problem " Shane our big friendly giant says yes we're just wanting a round of shots and some refills and she looked panicked said I don't like the vibe I am getting and I think it's time you leave ...then she said someone at the table rolled thier eyes but would not say who and refused us service for asking for service then tried to put the entire bill one one and we all left 20 dollars for out one...