Spirit Beach Cantina — Restaurant in British Columbia

🤬 Long Post – Terrible Customer Service 🤬

If I could give half a star for customer service, I would. $20+ for the nachos! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I asked for something simple: my nachos to be layered with cheese and chicken. Instead of just taking the request, two waitresses laughed out loud at me at the same time. When I asked why, they said:

“If we told the kitchen to layer your food, we wouldn’t have a good night.” Then they continued laughing—completely unprofessional and juvenile.

Another employee later apologized for how they acted (she was great), but unfortunately the damage was already done.

When my food came out, the waitress who took my order asked in a condescending tone, “Is there a problem?” I calmly said I didn’t appreciate being laughed at for simply asking for layered nachos. She then stormed off and started gossiping with her coworker (who I later learned was her sister).

As my friend, kids, and I were leaving, the same waitress came outside and, with an attitude, said:

“My manager said they’d refund your money if you want.” I explained it wasn’t about the money—it was about the disgusting lack of customer service and the catty behavior. Her response? Another dismissive, “Well, do you want a refund?”

When I went to the bar to speak with someone else, the bartender (who looked older and more professional at first glance) doubled down, saying:

“If we told the kitchen how to do their jobs, we wouldn’t have any.”

At that point, I was so disappointed in the whole team’s attitude that I told them to keep the money and walked away.

👉 Bottom line: Laughing at customers, mocking simple requests, and doubling down with rudeness is not acceptable. I wasn’t asking for anything outrageous. Just basic respect and decent service—which is apparently too much to ask here.

Bonus info! The menu online is NOT accurate and their response “this one is accurate” referring to the physical menu at the restaurant.

Update to the owners response

This isn’t about kitchen policies, menu photos, or a refund. It’s about your staff laughing at me, making condescending remarks, and acting unprofessional. A genuine apology and accountability would have gone much further than this defensive...

Wish I could give this place 0 stars. Awful food and awful service. Also, Kelly should be fired.

In response to the reply:

The fact that the “owner” would respond in such an audacious way is baffling. For clarification, we had two members out of our group of 10 who didn’t have ID. The majority of our group was over 40. From start to finish of our experience our group was extremely respectful to Kelly, it was not because 2 members didn’t have ID. The whole time Kelly’s attitude implied we were more of an inconvenience than anything. When we notified Kelly of the poor quality of the 4 orders of cold tacos (also 1 with hair in it) that took 50 minutes to come out we were met with eye rolls and complete annoyance from Kelly. When we asked for the bill and asked her about the 17% gratuity she lost it, so we asked to speak to a manager. Needless to say, the manager was informed of our concern but she decided not to address the issue with our table and only give us excuses of why Kelly was treating us so poorly, her response was dismissive and we were told it was because “Kelly has had a long day” no kind gestures extended for the extremely poor quality of the food and service. Also, the other 2 tables were the only other patrons in there and weren’t even in earshot. I have read many other reviews and it seems like this is your business model when dealing with bad reviews, defensive and full of lies. The comment that we “won’t be allowed in the park area again” is quite comical. You don’t have to worry, we would never return and only want to share our experience to best inform others of what they...

Great location for sure. We ordered 6 different items from the menu, and other than the burger which was really good, the rest of the food was awful. Our server was relatively friendly however I don't think the servers care if you return your food uneaten as our waitress and her co-worker both noticed the uneaten food but never bothered to ask us about it. (one Taco had hair in it as another reviewer did and the guacamole had no flavour at all, no cilantro and no lime). it is an observation and speaks to the quality of customer service. We left there and ordered pizza from Pizza 97A. In all of my years of travelling globally, I only once returned a meal, and i am not in the habit of returning food I ordered, this counts as probably the 2nd or 3rd time I never eaten a meal I ordered in my entire adulthood (47). And as an overall observation, the staff didn't seem friendly at all, in no way they were rude to us (other reviewers found them rude) but one would expect a more friendly tone given the location and theme of the place. May or may not come back for the music and to give it another try but certainly will not be ordering any food if we chose to come back during our stay here. Hopefully the business uses these reviews as feedback and to improve so we/customers continue to come and comeback, some of the replies from the business/owner to these reviews speaks to what the real issue(s) is and might be the sole reason one will never want to come...