The Bear, The Fish, The Root & The Berry — Restaurant in British Columbia

I'm gonna break this review up into a few parts, so read whatever you think is the most interesting to you, i'll do a tldr at the bottom.

food quality/menu Food was good! Well cooked, we ordered the "Three Sisters" salad, as well as the "Fry Bread" to start, with the Elk as a main course, this was shared between my partner and I. Food was delicious, three sisters i found a little uninteresting, comprised of mostly salad and corn which was i'm sure historically accurate to what indigeonous peoples may have eaten which is awesome to see, but i would have loved to see the kitchen push the concept a bit further than the bare minimum. Fry bread i thought was delicious, really interesting texture, and the jam was so lovely. Sweet, sour, really felt like local BC food, which there isn't a lot of. Absolutely excellent. The elk was astonishing, so beautifully cooked, i didn't even need to use a knife to cut the meat, it just fell apart on my fork. So juicy, tender, and imaculately seasoned. The meat came with the bone (and bone marrow) in, and the bone marrow was very easy to extract from the bone. There was also some sort of cheesy mashed potato that finished the plate beautifully.

The plates the food was served on were all stunning which is great to see, it felt like an real emphasis was placed on making decent food, and presenting it beautifully.

Bar: We did not order cocktails, but we saw a number of them being served to guests around us. The liquid itself was beautiful, excellent colours and garnishes, but the glasseware looked like it came from the dollar store. Massively thick glass in a number of cocktail glasses, including a martini glasses with a stem you need your whole fist to grasp. In contrast to the beautiful plates, it was really unfortunate to see that the glassware had not been given the same considerations. Though, we did not order cocktails so there may have been a few with excellent glassware, i don't know.

FOH staff/Service quality Service was bare minimum. The waitress was lovely, fine enough person, but nothing about our service blew us away. Flatware was missed, (no serving tongs despite share plates) and explanation of dishes was mediocre, though we did not push for detailed explanations. She explained the daily feature (a local wine which we both ordered and thoroughly enjoyed throughout the meal) We had a reservation, but when we got there it seemed as if there was no table reserved for us, and rather they treated us like a walk in. They gave us the option of sitting at the bar and waiting for a table inside, or sitting outside. We asked if we could sit outside and wait for a table inside (which was not one of the options we were given) and we were sat outside. Upon a table being cleared inside, we asked if we could move to it, but we were told it was already reserved which was kind of a weird response, because in my reservation i had asked fo a table by the window, but nothing was reserved? So kind of a weird inconsistancy there. We were eventually moved to the table when we spoke to a supervisor, who was lovely and accomidating.

Tldr: food was pretty good, interesting menu, and most of what we ordered was delicious. Wine selection was extensive, mostly local wines which is awesome. The cocktails themselves looked delicious, and well garnished, but the glassware was god awful, and looked cheap even from a distance. Service was mediocre, but moderately accomidating, damage for 2 people was about 200 including tip, which is high for the area but fair enough when you account for the view, the interesting menu, and of course the fact that it is in an expensive hotel.

I've given it the rating i have because overall i was not impressed. Nothing about the resteraunt really stuck out to me as...

Unfortunately, I did not get chance to dine here , BUT the staff managed to ruin my (and my twin sister's) 45th birthday celebration. We are staying at the Spirit Ridge resort for 1 week. My sister (Maya) called the day of, at 8:30 am and asked for reservation at 6pm. The staff confirmed reservation. She asked if patio would be possible for birthday celebration, and staff member said that it depends on what's available when we arrive. Then we showed up at 6 pm to be told by hostes that the reservation was never called in and my sister's name does not exist on their list. Then after our insistence that she called, 5 minutes later, she told us that there is my sister's name on the list, but this was waiting list in case someone cancels. I told the hostes, that there is no way we would dress up and show up for our special celebration just for 'maybe you can get in'. She told us that there is nothing available and left it at that. Of course, we were furious and asked for manager, who unfortunately defended the practice by saying that they called my sister's phone to let her know that she is on the waiting list. My sister told us that she saw that she missed call at 11:30am from the Spirit Ridge Resort. There was NO MESSAGE left to advise her that the reservation was not valid. My sister tried calling back got the hotel reception, once she realized she got hotel reception she did't know what the call was about and hang up. Both my wife and I argued with manager and did not get anywhere and left quite angry and dissatisfied with poor handling of the matter. Only when my sister showed up 10 minutes later (we were gone already) the manager had reportedly a different tone and was trying to find a spot for us (after telling us twice that there is nothing they can do). It was too late, we were already gone. Unfortunately, our 45th twins birthday reunion was ruined as there was no restaurants that could accommodate us on such a short notice. We ended up with no dinner and I cannot believe that they could have treated us like that. There is no way you can get that what was supposed to be a very special moment back.

Next time, I hope they bother to have better understanding what their capacity is before giving a reservation, then cancel and not leave a message so that you are informed. In addition, as a resort guest, and knowing that this was indeed no ordinary dinner for us.... you would think there could be compromise and not leave your guest without a dinner.

And if a restaurant staff would like to use COVID as an excuse for this, please don't...come to my hospital to see how you can still deliver an excellent service despite COVID...

We’ve eaten here before and had a much better experience in the past, but unfortunately this visit left us disappointed.

Food: The food was decent, though nothing spectacular. I had the pow wow taco, which was basically a very tomato-heavy chili on an average piece of frybread. The turkey sandwich was decent. The ploughman platter was decent as well. Presentation of the dishes were nice, but overall, the food just didn’t stand out the way it once did.

Drinks: This is where things really went off. I ordered the same espresso martini three times, and every single one came out differently. When we questioned it, our server insisted they were made the same—while holding the first drink next to the second, which was clearly a different color. It felt strange that instead of acknowledging the difference, he argued about it.

Service & Safety Issues: The bigger concern was the service and how issues were handled. My wife sat in a patio chair that turned out to be broken, with a jagged rusty edge that cut her leg and tore her pants. When we brought it up, the server seemed annoyed and just said he’d “remove the chair from service.” My wife went to the washroom to clean the wound, which was already irritated, and I asked to speak to a manager—mostly because of the dismissive attitude.

When the manager arrived, things got no better. She referred to it as “a little scratch” and seemed more annoyed than concerned. She even kept putting her hand on my wife’s arm while talking, which felt awkward. Another manager came out later with a first aid kit, but it was clear he had no real medical training. No one offered a sincere apology, no acknowledgment of the torn clothing or poor service, and after that point, no one checked in again—we had to flag down our server just to get the bill.

Final Impression: Yes, they comped the incorrectly made drink, but that was the only gesture made. I’ve been to casual, less expensive restaurants where small mistakes were met with genuine apologies and a comped item—here, at a supposedly high-end place, we received condescension, defensiveness, and a lack of accountability.

We had actually been considering having our wedding at the resort this restaurant is part of, but after this experience, we’ve changed our minds. If this is how management handles safety issues and customer concerns, it does not inspire confidence in the rest of the establishment. Quite a shame, because we really wanted to...