Isabelle Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Burlington

So, worst experience ever. I've contacted the restaurant twice - after they told me they would rectify the situation. But I've come to the conclusion they only did that to make people on Open Table think they would take care of it. Which they didn't. Bottom line is, unless you want to spend $250 for 2 cold toasts, an underdressed and mediocre salad and a bottle of over-priced ($66) luke-warm bottle of Prosecco, I'd suggest you spend your money elsewhere.

Here is my message to the restaurant, word for word, that I sent twice that they promised to respond to but never did:

I certainly have grace for the current situation in the service industry. And by no means do I hold our server accountable.

But here's what happened:

Showed up at 1:00 for a birthday lunch reservation. The restaurant was mostly empty. Took about 10 minutes for a patio table to be prepared for us.

Once we sat down, we immediately ordered cocktails. We also ordered a bottle of Prosecco. Our cocktails arrived at 1:47.

One of the guests at our table explained that we were in a bit of a time crunch, and requested the Prosecco be delivered sooner rather than later. We were told that the Prosecco needed time to chill and that we would have to wait. Which was somewhat confusing considering it was an only brunch menu, and why wouldn't you already have cold Prosecco for brunch when mimosas would be a standard item.

We placed our order for 2 mushroom toasts and a salad. We sat there completely unattended and watched diners who came in Weill after us get served. When our meals finally arrived, we were short of cutlery and it was cold. Like, the eggs were congealed. And at this point, it's over an hour and a half after our arrival. Our server offered to return our meals to heat them up, but at this point we were so put-off and hungry, we just tried to make the best of it. Not to mention, we didn't have another half-hour to wait for that to happen.

Our birthday guest was given a birthday desert sorbet, again without any cutlery. She ate it with a knife. At this point it was comical.

Our bill was $240. For cold toast, Luke-warm Prosecco and a mediocre salad. We tipped will (20%) because I really don't think our server was at fault. My impression is he doesn't have experience in this industry, which I have understanding for, especially post-COVID. But at any high-end restaurant, this never would have happened.

I will give you the opportunity to make this right because we really did have high expectations of your restaurant. UPDATE - they never responded. They only posted their initial response on Open Table to make it look like they'd rectify it. They never did.

BOTTOM LINE - save your money. Really amazing views and potential of great food. But totally disappointing. They had every opportunity to make this right and decided not to. Drive 10 minutes further West and you'll find the same views and food...

A 1 star review is rare for me - but my experience this evening was abysmal.

From dropping off my vehicle to the valet station to picking it up 3 hours later - I was disappointed and let down over and over again.

First off - valet staff are incredibly unprofessional. If I pull up, and step out of my vehicle with my entire family following suit - it should be pretty obvious the vehicle is to be left for valet. I shouldn’t be asked why I’m parked there.

Secondly - the hostess at the front desk was completely disorganised. For a 7:15pm reservation, we were seated at 7:45pm. When I asked what was taking so long around 7:40pm, I was informed that there was no space on the patio… guess what? We specifically asked to be seated inside, so they forced us to wait 35 minutes for no reason. 5 minutes later, our table inside was ready.

Then… the whole experience for dinner wasn’t the greatest. Our server was unprofessional and not attentive to us at all. I actually had to get up from my table, go to find a supervisor and ask them to tell our server to come check on us. This is unacceptable. Our water was not refilled for 45 minutes. It took 20 minutes for a Sprite to be delivered to us from the bar. When I asked what was taking so long… I was told that they are “going in order” only to then watch our server bring us the sprite that had been sitting on the bar for 15 minutes.

I don’t appreciate being lied to, and this wasn’t the first lie of the evening. When our food came around 8:45pm, I asked our server where the replacement for the beef jus was. She said that the replacement was the herb butter. I asked her to please read the menu, the herb butter is already a component of that dish. A few minutes later, she hastily returned with a quickly thrown together sauce.

Shame on the chef tonight, they completely phoned it in and didn’t make any effort whatsoever.

Lastly, upon leaving - the valet supervisor took our ticket and said the attendant has gone to get the car. 20 minutes later, I see the supervisor walk inside and get my car keys. When I confronted them, they said “oh there was a confusion” - sure, maybe communicate that to the customer who is standing right there rather than once again lying to my face and only owning up to it when confronted.

Oh and this was meant to be a birthday dinner - and this was specified in our reservation. It was not acknowledged in any way whatsoever. Completely ignored. I did not expect a dessert or anything… but I’m used to it at least being acknowledged by our server when greeting us. We got nothing.

Please do better. You have great food, but that is worth nothing when your front service staff is lying to your customers and at times ignoring...

We have been a few times to Isabelle, and decided to celebrate our first wedding anniversary last week with dinner there. Since we are returning patrons, we already expected the high quality food and service associated with this restaurant, but the staff went above and beyond. We asked to sit on the patio, and there was a very brief wait, we agreed to wait and sat by the bar for some cocktails. The bar tenders were welcoming, personable, and funny. They took our drink orders quickly and by the time they were about to start making them, our table was ready. We were guided to our table on the patio (a must if you're dining on a warm summer night) and met our awesome waiter, Chris.Our cocktails were quickly brought to our table for us to enjoy, as well as two glasses of complimentary sparkling wine to celebrate our anniversary! We ordered an appetizer (the whipped feta with crunchy chickpeas is incredible) and our mains at the same time. To our pleasant surprise, all pasta dishes are 50% off on Mondays- what luck! We both ordered the lobster linguine, which we've had before, and it did not disappoint. What made this particular dining experience at Isabelle so special was that apparently, there was an error with our order, resulting in a delay in our pastas arriving to our table. If it were not for the numerous apologies from our waiter and other staff of the restaurant, I'm not sure we would have even noticed! They offered us another round of cocktails, on the house. I had the passionfruit cocktail which was amazing, so I happily accepted another. My husband was driving later, so he politely refused, but thanked the staff. Instead, they brought us an order of fries on the house! So sweet and unexpected! Our pasta was amazing (as usual) and we were also provided with a complimentary anniversary dessert. Thank you Chris, and the entire Isabelle staff for making our anniversary dinner so lovely. We can't wait to dine...