Bow & Stern Brentwood — Restaurant in Burnaby

Don’t get me wrong, the vibe of the place is beautiful and it has a lot of potential. I typically only leave good reviews but my experience here was disappointing.

My partner and I came here for our birthdays (we are a week apart). We arrived for our reservation at 9 and were seated by 9:02. Our hostess wished us happy birthday as we had indicated it on our reservation. We were surprised by how empty it was for a Friday since all the other establishments in Brentwood are typically hour long waits on a Friday night. The ambience was nice, however we sat at our table by the windows until 9:18 without a greet from our server. I had to get up and walk to the other side of the restaurant to flag down another server (seems like there was only one manager on the floor and he had walked into the back during my attempt to catch him). The server apologized and let me know she would find someone. By 9:21 our server had come (nearly 20 minutes after being sat). Our server (not sure of her name but she had light blonde hair and a European or oceanic accent) finally came by and swiftly brushed over our extensive wait by thanking us for our patience. We were intending on having a few drinks and plates of food, but opted just to get a few things instead considering how long our wait was to get our orders in. We didn’t see our server again until nearly 10pm and at that point we just asked for our bill. The drink my partner got was okay, the oysters had shards of shell in 1/3 of them, and their toppings were sub par, but the brussel sprouts were very tasty. I’m not sure if the establishment offers a birthday dessert on the house, but considering we saw our server twice in an hour after waiting 20 minutes for even a greet or water fills, it put a sour taste in our mouths. This was meant to be our celebratory birthday dinner but instead felt incredibly disappointing.

We really wanted to like this place as we love seafood and often host friends in the neighborhood as we live close to the Brentwood area, however I doubt we will be returning, let alone bringing our friends to check out this spot as well. It didn’t seem like they were understaffed given there were at least 3 servers in the section by the window, and it seemed like our server only had about 4 or so tables. I have worked in the restaurant hospitality business in the past for many years and that might make my review more biased as I understand the difficulties that come with working in an environment like this, but as a guest the experience was tainted by the lack of...

Salty 1 to a dry 2…

Came here when it was first opened, let’s just say the first time here my server totally disappeared into the ocean and the food were nothing but the taste of salt…

Well back here again for the second time to give it another go because I did tried them a couple of times at their original location in Abbotsford longgg time ago and I was actually excited for this location to open up, closer to home but the first time came quite short.

Greeted by the hostess and asked if prefer inside or outside on the patio. Decided inside dining by the window seats but was informed there’s a 2 hour dining limit (say what?? lol the restaurant wasn’t even busy, maybe 1/4 full…).

After being seated, here were the food I ordered;

Boston clam chowder. Pretty good with a decent amount of clams, some might find it a bit on the saltier side, but I liked it. 1/2 dozen of oysters. They were fresh but barely much to eat, it seemed as if they were anorexia. Hot seafood platter. The lobster was a lightweight but tasted okay, the tiger prawns were decent size, the Arctic char was nicely cooked, had a generous amount of clams and mussels bedded underneath. However, the jasmine rice was undercooked. (How does one undercook rice nowadays? Didn’t use those microwave minute rice right ?!? Right?) 6oz beef tenderloin with mash and vegetables (seasonal menu). Ordered medium rare but came medium. Server apologized and had it redone, came back medium rare but it was quite dry and tough (more of a sirloin than tenderloin to me).

Overall, this place has a lot of potential with its outside patio and its decently spacious layout inside but for sure it’s more of a casual atmosphere than fine dining.

This time around my server was good, unlike the server from the first time here, who just simply disappeared until the bill came. And what’s with the 2 hour limit? Most diners weren’t here for a cocktail and call it the day? Plus the restaurant wasn’t even busy!

The food was definitely not up to par and standard for the price (Properly cooking a steak is cooking 101). There are nearby places that serve similar food, but a lot better and for a better price.

Nevertheless, it did went from a 1 star to a 2 star this time around. Had a couple of good experiences at the Abbotsford location back then, had high hopes and excited for this location but fell way too short. Not a repeat or...

Used to be my one of my favorite restaurants in Brentwood until this one incident on Mothers Day. I had made brunch reservations for Mothers Day thinking it would be really busy that day. I called in saying we were going to be late and if we could change our reservations to a later time. The girl I had talked to on the phone said that there was no guarantee that there would be any tables for would be available when we arrived as it was Mothers Day. After talking to the girl, I told my mom and my mom felt like she was rushed into getting ready to make it to our reservations. When we got to the restaurant, it wasn’t busy at all, it wasn’t event half full. The girl I had talked to on the phone she made it sound like they were so busy when they weren’t at all.

It was Mothers Day and my mom didn’t have a great day because she felt rushed and pressured into hurrying up to get ready for brunch. The girl on the phone had made us think that the restaurant was busy and needed to get there or else we would lose our reservations. However when we arrived it was half empty. If the girl had not said those things, we would have taken our time getting there and not rush our mom to hurry up to get ready.

The lady saying that the restaurant was busy created a lot of stress for my family and I, we were all rushing to get ready thinking there would be no tables available upon arrival.

If I had known that the restaurant wasn’t busy at all we would have taken our time or we would have gone to a different restaurant instead for Mothers Day. At the time I really wanted to take my mom to this restaurant. But looking back now we wouldnt have gone here cause it created unpleasant memory for all of us.

After this, my mom doesn’t like this restaurant anymore. She said it brings back memory of that unpleasant Mother’s Day cause she felt rushed into getting ready for this restaurant but upon arrival it was half empty.

If the lady i had talked to was honest the outcome would have been different. We would have been able to change our reservations. We would have enjoyed it but because she didn’t, this restaurant has a negative memory. And because of negative memory we haven’t been back even though we live by Brentwood mall and are always at this mall.

The food is good though so I gave it 4 stars for the food. The steak and seafood...