JOEY Barlow — Restaurant in Calgary

PRE-COVID: 5 Stars This restaurant is a staple in the community with a reputation for fine food and great service. I have never been disappointed and have been coming here since its inception. My guests have always been very pleased with this fine dining experience. I highly recommend this place.

POST-COVID: 3 Stars The food was great, but I can't say the same about the service. From the moment we wanted into the entrance, the problems started. 3 girls were at the front desk and were too busy to even acknowledge that we were even there. We stood in front of them for a good 10 minutes until they decided to take us to our table.

While dining, I asked for a glass of water and it took nearly until we were done eating to receive the water. The manager came by in mid meal and introduced herself asking if we enjoyed our meal, but we were busy chewing our food and could not verbally respond, we could only communicate via hand signals. She could have respectfully performed this action after we were done eating.

After the meal was done, the waitress never returned to ask whether or not we wanted dessert, in fact, she never returned to our table at all. I finally got up, put my coat on, and started to leave. It was at this moment that the waitress finally realized she needed to collect my money, so I told her straight up that she made us wait far too long. She didn't apologize at all, just handed me the machine to pay. I did leave a tip but she really did not deserve a dime.

I will think twice about returning here again. Above the lousy service, the prices were astronomical. $70 for 2 drinks, 1 burger and 1 appetizer.

Ridiculous all around and a total decline since COVID. THINK TWICE before you patronize this place and bring...

Looking for a good casual dinner we found this restaurant with very nice comments.

We arrived at 6:30, no reservation was needed. At the door, a kind girl asked us to choose our preferred side, which could be a restaurant or lounge. The place looked slow. Then, she escorted us to the table and brought the menus.

A couple of minutes later our waitress came to the table to take the drinks order, we ordered an espresso martini and a passion fruit margarita, they were fabulous.

For dinner, we ordered Baja Shrimp Tacos and a Tuna sandwich with Ceasar salad on the side, my girlfriend has a dairy intolerance, and a couple of options were offered for her. I ordered a beer for my meal; it was nice and refreshing, I didn't notice the glass was broken until the second sip; I explained the situation to our waitress. She apologized kindly and offered to change it.

Unfortunately, a very BAD thing showed up; at the bar the same liquid was just poured into a different glass and topped up with more beer. No duty of care. Small pieces of glass into a drink are super DANGEROUS!

For the sweet part, we tried the Lava Cake with Ice cream, and a latte coffee, they were delicious!

Conclusions The food was very good, and many options were available on the menu. The Chef did touch-table with just two or three customers.

The drinks had a nice flavor, and interesting wine options, cocktails, and beers were available. The bartender seems unprofessional.

The service was very disappointing, very slow, and had no sense of urgency, I never knew our waitress' name, however, she was set at a table talking when our empty plates were seated on our table for a while. Then, I noticed the waitress doesn't take dirty dishes, because there was a buster for the...

I visited Joe Barlow Restaurant yesterday, with a few friends. Overall, the service, food, and environment were quite good. However, there was one particular item on the menu that was extremely disappointing. The taste was so unpleasant that after just one or two bites, we had to return it. It honestly felt like something we had to spit out — completely off in flavor and quality.

Despite returning the item almost untouched, we were still charged for it. While the item itself wasn’t very expensive compared to the rest of the bill, the principle behind it bothered me. The taste and quality of that dish did not meet the restaurant’s usual standards at all. If we returned it without hesitation and clearly didn’t eat it, I don’t understand why we were still expected to pay for it.

When I brought this up with the staff, they said, “You have to pay whether you like it or not. If you don’t like something, you shouldn’t have ordered it in the first place.” I found this response quite unprofessional and dismissive. It’s not possible to know how something tastes until you try it — and we didn’t consume it beyond those first few bites.

I mentioned that I would be sharing my experience in a review, and they bluntly replied, “We don’t care. You can write whatever you want.”

This kind of attitude is not acceptable, especially in a customer service-driven industry like hospitality. I hope the management takes note and reconsiders their policies and staff training, because this one bad experience overshadowed an otherwise...