PinBar — Restaurant in Calgary

I don't usually write reviews but I've never felt so disrespected and humiliated by a business before. What a terrible first impression.

Let me give some context to why I'm writing this review.

This was my first time coming here. I went here to have a good time with my friends and met a friend at the bar. When I went to order a drink, the bartender asked for my ID which is common practice. Unfortunately I forgot that I was getting my license renewed and the temporary license didn't count as ID. Bummer, I couldn't drink but the law is the law and I respect that. At least I could play some pinball and still have a good time right? At this point more friends have shown up and we decide to find a spot to sit. As we were getting settled in, the bartender comes back and essentially announces to that part of the bar that I was getting kicked out. I wasn't allowed in the place because of my ID situation, which again, fair enough but my issue is how they conducted this.

I have to ask, was it really necessary to make a public spectacle out of my embarrassing situation by announcing to everyone in earshot that I was being kicked out? Is it honestly that difficult to just tell me at the bar when I was being told I couldn't use the ID, or just pull me aside and tell me privately? All because I had the gall to come here without my passport.

I think this establishment takes the term "Customer Service" quite literally. It seems that customer service is ONLY reserved to paying customers, which to that I also say fair enough. It is a business after all. But I would argue that shouldn't all people, customer or not, be treated with basic common courtesy and human dignity? For this place though you have to pay if you want the luxury of that type of treatment.

What further reinforces my negative sentiment is the fact that as I'm packing up to leave, visibly embarrassed from the bartender basically announcing me getting kicked out, the bartender not once apologizes to me or even acknowledges me outside of telling me I had to leave. Instead, she apologizes to my friends that she had to kick me out since you need to keep the paying customers happy right? Just ignore the guy you've publicly humiliated and tend to the customers that give you money instead. What a healthy way to treat people.

I hope that my review accomplishes a couple things:

I hope that people will become aware that if you want to have a good time at PinBar that you better be able to pay, lest you be deemed an undesirable by the staff and management.

I hope that management trains their staff better as humiliation and disrespect should never be the first thing someone thinks of when they talk about your business. This entire thing was avoidable had they had the proper training.

What kills me is the fact that my friends really like this place. I really wanted to like it too and had high hopes for a good time tonight. It seemed like a great place to unwind and finally enjoy Spring now that the semester was over. Instead I'm just left feeling humiliated and angry.

But who am I kidding? I doubt that PinBar will even read this, and even if they do why would they care about what I had to say? After all, I wasn't a paying customer so I don't matter. I would have loved to be a customer had circumstances been different. But then again, the staff here have shown their true colors...

I wish I could review the food but the service was just so TERRIBLE. I turn 18 in 2 days and have worked as a waitress for 3 years, and have never met a more incompetent brainless server.

I go with a friend and my older brother and we’re greeted by a larger man. We say we are just here for takeout and can we get the menus. We thought we came to bastion burgers, supposedly open til 11PM. We come in at 8:30PM the restaurant is relatively empty except for few individuals around the bar. The man responds that minors aren’t allowed in and for my ID, i admitted that I was underage and that we are here for takeout. We ask “Is this bastion burgers?” We expected a burger joint not a pub. He confirms it is. He finally gives us the menus and lets us know we cannot wait inside for the food. No problem we dont mind waiting in the car. I ask if the burger is halal out of curiosity, he responds in an impolite tone “i have no idea” We have to ask him again if he could confirm it. As he leaves to find out we read the menu. He comes back saying no the food isn’t halal, we continue to order but he cuts me off. He restates that I cannot be inside. I told him I previously called the restaurant to ask that question, but if the restaurant didn’t bother picking up, how am I even supposed to order if i can’t do it over the phone or in person? He assumes my friend is of age as he doesnt ask for their ID and said that he can stay but I cannot. I said thats fine can I order then i’ll leave. He essentially gives me the option of looking at the menu OUTSIDE IN THE COLD (it is -20). How does he want me to order? Is he supposed to come outside the restaurant and listen to my order? Am I supposed to also pay standing outside? I have never seen any restaurants make such ridiculous comprises. Then he suggests that we can also order on ubereats, this is a terrible suggestion because we would STILL GO INSIDE to pick it up. Why make it so complicated to the point we cannot order or pay?

If the server simply said politely “Im sorry but we cannot offer service to minors at this hour.” I would not be writing this right now. Except my server was clueless and did not know how to communicate with customers. We were obviously confused that it was a pub when we came in looking for food. We had no intentions to hang around. I am writing this review on pinbar and not bastion burgers since online says theyre a hamburger restaurant, good for kids, and that theyre open til 11PM, if bastion burgers is using pin-bar kitchen and you guys are limiting customers from ordering a BURGER at 8:30PM you might as well clarify that online for bastion burgers that youre turning away their customers the way you are. You have wasted my gas and time. Maybe start hiring people who know how to talk to people or with simple customers service skills. I would not go back even If I am now of age due to...

I think the venue is cool, the location is great, the staff is decent, and the pinball machines...oh boy. For a place called Pinbar it's really disappointing how poorly maintained they are. I brought my wife in for free pinball night. Almost every machine we played had either multiple minor issues or major ones. Broken flippers, incredibly badly balanced, Medieval Madness in particular wasn't set up properly, it looks like the doors the trolls are meant to pop out of were never unsealed but was hard to tell, the machine tilted badly to the right hand side. Some machines don't work, the lighting on Godzilla is broken, the sound was off on the Metallica machine, a machine you play because it plays licensed music, Game of Thrones had a broken flipper, I could go on and on.

I like this place a lot but if you are going to run a venue called Pinbar, with Stern logos on the walls, and have a free pinball night once a week, full of pinball machines, it would pay dividends to actually keep your machines in good health. We didn't go there for the stellar service or the booze, both met our expectations, but the pinball experience was pretty disappointing. I'm rating it rather highly because it's a unique place I want to see have a bit more love, but they need to hire someone who knows how to maintain machines and actually cares because we really got the impression that they don't. We had one machine that wasn't working, asked a male staff member about it, they looked at it for about two minutes, shut it down, didn't say anything to us, walked away, and it was off the rest of the night. The place was practically dead and a few of them were standing around talking to eachother so it's not like they had anything else to be doing, so it was either a lack of care or a lack of knowledge because time certainly wasn't a factor.

A cool venue, but if they don't care, it's hard for people going there to want too and to...