Golden Parrots Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in Coquitlam

I’m really sorry to give a low rating to my favorite restaurant because I feel disappointed. This was not what I expected in terms of service and atmosphere!

Last night, my husband and I, along with two of our friends, went to this restaurant. It was our suggestion to come here because we have been customers for four years and always recommend it to others. The food has always been great, and the place has a very cozy atmosphere.

Recently, we noticed a change in the behavior of the restaurant’s waitstaff, but we didn’t take it seriously. Since it was busy, we assumed they were just tired, which can happen. However, last night, our server was an Asian woman with a shaved undercut and the rest of her hair tied back. She approached our table with reluctance, as if she didn’t want to take our order. Without any greeting, she simply asked, “What do you want?”

I responded, “We just sat down. Could we have some cold water for everyone, please?”

She brought the water, and we asked for two more minutes. But after that, she didn’t check on our table until I waved to get her attention.

Our friends don’t speak English well and are new here. When they ordered beer and said, “We’d like lager, please,” she responded in a mocking tone, “We have several kinds of lager. Which one do you want?” Instead of politely listing the options, she chose to speak in a condescending, borderline racist manner.

Then, as soon as she took our drink order, she left without asking if we were ready to order appetizers or main courses. She immediately went to the next table, and again, I had to raise my hand to place our appetizer order!

During the entire time we had food on the table, she only passed by once and quickly asked, “Everything okay?” That was it. Our table was never cleaned, and no one removed the dirty dishes or napkins.

Another issue was with a different woman—I’m not sure if she was the owner—who was behind the bar. When I politely asked her to lower the volume of the TV because it was extremely loud and we couldn’t hear each other, she rudely and angrily replied, “Our guests want the volume high. Sorry, I can’t turn it down!”

I responded, “Sweetheart, we are your guests too, and I’m not asking you to mute it—just lower it a little, please.” Then I lightly patted her back and said, “Relax, please.”

This was my bad experience at a restaurant I truly love for its ambiance and food. I wanted to speak with the manager, but since we had guests, I didn’t want to ruin their night. So I decided to leave a review instead.

I hope I won’t have to experience this kind of racist attitude again—especially since even the staff there are not native speakers themselves! In my 12 years of living in Canada, no actual Canadians have ever made me feel this...

I have found my people...

Back in Victoria, for about the past 15 years, almost all restaurants that are not franchises do all or mostly in-house cooking: sauces and baking and prep ingredients from scratch. Moving to the lower mainland I really expected to see the same here. What an unpleasant shock to find that nearly no one here, apart from high end dining, does more than assemble premade ingredients in varied ways.

And then Murphy's or Murray's or whatever the Irish pub in this location was called closed, and I was in a hurry one day and needed to eat ... not a lot of choices around here, and it was open again. Only... it wasn't the Irish pub anymore.

Now it's the Golden Parrot ... and they not only make everything (except the ketchup) from scratch, but they also make their own cocktail syrups to go with a very interesting cocktail menu.

The menu is not hugely varied --it's a pub, what are you hoping for? What they do, they do VERY well.

The AAA striploin with mushroom sauce is not only an excellent price for an excellent steak, but mmmmm.... perfectly medium-rare (a compromise between me and my dinner date, I'd like it blue, she'd like it shoe leather) 8oz steak, peppery with a rich and meaty sauce.

And the salted caramel chocolate mousse --get the server to take it out about 15 minutes before serving it, to let it come up to temperature that makes it mind-meltingly smooth and rich... an accidental and delightful discovery!

We will be regulars (at least until someone else takes the hint, geez, c'mon people, Kitchen Nightmares was more than 10 years ago, surely we know limiting menus and cooking from scratch is the way to make money in food...

Honestly my husband and I are big local-treasure foodies and enjoy trying out local bars/ pubs in different areas in search of great service, food, and prices and this place checked all three boxes! We visited here on a Saturday for my husbands birthday and he got the Prime Rib special for I believe $27.90. Another of our local favourites offers a prime rib special for $2 more and provides a MUCH smaller cut that Golden Parrot had. Golden Parrot gave an extremely generous portion of Prime Rib with extremely little fat and cooked to exactly my husband’s preference. He said “by far one of the best prime ribs I have had, well, probably ever. That was delicious!” For myself I ordered their tortellini which WAS NOT your basic “pre-made” pasta. It was fresh and delicious as well. I am vegetarian and hadn’t realized the tortellini does have pork, however. When I told the waitress she offered to have it be remade with no issues, even though it was my fault the mistake occurred. The re-made dish came out hot, freshly made, and perfect. Service was efficient and polite. I have recommended this pub to several of my friends already and would recommend anyone in the area give them a...