Browns Socialhouse Courtenay — Restaurant in Courtenay

Lunch/dinner date with my beautiful wife.... wish I could say it was a positive experience.

Drove from Parksville to Courtenay for the afternoon with my wife to enjoy some time together and decided to hit up Browns as we'd never been before, and never will again.

I'm not sure if our server was Lauren, but that's what the receipt says, though I wouldn't put much faith in it as she couldn't even remember to take our order, and once it was taken, couldn't figure out what table it went to. We placed our drink order. 2 waters, 2 coffees. We received the 2 waters right away by someone else, but took approx 13 mins to get our coffees, (after being asked if we had ordered anything other tha waters). You wrote our order down on your tablet but couldn't remember if we ordered anything other than our waters? Yes, our $4.25ea coffees. Then a server came to our table to bring us Iced Teas we did not order. Eventually, we got our coffee. Then she finally asked if we wanted to start with an appy. We said sure, just a fries to share. That took awhile to get, and once we got the 29 pieces of fries, ( that cost $9.00 for an amount of fries I could fit in the palm of my hand, I know this, because I watched a cook put one handful of fries on the plate and let it sit until barely luke warm). Another server brought our fries, (have yet to have a positive interaction with our actual server, as she was more focused on her friends beside us). Shortly after we received our fries we were brought food we didn't order, once again. Finally she took our order. My wife had a Dragon Tofu Bowl, it wasn't anything to write home about, (my wife is vegan, asked not to have the cream sauce, but experienced the sauce anyways, good thing she isn't allergic to dairy). I ordered the Florida Special with fries. Crispy chicken was in the description. I didnt know it would be crispy inside and out. Terrible bricks of torched batter, or is it supposed to be black? The meat inside was dryer than Australia in dead of summer. The server Lauren? would have known if she had checked on us. Not once during our food consumption did she ask how our meal was. Absolutely terrible service, terrible food.

We never not leave a tip. This was our first time not leaving a tip, and have eaten at hundreds of places all over North America.

It's really not that difficult to make sure we get a coffee, ask if we need anything, cook a peice of chicken, hold the...

My friend and I visited the Courtenay location while traveling from Victoria, and what should have been a pleasant meal turned into a complete nightmare. At first, I brushed off seeing a couple of insects buzzing near me, due to the open-air concept at the front of the restaurant. I thought, “No big deal, that happens.” But within minutes, those few bugs turned into an overwhelming swarm. FRUIT FLIES EVERYWHERE.

I was forced to constantly swat them away from my drink and food, as if I was eating in the middle of a compost bin. They weren’t just hovering… they were landing on everything, even hitting me in the face so many times that I could feel them brushing against my eyelashes. Absolutely revolting!!!.

When I complained and asked to be moved, the waitress casually admitted that it wouldn’t matter, because the fruit flies infest the entire restaurant. That is beyond unacceptable. If staff openly admit the infestation is inescapable, it means the management knows and has chosen not to deal with it. This wasn’t just unpleasant, it was disgusting, unsanitary, and insulting to paying customers. Until this issue is properly addressed, I strongly recommend that people AVOID THIS LOCATION AT ALL COSTS!!!!!

Update*. I reached out privately, exactly as the Assistant Manager ‘Paige’ asked… and was completely ignored. No reply, no follow-up, no accountability. So for anyone else reading this, don’t waste your time expecting action or a genuine response. They’ll ask you to email them to make it look like they care, but once you do, it’s radio silence.

If management actually cared about customer feedback, they’d respond and resolve issues, not just perform damage control in...

Terrible communication. Was told 20 minutes for a table 55 minutes ago, and still waiting outside with three kids who are very uncomfortable. The host is refusing us to wait on the patio, but other hostesses have let other parties sit on the patio to wait so they can at least get an appetizer and some water before being seated inside. Ridiculously awful service

Edit: after waiting an hour and 5 minutes outside we were invited to sit at the bar. We got some water and a drink then our table became ready. The food was ok, but our 9 year old's order was completely missed, and brought out after everybody else was done eating. It's almost comical how terrible my experience was. While waiting, the party ahead of us (3 people) was seated ahead of us at a table that seats 10. We had to wait 20 minutes after they were seated before we were even offered a spot inside out of the 33 degree heat. Once inside we waited an additional fifteen minutes for a table. All we needed was somebody to tell us it was a ninety minute wait, and we would have waited at the pool at the hotel. Instead one of our kids and one adult got heat related nausea and headaches, being told "just bother five minutes" every 20 minutes.

The manager on tonight did a great job, but it was unfortunately a little too late. We were comped our alcohol, and she was very apologetic. All in all, it was an unfortunate situation for all involved. Mistakes happen, it's just unfortunate to be the one who suffers the...