Angry Otter Tap and Forno — Restaurant in District of North Vancouver

I have been here twice and had very different experiences each time, both were extremely bad. The first time, I ordered the pear & blue cheese salad with chicken. I had to ask for my drink order 3 times before it finally arrived, and the salad was delivered without either pears or chicken. When they brought the pears & chicken on the side, they were both served sliced into cold brown squares. Disgusting.

Last night, against my better judgment we held a going-away party there for 20 friends. I have never had worse service at any restaurant in my entire life. The food was mercifully better than the last time I went there, but that was it. We did not get to order food until an hour and 15 minutes after our arrival, I got one drink all evening and was never offered the opportunity to order another one for 2.5 hours. One half of the table got our food within a reasonable time of ordering, and the other half got their food over AN HOUR later, despite all ordering at approximately the same time. The server at no point came by to apologize or explain the delay, no discount was offered, and in fact they still tacked an 18% mandatory gratuity onto everyone's bill despite the appalling service. We had to chase them down for water, for appetizer orders, to place our food order, and to pay the bills. Everyone was left with a bad taste in their...

Worst experience ever.

My husband and I have been here dozens of times over the past two years and have always had a pretty good experience with food and service. We were there two days ago and all has changed!

We settled into a table not realizing that you have to order from the bar, both food and drink. It wasn’t busy, there were only 3 patrons including us and 2 servers. One server in particular was very rude to us, telling us to order up at the front when you’re ready, and we didn’t understand at first as it was not this way before. We first thought they were just short staff and because it was not busy. We got a craft beer and asked if she could make a non-alcoholic cocktail and she said no and offered us pop. Then we ordered 2 pizza’s and one was incorrect and the other one was very dry and way too salty.

I’m not sure what’s behind the new line up style service concept, but as a returning customer this change was poorly communicated. We will try other options in the area, and give Hearthstone some time to work through their issues. Seeing the other comments, we are not the only ones experiencing this unpleasant turn in operation. Hopefully the business owners care about who’s paying the bills and make the changes necessary to make it a better...

Absolutely amazing customer service! We went in mid December and were blown away by the manager and kitchen's willingness to accommodate my dietary restrictions. I'm a recently diagnosed Celiac so for those also suffering with the same plight, this is one of THE BEST restaurants for this. They've got gluten free pizza crust, and are willing to attempt to mod most of the other things on the menu that they can to make them gluten free. They even have a dedicated gluten free fryer! And several ciders on tap! Was an absolutely great experience (even though I left my boxed up leftovers behind on the table when we left: I was absolutely gutted when I went to grab them for lunch the next day!).

This is definitely our new go to place for craft brewery/restaurant. Can't wait for the patio to open in the summer!

EDIT: For all Celiac/Severe Gluten Intolerance customers out there, the last two times I've been in, I've been informed that they DO NOT have a dedicated gluten free fryer. (My guess is it was too difficult to keep gluten containing items out of it during a rush). They've still got GF pizza crust and GF buns, and the service is fantastic so I'll keep going back. Maybe it'll change again in the future....