Baijiu — Restaurant in Edmonton

This was from 2023: Fantastic cocktails paired with delicious food. This is a must try place in Edmonton.

This is from Dec 2024: WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU GUYS Success corrupts is aptly accurate for you

I went with my wife and parents for dinner and drinks at 8.15 pm on a Tuesday night. We were greeted by a security guard who asked my dad, mom and wife for their ID while I was parking. WHY WOULD YOU NEED TO ID a 78 year old person walking in with family. My wife was not carrying her ID so she joked that she was 48 and did not think she would be ID'ed for entry (never have been in the past). A polite reply mentioning it as a policy requirement would have sufficed but the arrogant guard went on to say to my wife .... "OK, prove it to me that you are 48" .... wow that attitude from a person who is fronting your business totally sucks. Rude, inappropriate and downright ridiculous.

If it was policy and if you had put up a sign or a notice or a poster at the door saying we need everyone entering the place to show their ID, I would give you the benefit of doubt. But this is where it gets murky .... read on ....

I reached and by then the situation was that my wife was asked to show an image of her ID on her phone. I intervened and told the guard that let me show you her ID. It was apparent from his attitude that it was not about the ID. I pretended to search for my wife's driving license on my phone, opened google, searched for an image of an Alberta license with a woman's picture, enlarged it and showed it to the guard. He barely looked at the image for 1 second and with amazing alacrity found her ID to be OK. THIS IS WHERE I AM 80% sure it is not about the ID. He then proceeds to ask me for my ID and I show him my license. With all IDs being shown he tells us that he will go find a server.

Our interaction with the guard had consumed about 15-20 minutes and during this time 13-14 people walked out and 6-7 walked in. Our guard comes back and says that a table for 4 would be ready in 45 minutes. While he is telling me this, a server is taking 3 people, who just walked in (since there are no reservations at your place), to a table. I wonder what table will be able to seat 3 but not 4 people. THIS IS WHERE I AM 100% SURE it is not about the ID. We decided to walk out as it was apparent that the 45 minute wait was based on the guard's biases regarding ethnicity and not about policy.

For Baijiu, you have good food and drinks, but that is easily replicable or can even be improved further by another innovative chef or restauranteur. What could not be replicated was the ambience you provided which was always welcoming and gracious. The experience I had was nothing short of toxic. Shame on the management of Baijiu for letting this happen, shame on the hiring manager who could not see the red flags the guard displays every time he opens his mouth and shame on you for just killing the vibe. If this attitude is promoted by the management and you are actually indulging in filtering your patrons based on ethnicity, then you are not a business I want to even spend a dollar on. I do see another review from the recent past from someone named A Ranjit which has similar undertones as my incident.

For the Guard, I am sorry for you and this life you lead. I will be mortified if I have to wake up everyday and get ready to go to a job where I am paid to be RUDE to people. It would really be something that would make you be rude to a 78 year old man and a 68 year old woman, let alone anybody else. Your attitude made us leave your restaurant with the intent of never to come back to your place again. THINK ABOUT THIS. This is what you just did to your employer and his/her business in spite of them doing a good job with the operations. I am also thankful to you, your attitude sent us to another restaurant where we spent our hard-earned money on hard working people of our community who ensured that we enjoyed our evening. That is the Edmonton I have known and have been living in, not what you showed...

My friends & I were out celebrating a birthday & decided to just poke our heads in here to see the environment. I did not ask to go in, nor did I attempt to reach for my I.D. My friend and I were rudely told by some crow-looking mf (muffin fairy) that they were "actually at full capacity." 1st of all, allow me to re-iterate that we were not attempting to go in. Secondly, my most reflexive thought was "...and what are you supposed to be? It's not Halloween yet." Last, I've been to some of the best clubs & festivals in the world, including clubs in the real bayou in New Orleans and down in Mississippi. I've seen and met some of the best musical artists existing & at one time had the real honor of meeting Ray Charles in one of those bars. A hole in the wall in a burned out oil town where teenagers go to sew their wild oats & temporarily forget that they are living in recession is not my idea of a good time. I'd rather had stayed home & done a Rob Zombie movie marathon. I'm a fairly established business person & could have brought in good traffic but this business is apparently too good for your money. SO don't spend it there. Spend it at an establishment that treats its clients (and potential clients) well. When people go to some of my properties, I'm happy to let them in so they can spend their money & spread the word. It turns out that the greasy door guy (looked like Brandon-Lee post-mortem) had asked my friend out a while back & she had rejected him. I guess that's the real reason why we apparently needed to know their capacity. I just wanted to see what the hole looked like, I didn't ask to be the victim of the Fonz's chronic insecurity. The real lesson here: speak when you are spoken to & if you insist on speaking, know who the hell you're talking to. If I wanted to have a chat with a glorified babysitter, I'd visit my old elementary school sometime. Now, I'm a pretty decent person, I possess a good sense of humour, I'm well above average in IQ ranking, I have highly developed social skills and secure sense of self. So if someone like me is telling you to go have a think about yourself, you'd likely benefit from doing so. Now go have a think about...

Ok, they made a major mistake, I ordered a vegetarian dish and what showed up was a meat version of it. It's dark, it's loud I couldn't tell nor hear what she said it was. It looked like it could be mushroom so I took a bite. Being a vegetarian not very cool, you have to be careful and treat this like an allergy. With that said they dealt with it amazing, four different people approached, apologized and offered the world. I truly felt they felt bad and cared. The bartender, manager, chef and waitress all came to talk to me. Normally I would leave and I was going to but they actually seem to care so much. So I said let me just sit here for a bit and see how I feel. The Bao I ordered came, she said I know you aren't even sure if you want it or want to leave but the kitchen made it anyway. So I decided to eat it, glad I did. Wow it was amazing! The drinks are out of this world and I did stay for more food and drinks. I believe some of my meal will be compensated. It's not about that I don't care but their caring, service really saved me from leaving and changed my review. Based on food, drinks they are a four star based on the mistake they do lose one. (Update: after all said and done I revoke the loss of a star, they are going up to a four star. No excuses but apologies and cared to make it better) I would recommend this but advise don't be scared to verify your meal. Oh the bartender made me Moira's rose, if you like candy it's out of this world. He even gave me the recipe :) Companies make mistakes, we are human. How you fix them really shows the true nature of a company and I do give these guys a thumbs up. You made a mistake but did all of the right things to fix it. So...