Braven — Restaurant in Edmonton

The short version: be wary of shady “mark ups” on your bill with no warning (either from your server or mentioned in the menu).

This is more of a review of the way the restaurant is managed and how floor staff are trained; because while it might be tempting to blame our server, I’d rather make it clear that this was likely how folks are trained… which is squarely on the shoulder of management/training and the decisions made about HOW to run a restaurant. I mean, MAYBE we had a rogue server… but I suspect not.

Less importantly, some orders were slow. And we spent a lot of time between interactions with staff (taking orders, receiving drinks etc)

The core reason I came to write this review is this: surprise charges on the bill. My colleague and I both ordered burger plates. Our server asked my colleague if he’d prefer truffle fries, regular fries, salad or … something else. He ordered the truffle fries. The server asked if he’d like tomato, cheese, bacon, lettuce, (and other items). My colleague said yes.

I got the same questions. I opted for regular fries and yes to the burger with “all that list of things”.

Food: great. It’s a shame we can’t focus on that.

Skip to the bill. There a 4$ add on for my bacon. And my colleague? 4$ for the bacon and 9$ for the truffle fries. On a 29$ (very good) burger.

Now, we were caught off guard. I did talk to our server. I didn’t refuse the charge (maybe we should have) but I did explain that the practice of neither listing the add ons as “extra fees” in the menu and not mentioning the add on in person (not to mention scrambling down the list of ingredients of both “included” and “not included”) is pretty deliberately shady. Do I blame the server? Not entirely. My gut says this is a decision made by the restaurant itself.

Let’s be honest; if you rely on regulars, this will irk them. I won’t be going back. But I’m not from Edmonton. This is likely a passable practise because, well, this place is essentially a hotel restaurant. And I assume most of their guests are visitors.

And sure, I’ve paid for add ons before and I don’t expect a neon sign warning me. Or a server listing the cost of each item. But good practice is calling those items “options” or using language like “would you like us to add _”. And yes; you can also put up a neon sign and say things like “for an additional charge…”. But you do you.

Did these folks break the law? No. Or I mean, probably not. But I’m no lawyer. I’m just a patron. And in spite of the food, Braven left me feeling taken advantage of. And do you really want to spend your money somewhere that makes you feel that way?

I can’t force anyone to skip this place; but I can encourage folks to choose better spots in town that will treat them right, feed you well and leave you with stories about good food and good service instead of stories of wondering if you just got scammed.

And if anyone at Braven is thinking of explaining this away, that you value your patrons’ experience etc…. just hear me out; if you cared about your patrons and realized that your reputation is the best way to grow your business, you would have chosen better language during your server trainings. If you did that at all. You would have explained that the experience your patrons have is more important than the final bill tally. And it’s ok if that’s not what you are looking to achieve. I get the sense you and your investor partners are more about the bottom line. And mediocre restaurants are good for that. If that’s the case: goal achieved.

Everyone else; it’s Alberta. There are excellent Steakhouses nearby. No reason to choose this one over the great ones. Some day I’ll come back to Edmonton enjoy a great one and feel good about my decision to dine there. Someday.

The Brussels sprouts were spot on. They only made me fart...

Please note that I am not bashing the restaurant and I did not "hate" my food, just throwing my honest opinion out there for people to read.

Braven is really nice, located at a new premium location, inside the Ice District. The renovations were great, a bit dark to even read the menu which is a nice rare scene in Edmonton. We have been to Braven's lounge/bar a couple of times before Oilers games, and we always loved their drinks (yes, it is a bit pricy, but location location location).

Two of us ate at the restaurant on this particular night. We have been wanting to try Braven since the pandemic. We ordered the Seafood Platter, Ribeye steak, and the Smoked Ribs. We ordered the Braven Sangria, which is one of our favorite drinks.

We arrived at the door and the hostess at the front addressed us right away, and we were seated in a short couple of minutes. The restaurant is beautifully renovated, the mood was great, but it was extremely loud. The restaurant echoes noises pretty badly, and we can barely hear each other as there was a few rowdy tables around us. The server was very polite and courteous, however, lacks the service of a high end fine dining restaurant. In fact, the experience was more like Joey's, or even a regular brew house. While I don't feel the servers are properly trained for fine dining, our server was extremely polite and we loved her.

The first plate was the seafood platter. The Oysters were very very small (might not be in season??), and the Steak Tartar was very soggy. Although we were not happy with the food, the presentation was very nice.

Then came the entrees. The server that dropped off our food was not our regular server, and he dropped off our food, zero eye contact, and we said thank you and he just turned away. The gentleman appears to be younger, and definitely not well trained. When a client say thank you, the worst you can do is turn your back on them. But again... it was really loud... maybe he didn't hear us......

Our main course: Ribeye Steak. No surprises. Just a steak that was like any other steak you can have at most other restaurants. It was definitely not worth the $68, as there wasn't anything spectacular about the steak. There were some asparagus under the steak and they seems to be unseasoned. It was not a bad steak at all, but we were expecting something more spectacular (like..... the Ruth Chris T-Bone steak). One thing we noticed was that the plates were served hot, but the plates cooled down extremely quickly, which was unable to keep our food warm, The Smoked Boneless Beef Short ribs.... This was the disappointment. The ribs was dry on one side, the sauce were great, but the dish got boring extremely quick. I am a huge foody, so I almost always finish my food, but I was unable to finish the ribs, as it was really tough to chew on, my mouth was tired from all the chewing and it got boring really quickly.

Our overall experience with the restaurant is fair. It is rare to have a high end restaurant in our city so the location and the renovations were really appreciated. Braven is still young, and while we did not have a great experience with the food, it is a great place to visit and have a drink...

DO NOT BOOK A WATCH PARTY TABLE! This will be a novel and will sound like fiction but it's a 100% true "crime".

I made the mistake of booking a watch party table for four people ($200 deposit) for the Oilers vs Stars game 2. Our experience started out bad and ended horrifically. It rained a little bit that afternoon and was called by the host informing me that the patio will be closed but they will be able to accommodate us in the dining room in front of a tv. Her exact words were "It'll be like watching in your living room". Okay, understandable because of the weather. We arrived and the host (the older lady with short hair named in 90% of the 1 star reviews) I spoke to immediately after I said my name looked at me sternly and said "we'll seat you but the game will have no sound in the dining room" I laughed thinking it was a joke which seemed to infuriate her so she angrily said "I'm serious there will be no sound" so I asked "So my deposit will be refunded? I'm not paying $200 deposit for a watch party with no sound" she respond with "No, you agree to the terms and conditions. We are not seating people outside" all this while a group of people are led past me OUTSIDE ON THE PATIO! so I asked "why they're going outside" filled with visible rage she storms off and returns with a gentleman asking how he can help, puzzled I look at her and say "he's unaware of the situation?" she put her finger up to shush me and said "Talk to him" and looked past me like I wasn't there. Moving on the gentleman showed us a long table in the bar section where we can sit until a table in front of the tv's with sound opened up. Fine, we'll wait. Now seated we look outside as they continue to seat people on the patio they told us was closed. My wife obviously annoyed walked outside, cleared seats at a table as I spoke to the gentleman about moving out to the table she had secured for us. After agreeing this was fine we sat down and he assured us that a manger would come speak with us about the unfortunate situation and get our drinks started. ONE HOUR LATER I asked a server if anyone was coming and he retrieved someone that took our drink order. 15 minutes later another server asked us if we wanted to order drinks.... At this point the game had started and we just reordered our drinks which did come quickly. Now finally watching the game with drinks in hand while using menus to shield our eyes from the sun which is blinding because of the time of day and the position of the screens, we watched and mused about how none of us will ever return to Braven ever again. Game ends in victory and we ask for our bill. This was at 8:35pm AN ENTIRE HOUR LATER I was standing at the bar asking why on Earth it has taken an hour to get our bill. No one would even acknowledge this as an issue for concern. We paid our bill and left, never to return. If you have read this far please pass it on to everyone that suggests braven as an option for any occasion that they will not only be disappointed with the service but also completely go out of their way to...