The Common — Restaurant in Edmonton

PHOTOS NOT TAKEN AT THE COMMON, TAKEN AT CENTRAL SOCIAL HALL* I never thought I would be writing a bad review of the common but I feel I would be remiss not to after what happened, especially after reading such glowing reviews specifically of the event coordinator, Kyla. I’ve been coming here for well over ten years and always had so much fun at the club nights and enjoyed the food and drink so when we were looking to book a private section in a restaurant for our 23 person wedding which we planned in 32 days, it felt natural to look into the common.

I initially reached out on a Saturday and mentioned our tight timeline, my email was returned the following Monday. This was fine, I figured she must work business hours. I asked for a call to discuss and Kyla called me later that day to give some details. She was short on the phone - specifically when I said I wanted to enter the space at 10am the morning of our wedding so I could set up our decor with my florist and her response was just “no”. Looking back on her email, it stated I could have the space from “anytime until 10pm” so that was confusing. She said they would set up the decor which I didn’t like but put a pin in it to discuss later. We ended the conversation by saying I will go look at the space to confirm it was what I wanted since I didn’t know where the room would be divided.

Two hours later I went, liked it and emailed her to say we wanted it and asked if I could send her a deposit. The next day I heard nothing, two days later nothing so I emailed to say hey just want to confirm we’re all good for the space on the date we need and reminded her of our tight timeline, no response. The next day I called her back on the number she called me from Monday. She answered and was immediately rude once she realized who I was, said she was picking up her daughter and she’d get back to me. I didn’t expect a response based on how she spoke to me like I was nothing to her on the phone but to my surprise she emailed some details that night. I got back to her right away and she sent over info for the deposit and dj the next morning. After sending the deposit I didn’t get a confirmation of the deposit paid or a thank you. Nothing until her assistant emailed two days later with a few more nuggets of answers to my questions. I again responded to his right away with a few more questions, requesting a time to meet to discuss the layout and details so we could clarify everything at one time without all the back and forth and I could move forward with ordering flowers and decor. Nothing for another two days which was the point I decided to pull the plug and request my despot back. I explained why I was doing so and got an immediate response which was somewhat apologetic but overall very defensive and not at all trying to keep our business, just saying they were too busy right now to respond to people quickly. They sent the refund over right away the next morning and the accountant sent an email basically saying I should be grateful they are refunding me this “non refundable” deposit.

We ended up hosting our wedding at central social hall just two blocks away and they were fabulous! They brought us in beforehand and comped a bunch of food for us to try so we could select what to put on our custom menus for the night. Every email was responded to quickly and politely and I can’t say enough good things about the service the night of. They truly went above and beyond so we decided to send over an additional tip to five of the servers and bartenders who really stood out.

My feeling with how everything went down with the common was that our 23 person wedding wasn’t going to make them enough money so they didn’t want the trouble of having us there. We ending up spending more than double what the minimum spend of the south room was so that again is confusing. I’m honestly so glad they were so rude to us and we decided not to go with them because our day could not have gone any better and it felt like the common wouldn’t have even known we...

No respect for nearby residents. I am 60 meters away, but I might as well be smack dab in the middle of the dance floor. The outdoor speakers on the back patio face directly into my apartment. The owner thinks I should move to an acreage if I can’t handle city noise, but the traffic noise is barely audible here, except when punctuated by emergency response vehicles or loud motorcycles or the odd bout of honking. The difference is that those vehicles pass by and aren’t parked right outside my balcony making noise for four hours straight. In fact, I’ve kept all my windows wide open all spring and summer, day and night, and have never been bothered by “city noise”. If they could face the speakers in towards their own establishment, that may help, but I suspect they don’t because then it would be too loud for them to handle. It’s not ambient music to dine by, it’s concert level loud, loud, LOUD music. I can’t understand why more thought wasn’t put into speaker placement. Couldn’t they be aimed towards 99 Avenue? I’m all for a vibrant downtown also, part of which depends on the people who live here. I suspect I won’t be coming by for a beer and burger anytime soon. I feel for businesses that have struggled during COVID, and I wish the owner a speedy bounce-back. I’m just not willing to sacrifice all -or any, for that matter-of my Friday and Saturday evenings to that end. Please do something to make it reasonably acceptable for those who live in the neighborhood. UPDATE: The recent havoc and noise in the neighbourhood from the “freedom convoy” hopefully gives the Common a taste of its own medicine. Maybe they’ll be a bit more sympathetic in the future to the noise issues they cause for residents. UPDATE to UPDATE: This is my second summer here, the first was unbearable because of the outdoor patio. This summer has been awesome without the outdoor patio goings-on. I wish you all the best, and hope you recover from COVID times. I might see you someday, if you are open to serve lunch before the dance...

I have just come from home. I had a horrible experience on the dance floor. My friends and I went for a good night at common. We dined there and waited for the dance floor. to open. Before this, I had been to Common a few times; the experience had been pleasant. This time, we encountered this crazy woman who was always hitting and kicking while we were on the dance floor. She kicked my ankle twice; her elbow hit me and my friend multiple times, and she pulled my hair several times. We are ignoring it all while we can. We even showed the way she is dancing, which is hurting us. She still did not care. So we all decided to leave within an hour and a half after the dance floor opened. As we were going, she first pushed my friends, then she kept pushing and even kicked me. I had to keep her away by putting my one hand or elbow in between. I told her not to do this, or I would go let the bouncer about it. She told me, Oh, yeah, go ahead tell them! I know every one of them; no one is going to do anything. She was right; it was happening right in front of the bouncer. I even went to tell the bouncer everything. All he did was shake his head, yeah, and did not do anything. For a few seconds, I waited for him to tell her or even kick her out. He literally did not do anything and just stood there. Our server was also standing right beside him; she just stared at the whole thing. So, at that time, I realized that either she was related to the owner, part of the staff, or their regular patron, so they would not do anything and allow this kind of assault. I wonder if these things had happened with other Caucasian patrons, would the staff have taken action or still would not have done anything? So after this humiliating experience, I went ahead and told her F you! because none of the staff was doing the job they were supposed to do, then I left the restaurant. After this i will not be recommending this restaurant to anyone and me and my friends will not go...