Saint-Eloi Café Bistro — Restaurant in Gatineau

we chose this place due to the excellent reviews and were happy it was within walking distance of our hotel, in a gorgeous location. Views were great and the vibe/decor was excellent. It had all the elements in place to be a great dining experience but it was the worst/slowest service we've ever had. As a former waiter, I am always patient and looking for reasons why things are moving so slowly that might be out of the server's control. However out waiter was bordering on flippant and seemed not willing or able to address the various issues the restaurant was having. We waited at least half an hour before our server took our drink order, despite having come to our table to bring us water. When we did eventually get our drinks, the food was another hour (he said the kitchen was slammed although only 2 tables came in after us all night and it was only about half full, We were there from 6:30-9:00). When he finally dropped off our appetizers and said he'd put in our food order, but this was already an hour in ( three of us had ordered 2 appetizers each rather than a main course so expected to get them all together but he didn't ask about timing which most higher end places do) He initially also told us two of the things we ordered weren't on the menu but we were looking at the menu and showed him and he just said, "oh, it's a new menu". I jokingly asked him if it was new that day. When our mains came, they were for another table. When the (almost)correct food came, he brought one instead of 3 tacos that had been ordered so our friend had to wait yet again, and the seafood linguine had still-frozen scallops in it. They were inedible. Two of us had the risotto, which was decent but was SO salty it became inedible towards the end. When we mentioned that to the waiter said he'd take 50% off but since the meal had a few issues he said he'd remove one dinner from our bill. The few times he came to our table, he came and went so fast we had to call him back to finish ordering more drinks for everyone at the table, not just the one person he had asked. When our bill came, it had a third beer on it that we'd never received. I don't know if they were severely understaffed (tell your guests if you are) but our server was abrupt and SO slow and the food was disappointing and not...

The worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant ! We get in and get sat down take 25 min just to take our order . Then we ordered our app and 45 min later it arrives and was horrible so we decided to pay and leave. The waiter said no problem then have a lady come to us telling us “we already started making it” I explained to her we aren’t interested in staying the food was disappointing can we please have our bill . She continuously goes on to basically say too bad we can’t let you just leave ? We were like ugh honestly we don’t wanna stay we don’t like the food. She says well I can take the app off if you stay . So we stayed and ate and ready to get our bill then tells us oh we can’t take it off.. whole reason we stayed was cause you said you could take it off . Her excuse was cause we ate the app . My bf ate it out of waste cause it was 30$ and we were gonna pay it cause he isn’t type person to waste food and was shy to say anything . Even I was but I felt bad for my bf having to pay for such horrible food . The server was so rude and manipulative . Food was so over priced . Service sooo slow and the food is honestly not worth the price ! I am so disappointed because I had been wanting to try this restaurant and was so excited and he took me here as our only date night we get a month . So disappointed . Honestly so disappointed . I work in a restaurant and so appalled ! Do not go here I’m telling you . Not worth it . Try ember or sans facon if you...

Very bad experience. Made reservations at this restaurant for a birthday party and was offered the entire restaurant since they didn’t have any reservations on that day. It was really appreciated but also it was “offered”. 15 guests didn’t show up and the very arrogant and rude owner came to our table while we were having our dinner and asked us to pay $750 to compensate the meals that was prepped for the 15 no show guests since he offered us the restaurant all to ourselves. I asked if we could enjoy our party and we can discuss about this after the party but he came again after an hour to ask the same thing and when I said it was not in our control that the guests did not show up, we were told to leave the restaurant with a very arrogant behaviour. Imagine telling your guests to leave the place at a party, how disappointing it is. Very bad management and wait staff were very rude to us and charged us the 15% gratuity directly on our bills. All of this should have been mentioned to us on the emails while we were booking the place, but nothing was mentioned. We asked for more bread and the rude waitress told us that its one piece of bread per person and that she cannot bring us more. Customer service is a total ZERO...