The Middle Spoon Desserterie & Bar — Restaurant in Halifax

This was my 3rd time coming here to see the speakeasy restaurant underneath, previous times it’s been incredible food, drinks, service and atmosphere, a perfect romantic spot to grab delicious cocktails, but last night it felt like the place stopped caring about the super unique spot they have.

Upstairs service while we were waiting for our table downstairs was perfect just what you’d expect with great drinks and we were treated very well, being taken downstairs to our table too.

We sit and everything is nice, we get some time with our menus, take in the atmosphere of the speakeasy, joke about the drink names and order a charcuterie board.

Drinks are perfect here that’s what will keep me coming back, on the pricier side, as well as for the charcuterie board I now know it’s not worth the money to get it again for the portion size.

My real gripe with our experience last night was the music playing, it was all covers of pop music that sounded like it would be playing on the radio and not even good covers. It was passable as background noise but it does not match the atmosphere of the speakeasy at all. Next was the waiter who served us, a man with dark hair, a beard and glasses. We thought he was trying to come off as comedic and friendly but just came off as frazzled and inappropriate for what was us trying to have a romantic date, a comment he made while asking about drinks frankly made us uncomfortable at one point, would make a better fit for a sports bar.

If we didn’t spend as much money I probably wouldn’t have posted a review but for what this place charges the experience should be better.

I normally don’t do reviews of places but I work at a restaurant too and I wouldn’t have acted like that at all. I know what this place can be and would love to be back in the future to the...

Last year, before the pandemic was declared, we purchased 2 tickets on Feb 24, 2020, to attend a Blind Bartender Competition at the Middle Spoon, which was scheduled for March 24, 2020.

On March 17, 2020, the owner Lacey Doherty sent a mass email to ticket holders (not only to the Blind Bartender Competition, but also two Fondue night events) and stated that she will keep everyone updated, will set a new date for this now-cancelled event, and is more than happy to issue a refund should the rescheduled new date not work.

Fast forward 19 months to October 2021.

There has been no communication in the past 19 months whatsoever about a new date for the Blind Bartender Competition.

I emailed her on October 19, 2021 asking for a refund. She did not respond. (In contrast, when I emailed last year inquiring about the competition and how to pay, she responded right away).

I subsequently left two message with her staff on two different nights. The excuse I received about why Lacey hasn't called back was "Oh she's busy hiring and training staff".

No one is THIS busy. She’s had more than enough time (19 months) to either re-schedule the event, or issue a refund. Pretty sure she's deliberately withholding refunds, or perhaps she's already spent the money we paid her for the event on something else.

Update I received my refund on Nov 10, 2021. Issue has...

Stopped here late Friday night after a concert. They seated us upstairs immediately and it was only a few minutes for them to get things ready downstairs at the speakeasy (I guess I’ll follow other reviewers example and keep the details of getting in to myself 😉.) Upstairs is actually really cute and I’d be happy to eat there sometime - the whole speakeasy thing was just too awesome to pass up this time around. They’re killing it with the ambience downstairs - candles, dark colours, wall of leather bound books - and the route to get there is sufficiently unlikely-looking to be satisfying. Bonus points for letting us out a side door when we left. Food and drinks wise: the desserts are incredible. The lava cake and the meringue for the lemon pavlova were both the perfect texture, and the lemon curd was some of the best I’ve ever had. As far as drinks go, the ones downstairs are stronger and more expensive - they’re well-mixed, but if you prefer sweeter or fruitier cocktails the upstairs bar menu will be more to your taste. (Which was actually somewhat irritating 😆 - the Aphrodite’s Weakness cocktail pictured below was served to me upstairs while we were waiting, and was still the group favourite at the end...