Le Balthazar Centropolis — Restaurant in Laval (administrative region)

Edit: July 30th - WORST SERVICE EVER! We were three on the terrace, started with drinks at 6 pm. Never saw our waiter after. Our water glasses were empty. At 8 pm, I had to go see the barmaid to ask if our waiter could come to take our food order.... We asked him what the hell?! He said sorry and that he has a section inside. Ok, so neglect your outside section?! The table next to us was livid, they paid while eating and left. We ordered wine, food came. We had to go ask inside for water, and we just brought ourselves a pitcher to our table. I asked for mayo for the fries, never got it. Waiter never came back to check if everything was ok. By the way, our drink glasses still remained on the table, they were never cleared off. Finally, time to clear the dishes (10 pm!!!!), we asked for the bills. Faster lightning service ever. Arrived with the bills and the debit machine. Ridiculous.

Went to Balthazar on Wednesday evening, terrace, party of 2. Made a reservation (not possible for the terrace, but when we arrived, we asked, and we were given a seat outside). Our waiter Jean-Philippe was awesome and on-the-ball. He promptly took our drink orders (pichet: Blanche du Paradis - excellent white beer beer). For the main course, we took the Salmon tartare - my friend took the Aloha: it has mango and pineapple (my kryptonite!); I took the Orange: it was with a sour cream mix, pieces of orange, and orange zest topping. I enjoyed mine, though I feel it was lacking in spices or tang (garlic salt or maybe coriander). The side I took was sweet potato fries. I understood it was a $2 extra, but it was in fact $4 which I find crazy considering the portion I received (little basket, picture makes it seem like there are more than there actually are)...The portions of the tartare dish and baked bread (lightly seasoned) were perfect. The service for the evening was great, we were never missing anything, we did not need to ask for anything. I...

We went for Mother’s Day it was about 3 pm. My husband, myself and our 20 month old. We consumed food and alcohol in the terrace. The place was almost empty except for the terrace, our toddler was getting impatient and my husband started walking him around the place at some point he was almost at the exit of the indoor area and someone walking there told him the toddler could not be inside (the baby was only walking holding my husbands hand almost in the terrace the inside was fully empty middle of the day)…. So we ate as fast as we could once we got our food and then my husband ended up going to walk with the toddler somewhere else and I asked for the check, had to ask for it three times (I even went inside to get it at some point). I understand if it was late at night a toddler would have nothing to do that but on Sunday at 3 pm on Mother’s Day? I’m not coming back to this establishment EDIT: This review was responded to on the same day, but unfortunately in a rather condescending tone toward families. The reply implied that people with children are somehow overly child-centered, when in reality, we were simply walking our toddler through an empty bar at 3 PM. The policy cited by the establishment is not a fixed Quebec regulation—there is room for discretion, particularly for something as simple as walking through. The decision to enforce that rule in this specific way was entirely theirs. We’ve travelled extensively with our toddler (including to places like Italy and Spain), and children are welcomed in a wide range of settings, even at night. The attitude and language used in the response felt unnecessarily dismissive and...

The hostess was really kind and able to squeeze us in without a reservation. We had about a hour and a half, which worked well since we had plans after anyways. The waitress (Alison) was absolutely lovely and the drinks were really tasty. That was pretty much where the good experience ended for us. Food took over 30 minutes to arrive for appetizers and main course each which meant we had to rush while eating. For appetizers, we took the pretzel and the spinach dip bread bowl. They were decently tasty, but a little pricey for the item. As a main, my fiancé had the half rack poutine and I had the bison burger. His poutine was ice cold as if it hadn’t been heated at all, and my burger was so dry it was almost inedible. Aside from the issues with the food, the bus boys who brought our food were absolutely lost. Each course was brought to the wrong table and they checked with every table except ours and walked around the restaurant lost until the waitress pointed them in our direction. Both courses. Two different bus boys. Honestly we knew we had plans and our table had a reservation after us, so there was really no use in complaining or getting anything remade. At the rate they were going, we honestly wouldn’t have the time to even eat it.

I would definitely state that this is more of a bar than a place to get food, as it seems like the nachos would have been a better choice and the appetizers tasted better...