Bistro Kóz — Restaurant in Magog

Wonderful Mezze type foods/ dishes. This restaurant serves delicious and original flavoured Mediterranean food in small mezza format plates to be shared, or not, by the table. We ate some Muhammara, deliciously prepared with lots of red pepper spread chocked full of walnuts sweetened with pomegranate molasses and heavily flavoured with sumac Y.U.M. Of course, the classic Greek salad (which wasn’t very classic at all) but they’re version was fresh large tomato quarters with chunks of crunchy cucumbers, red peppers and Kalamata olives. The whole salad just slightly drizzled with oregano vinaigrette. I did miss the onions that usually accompany a Greek salad. Perhaps an oversight, perhaps deliberate to emphasize the other ingredients along with some velvety humus and warm pita. Flowing these appetizer type plates we had some Anise shrimp which were perfectly cooked (a rare accomplishment in restaurants) fresh, ample and nice sized items delicately flavoured. They are absolutely not to be missed. Then an original serving of merguez cut into bites, nested in a thick, delicious pastry stuffed with feta and mozzarella cheeses, flavoured with caramelized onions. A rich, thick, satisfying treat. We couldn’t resist the herb and Parmesan flavoured shoestring fries and soooo happy we had them. As this was lunch we washed the whole down with a crisp, dry and satisfying rosé wine. The service was wanting a bit. Forgotten orders and the such but it’s a relaxed atmosphere so we just went along. This restaurant opens to a large outdoor terrace directly on promenade of Lake Memphrémagog chock full of summer tourists relaxing on a warm summer afternoon and the interior is spacious and comfortably modern. Clean white tablecloths and ample size tables to accommodate all these dishes. The establishment used to be l’Auberge de l’Etoile one of two lakeside hotels in Magog, the other was the Cabana Hotel both having fine restaurants and I worked as a bus boy here many, many decades ago as a teenager. At the time it was a classic French food family type restaurant (so I thought). Anyhow this is great...

I rarely write restaurant reviews, and when I do write them it's usually because I have a positive experience to share, but I really felt that I need to write a review this time around even though it will have to be negative. We had the tasting menu for dinner recently. The food was good and nicely presented, and the location and view on the patio are great. However, the service was terrible and extremely slow. It's too bad because we spend the summers in the townships, and this would have been a place that we would have loved to go back to when we have family visiting had it not been for the very slow service. You got he feeling that they just don't know how to run a restaurant this size on a busy evening. It was so slow that we didn't wait for the last course of the tasting menu (the dessert) because we had already waited so long for the previous courses. We literally asked for the bill, paid and got up and left without bothering to wait any longer for the last course that was included in the tasting menu. It was ridiculous. Worse, the server didn't even seem to care that we were paying and getting up and leaving without finishing the meal we paid for because the service was so bad. We love to try many different restaurants wherever we go, and we are very experienced restaurant goers who have tried everything from the simplest burger joints and crab shacks all the way to some of the most sophisticated, acclaimed and expensive restaurants in North America and in Europe. We have not seen anything like this in a very long time, no matter the location, category, or price level of the restaurant. Finally, the restrooms need to be better cleaned and maintained. They looked like public restrooms typically look in public places where anyone can walk in to use the restrooms (not just customers of a specific business), where there are high volumes of people using the restrooms, and where nobody feels responsible for making sure that the restrooms are kept clean and tidy...

If it weren't for the setting this restaraunt would be getting less then the generous two stars I am rating it today. They sat our table of 6 quickly, and we had a young waitress come to our table, it took her about 15 minutes to realize we were there. She admittedly did not speak English very well (no problem on our end), the manager attempted to remedie this language barrier by rudely interrupting our waitress trying to take our drink orders. It went downhill from there. Michael, the manager was inconceivably rude, I almost felt like we were on a Prank TV show. Both the waitress and Michael did not know what a 'dirty martini' was. After awkwardly explaining how to make one of the most common cocktails in the world, Michael responded with a bitter attitude trying to mansplain how a real martini is made with Gin not Vodka. Once the "martinis" came out, we were surprised to see how small and underwhelming they were for the cost. we informed Michael that the toddler at the table has a sesame allergy. Michael's response was disbelief that we had the audacity to bring a child to the restaraunt, nonetheless one with a common food allergy. We inquired about the Tajin, and Michael explained that they don't use a Tajin to cook the Tajin. What type pf Medditerian restaruant doesn't own a Tajin? All the red flags added up, we made an excuse, paid for the tiny martinis and got the hell out of there, never to...