Barley — Restaurant in Montreal

I wish I could give it a 0. We come in and get seated. The place was very empty, no one was there. We start ordering our drinks and even though there were no customers, it took almost 20 minutes to get our drinks. My matcha was very very watered down. No flavour whatsoever even though I asked for vanilla syrup. Matcha tasted very cheap, culinary not ceremonial. It was also grainy, and you can tell in the picture as well that it’s not a good quality matcha. I told the waitress and she denied that it’s watered down because quote “their matcha is very high quality,” but she was very nice and proceeded to ask me if I wanted to get another drink instead. I asked for an iced mocha and it was better. While we waited for our drinks, we started to order and we asked for the avocado toast and she tells us that they do not have any bread whatsoever so half of the menu was already off limits. She didn’t even tell us this before seating us down, but tells us after we’ve made up our mind. And I’m sorry, but how do you run out of bread?! That’s almost the entire menu! We order the potatoes. In our head, we thought that it would be breakfast potatoes with a sauce, but then we get them WITH A BLONDE HAIR STICKING OUT and they were just 9 plain old tater tot’s with mayo and pickled onions for 8!!! We tell her right away that there is a hair and she takes it to the back and gives us another bowl. We were already a little sceptical and annoyed but we waited for our mains. Even though the restaurant was empty, it still took over 30 minutes to get them. Me and my friend both order the pancakes; one matcha and one regular Dulce de lèche. They tasted okay. Not bad, but not the best I’ve ever tasted. They probably use the same matcha for the pancakes and for the lattes, which are both culinary grade. Half way through, believe or not, we find ANOTHER blonde long hair! Btw: me and my friend do not have anything close to having light hair. It was in between the top pancake and the middle one. I did not have time to take a picture because of how disgusted I was and I had to call the waitress right away. She seemed a little annoyed that it was my 3rd complaint of the visit. She asked me if I wanted to order something else and I was just too disgusted to even sit in this restaurant. I asked her if she can remove it from my order and she said that she will. In total, the final cheque was 51$ for 2 people without the matcha pancakes. I will not be returning, I do not get the hype of this...

We were truly disappointed by our visit to barley this past weekend. Initially super excited to visit a popular brunch spot in Montréal, we had booked reservations at least a week prior to ensure we had a table. There were no issues as we arrived, we were seated fairly quickly, however things went downhill from there soon after. The waitress had taken our order for drinks and we put in an order for food at the same time thinking it would speed up the process. It took approx 15 mins for the drinks to come and we were appalled at the presentation. Not that there was anything overtly unappealing about it, it would’ve been fine had that been what was advertised throughout their instagram page. However, when something is presented and advertised a certain way to bring in customers (not to mention we were food bloggers looking to create content for the spot), it can be assumed that’s what you’ll be paying for, given the price tag as well. Even if we looked away from the appearance, we could barely taste the lavender in the lavender matcha and overall it was just very watered down and bland. After that, we were sitting and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for over 45 minutes for our food. Which by then, to no shock of ours, looked nothing like the pictures. Again, not an issue if that wasn’t what was advertised. The food itself was alright at parts, but most of it largely unseasoned and it was cold by the time it got to us. We also did not receive one of the items we ordered and had to remind the server who brought it out maybe another 20 minutes after. On top of that, we requested utensils and a take out box which were behind the counter right beside us, and our server said sure walked away, and never came back. We turn back to see her standing and chatting away with her coworkers. Overall a horrible experience, our server did not give a damn at all, and was dismissive to the point of being rude. If you want to spend your hard earned money to be dismissed for hours only to receive mediocre food, then this is definitely the spot for you. Everyone else, walk down the street and find literally...

This place used to be amazing, the type of place you would want to gate keep. However, my last experience was very disappointing, the main issue was our server. She did not use a pen and a paper to note my order with my friends (we are three in total). Each time we order, whether drinks or food, the server would come back at least 3-4 times for each step of the service just to verify if she took the proper order. My friend A ordered a matcha. She ordered 2 because she thought that my friend B wanted to order one of her suggestions. My friend A and I ordered an appetizer to share. The server never ordered it. Finally we received our main meals, then that’s the only moment when the server realized we never received our appetizer. It is notable that her excuse was: “The kitchen’s receipts are currently not functioning, so I must write everything for them to do the orders. I forgot to write and send the appetizer.” I said I was thinking of ordering something savoury as main. She suggested the chicken with a waffle. I ended up choosing the halloumi, but I received her suggestion instead. It is important to also note that we were the first and only customers at that moment. It took at least 5-10 minutes for me to receive my cereal latte, which was the first order made, nothing else. When we were about to pay, there were 3 bills in total. The server forgot to take off the appetizer we never received. When she took it off my bill, she never gave me the corrected copy. Instead, she gave me the old one, and simply applied my new balance in the payment terminal, as she said: “I remember the amount by heart.”

All of these back to back issues could have been minimized if the server had a pen and a paper in the first place. It was upsetting when it happened way too much. The only reason why we even tipped 15% was because the server seemed nice, and it’s a restaurant I used to enjoy visiting. I hope such calamity wouldn’t happen again, specially when there’s only one table in...