Bistro à Jojo — Restaurant in Montreal

The waitress was very rude to my husband because we didn’t tip immediately after ordering our first round of drinks. We’re not locals so maybe we’re unaware of the tipping culture, but usually we tip once we’re done eating/drinking and ready to leave. Instead she closed out our tab, left us our receipt at our table with a terrible attitude and told my husband a rude comment about being cheap. My husband and I were stunned. Confused, my husband approached her at the bar to tip her. He explained to that we weren’t done ordering and had every intention in tipping her well. She replied, “yeah, sure, whatever.” Just a bizarre and hostile experience. I think if you’re not a local, they want nothing to do with you. For additional context, this was a Wednesday night in Nov 2023, the bar was practically empty, so I don’t understand why we were targeted with such hostility. We’re Americans where tipping is highly expected and valued. We believe in tipping servers well because they may not be making a full wage. We left disappointed and confused. We weren’t even given the chance to tip at the end of our outing and again if we were suppose to tip every time we order a drink then that should have been at least communicated to us. If you have a similar experience, I’m sorry, they’re just very...

Three stars because the place is great. The atmosphere, the music, the bartenders - great. Unfortunately, this was overshadowed by a culture of tolerance for sexual harassment. I watched a 'man' harass one of the female bartenders to the point she was too nervous to walk past him, there were a few times he stood in her way waiting for her, intimidating her and hindering her from accessing the bar. She deflected the situation by waiting behind others, avoiding eye contact, pretending to be busy with other things when she was clearly trying to get back to the bar. Enough was enough and I spoke to the bouncer about it. He asked about who was involved and I waited for him to come and talk to the bartender. He didn't. He was too busy talking to people on the street. After, I tapped the waitress on the shoulder and told her I was sorry she had to experience this, that it wasn't ok, that I spoke to the bouncer despite it being evident she knew how to handle the situation, and she thanked me. I know this problem is much bigger than this, but it is the sum of these 'little things' that when tolerated create a culture of discrimination. We can do...

I wanted to enjoy a couple of beers over live music and reviews suggested this was one of the better places in the city for that. I did arrive a little early in the night and there was no one at the door, however later once the band started setting up, the door man (big guy on roids) started doing the rounds and would go around spotting people who were clearly not locals (including me) and try to extort a cover charge (which wasn't mentioned anywhere on the entry or menu, to be clear). I politely said I don't carry cash and will finish my beer and leave and he backed off. 90% of the place was filled with locals who knew the bartenders and they weren't asked for it. The drinks are reasonably priced for the location but they'll definitely try to pull a fast one on you so beware. I was able to catch the live act playing that night and they were pretty mediocre garage band sounding blues band, so nothing to go out of your way for. Funnily enough they'd let random drunk locals chip into their performance and make it...