Blandino Brasserie — Restaurant in Montreal

I have NEVER had an experience this awful at a restaurant in my life. We were 8 people in total attending for a friends birthday party (7 minus the birthday girl). Firstly, they brought the cake to us while we were actively eating our main meals. When we told the waitress what was wrong with this, she laughed and said "i always do that". Next, when it was time for the bills, we kindly ask her if we can each pay for our own main meal and drinks however if we can split the birthdays girl's main meal and drink amongst 7 people (the rest of the people that were there). NOT complicated at all. She came back with only 6 bills and charged us divided by 5 people, not 7 (for bday girls dish + drink). We told her it was wrong and to kindly fix this error, i asked her how many she split it by and she said "honestly, i don't know i'm lost". Every time we asked a question about portions or etc. she yelled "Huh" in our faces, very unprofessional. They then proceeded to put the bill on 2 bills separately since they couldn't "void the bills" because the "government would "flag" them"??? literally where is the customer service? the least they could have done was NOT charge us for the piece of cake they brought to the bday girl as compensation, and not to mention they recommended that we bring her this piece of cake. I'm sorry it was just totally unacceptable, we left there paying on 1 bill because they had to redo it so many times and STILL did not get it right in the end and they ended up charging us more than what we originally owed. This is not what we asked for. We had to go home on my friends birthday, couldn't even celebrate and eat cake but instead we had to sort out the entire bill situation with a pen and paper and highlighter and do the math all on our own. And en plus, one of the head manager's gave us a bunch of attitude saying how it wasn't that serious and "he could just redo all the bills" yet they kept repeating to us, they couldn't void them. What kind of restaurant customer service is this? They made us pay and leave after that, and barely apologized for their mess. The waitress we had had only been there for 3 days, then maybe the manager or whoever in charge should have not put her to serve at a huge table! She was probably overwhelmed, but this was still unacceptable and there's a way to talk to people especially when you work in a customer service job. She was laughing at us too. And to top it all off, my pizza came cold. It barely had cheese on it and was all tomato sauce which hurt our stomachs. Someone's burger was pink. The inside of the meat was pink, clearly undercooked. And when we asked about the size of the filet mignon (5 ounce, 8 ounce etc.) the waitress told us "i don't know depends the day, you know" we told her to inquire about it and let us know and she didn't even get back to us with an answer. I ended up paying 60$ for a pizza, no drink, and 2 dishes of calamaris (that was also split by 7 people).. makes no sense. Safe to say, we are not coming back. I totally understanding we are all human beings and mistakes happen however this was...

This type of commentary is what one might call disingenuous and inflammatory, the kind that does more to tarnish reputations than to offer constructive criticism.

As someone who visits this restaurant almost daily whether during my lunch breaks or in the evenings with friends. I feel compelled to provide a truthful account of what I consistently experience here.

The manager, Ben, is not only warm and welcoming toward customers, but also remarkably respectful and attentive to his staff. In fact, I’ve witnessed countless interactions between him and the team, and what stands out is the genuine camaraderie and mutual support they share. This is not a cold, transactional work environment. it’s a place where the staff genuinely enjoy working together. They even organize team outings and social gatherings, which is hardly the sign of a toxic or disrespectful workplace.

Your review, on the other hand, seems deeply personal and frankly, selective in its outrage. You gave the food a 5, the service a 5, and yet awarded the restaurant only 1 star, citing a supposed incident that no one else seems to have witnessed. That contradiction alone is puzzling. If the service was truly “excellent,” then how does it align with your description of an unprofessional and hostile environment?

To me, and likely to others who read this, it appears less like a genuine concern for employee well-being and more like an attempt to target an individual by publicly harming their reputation. And perhaps more troubling, it disregards the broader consequences of such claims: the impact they may have not only on this business, but on the livelihoods and mental health of the people who dedicate their days and nights to making this restaurant the welcoming space that it is.

I cannot speak for what you may or may not have witnessed in passing, but I can speak for the consistency of my experience here, which has always been marked by professionalism, kindness, and dedication from the kitchen staff to the servers, and yes, from Ben as well.

A single comment, especially one with such emotional weight, should be made with care and truthfulness. Anything less does more...

We picked this place because the ambiance was nice and expected excellent food quality & service especially since it was inside a hotel. The atmosphere was nice. We were a group of 9 people. 4 of us ordered pasta, 4 of us ordered pizza and 1 of us ordered the salmon. The salmon was excellent BUT too bad the asparagus was old & stringy (not edible). One of the pizzas was burnt (black) around the edges and underneath -- we asked the waitress about it and she said it was good to eat. Not happy with her response, we asked for the manager -- as soon as we showed it to him, he said it wasn't acceptable and that he would replace it right away. In general, the food was good but not amazing (except for the salmon). We were very surprised that the waitress told us the burnt pizza was good to eat instead of replacing it. Since we dined at the restaurant, we get free parking upon presentation of the receipt at the front desk of the hotel -- to our surprise, the voucher they gave us didn't work. We came in 4 separate cars and only 1 out of the 4 vouchers worked. The other 3 did not. We got a message saying the voucher was not valid and asked us to pay $12, so 2 of us paid it. The last one of us went back to the front desk to find out why and they told us that the voucher they gave us is only valid for 5 minutes!!! So they had to re-validate our voucher. This time the voucher worked but the gate did not open, so an employee showed up and asked if we were from the hotel or restaurant, then he scanned the gate to open it for us. We could not believe that they only validated the vouchers for 5 minutes. They said it was to prevent scammers; fine, but then at least they should have advised us ahead of time so that we wouldn't be shocked & frustrated when trying to exit. Overall we did not have a good impression on our first visit; not sure...