Bocci Restaurant Bar Lounge — Restaurant in Montreal

We went there as part of an event for a family member's birthday. It was a big thing with lots of people (over 50) in a small, cramped room. Only one single bathroom (where people lined up pretty much all night).

Evening started well with wine service, paid for by the birthday boy's wife. Bread hot from the oven, with some tasty hot pepper purée. Sadly when we ordered our food, it was not as nice.

First problem, the menu is too long. That in and of itself is not a great sign, but when you have an event with this many people and other events in the building (that we could hear very loudly might I add), then is not the time for 20 different options of mains. We should have taken it as a warning then, but we had heard some good things about the restaurant so...

Second problem, the food was not very good. Bruschetta was overly seasoned (way too salty). The octopus had too much vinaigrette. The tomato sauce with which the cannelloni were served was absurdly sweet, closer to ketchup than tomato sauce. The carbonara seemed to be made with maple-smoked bacon (instead of the pancetta listed as an ingredient on the menu) and incidentally also sweet... The chicken was dry and drenched in béchamel. The pizza and caesar salad were fine.

Third problem, the service was spotty. Servers forgot one of our drinks and our dessert. The manager came over to ask us how the food was. We told them about the tomato sauce and the carbonara. They proposed to switch the cannelloni for their manicotti with sauce rosée, and insisted on it. The manager seemed offended when we said no thanks. Later, the servers forgot one of us had ordered the table d'hôte and didn't bring the dessert from said table d'hôte. We had to remind the servers twice, servers who conveniently disappeared after serving dessert to other tables.

The best part of the meal was the bread and pepper purée, and the little dough knots with nutella they gave everyone as dessert (not to be confused with the table d'hôte).

They did end up not charging for the cannelloni, which was fair, and we managed to leave with a small doggy bag of the forgotten dessert.

Overall it felt like they didn't taste what they sent out. Price would be acceptable if the food was good. Not worth a return visit. I honestly don't remember a worse...

Visiting from Toronto, a group of 9 of us went out for dinner on a Saturday night. Reservations were at 8:30PM, there were 2 other parties larger in size in our section upon arrival. We were seated by one gentleman, however did not see another server for more than 10 minutes. An extremely kind gentleman named Faud came to take our drink orders. He was an absolute delight, ensuring all drinks were allocated to the right person. He explained he was not going to be our main server, just getting us started with drinks. During our wait for our main server, we observed 2 staff come to our table and look around but no one came to service. Shortly after, Faud came back to take our food orders. Once again, he took the time to make sure all accommodations were noted and ensured food was going to the right people. He was extremely patient and asked questions a for clarification. Before the food had arrived, Faud introduced us to Melanie who would transition to be our main server. Once the food arrived, though off the clock, Faud stayed back to help hand out the food. He ensured everyone’s order was correct and even noticed one that wasn’t and returned it to the kitchen without question. Food was great and portion sizes were more than generous. We ordered dessert to go which Melanie got us and then it was time to pay.. Our first guest paid and upon completion was informed very abruptly by the waitress that “minimum tip should be 15% and because the customer did not tip at least 15% now she would have to pay the tip out out of her own pocket”. This was completely unnecessary, inappropriate and unacceptable. Though the waitress did not scream, the conversation was loud enough that other members of the party were able to hear. Not to mention, this was the first guest to pay!

Overall, the food and drinks were good, no complaints. Faud, absolutely phenomenal - he deserves a raise and a promotion. His customer service was genuine, he was funny and extremely patient. Our other waitress was friendly, however her comment at the end was absolutely tasteless, disrespectful...

Overall the experience I had at Bocci was pretty lukewarm but I can see the appeal. A friend had previously gone for an event with a set menu there which they enjoyed so convinced me to come back with them to try it as well. We had made a reservation but the place wasn't full so wasnt necessary. After getting seated fairly fast , we got the menus, and water and butter but no bread yet. We were seated right in the middle of the restaurant inside so impossible to miss us. Despite this we were ignored but both waiters for the next 25 minutes, no drink orders, apps, mains or even bread. This would become somewhat of a trend and the main reason for the bad parts of my experience. We went with the Table dhote and Calimari appetizers. The bread was nice, came out warm and was pretty hungry at that point which helps. The calamari was cooked nicely ,felt light and not greasy at all. The problem was it was tasteless, no seasoning or taste at all but it came with lemon and a dipping sauce which were both necessary.

For the mains I got the soup, a cream of carrot, and my friend got the salad both of which we enjoyed. For the mains I got the pasta (mushroom & sausuage Fettucine rapini) and my friend got the steak. The portions are pretty massive for both although the steak was really just a lot of extra fries. We both enjoyed our mains, the steak was cooked well although quite a bit of grisly but that happens. Also came with dessert which was a Tiramisu. Between dinner and dessert was probably another 15 minutes of being ignored so yeah not the best, and restaurant wasnt even that busy. I would say food was okay, for the price and quality not really worth it but not unreasonable. Just that the service was just unnecessarily bad that I would probably not want to try it again, too many other places out...