El Meson — Restaurant in Montreal

Have been there twice, first time 2 years ago, it was really good, nice service ... enjoyed it. Been there a second time few weeks ago with friends and family, and we were really really disappointed. Don't know if management has been changed in between or whatever ... but service was a shame ! Food was correct, not as expected but ok (i ordered tacos and got kind of enchilada that they call tacos but not important). We ordered "Micheladas", got beer with chili powder (a ton), celery salt and clamato. Please ... don't call that *ç%&/ "Michelada" ! Not at all... and one of us is mexican ... we perfectly know what is a Michelada (at least in Mexico !) anyway, we talked with the woman whom is responsible and she told us "you asked for hot michelada, that's what you got" (we have never been asked for anything about how much "hot") .. we just asked for Michelada with less chili at least to be able to drink it. Answer: just put more clamato.... (then you got an undrinkable clamato with ton of chili ... i love chili but not that much !!). All that with a really bad attitude of the responsible ... not customer oriented at all ... they finally never bring us any other drink or whatever else ... so we left with a very very bad impression of this restaurant. We were all very disappointed ... and for sure we will never go there again. We are not used to complain about anything in restaurants ... not "high maintenance people", first time I have to let a bad comment ... but they...

I must have went on a bad day! On a 37C day, I was looking forward to a nice meal on a patio by the water. Read good reviews about this place. On my arrival I was immediately seated & I ordered a beer & water which arrived promptly. 10 minutes later a server arrives to take my order and I told her I wanted to take my time to finish my beer (only 2 sips taken at that point) before I ate. 50 minutes later I was still waiting for her to return. No one even looked my way. No one refilled my glass of water. People around me were being served but no one came back to me. And, I had a wasp in my beer! So I gave up! Went inside to let her know I was going to go eat elsewhere. Instead of apologizing, she became defensive & repeated several times I told her I wasn't in a hurry! I asked if she had even come to look to see if I was done my beer but she kept repeating I wanted to take my time. It does not take 50 minutes to drink a beer. I asked for a manager but there wasn't one. Another server, looking at my beer, said I wasn't finished my beer as if to justify her not coming back to check on me. I showed him the wasp saying I could no longer drink it and was told I should have come inside to tell them. Seriously? I'm the patron but I'm supposed to get up & go inside to let THEM know. So insulting. It's you're job, not mine. I couldn't tell you if the food was good. Never got to eat. I'm now sitting on another patio where my server had already refilled my glass of...

I really wanted to give this place 5 stars. I am a big supporter of mom pop shops with authentic good food. My wife highly recommended this place so I tried it out. The food was good. Nothing out of this world but it was delicious. i fully enjoyed my dish.

With that said, I was served the wrong dish. When I asked for a replacement I was told it takes 25 minutes. So I ended up just eating what I was erroneously given.

Now this is where it went south. Cause let's be honest, mistakes happen in restaurants. It's normal, and I'm not one to poo poo on the service for every mistake. But what I expect is for the staff to admit the mistake, apologize for it and make up for it. That's what any restaurant should do.

At the end of my meal when I was asked how everything was, I said it was delicious, but I would have much rather had what I originally ordered. I got some attitude from the owner.

Then the service really went south. We didn't receive our coffees at the end. We asked for the check eventually as we had to get back to the office, and almost on purpose our table was the last one to be approached with the credit card machine.

Oh and yes, I was charged in full for the meal I didn't order.

So all in all, the lack lustre service, coupled with the childish pettiness I received at the end of the service, and no apology or trying to make up for their error gives me no other choice but to...