Memento! - Brasserie Artisanale — Restaurant in Montreal

Good beer

It's been a mixed bag at this establishment for me, leaning toward the negative. Being somewhat of a nerd, though less the consumerist Star Wars kind, who lives a 15 minute walk away, I was intrigued by a place that seemed to cater to gaming nerds and perhaps weird people who liked quality microbrewed beer and so forth. I had a lovely date night there once. I also was turned away for having a baby once, turned away because the place was rented out for a corporate event once with no notice online or outside signage etc., and, recently, kicked out due to the place being rented for another corporate event (although I knew I would be -- though it took 2 weeks of waiting for replies by phone, email, or Facebook text to find out. When I finally got a reply, the person replying was professional). This time, my group had a lovely experience overall, but that was mostly due to us trying to have fun, and the experience could have been much better. One of the serving staff, a woman with dark hair and small tattoos, was quite rude to a number of us, telling one of us she couldn't come in even though the corporate event didn't start for another 1.5 hours, and when several of us tried to talk to her she was rude and unfriendly with us. I got the impression we were not welcome and that she was mad we were there, perhaps due to communication issues between staff... The gentleman at the bar in the blue shirt was nice, accommodating and honest -- though he did say we would have to leave by 6:00 - 6:30 instead of the previously mentioned 5:30 or 6:00 which I communicated to my group, only to have another server clap his hands at our group and tell us to leave at 6 -- again, unclear communication, shoddy service in terms of this other staff member, and the feeling of being unwelcome.

Anyway, I think Memento is a cool place with lots of elements in place to be great, but it kind of has a hollow core somewhat reflective of the surrounding condo developments, where I've never really felt welcome and there is much to work on in terms of communication, updating websites and pages, service quality and so on -- especially when paying $13 something (tax, minimum suggested tip) for a 'pint' of beer. I think Memento should decide who their clients are: corporate people with lots of money, relatively-wealthy condo people, tourists, or regular people/everyone, and be more honest and better at communicating this overall, as well as work on the various problems they have while allowing their good qualities to shine. **I did not have food this time, but the one time I did I found it tasty if a bit small on portion size...

Wish we didn't bother venturing out to the bar.

Went to Memento as part of the MTL passport options and wish we didn't waste our time.

The venue itself seems super cute and has potential but the major downfall is the service.

Everything started of well sat down and ordered first drink. Took a little while to come but okay. When the waiter eventually came back we ordered some food (wings and calamari) food came out pretty quick but the wings were cold so we sent them back. Dealt with pretty well and 2 free wings added as an apology. Food ended up just be pretty bland and nothing to go back for.

We finished our first drink and food and then sat there waiting, the establishment wasn't busy but the waiter was nowhere to be found. Eventually I believe the bar manager (blonde haired guy) came around to ask if everything was okay and we asked for another round of drinks. He didn't seem too happy about taking the order and just left empty plates and glasses at our table.

15 minutes pass and still no new drinks (just 2 beers) shouldn't take this long. Eventually the original waiter returns and went to every table except for ours to get bills paid and then disappeared again. Sat another 5 minutes waiting for anyone with any drink to arrive but no luck. In this time I watched the blonde hair gentleman just sat behind the bar with the bartender laughing and joking and looking in his mouth with a phone flashlight. At this point we were done.

Walked up the the bar to get our final to go free drink from the MTL passport to leave. The blonde hair guy tried to then charge us for the drinks we ordered with him 20/25 minutes prior that hadn't arrived saying that we had had them and had to pay. I said maybe 2 or 3 times that they never arrived before he eventually cancelled them from the bill.

Such a disappointing experience as we were excited to go for a few hours have a few drinks and play some games. An absolute waste of time and would not recommend anyone to go even if using the...

I actually thought this place was brand new from the experience we had as the service was super disorganised/non existent. Stopped in for drinks for a friend’s birthday around 5:30 on a Saturday and were told when seated the restaurant would be closed for a private event at 7. This was fine for us, however our server just never came back? Eventually we went to the bar to put in our order and were given a buzzer (which I’m still confused - is there table service here? Serious question). The food took a while to come out and we ended up getting almost entirely the wrong order but since they were closing at 7, we just ate it. At one point I went up to the bar to get another beer and buy some merch and waited around for about 5 minutes until one of the three staff members behind the bar acknowledged me. Really not sure what was going on with the staffing on this particular Saturday but I’ve never experienced something like this.

That being said, the beer here is great (I really recommend the echecmate), the food was good and the interior decor is immaculate - I really love the contemporary twist on classic art, the cloud lights and the bathroom vibes. The merch is really cool and affordable. However, while I hope that service is very normal on other nights, I had such an awful experience here, especially while out celebrating a friend’s 30th, that I’m not sure...