PIGEON CAFÉ — Restaurant in Montreal

Walked in and decided to sit at the counter since I was solo, and the place was already more or less full. Clearly short staffed. The busgirl was very pleasant and efficient and when I asked a coffee, she brought me one because no wait staff was attending to me or even acknowledging my presence at the counter, even though they needed to pass near me to get coffee pots etc. from the service area. One person behind the counter seemed to be preparing pickup orders for the delivery companies and nothing else and the other person was working next to that person was punching up on the cash and preparing espressos and so on. Either it was too hard for either one of them to see right next to them that a full paying customer had sat down, or they were warned no to deviate from the assembly line chores. I sat there for a while, about 10 - 15mins until a wait staff came to take my order. Which I gave in great and exacting detail. "Scrambled eggs, very, very, very loose, moist or wet. Please not an omelet which has settled on the grill and then chopped up! Bacon well done with bagel" I received eggs that were settled on the grill and chopped, bacon not at all well done, a bagel, warmed but not toasted and mashed potatoes on my plate. Overlooking that the eggs were an omelet chopped but they hadn't even taken the time to fully scrambled them so that the white and the yolk were now one. 3 strips of bacon were of subpar in quality, as they choose to serve extra thinly sliced bacon and of low quality so that it's tasteless. The mashed potatoes looked excellent but looks were deceiving as they were also tasteless. No ingredients such as onions were added to them to enhance their flavour or any other discernible herbs. The warmed bagel had absolutely no butter on it at all and when the waiter who delivered my order to me asked if I needed anything else like salt and pepper, etc., I looked closely at my warmed (not toasted bagel) and asked if I could have some butter. No fruit slices or tomatoes to garnish the plate at all, Nada When the busgirl served me my coffee, I asked what the password was for their Wi-Fi network, and she told me "worldsworstcoffee" to which I laughed and it worked. Well, their Wi-Fi Network password couldn't have been more accurate if they tried, it is the worldsworstcoffee. I had to stand up and show to wait staff that I was ready to leave and wave my hand so that I could pay for the privilege. There were some more than entitled customers there who must think that their precious ones screaming and crying in a public eatery have the right to continually disturb the space of others without taking them outside for a "timeout" If as a patron of Monkland Village, you think that it's a happening place to be and don't insist on quality, good...

I was at the restaurant before it was this one and they refurbished it beautifully. The service was superb from the two slender and iron deficient guys that were looking like they needed a good meal, which was ironic. The young lady with the leopard top and great nails and really good eye contact, was most helpful. The menu was broken down into half complete booze so I guess it's abusatorium, and then one small section for breakfast but bigger than the other sections which were called lunch and supper. My meal came highly recommended from one of the guys and the waitress and it was very weird. But it was interesting and it did have some interesting taste as well as appearance. But poached eggs buried underneath some sort of red sauce with a bunch of stuff in it and a bun cut in half and then hacked again and toasted and the old piece of Middle Eastern bread and a nice lump of lebna goat cheese, and it was certainly something I hadn't seen before. My buddy Angelo, former owner of a famous Italian restaurant, had something more traditional and he liked his. The fries were surprisingly entertaining because they were shaped more like a waffle except with crisscross pieces with spaces between them. Very creative, reasonably tasty but definitely visually entertaining.. Both the excitement and the drawback all at once was the acoustics that had everybody's conversation from every square into the place in your ears. It was loud. But that doesn't mean that's bad... As I do go to an Italian restaurant in the West Island of Montreal that's very big and acoustically also challenging where you walk in and you have to practically yell at your friend who's standing right beside you to be heard. This was kind of like that . Definitely an interesting place and probably as the bar even more interesting. . Would I go back again for just the main course and what it cost, it's okay. Certainly a lot cheaper than covid-19 prices in many places but nothing cheap about the place at all otherwise. . One thing I don't care for however is their machine that takes your credit cards and it starts at 18% and goes up from there. The last two buttons on the screen to choose from are assigning your income to them and then assigning your home to them. Hahaha kidding but it felt like that because 15% was under choose another percentage. And remember that you're not supposed to tip and count the percentage on the tax but before tax. So when you pay 15% you're actually paying a fair bit more. There was no need for it to start at 18% tip! I find that... off-putting. . Otherwise I'd give the restaurant somewhere between a 3. 6 and a 4.1 . I deleted people's faces...

If I could give negative stars for this place, I would. *Food was good, the service is why I am writing this review.

We visited this place because it seemed to be popular with good reviews. However, the worst restaurant experience in my life began as we sat down at the table.

No cutlery and condiments that we requested many times. We obviously tried to understand as it was very busy and we assumed that the staff were too preoccupied. We eventually obtained the items ourselves by going to the counter. However, when my boyfriend went to the counter to ask for the said items, the staff behind the counter deliberately ignored him and refused to help when he was obviously the only person there and was speaking loud enough for them to hear and understand. Eventually, he was able to talk to a staff member who decided that she could hear and help him with the request.

After our meal was done, we requested our bill. Many times. The restaurant was pay at the table system.

First time, the waiter said okay and left. He never came back with our bill.

Second time, the waiter said he was not responsible for our bill and would find the person responsible. Never came back.

Third time, my boyfriend asked for the waiter responsible and we saw all the waiters gathering together and then shaking heads and dispersing. We did not receive our bill. At this point however, I noticed that two ladies behind us had finished their meal, raised their hand, a waiter rushed over, took their request, brought their bill, and they exited the restaurant. It seemed the waiters were delaying our bill on purpose from our perspective.

Fourth time, we asked a waiter for our bill again. We kept waiting and my boyfriend happened to look behind at the counter and a waiter was waving him over. My boyfriend went and eventually we were able to pay for our bill near the kitchen area.

It took us an entire hour just to get a bill and pay for our meal.

In the beginning I considered racism for our horrible treatment and service at the restaurant especially with the current pandemic and peoples' concerns over this issue. However, after reading some of the reviews already published for this establishment I see that incompetence and negligence of the staff seem to be a pervasive problem for this place.

Please fix this. I have never ever had a more horrible experience in my life eating at...