Piranha Bar — Restaurant in Montreal

Piranha Bar, Montreal

In retrospect, the name “Piranha” is very telling but at the time we didn't know it was meant as a warning to unsuspecting tourists. Gentle reader, consider yourself forewarned: Do not set a foot in this place if you don’t want to be separated from your money and left with nearly nothing, faster than a piranha separates the flesh from the bone.

So, this is what happened to us. My husband and I were visiting the lovely city of Montreal. It was our last night and we still had a lot of Canadian money to spend. We decided to pour it into the local economy in exchange for a few drinks poured to us. In short, we were looking for bar.

We saw Piranha bar - it had a hockey game on TV and a Foosball table upfront - we thought this will do. We went in with the intent to park there until we spent our last dollar. The bar tender looked a bit ditsy, and there were only 2 outer customers at the bar, but that didn't deter us, because we were on a mission to have a good time.

Wasting no time we asked for the menu and ordered drinks - my husband ordered beer; I ordered Gray Goose vodka with cranberry juice. While ordering drinks we realized the bartender didn’t speak English. That wouldn't have be strange, if we were let's say in a little village in the French Alps, but we were in downtown Montreal, at the most touristy place one could imagine. Every single person we met in Montreal was fully bilingual – random people on the street, bus drivers, construction workers, street musicians, they all spoke English and French, and some people spoke a few other languages in addition - the bartender however, NOPE!, not a word in English.

English is my second language too, I had to learn it to be able to do my job, unlike the the bartender of Piranha. Anyways, the lack of language skills was not the problem. The problem was what the bartender did next. She took a glass, filled it with ice, grabbed a well gun and poured some water in the glass, then grabbed another well gun and topped it with red juice, then served it to me.

Are you paying attention? Nothing, nothing came out of a bottle. I am thinking, “OK she watered down my cranberry juice, but I’ll let it slide, as long as she doesn’t water down my Gray Goose.”

So, I wait, and wait, and wait. The shot doesn’t arrive. Instead, a bill is placed in front of me. I think, “Perhaps she forgot to bring me the shot. Perhaps, she didn’t understand what I had ordered.” On the bill – Vodka – Gray Goose: $10, Cranberry juice: $3,20 + the beer. She didn’t forget to charge me for the vodka!

I waive to get her attention and ask: “What happened to the vodka? You forgot to give me the shot.” She points at my glass.

I say, “There is no vodka in there, you were supposed to give me a shot of Gray Goose,” I tap the $10 on the bill.

She shrugs. Five minutes later she brings the Security Guard.

“Good,” I think “Finally somebody who speaks English.” I tell him what happened. He sticks a straw into my drink, tastes it and says: “Yes, there is vodka in there. I don’t even drink vodka, but I know there is vodka in there.”

I say, ”There is no vodka, I watched her make the drink, and she didn’t pour any vodka into my glass. Plus, according to the bill, she is charging me separately for the shot and the cranberry juice. Do you see a shot glass here?”

He asks her in French: “Did you put any vodka in her drink?” She nods. He points at the well gun and says: “We are not allowed to pour more than 30 ml of alcohol.” “30 ml? I didn’t get anything! Plus, Gray Goose comes out of a bottle, not a well!”

“Give her a dollar back”, he told the bartender, and went to play pool. Case closed!

So that’s how things are at Piranha bar, in downtown Montreal. They are very strict when it comes to paying your bill, as far as serving you drinks, that’s optional. We left in search of a better place to spend...

RUN FROM THIS PLACE! It’s not worth it, and they need money, so they will steal at all costs!

I went with my husband to celebrate a new job offer, and everything turned into a terrible experience. We arrived at the place, and nobody even looked at us in the table, the bartenders were just having fun and talking with the people of the bar. I reached the bar to minimize the girls effort, and nicely asked for a menu, and one of the girls was super rude, and basically told me “I’m busy having fun here, whenever I feel like working, I’ll go to your table”. I went back to the table with that first bad impression, and waited for her. She arrived to the table, without the menu that I originally asked for, and asked us which drink we wanted, so we order a regular beer. After that we wanted to se the menu, to see ALL the options in the bar, and after asking her for the menu, again, she didn’t give it to me. At the end my husband ordered 2 more drinks and she charged us double for everything, she charged us for serving the drink in a plastic cup, where they serve that drink and she invented all the rest of the charges. We tried to review it with her since it was around 40 dollars for a beer with Clamato (and she just served Clamato with water) and like 2 ounces of bourbon. I have never been treated like that in my entire life. Please don’t waste your time in this place, you’re just going to lose your time, money, plus you’ll get the worst customer service, they don’t actually care about...

What a nice place to spend time with friends. We met with the owner and the guy is just so dynamic and very welcoming! He even sent us a free shot! The music was good and later on, a band came in. They have many TV's and they are showing the sports game. Last time it was a soccer game. They have "the place" that a tourist must try as a restaurant downstairs, it is named "Frite Alors!". They are serving a traditional meal in Quebec (La Poutine). They have a lot of choice as to the kind of poutine you wanna try. My favorite one is the house's one: Poutine Frite Alors... you sure wanna try it out. As for the previous comment, I don't get it: I've been served by two barmaids and the owner and they all were fully bilingual... maybe it wasn't someone from the place and she might have been there only to give a hand and she just did a mistake... Anyhow, I would for sure recommend the pirahna bar at anyone that wanna have a great time... BTW, the reason why it's called "The Piranha Bar" is because the counter is made of aquariums and real fish including real pirahnas, not many bars can say they have this, pretty amazing! It's worth the time to swing by... I'll...