Santos — Restaurant in Montreal

I've never written a bad review because I've worked in the restaurant industry and I know how it can be. Sometimes you have bad nights but this wasn't just a bad night and for me to make an effort to write a bad review it means it was an absolute horrible experience.

The night starts off with the waiter barely giving us any attention. Empty water bottles, orders taken roughly 30 minutes after being seated , etc.

2.We were there for a friend's birthday and she ordered a charcuterie plate (25$ for a few slices of prosciutto, pate and slab of rilette) which never came. She had asked the waiter twice to go check the kitchen and see if it was on it's way. We get it, it was busy and orders get mixed up, it's fine, but that was NOT the case. The 3rd time she asked the waiter which was 11:30 at that point, the waiter says that he was sorry but the kitchen was closed.

While all of this was going on, my friends and I were outside catching a breath of fresh air. We happened to have went out at the "bad time" which was in between their transition from a restaurant into a "club". At that point, things weren't running so smoothly but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. The bouncer did not let any of us back in because they were in mid-transition. His reasoning was that "People have to finish their food before we can go in to the so-called "club" that was being put in place." What he misunderstood was that we were the "people that needed to finished their food" and decided to go outside mid-meal to have a cigarette. We waited almost 30 minutes to come back to a charcuterie plate (MY charcuterie plate and not my friend's that had asked for it 3 times) that had be just sitting out collecting dust.

After all of these let downs, we decided to just kind of brush it off and order some shots. We waited another 25 minutes so that the waiter can be done chatting up with his buddies, for him to finally bring us some shots in standard rocks glasses. I mean really? We had shots earlier at the bar and it was in shot glasses, did it really take that much more effort to get shot glasses from the bar. They were 6$ shots, it's the least they can do.

To top it it off, shots were offered to the birthday girl to compensate for the mess ups, but turns out that was just put on my bill.

Definite no repeat. Wouldn't even recommend it to my...

TLDR: horrible servers, disorganized restaurant, decent club atmosphere

Came to santos for a bachelorette party. We booked well in advance for the group menu and for wall seating. We arrived right on time only to wait 30 minutes for our reservation as they were booting another party (who also had a reservation) out of our table. After 30 minutes of waiting we were sat in the mezzanine which I intentionally did not book as it is quite warm, but by this point we were starving so we took the table. We get up to the mezzanine to see were being sat at two small tables as a group of 8- again, being hungry and with no options we just sat shoulder to shoulder completely squished. Servers arrived to take orders and walked away without clearing any wine glasses to make more room. We asked 3 times to clear wine glasses so we finally cleared them ourselves to which the server visibly was annoyed. Took atleast 30-40 minutes to get the first course, to which the portion sizes are INSANELY disappointing, especially after you’ve been waiting so long and are starving. We constantly ended up with empty drinks and no server around, and when we would finally get her attention she would take one order and leave without asking the rest of the group if anyone wanted more drinks. The service was so bad even another bachelorette group beside us asked if we were having the same issue (their experience was worse than ours). Sushi took forever with no communication to me until I complained that they were behind on sushi. Apparently their sushi chef left so one of the managers was making it himself. The food service took so long that the bottom floor started becoming a club before we were even done eating, at this point we had been there for over 3 hours. Manager sent us shots to try and compensate but it was too little too late- 3 hours of zero communication, waiting around, and dirty looks and attitude from our server was enough. I will say, the ONLY professional people were the blonde manager and the bus boy. Manager offered a very fair compromise (after some discussion) at the end to compensate for how bad our experience was. She ensured the rest of our night was fun, to which it was. This place is a great club but simply not fit for a restaurant until their servers learn...

The number of negative things I want to say about this experience honestly exceeds the space in this comment section but I'll keep it short. Unless you’re going as part of a group (4 or more people), be prepared to wait hours for your food.

My friend and I arrived at 8h05 PM for our 8:00 PM reservation and were seated promptly around 8:09 PM. Our server brought water and took our drink orders. About 10 minutes later, she returned (without our drinks), and we decided to gave her both our appetizer and main course orders altogether to save time.

Drinks arrived around 8:27 PM, and the appetizer followed at around 8:36 PM. Then, time just dragged on—we still hadn’t received our main course. Meanwhile, several groups that arrived after us were not only served before us, but some even ordered the same dish (tacos) and still got their food first.

At 9:12 PM, we asked our server what was taking so long, and she replied, “Because we have groups, it’s taking longer in the kitchen, as groups get served first.” We were baffled.

By 9:25 PM, we had enough. We requested for our receipt & paid for what we had received and canceled the rest of the order.

Then, the waitress had the audacity to catch an attitude when we understandably left no tip due to the poor service.

Also, the price for most of the items on the menu are not appropriate for the size/quantity of food you get. The tacos for exemple, are very small & you get about 4 for 21$.

This was a very disappointing & annoying experience. The customer service was lacking a lot of decency, and the kitchen seemed unprepared to manage different table sizes fairly. If groups are prioritized over pairs or solo diners—even if they arrive first—that should be clearly stated on your website or upon arrival so that people don’t waste their...