Snowbird Tiki Bar — Restaurant in Montreal

Great Potential, Squandered.

Had friends come to down, and we decided to try Snowbird, as we love all things Tiki.

Called the phone number and they say we should try reservations on the website. Website is barren, and only has links to Facebook, Instagram, etc. No reservations.

Went to Facebook, saw the "Get in Touch!" notification link. Left a FB message, and didn't hear back. Two days later, get a message saying that only the Manager can take reservations, via email. Emailed, and a day or two later he informed me that they decided not to take reservations because it was the Formula One weekend.

Took our chances, and showed up that weekend at the height of the F1 festivities, and the place was completely empty. Way to turn away VERY INTERESTED potential reutrn customers for imaginary / potential ones.

It has a really charming decor, so took a chance, after eventually seating ourselves (when none of the staff who saw us came to greet us at the "please wait to be seated area...).

The drinks were excellent.

The food menu looked great, however several of the key dishes were unavailable (the perennial Pu Pu Platter for example).

Two of us had the Chicken served in a Pineapple, and the breaded chicken was clearly DARK brown, just shy of burnt (no kitchen quality control).

Another dish, served on sticky rice, arrived with a handful of rice that was hard as stone. To add insult to injury, we told the waiter, he asked to take a piece of it to the kitchen to show them, he came back with a different kind of rice, and told my friend that since he didn't "understand sticky rice". All of us had had sticky rice, Polynesian and other wise, and we showed him that the rest of the sticky rice was rock hard (couldn't break it with a fork or knife). No apology, nothing.

So, it's looks great, but they would either need to kill the food option, or seriously step up the quality of the menu and kitchen staff.

Really too bad! Again, very charming place, good drinks. Just hope they can...

Where to begin... I arrived 10 minutes prior to the rest of my party, made eye contact with bar staff but was another few minutes before they interacted. Finally came over and asked how many were in my party, few minute wait no problem. However, as I'm waiting, a group of three comes in and then a group of two, crowding and blocking the waiting area. My party arrives and then our table is ready and we have to move through a tiny space to get to the bar. There's three of us and they seat us at a small table with a stool and two small benches. Mind you there are two empty 5 top tables behind us that have more room and space which would've helped alleviate the cramped vibes. Waiter comes over and we're not ready so he comes back a few minutes later. We each get a drink, no issue. After we finish the first round, we look around for our Waiter and the man disappeared for a good 10-15 minutes. He never checked on our area or any other guests. So, we do what you do in a bar and headed up to the front to order a drink. The man working told us to sit back down and not order here because we have a waiter...ok. Our server comes back and deals with the other tables. After clearing them he brings us the drinks we asked the other bartender for which was nice. However, the Waiter had an attitude because we asked another server to help us. That soured the mood. Also, he never introduced himself so I don't even know this man's name lol.

Another thing of note: the women's restroom. Two stalls and the large door swings inward bisecting the restroom, but if someone is standing there they're probably going to get squished, pushed or so on.

Also, at the moment Google says the staff wear masks, they do not. You'll be lucky to find any food service establishment in Montreal where the workers still wear them.

Expensive, service made it lackluster. Maybe once if you're daring but I can't imagine people being return...

The Mai tai was great and the space itself looked ammazzing! (Like seriously good job on the visual style and embiance!! 🤌👌) But our second drink which was a "Pinacolada", unfortunately tasted exactly like Canned Cat food smells....😬😂 The service was slow (they seems overwhelmed so no hard feeling about that, worked in bars and simply felt bad for them) then as soon as we had the chance we straight up ordered other drinks and gave those back while clearly communicating the issue. But it just ended in the funny server sharing he was allergic to coco so he couldn't even attemp to join us in our crazy experience!

Later when we paid and to whom I presume was a manager or something, at the question "was everything good?", we again communicated that oddity and he simply answered that it's because they use a special cream that not everyone likes but those that do, loves it... I dont mind paying for a drink I picked but didn't liked, didn't expected to get it paid or to have "appology shots" or something, but atleast make it look like you are a litttllllee sorry... It did felt non-empathetic, and even tho i could respect the point he made, I feel like this should be advertised as such or warned prior that this isn't a conventional Pinacolada... Made me feel like we were the issue when its obviously a quite basic drink (and one i drink very often, not that clueless on how it should taste , it can vary off course but that was like veryyy offf, really aint joking, it really tasted like Canned kitty food smells.. even after half a year in mexico I have never been remotely close to that flavor profile😂 )

And to be clear while waiting we did sipp some dropplets laughing about how bad it was, but when we finally got hold of our server and handed it back it was still 5/6 full, to most people they would have looked completely full if it wasn't that we received them filled to the edge of the can in which...