Embers Wine & Charcuterie Cellar — Restaurant in Nanaimo

I so wanted to give this place a 5 star but tiny little things kept it from being so.

People were nice and friendly and the food was great but it would be SO easy for them to go over and truly deliver an exceptional experience:

For example:

They should ask you right when you arrive if you’ve been there before and if not then the server could give you a little speech on how it all works right off the bat

or they could have detachable sheets instead of the clunky menu, where you can check off whatever you want on your board and then they just take that sheet with them instead of us having to get our phones out type everything we want then the server coming over and having to copy it on to her note pad

or when a couple orders $150 dollars worth of food and drinks they could send a tiny little something from the kitchen on the house, it would be SO EASY for the wow factor to be there but it just wasn’t

Something else is there’s no desserts!! This was a bit jarring and it left us looking for somewhere else to go for dessert.

I run a business myself, I know they’re a new restaurant and I would appreciate this kind of feedback to help me improve.

We’ll be...

We had a reservation for 2 for my birthday. Arrived through exterior door and came into a completely pitch black ante room with no light or handle to see how to enter the restaurant. There's a wood door that you have to push open. A small light or sign would be smart?

I am not sure what normal service levels are but there were extremely short staffed for a full restaurant at supper. One waiter and one hostess. We waited quite a while for initial drink and to put food order in. Hostess took drink order and even after triple checking beer order, brought incorrect beer. No one checked for a second drink during appies and meal and waiter was surprised about dessert when we asked. He had hands full with tray bussing tables.

Really neat concept and food tasted good. But need staff so patrons can at least have a check in or two during meal. We were there 2 hrs and easily would have spent $60-70 more on additional...

Had a great experience tonight at Embers. I went to the good people of Reddit for a recommendation and this is where we ended up. The restaurant itself is really intimate, dark and comfortable. There were groups there also, so I’d definitely recommend it for double dates or groups of 6. It’s 19+ so no kids allowed. The service was great, drinks were yummy and the prices were really reasonable. The menu is easy to understand, given the amount of choices available. LOTS. The drink menu is extensive but the menu is just charcuterie and accompaniments so if you aren’t into cheese and meat, it may not be for you. I’d recommend the pickled asparagus, blue cheese and the feature hummus and doing a create your own charcuterie board, which is what we did. It was plenty of food for the two of us, we planned to do the dessert board but were too full. We will definitely go back with some friends or check out...