Melange restaurant — Restaurant in Nanaimo

In Nanaimo for a fundraising event, we needed a late-lunch/early-dinner option near our hotel. So glad we found Melange. While we weren't clear it was open for food service between rushes, a quick phone call cleared that up and we happily made our way in. It's in the old town with great street views, and a massive patio out front looks like it'd be superb on summer afternoons and evenings!

We sat inside and benefitted from friendly and attentive service, with much wit and charm. The decor is bistro-with-class, but the vibe is much more -- it's bistro, gastro-pub, and neighbourhood charmer all in one.

The cocktail menu is vast and our choices ended up being quite delicious. We also split a half of wine, chosen from a diverse and decently priced list. You can order small, medium or large glasses, and half-litres in addition to full bottles. Kudos to Melange for this approach, which makes so much sense!

Food-wise, we opted to share a few small plates -- which included the squid, the daily taco, the beef rib, "almost a caesar" salad, and an order of the bread. All were generously portioned except the taco, at $8 each, and the rib - which at $17, was mostly fat, so worked out to about $4 per bite. Without fail, each dish was creative and very delicious, and clearly crafted, rather than thrown together.

While the tacos were over-priced, they featured house-roasted (maybe even smoked?) pork and quality corn tortillas -- so perhaps at a dollar less, they'd have been about perfect for me. Or maybe I'm just still shocked at the current state of inflation. The squid was, bar none, the best either of us had ever had -- and while I'm not a big squid fan, it was undeniably delicious (and it was well-portioned!).

We finished by sharing the "third dessert", which was in our case a spice cake with caramel sauce and some vanilla ice cream -- all made in house, and all quite good.

A note about the menu and food choices at Melange. There's a cheekiness built in to the menu and service, and the website also reflects this (as do the responses to reviews here on Google). Fun, yes, but it can get in the way when it's so heavy-handed, and heavy-handed it is. Thus I had to call to see if they were actually open for food at 3pm -- because we couldn't tell from the website. Thus we had to ask a lot of questions as we ordered. And thus we weren't sure what we were getting for dessert, even though we asked for clarification. I'm a foodie, and I love an adventure -- more than once I've left my choices in the hands of the chef or the bartender. But I think Melange might be going a bit far on the cheeky wordings and the "just trust us" scale, which could be costing a few customers, ie those who aren't inclined to leave things to chance, or who want a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. Maybe when the food is this good (and the drinks, for that matter) the owners don't have to care, and can just take customers who are hip with the sarcasm and "take it or leave it" approach. That's an enviable position to be in. But I admit that while I'm okay with the adventure, it limits my ability to refer other people to Melange, because I know many of them won't be okay with it.

Otherwise, it was an incredible experience on an afternoon that might otherwise have just given us an unremarkable meal in a ho-hum unremarkable resto -- by choosing Melange, we got a remarkable, very good, creative meal and drinks, with the kind of sarcastic but wholly competent service we...

I dined here with my family tonight and overall the experience was meh. I have worked many years in fine dining myself and this evening was disappointing.

First off, the managers demeanour towards the guests was very blasé. He greeted us at the door and we didn't feel welcomed whatsoever, just ushered to our table.

Our server, Tracy was super friendly and welcoming, but by the end you could tell she was done with us, which is fair, but it wasn't appreciated that it showed. We did not have a good experience and the staff didn't help make it much better, we could feel the judgment of staff gossip as we left.

We just wanted to go out and have a wonderful dinner as a family, celebrating a special occasion, not to have to complain about anything and just relax together.

One of the members of our group had their mind set on having the octopus and we were not told on arrival that the octopus was unavailable, but were rather informed as the table was all ordering together.

Overall, the presentation of the food was very dull. Nothing looked appetizing when it came to the table, and then you taste it and the flavours were not there. Several of the dishes were over salted, and the clams were not served with bread (as shown in another review). The risotto with the duck was cold, the veggies with the veal were cold. The veal was also served several minutes later than the other meals. The duck was served with a slathering of sweet BBQ sauce (maybe to offset the over curing) and the risoto was mushy and tasted like nothing. The veal was extremely tomato-y. The tuna torro was tough, but the flavour of the sauce was great.

We felt quite awkward about complaining for our mains, as we had already complained about the wine and a miscommunication about the meal. We definitely should have spoken up sooner about the issues with our meals. We were also celebrating a 65th birthday, and wanted to try to keep the mood up. So we take responsibility for not speaking up and giving them the opportunity to correct it sooner, and given that several of the plates weren't being enjoyed, our faith in ordering other items was low.

We were comped desserts and a meal that wasn't finished, which is very nice, but also standard for issues like this. We also had a discount given on top, which was appreciated.

The ambiance of the restaurant was nice, but the bench seating should have cushions.

The bathrooms are absolutely freezing cold as well and there was only cold water to wash your hands.

Also, I recommend reading some of the review responses from the owner/chef. They are quite unprofessional and unwilling to receive...

It only takes one bad restaurant to make me question: am I actually a picky eater… or is the food just that bad?

I came in curious about the octopus salad, though part of me wanted to know how the lobster done “escargot style” might taste. I asked the waitress which dish was more popular, and after a short exchange, I went with the octopus salad—her reasoning being, “there’s more to it.” (Surely enough she’s absolutely correct).

When the dish arrived, I was instantly put off by the mountain of olives on the plate. After a couple of bites, all I could taste was salt and olive brine. The octopus itself had turned fishy from sitting in that liquid. I tried again, squinting to figure out which bites were cherry tomatoes and which were olives. (By now, you’ve probably realized—I hate olives. Still, I can usually tolerate a few if they’re sliced thin or julienned. This, however, was an olive invasion.)

When the waitress came back, I explained that I couldn’t eat it with so many olives. I apologized repeatedly—I genuinely felt bad about sending food back. She was kind and offered me the menu again. But seconds later, the owner marched up—no greeting, no “sorry to hear that.” Instead, he said: “You read the menu, right? It says olives.”

Yes, I had read it. But I didn’t expect olives to dominate the plate. My understanding is that the first ingredient listed should be the star, and the last one the least. This dish was the opposite.

To his credit, he said they’d cover the octopus salad, and I waited to order something else. At that point, I just wanted something filling, so I picked the Korean tofu bowl. Big mistake. I’ve had plenty of Korean rice bowls, but never one drenched in a sauce that tasted like buffalo wing sauce—vinegary, not spicy, and overwhelmingly salty. It was so salty I felt like my body was dehydrating just to get each bite down.

The owner later came by to ask how it was. I faked a smile and said “good”—because honestly, who wants another interrogation over why they don’t like his “fusion” cooking (Greek octopus salad, Korean tofu bowl… apparently reimagined through a mystery lens).

If you’re still reading this, just know: I’m now happily sitting at the place next door, with a proper meal and a really good martini—finishing this review with a much better...