Rel-ish — Restaurant in Nelson

I used to go there really often, I started to visit less and less due to the service... Food is still amazing but the service is having a hard go that's for sure.. seems like always new staff that doesn't know the menu or the deal. Went for the happy hour (6-9pm special for 3 days this week as they are closed 3-6 due to the heat wave) the girl didn't know I could have happy hour deals, they made us pay our pitcher of sangria the full price not the happy hour price even when I asked if it was really that price ..and even tho we barely drank the sangria as it tasted like diluted red wine with may be sparkling water? No fruits in it, barely no ice and it was melted in 2 minutes, I asked a question about the menu she barely answered me ( if you don't know go ask your chef maybe?) It wasn't even full on the patio and it took over 20 mins to get napkins after asking twice and I was having ribs... ( never brought us utensils either..) , our water was so warm it wasn't even refreshing on this hot day... Was really unimpressed.... My friend was there for the first time and will most likely not go back due to that first impression...oh yeah I forgot.. when we first arrived there, a sign telling you to please wait to be seated or to go inside.. I walked inside all the chairs were on the tables the girl was mopping and when I asked for a table she look at me like I was some sort of psycho and I had to clarify with her if they were closed and she only answer no.. I had to ask if then I could just go seat on the patio and she just kept mopping without any answers... It is too bad, this place used to be the place and lately I've been having these kind of service ... really sad to see this place slowly letting down the customer service...

Right from being quickly welcomed upon entering, we knew we were in for a treat. Although small in size (indoors), there was a neat feeling as we gazed at shoppers walking outside the main street. I had done my homework and was prepared to feast on the 3 patty CEO burger, but truly had a hard time once viewing the menu. Being the glutton that I am I slowly changed course back to the CEO burger. Whilst sipping on my "half a brain" non-alcoholic cocktail (spicy and sweet) I continued to look outside. Once the meal arrived my girlfriend remarked "oh my god" and laughed as the burger was as it had been seen in online photos....tall. Luckily I was up for the challenge. 3 x 6oz patties of what tasted like lightly smoked beef, arugula lettuce, thick cut tomatoes, many slices of bacon, an entire pickle sliced, a white cheese and their homemade BBQ sauce. All that with 4 spectacular looking onion rings inside and on top of the bun. Holy snapperdoodle! The girlfriend ordered the beef stroganoff and to put it in less words than my diatribe above, she said it was THE best she had ever had. And she is a notoriously good cook who's pallete is a little jaded towards home cooking.

Ok back to me. The Cajun fries were a plenty and if I had any knock on anything it would be that they may have been a touch too salty. Each to their own though so many may disagree.

To finish this wonderful encounter we agreed to try the Creme Brule. It was quite large to be honest, but we had no problem in making the dishes look like they had just come out of a dishwasher.

Did I say enough? Would I go back?

The answer is the same...

Rather disappointing. We sat outside but 'wasn't seen' by the waitress who subsequently disappeared so after 5 minutes I went inside to ask for a menu. Another young waitress followed me out, brought menus and water and promised to return with our coffees. All was good .. until 10 minutes later we were STILL waiting for the coffees and food order to be taken. When our food finally arrived, human hair was seen to have fallen into the pan of bacon whilst it was being cooked because the meat had curled around the hair and could be lifted from the plate and suspended using said hair. These things happen and the waitress was so apologetic and very good and without hesitation took the bacon away and promised to return with the sausage that I had decided to have instead. Long story short, apart from the huge amount of time it took to collect the order and serving the food we have no complaints about the waitress. However, I wasn't so complacent with the cooking. One could argue that the place was busy, hence the lack of care and speed whilst cooking but this wasn't the case. The place was virtually empty, most of the customers were outside. Eventually I had to go indoors looking to pay our bill because once more, no waiting staff outside and upon seeing the lousy 5% tip that I given (and that was only because the young lady who DID serve us was great - we didn't see a lot of her but she was great), the original waitress - with the poor eyesight - was quick to determine that it wasn't her that served us and was relieved when I said no. So all in all,...