Jack Lonsdale's Public House — Restaurant in North Vancouver

Hello All Hospitality Guests;

Jack Lonsdale Pub , specifically its management probably displays the worst guest service acumen I have ever experienced in my 40 years of employment in this industry.

Briefly, I went to the pub to enjoy a glass of wine and the "Happy Hour" which included 50% off "selected" appetizers, selected highlighted for future reference.

I informed the server I was here to do a little paperwork and order a happy hour appie and drink, she told me and I quote: Cool, enjoy your appies and reduced price wines. After waiting several minutes, I told the hostess I was ready to order-which I then ordered the calamari. The server took my order and then I ate the calamari when it arrived. Remember I have not been informed of any selected 50% off appies (which according to the manager I should have read on the chalk board then inquired about to my hostess and server before ordering. Upon my wife arriving and stating she was also going to have an appy, the server then informed us that the calamari was not one of the 1/2 price appy's!! I then let her know that if I had known that, I would not have ordered the calamari! "Can you please see if you can honor the discount, as I was not informed" She came back to say that the manager would not honor the discount! Really?? Long story short.... the manager came over and was essentially argumentative, rude and condescending with us, and told us that we should have read the sign and ASKED what the select appy's were. So where in the restaurant business is it not the server's/hostess responsibility to inform the guests of the daily specials? And, if the server made an error, is it not common management protocol and good guest relations, to apologize, for their mistake and offer the 50% discount. Believe me, it's not the money, it's the principal! After stating that I was tired of arguing over a small amount and that we were neighbors of the restaurant who refer people here occasionally he said he would give us a discount. Instead of taking care of business at the computer he went outside first to read his sign then came back and said yes it said "selected" at that time I had to get up and leave and let my wife pay the bill. We went next door to their beer and wine store to buy a bottle of wine and after telling the clerks of my absolutely disdain for this " gentlemen" and accurately describing him and them knowing who was on shift they said Oh thats the owners son! Need I say more.... my...

After a concert, my wife and I were hungry and wanted to find a place that served dinner. Of the two restaurants open - Brown's and Jack Lonsdale's, we chose Jack Lonsdale because we had great dining experiences in the past.

We got in to an empty restaurant, most patrons were seated at the bar counter. There were 2 servers who had a disinterested look, and asked us to sit "wherever".

After which they disappeared - one chose to have a very friendly chat with a patron and the other was nowhere to be found. Finally, my wife went to the side station and got our menus.

Again, no attention - not even water or a drink order.

Eventually, we had to wave our menus to attract one of the servers - a Persian lady with blonde curly hair. We expressed our disappointment with having to wait and getting our own menus. Didn't bother her in the least bit.

Halfway through taking our order - she said she had to check if the kitchen had closed! Apparently we were their last order - she "brought them back". On their website - restaurant closes at 11:00 pm!

10:29 Food arrives - the Nachos were burnt on the edges, the Beef dip sandwich - bread was COLD, beef had zero seasoning, and my wife's French Onion soup tasted like hot water!! Again, drops food off and disappeared.

We downed the food - thankfully I had asked for gravy, left the soup and again, did the wave to get our check. She asked "how was everything" and I calmly shared our experience and asked for my check.

She insisted on calling her manager, Mike, and I let him know just how terrible our experience was. He offered us a discount but I refused and paid full amount - no tip.

Having spent decades in the food service industry, I'm well aware of things going wrong, but that's why staff do quality checks!

It's hard for restaurants to keep up with competition and food delivery options, which one would expect establishments like this would work hard to deliver good service and food.

Post COVID, as restaurants opened, we came to this restaurants and generously tipped - knowing how hard it had been on operators and staff. They had a 2 for one brunch but I insisted on paying for both - just our way of supporting local business and staff.

Disinterested staff + appallingly bad food = poor management.

Well now they are on our...

Been going here for awhile now and during the pandemic ordered a lot from them as well. First they couldn’t get any… yes I mean any of our orders to pick up right. And lately they can’t even serve there customers right. We went in last night for dinner and drinks hostesses never even said hi to us and we had to ask if we seat ourselves or they do it. Zero drinks once seated, 15 mins before server showed up to ask for drinks( yes it was busy) but still zero management around helping direct things or help the time we were there. Waitress doing the absolute best they can… but what gets me is sad to say the whole time we were there. Bartender was chilling and making drinks and chatting with people at the bar, could have helped in his area, waitress falling behind on orders and tables everyone was running out of drinks before being asked for anything, kitchen was behind on orders which upset customers, and the worst for me was waiting 40 mins to get the bill after asking for it, and watching waitresses walking around cleaning tables after I’m waving my credit card at them clearly making eye contact. It took us until someone in our party to get up and start walking to the door for the waitress to come over. We could have walked out without paying and I don’t think anyone would know. Seeing the amount of standing around and confusion was horrible. It was like no one knew what to do, or worst was directed wrong. Sadly this was it for me just a joke of customer service...