The Oaks Restaurant and Tearoom — Restaurant in Oak Bay

Was enticed to the Oaks by their great marketing partner. But left hungry & disappointed. Went last Sunday for their Prime rib special. Wife had a burger and the kid had shrimp bacon & garlic pasta. Plus crispy prawns for the table. Prawns were deep fried until rubber. Pasta was nearly inedible (kid requested a Fast Food burger on our way home). Wife's burger was great. Fries also a stand out.

Prime rib was a disaster. Firstly, whomever was cooking them did not understand the cut. First order, the spinalis (the cap of a prime rib) was blue rare (i ordered Medium Rare). I sent it back. Second order (as they 'fired me a new one') was also blue rare on the spinalis. The main body of the cut was cooked to medium rare, so I just chose to cut the spinalis off and take it home to cook it myself. But the problems didn't finish there. The mashed potatoes tasted like they were powdered. And the veg was sitting in a puddle of water. Also, they served it in a large bowl type dish, so the water from the veg mixed with the potatoes. There was no place to put any trimmed fat, so that ended up getting placed onto a napkin on the table. Even after I asked for an extra plate for trim I was refused. The best part of the Prime Rib dinner was actually the yorkshire pudding. But Its hard to recommend a $25 meal for a simple yorkie.

When you ask why I didn't send the second Prime Rib back, I'll say this. I do not like being a problem customer. I had already sent back my first plate, and when the server came back to check on the second one, she refused or forgot to bring a plate for trim as I had requested. I feared a 3rd kick at the can would have prompted 'special seasoning' of my meal.

We paid our bill, tipped meagerly (only 10 percent, but in all honesty, can you blame me). We are likely to not dine at...

I was just at the restaurant today with my friends and we got there about 10:30am and we sat down and ordered food and it came out very quickly. Around 11am, one waitress, not our main waitress, named Brandy or something with a B, she brought over a reservation sign and threw it onto our table very aggressively. My friends and I were shocked, but we did not say anything. Just before 11:30, she came over to us and told us we had to leave within 2-3 mins because the reservation people were coming. We were not happy because if you guys knew you had a reservation coming so soon why would you guys allow us to be seated there? We would have understood if we had to move at the beginning, but we were not aware and this waitress rudely told us to leave and not even just move to a different table. So we complained to our actual server, a different waitress who was very kind, and she was apologizing and shocked from the other waitresses behavior and as soon as our actual server left, the waitress who's name starts with a B, came over to us and told us we had to leave. People around us started to look at us and it was very embarrassing. I was very embarrassed because this was the first time I had brought my friends out with me. I usually come with my husband and mother-in law and it is very disappointing to have experienced this rude and disrespectful service from...

The servers were unenthusiastic, perhaps one would even describe them as morose. Food was ok. Dessert was terrible! Maybe my opinion would be different if I'd ordered their "famous" brownie but I didn't. I ordered the apple crumble, because I love apple crumble! Whatever they served me was not apple crumble. It was hot apple pie filling (I think) with a dusting of cinnamon and brown sugar. There might have been a flake or two of rolled oats in there but I don't remember, that's how memorable it was. It didn't crumble. It wasn't even baked! The ratio of ingredients was completely off. The topping is normally my favourite part but this was an unfortunate distraction from the actually warm part of the dessert which was the pie filling. I've tasted something similar in a frozen TV dinner. Too much cinnamon, not enough crumble. Probably suitable for patrons who wear dentures.

I still tipped. The servers looked like they were already having a bad day and I didn't want to add to whatever they were dealing with.

If I wasn't there to socialize with my friends I would...