Browns Socialhouse Barrhaven — Restaurant in Ottawa

from 4 months ago: Been to this restaurant a few times and waited to gather my thoughts for a full review. Everytime I’ve gone the food has been delicious however the service is far from good. My servers here have always been rude and never check up on us. Our table had empty drinks for over half an hour before anyone came to check up on us and ask if we needed refills. The patio is cold during the winter, the heating only comes on every 10-15 minutes and when there is a strong gust of wind it gets through the walls. One of my servers tried to explain to me that I couldn’t customize my meal however this was the third time I ordered it and I always customized it this way with zero issues. I believe the restaurant has great potential however the service is terrible and the tables are often neglected or ignored. One of our servers handed us the wrong alcoholic beverage and treated us with an attitude the rest of the night even though this incident was not our fault, it was a Simple mistake on her end and it was completely understandable. I work in customer service and retail and have always been an understanding customer which is why I’m confused as to why I still always get bad service when I come here.

Other staff have popped in to our table to drop off extras for the food or our drinks, they arrive at the table without even saying “hello” or “here are you drinks” and leave without asking if we need anything else, when in reality our meals were missing the sides such as dips and salsa, and we were waiting on waters. It is a standard expectation for any server to great the table or recognize the customers before handing things off to them, the entire interaction was cold and bizarre.

They also called me half an hour before my reservation to ask if I wanted to come in as they had a table ready, I believe they had good intentions however if we book a reservation for a certain time this is simply because we are expecting to be there at that time, not earlier. The other times I have made a reservation we waited far longer to be seated as the hostess struggled to manage the seating chart and large amount of people waiting. It is frustrating to watch your server be nice / attentive to other tables which she visibly neglects her other tables. The staff look upset and entitled as soon as they seat you, without any prior incidents. I wish they would focus more on the customer service aspect / service as they would be more successful.

Recent EDIT: I have now recently been to this restaurant again, and I still stand by my review. The service we had was completely unacceptable and the server picked up drinks and our dishes without even offering refills. Do not waste your time here unless you want to order expensive cocktails with a side of...

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I have been coming to this establishment for almost a year now, and I have never had a great experience. Where do I begin? I visited this restaurant on Saturday, with a reservation. I made a reservation because I have learned that if you do not have one you don’t get seated in an efficient manner. You can stay on a waitlist for an hour and a half - even if there are tons of tables open - and after that hour and a half passes with no communication from the restaurant, if you go in and check where you stand on the waitlist they will magically seat you. It seems like they aren’t even checking this waitlist which is a missed opportunity.

Saturday evening (August 6th) we were seated at our table promptly which was surprising. Our server comes by our table for the first time and we order drinks and food. The server informs me that we can’t customize a favourite dish of ours, even though we have been able to do so for the past 10 months every single time we’ve been in this restaurant. I have also been a frequent online takeout customer, where it is clearly possible to customize this dish as when ordered without certain ingredients they are able to honour it. Why is there this discrepancy of knowledge between staff or between my in restaurant experience and online experience? Quite disappointing. Next, we get our drinks and the server comes back once to check on us. We then get our meals at which time we have finished our first beverages. We have started to time how long it takes for them to check on our empty drinks because of the horrendous past experiences we have had where we have had empty drinks for our whole table for over 20 minutes. Instead of noticing the empty glasses and inquiring if another round was in order, the server picks up our empty glasses and walks away. The server continues to pass by other tables, picking up our empty dishes without offering another round of drink or to get us anything else.

At this point after SEVERAL experiences at this restaurant, it feels like this is simply the level of service they strive to give their paying customers. Due to this, we will only be ordering takeout because I can :

Purchase beverages from elsewhere and not be begging for drink refills

Not feel like an inconvenience to the staff

Not wait extended of time to be seated

Customize my food (as I always do) without hearing my requests are not allowed by the server

Please note. We had anticipated to spend up to two hours in this restaurant purchasing cocktails and enjoying the evening. In the end, we stayed only 45 minutes as we felt like we were not a priority let alone even...

I've had food from this location before for takeout and was impressed; if you look at their menu and find yourself considering, I urge you: stick to the asian-themed menu items, and order them takeout. Nothing is worth dealing with the service at this place.

Me and me wife ducked in on a Thursday for a quick dinner. It was packed, but we were seated right away (front desk was great. We then sat with our menus for 20 minutes, ignored by whoever was supposed to be serving us. Eventually a server – not ours – asked if we had been seen yet and when we said no she said she'd get someone over.

About ten minutes after that, we saw our server for the first time. At this point we had figured out everything we wanted to order from drinks to starters to mains, and so placed the order all at once.

We sat in clear view of the bar, so we could see our drinks being poured and placed on the bar. Someone – presumably the manager based on how he was dressed – stood at the drink station while his servers hurried all around him. He did help run drinks to tables, occasionally, in between standing there with a stunned look on his face watching the TV above the bar. Our drinks sat there for about 10 minutes, warming up, before our server brought them over to us.

Our appetizers arrived shortly after. I have never personally seen a more sad plate of calamari. Flavourless and with the smallest pieces I think you can buy. The dry ribs were good, but it is almost impossible to mess up deep fried ribs with salt.

The mains showed up fairly well timed after the starters. The beef dip was dry, flavourless, and slightly sweet. The steak and pasta – bacon alfredo – was the worst steak I've ever eaten. It didn't taste the worst – I've had steaks that were so bad that they left an impression because they were offensive. What made this steak the worst was it's ability to make me feel absolutely nothing, not even disgust. The only thing I could say confidently after eating it was that it was in fact beef.

Finally, we asked our server for the bill. After saying nearly nothing all night, when it came time to determine the size of tip to be left, she was all chatty. If she had said even 10% of these words in the form of an apology for the wait or even an acknowledgement that it was busy, the service might have been a 2/5. But I wish I could give 0/5.

There was a kitchen surcharge on the bill – hilarious – which I didn't care to fight but put the final nail in the coffin of us ever...