Trio Bistro and Lounge — Restaurant in Ottawa

What an experience..

I’d like to start off by saying that my wife and I have been customers of Trio for over 10yrs now and I’ve never had such a negative experience here or any other restaurants in my life. Even having worked in hospitality from coast to coast over 22yrs I couldn’t imagine speaking or having a colleague speak to guest in such a manner

The night started well as usual and the male server (young man with a beard) was attentive and friendly. We ordered the pirogies with no bacon ( not an allergy , personal belief) and the order came with bacon. Not a big deal, I explained to the server (older female with tattoos) that I had placed the order with no bacon. She brought back the plate to the kitchen where I watched the cook pick off the bacon and re-plate the meal.

When the dish came back to the table within 2mins , I did not accept thr meal , instructed the female server to bring it back and to bring me my bill for the reasons above . She the proceeded to argue with me saying that she didn’t know how I could see the cook pick off the bacon being that he was in the kitchen…. I was sitting directly across the serving window is how. She further argued the point so I invited her to sit in my seat so that she could see what I saw.

After realizing that I was correct, she switched her stance on the matter and questioned whether it was an allergy or preference. And continued on saying that it doesn’t even matter because the oil would “kill off any trace of the bacon” during reheating. I was beyond insulted at this point.

When she brought me my bill (again, I’m sitting directly across from the kitchen serving area) she was complaining about me , confirming with the cook what had just happened saying how dumb I was being because again , “the fryer oil would kill off any bacon”

My bill was 80.82 and I left a 1cent tip for our lovely server. Its important to note that in all my years of dining , working across Canada in high end resorts with Fairmont , managing restaurants, pubs and nightclubs, I have never left a 1cent tip and have never experienced such an combative and argumentative server In my time.

I hope the owners see this and have a serious conversation with...

TL:DR; Great ambiance, friendly staff, allergy friendly, not as great as advertised by others. Not bad at all! Just not the best in town.

Decided to try something new for my birthday dinner after reading about their charcuterie board online. "You have to try the big one" it said.. ok, we'll switch it up this year because Reddit said so!

First thing you notice after you walk through the velour curtains (yes, read that in Zap's voice) is the art on the wall and the bar in the distance. It's clearly Westboro chic in here and we are not chic people lol. One guy running the show who is just amazingly friendly and efficient. Wish I'd have gotten his name to give him props. Let's call him Walter.

Anyway, I'm here for the food so my wife gets a drink which I'll spare the review of but she said it wasn't super strong. We order the big $36 charcuterie board and kung pao brussel sprouts because that's what's GF that isn't also on the board. After about 20 minutes of chatting, the food comes and it smells awesome. Walter walks us through the board - a couple of pieces of capiccollo, two small smoked Gouda wedges, a 🥒 cornichon (yes a pickle) on some mustard, new potatoes in some curry sauce, apricot hummus, a couple of other little things and a bowl of gluten free crackers by our request. Now, when I hear charcuterie board, I think meat and cheese and I must admit hindsight is 20/20 so I wasn't as disappointed as the time as I am now thinking back. I wish there had been more meat and cheese. That said, everything on the board was very good and the best by far - this is going to sound dumb - was the mustard. I do have to give major props for the sprouts - they were amazing and spicy to boot. I would have those again in a heartbeat.

Anyway, I'm glad we went; I'm glad we experienced it because it was truly an experience. I don't know that I'd go back but it was worth the visit. Board, sprouts, one drink, tax and tip was about $80-90. Westboro chic.

See you...

Experience ruined by the server. A couple weeks ago I went with a group of friends. I tried to order a virgin watermelon mojito. The server responds with “well that won’t taste good alcohol is half the flavour”. What an ignorant thing to say. It’s a shame because the food was great and so was the atmosphere. I really did want to come back but the server made us uncomfortable with her comment and made us lose faith in her ability to give us professional service after not even being aware that there are more flavours than rum in a flavoured mojito. Sobriety is common these days, don’t assume people want alcohol ESPECIALLY when they ask for a virgin drink. Please train your servers better. I really do want to support this restaurant. I thought about calling and making a complaint but I feel people reading the reviews for Trio should know it is not a good place to go if you...