Mirela's Steakhouse and Cigar Lounge — Restaurant in Quebec

The place is actually pretty nice. The atmosphere and ambience are upscale and friendly. However, my group and I ran into serious issues with Samantha, one of the waitresses. She treated us terribly all through the night and we felt as though it was racially motivated (perhaps it is not). I say this because she was nice and efficient with the other tables but left us without service for a long time and then when she started serving us, the service was awful. One of us complained about the steak that was ordered and rather than Samatha simply apologizing or pacifying the customer, she made an issue out of it by saying “well, you got what you wanted.” The steak, NY Sir Loin, was not that good compared to the rest of the items we ordered. When we got the bill, some of us refused to tip her because of the situation and bad treatment. As far as I know, tipping is something customers do when they’re satisfied with the service they get. Customers are not “expected” by “law” to tip. Besides, she did get tips from others in the group, just not everyone.

Much to our surprise, Samantha escalated the fact that some persons didn’t tip her for her bad service by reporting the group to other workers, ambushing one of us who went to the restroom, and claiming that our payment didn’t “go through” because someone didn’t tip. The straw on the camel’s back was when she told the valet guys that they shouldn’t give us our car because there was “a problem with our payment.” We felt like thieves being held hostage over tips (which, as we understand, is voluntary). It was so ridiculous that we felt like we were in real danger. The valet guy was a huge macho man who spoke like we were in trouble. It was the worst moment ever. While this itself doesn’t seem racially motivated, we wondered whether she would have responded in the same way to other customers who were not POC. We wondered why they felt the need to embarrass us like petty thieves and criminals over tips that won’t be more than $20 at most. Mind you, the group already spent like $350 that night so it was by no means a “cheap” group. We only decided not to compensate terrible service and got the embarrassment of our lives. We had to fight and exchange words with Samantha and the Valet guy before our car (a Mercedes Benz GLA) was released to us. We all left the restaurant traumatized and shaken.

This review is meant to let others know about our experiences so that they can factor that into their expectations...

We had dinner a couple of weeks ago with some friends and the experience ended up being quite disappointing. Since we were 8 people we order several appetizers and different plates from the menu so we had the chance to try a good number of things. This is my list of cons: The restaurant is too expensive to justify going so out all the way and compared to equivalent restaurants in Montreal. As an example, the wine list is quite a bit more expensive for the same wines than similar restaurants on the island. In my case I ordered the tempura shrimp (4 shrimps and the rest fried vegetables), the octopus appetizer (good but very small) and the lobster rolls (they deserve a separate bullet). The lobster rolls are supposed to be a signature dish and they were not that great at all. The bread buns were cold and chewy and the lobster meat seemed to me to be of the "frozen/canned/bulk" variety. Not fresh pulled lobster meat by any means. I was so looking forward to them... To finish, as dessert, I ordered the Panna Cotta. After waiting for a long time and having to ask our server, she mentioned that she forgot to tell me but they had run out of it. This was after waiting for 10-15 minutes. As pros I could say: The restaurant has a lot in the back with plenty of parking. Service was, in general, quite good. The seafood pasta was also good. No sales tax added to the bill.

As a summary, not worth the price or the trip...

Mirela's is beautiful but a few things happened during our meal that has made me wonder if I'll go back. First minor thing, we were a table of four, but only received 3 pieces of bread (no biggie in the scheme of things, but was still noticeable). Second is their new menu- high prices for "okay" (but not memorable) food, and little variety. Lots of seafood (yum), but for non steak or seafood eaters there was only one pasta dish without seafood and not a single chicken option, and no more pizza. Finally, was the bottled water. At no point did our waiter mention there would be a cost and he kept refilling our glasses along the meal without asking. In the end it cost us an additional $5 per person for water, that we weren't made aware of ahead of time. If you want to charge us for flat water, fine, but please let us know. Kind of felt scammed a little. Maybe we should all know that we'll be charged for water in 2022, but all 4 of us were surprised, so it should definitely be restaurant policy to let customers know before the bottle is opened (I'm hoping it's mentioned on the menu at least and we didn't notice). So overall, great ambience, but next time we'll look at other restos...