Brouemalt - Microbrasserie — Restaurant in Saint-Donat

This was our second visit here (first time was at the end of July, and we were very pleased with the service). However, today's experience was terrible. Although I can give 4 stars for the food (4.5 for quality, 3.5 for quality vs price, and 4 for the variety) and 4 stars for the venue, the service deserves no more than one star. To be very clear, I'm talking about our own experience here. So, after a few hours of trekking in the Forest Ouareau Park, we decided to drive to Saint-Donat for a second visit to Microbrasserie Brouemalt with the intention to grab a quick snack, have a beer and purchase a couple more to enjoy at home. We arrived around 5:30 PM and placed the order at 5:43 (I know because I took a picture of my wife one minute before). We ordered two sandwiches, one side of poutine and 2 glasses of beer. The server brought the beer within minutes. As for the food, we waited 35 minutes and nothing happened. He did not come to ask us if everything is alright or if we need anything else. In fact, I saw him at the bar sipping beer from a glass (I hope it was his, not meant to be served to someone else). The fact that he was chilling and drinking on the job bothered me so I called him to inquire about the order and... surprise! He said he forgot to forward it to the kitchen. He then asked again what the order was as he wasn't able to find it on his pad. No apologies or anything. Normally, knowing that he messed up, he should have requested that this order should be processed before any other one. However, we had to wait again 20 minutes (from 6:18 PM to 6:38 PM) for it to be brought to our table. Once again, no apologies for the delay. I ask the server for his name but he declined to give it to me. Luckily, it was written on the receipt. His name is Alexandre. I asked for the check and when he brought it, he said he did not charge me for the beer. I then insisted to pay for everything because that was the normal thing to do. I finally paid the bill in full (for the 2 sandwiches, the poutine and the beers) but I did not include any tip (which I normally do, from 10 to 20%, depending on the service). After giving me the transaction record, he said loudly "You forgot to add a tip!", at which I replied "I did not forget. I chose not to". At that point we left. Bottom line, I tip to reward a server for the work done, for the respect shown to the customer, for the rapidity of service etc. etc. A tip has to be earned. You cannot treat a customer badly and expect a reward for that. Many years ago, I worked as a server in the US for about 8 months and I had 15 tables to tend. Over there, 95% of your salary is made of tips and you have to give your 110% percent if you want to make a living (not decent, but to live from paycheck to paycheck). This guy had probably 3 or 4 tables to take care of. He never apologized for the delay. Had he apologized, I would have gave him something. He had the chance to fix everything but he decided to treat the "second" order as an ordinary one. It is not normal to wait 55 minutes outside on the terrace at 14 deg C for 2 sandwiches! Once again, this episode may not reflect the experience of other customers. Maybe we had bad luck, who knows? However, it is enough to make us avoid this business in the future and that's a pity, because the owners probably made a lot of sacrifices to put everything together and to keep the restaurant open during this pandemic and they don't deserve to lose a client, even if that client comes there only a couple of times a year. I know they will do OK without us and I...

Was really looking forward to eating here as we had a really good experience last year. We booked a reservation 2 weeks in advance and checked the day of to make sure that we still had our reservation. We came in (group of 12) and they had given our table away to another group of 16 because they were larger. When questioned, the woman at the bar told us that it was not their problem and that they don’t keep reservations like a normal restaurant. Miscommunications happen, however, this did not seem like the case. There were no apologies from the woman at the bar, which was quite upsetting to our group; more so than losing the reservation. As much as we enjoyed our last year’s meal, after this incident, we will have...

We found out about Microbrasserie BroueMalt while staying at @Expérience Équinox (by the way, you may claim some discount at BroueMalt if you stay at Équinox). BroueMalt is a small brasserie where they make amazing beer 🍺. We were served by Raphael, who were patient with us, answered all our questions, and let us try different types of in-house brewed beer before we finally made our choice 😄 . There's something you have yo keep in mind, however. You can either buy canned beer or, what we opted for, beer in their branded bottle (if you go with that option, there's a $5.00 fee for the bottle, unlessyou plan to return it). Overall, we definitely recommend visiting this place if you stay in...