Auntie Pesto's — Restaurant in Salt Spring Island Electoral Area

Reserved a table for a party of 4. But a long series of niggles and problems couldn't save the review score. Here is everything that went wrong:

You can only reserve a table by calling or emailing. But if you try on their two days off per week, you'll have to wait until the next working day for the confirmation.

When we arrived they checked the vaccination records but only visually. They didn't check the authenticity of the QR code online.

They gave us the worst table which is sitting on benches with only hard wooden support for backs, and one guest sits with back against the window with no back rest. We asked to switch. And other tables were open. But they refused. It seems like other guests reserve particular tables, but this is not clear on the website.

The non alcohol drinks menu in very boring, and there was nothing interesting for me. Luckily I asked about ginger beer and they had that even though it wasn't on the menu. They brought it with a glass with ice, and half poured the bottle into the glass.

Later they never asked us about more drinks or more water. I had to eventually ask for another ginger beer. The new ginger beer arrived but no new glass with ice or pouring. It was expected that I would use the old glass with the mostly melted ice and pour it myself.

The appetizers arrived in a normal period of time but there was a very long wait for the main courses. Eventually 3 out of 4 main courses turned up. But then I was told they ran out of potatoes for my dish. Would I like a substitute? Extra veg? I had no choice but to except... what else could I do?

When my steak finally turned up late, it looked kind of naked. And although the steak knife was sharp, the steak was tough to cut. Wasn't impressed.

At the bill I would have expected them to take something off the bill or offer my dish for free. Expectations were high since it was the most expensive item on the menu at $47 and they should have never taken the order if they were running low on ingredients. But no apologies and they just took the money.

All in all I cannot recommend this restaurant after so many...

OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY & SEATED OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER!! My husband and I were on Salt Spring Island for a week, celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. We made a reservation at Auntie Pestos two weeks prior. We were both really looking forward to this experience especially after reading the reviews. Unfortunately on Sept. 17, 2020, we arrived at the restaurant for our 7pm reservation and were promptly seated out on their patio. There was a canopy over the patio seating, as well as propane heaters. Unfortunately, we were directed to the ONLY table that was NOT COVERED in the very corner of the patio. All the tables on the patio were under cover except ours. We were essentially seated beside the water on a cool September evening with a tiny bit of heat on my right side. My poor husband did not have any heat beside him at all. We were not advised that this is how they seat their customers and to bring a sweater/jacket. When we asked our server if we could change to another table she told us that it was the only table available. We then asked if we could order our meals “to go” and she said sure it would take about 20 minutes. Fine, we decided to do that seeing as we could not seat out in the open evening air. As we waited for our server to return to our table, another table that was under the cover, was cleared and set for more customers. Why did we not get this table??? Unfortunately again, our server took an extraordinary long time to come back to our table with glasses filled with ice water. Just what we needed! 🙄 We were already freezing but the ice water should help??? At this point we decided to leave without ordering anything and all the server said was, “OK”. She didn’t even attempt to try and accommodate us at all. I was dumb struck! A very, very disappointing evening for our 20th wedding...

Disappointing experience, won’t be back.

Overall: Food was not what we ordered service was slow, lots of us waiting to order, waiting for follow up, waiting for dessert menu, etc. Didn’t follow up re: incorrect order

Context: Girl friend’s birthday dinner, she felt uncomfortable with the restaurant as the food we received was not what she ordered(mine was correct).

Experience: Made reservation, arrived on time, table ready within a few minutes - good Sat down, waited ~10 minutes before anyone came with water/ask about drinks - not good Waiter, friendly, good energy, nice banter, knew the specials - good Ordered food, atmosphere nice - good Food came, incorrect dish…ordered penne Alfredo, got penne with rosé sauce, informed the waiter, said he rang it in wrong, apologized, asked if he should have them make another dish, felt uncomfortable with having to wait for another dish when it had already been 40 minutes, food tasted fine(mine was good, girlfriend has a hard time with tomato in sauces hence the Alfredo but didn’t want to have to negotiate over the mistake on birthday dinner), ate, chatted, done with eating, plates cleared by busser, waited to hear about dessert, after about 20min waiter asked if anyone had checked about dessert, was already 2hrs in restaurant total, said thank you, asked to pay, waited 10min before manager came with bill, charged full price, didn’t address meal being incorrect, girlfriend didn’t want any issues, paid, left,...