Aurora Restaurant at Poets Cove Resort — Restaurant in Southern Gulf Islands Electoral Area

I rarely leave negative reviews, but my recent experience at Aurora Restaurant was so disappointing that I feel compelled in this case. My girlfriends and I stayed at the beautiful Poet’s Cove Resort to celebrate a special occasion and Aurora is the high-end restaurant on the premises. We were all expecting a high level of quality and service. Unfortunately, our experience fell far short of those expectations.

We ordered a variety of dishes: four crispy-skin duck entrées, one halibut entrée, and several appetizers. Although the appetizers were enjoyable, the wait for the main dishes was an hour, which was unexpected as the restaurant was not very busy. When the main courses finally arrived, they were a letdown. The duck entrées had none of the promised crispy skin and were accompanied by gnocchi that were hard, cold, and inedible. The halibut was also disappointing—cold, bland, and served with undercooked rice.

I ordered a white wine to complement the fish, but by the time the dishes arrived, the wine had gone warm. When I asked our server, Amy, if I could have a replacement of the barely touched wine, she unhelpfully advised that it was not their responsibility that I had not drunk it while waiting. I would need to pay for a new glass if I wanted a cold one. Her dismissive attitude was shocking and unprofessional. Amy has a misunderstanding of the customer service relationship, whereby when a guest brings a concern to the establishment, the matter should be addressed rather than summarily shut down

Amy seemed deaf to any negative feedback and avoided coming to our table after our entrees arrived. She would not communicate any of our concerns back to the kitchen. Due to her dismissive attitude, we decided to speak directly with the chef about the gnocchi and the soggy duck in an effort to reasonably salvage the meal and the evening. While the chef was more receptive, he suggested that the gnocchi's texture was due to it being a gluten-free product. This reasoning didn’t hold up, as gnocchi is mainly made from potatoes and should still be soft and bouncy. Amy reprimanded us for disturbing the chef in this manner and told us our action was inappropriate. We would not have gone ourselves if she had conveyed the feedback for us.

The service was a complete letdown and unaccommodating as soon as we raised any concerns about our meal. Despite voicing our disappointment, no replacement, compensation or apology was offered. We were made to feel that it was our perceptions of the dishes that were erroneous and NOT that they were texturally compromised and inedible. This attitude is destructive to the guest experience. The only gesture from the chef was a substitution of fingerling potatoes for the gnocchi, which came too late to salvage the meal. We paid the exorbitant bill with no further discussion but left no tip to convey our extreme displeasure.

Aurora Restaurant failed to deliver on the luxury experience of high-end dining. The food was subpar, the service was unhelpful, and the overall experience was not reflective of what one would expect from a resort establishment. If I could rate this restaurant lower than one star, I would. It was a significant disappointment, and I would not...

Four of us stayed 4 nights at Poets Cove for a girlfriend trip, and we spent our first dinner at this restaurant on site. Extremely bad experience - we ordered one calamari to share and each ordered one main dish, and we shared a bottle of white wine. The wine came first, but our food didn’t come until an hour and half later. Don’t get me wrong, there were tables who sat down after us that left before we even had any food on the table. And when food came, one of the main dishes came first…. My friend was so hungry that she had to start before the rest of us had anything, and by the time she finished her dish the rest of the food still nowhere to be seen (including the calamari which was supposed to be the appetizer)! So after waiting for two hours, the rest of the food finally came, and the waiter asked whether we need more wine and we said no, and then he just took the entire wine basket away - with the wine bottle not even empty!!! And lastly, the food didn’t taste good either. Avoid this...

We came here in December to check the place out as we are getting married at Poet's Cove in July.

The food was fantastic. We ate here 3 nights and one breakfast and for tbe most part, everything was tasty and exactly what we wanted.

Some points to improve:

The music sometimes stopped in the dining room and there was ads (probably using Spotify free version)

It sometimes took more than normal times for staff to notice people waiting at the entrance to be seated.

All in all, food was great and the staff were all very friendly,...