bivver — Restaurant in St. John's

Dear Bivvie‘s management…. We had a similar incident (from last year/written below) just now at your restaurant. Interesting that nothing has changed in staff behaviour. Despicable! Interesting that Bonvoy group would allow this unacceptable behaviour to carry on for such a long time inside their establishment. Our friends are restaurant owners in town, so this is not a simple “we just can’t find good people” answer. Congrats on ensuring a consistent poor time for us in the city of Newfoundland. It doesn’t take that much to crack a smile and be a kind person - especially in the service industry. These are not unreasonable expectations.

Ken Richards,

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the service that my family and I have received on more than one occasion at your restaurant.

The first incident occurred during Christmas brunch when we were served by a waiter who was both flippant and rude. Not only did this ruin our dining experience, but it also left us feeling disrespected and frustrated. My friend’s family has been coming here for over 20 years, and this experience has lead to them wanting to change this multi-generational tradition to a different location next year. I find that to be quite sad and unfortunate.

Another incident occurred when we came in after a long day of Christmas shopping. We had several bags with us, one of which was a wrapped up box of gourmet cookies that clearly looked like a present. We smiled and greeted the server for a couple beers, and was quickly told by her that we cannot be here and “need to get rid of that box”. She shared a policy of not having outside food in the restaurant and compared an obvious expensive looking box of cookies to an opened Tim Horton’s coffee (which we otherwise would understand). I do not expect exceptions, but her incredibly rude delivery, lack of common sense, and sense of hospitality was quite shocking and unacceptable.

I have been an investor and a loyal guest of this hotel group across the globe and these experiences have left me feeling disappointed and questioning its quality and management capabilities.

That said, we must applaud the exceptional service of Fabian. He truly made me feel welcomed as a first-timer to St. John’s. I would have been disappointed to have the other servers be the only ambassadors for this otherwise super friendly, family-oriented city.

I’m happy to connect if you need more details on servers and...

BEWARE IF YOU HAVE ALLERGIES, DIETARY RESTRICTIONS OR HALAL

Vegetarian and vegan family of three staying at the hotel and ate at this lounge for special occasion celebrations. The staff who served us was mostly “I don’t know” when asked about ingredients and allergies, and seemed pretty annoyed throughout. My daughter got Caesar salad - which turned out to have bacon on it when it was specifically asked to be removed - and I only found out after she ate half of it. When confronted, unfortunately after I had to run out and after the plates were cleared, they denied ever putting bacon on her food. It truly upsets me as my daughter has never had meat since she was born and thanks to their denied negligence she now got that in - and I’m having to stay up tonight anticipating her stomach to react to it.

Our server also basically disappeared after food got on the table, I wanted to ask about a particular item and wanted water refill but he cannot be found for over 20 min and the other server would only tend to two other tables - we are not talking about a busy time here, there were no more than 4 tables amongst 2 servers past 8pm.

Overall, this is my worst dining experience and totally not expecting to get this at what’s supposedly the best hotel in town. Very angry and...

Very inconsistent, one night the old fashioned might be excellent, the next night you could have one that tastes absolutely terrible. I wouldn’t get the beef rib or the “steak” ever again. Steak was very thin and overcooked, vegetables consisted of two pounds of potatoes and four spears of asparagus. Generally feel like they have Keg level prices for worse food than most people could cook themselves. Very chincy on vegetables (and fruit for breakfast if you don’t go with the buffet). Chocolate cake was dry and not very flavorful. The staff are generally very nice though, just wish they weren’t so miserly with the ingredients and that the food was better. If you’re eating here to charge it to the room for more Bonvoy points prepare to surrender your happiness. So many better options within...