Bar'kada — Restaurant in Toronto

Hosted a birthday dinner here recently for a group of 12; we were sat in the front area of the restaurant which was nice because we were given our own little space. The only slight downside to that was our group had to sit in two separated tables as the space couldn’t accommodate a large table to fit us all. Our server was new so they weren’t the most familiar with the menu but we were served with politeness and good effort.

Since I was hosting a big group, I preordered all my food and bottle service. I was really disappointed when the server told me that they didn’t have enough portions of the ube crème brûlées that I had preordered for dessert and asked me to pick something else in replacement of the one missing portion. I wish they would’ve audited properly, as the whole purpose of preordering was so that we wouldn’t run into such issues. While our server was apologetic, I feel like there was no effort to right the wrong. When I asked them to let their manager know of our disappointment, the response was that the manager already knew and it was actually the manager that instructed her to ask us what else we wanted (assuming the representative who was working with me on the big group reservation + preordering was of management level). We were simply charged the full amount for the replacement items and wasn’t offered any sort of compensation for the error. Also just want to point out that this representative I was working with did not come greet our group despite me working with them directly via phone/text leading up to the dinner (was confirmed by the server that they were present that evening). This isn’t a must, but it would’ve been a nice gesture given that their social media often promotes themselves as a good spot for big groups and birthday parties.

The food was decent; we tried the platter with a couple of salads and truffle fries as sides. The platters were brought out with sparklers which was a really nice touch for a birthday. We had a couple of individuals (myself included) who have alcohol allergies so we intentionally ordered off the mocktail menu but very unfortunately, our drinks were made WITH alcohol which could’ve turned out really bad. Again, the servers were apologetic and brought out the corrected drinks shortly but I definitely think this should’ve been more carefully taken care of as we informed them of the allergies beforehand.

The atmosphere was pleasant, and the decor near the entry/bar made for great photo opportunities.

Overall, the experience was fine. I think this would make a good spot for smaller parties or more casual dining, but if they are to continue to offer hosting bigger groups/birthdays I think they would benefit from a little more professionalism in terms of service and operations. Our server also didn’t realize that I was charged twice for a $800+ meal (thought the first transaction didn’t go through) — although an honest mistake, this wasn’t caught until I got a notification on my phone about the double charge. I also just noticed that the deposit of $200+ was not deducted from the final bill so now I will have to call in for a refund. I think a little more attention to detail in all aspects would’ve made this experience much better for me...

This was the most chaotic dining experience that I truly felt like it was dinner and a show. First, we booked a reservation during Winterlicious for 5 people. It turns out we weren’t allowed to do the Winterlicious menu since we needed to book this specifically ahead of time on their website. Nowhere on their website does it say this. We stayed anyways because we had already all assembled at the restaurant and were hungry. They positioned an alternative to “no Winterlicious” as “but instead you can enjoy the 5mins left in our Happy Hour” so were told to chaotically order appetizers urgently. So urgently that they were literally blurting out random things at us “Potatoes! Oysters! Chicken Skewers!”. In a sense of panic, we ordered 6 appetizers specifically for happy hour and turns out when we got the bill 2 of the items were not on the happy hour menu after all so we paid full price. Not that we would have really known the prices at all since no happy hour menu was actually shared with us – we picked from the random list verbally communicated. So then the appetizers came out, we got our drinks shortly after. One of the non-alcoholic mocktail drinks ordered by a pregnant person had tequila in it. As an apology for the events so far we got 2 complementary flan desserts delivered to the table during the appetizer course before we ordered our main course. A nice gesture but weird timing. When we went to order our main courses, we asked if there was anything vegetarian for somebody in our party who was a vegetarian. To which the reply was “our menu is mostly vegan”. If you look at the menu it’s quite literally 90% non-vegan and we had already ordered 3 of the vegetarian options. The vegetarian diner had planned ahead and was going to order the vegetarian main course from the Winterlicious menu, but since this was not an option she was very flexible with anything else. She was offered a dish that swapped chicken broth for veggie broth – totally fine and appreciated the compromise.

The food came sporadically (15mins apart) and we started eating the desserts - I guess this is why they came out with the apps. 45mins later everyone else had eaten their main dish but the noodle dish was still MIA. After an hour we eventually just asked for it to go since we had been at the restaurant for 2hrs and frankly all just wanted to leave this place.

On one hand, our server did everything he possibly could to make it right which is how I ended up with 2 stars. He removed the mistaken tequila drink and noodle dish from our bill. He stood at the kitchen clearly asking for food for a while. Water was quickly refilled and plates always removed. It wasn’t his fault about the Winterlicious poor communication. We made sure to leave him a generous 20% tip. HOWEVER… from a management standpoint, this seems to be a HOT MESS of a restaurant. I don’t know who is running the show but wow this was a dining EXPERIENCE in the worst way. Come to Bar'kada to dine at your own risk with mediocre dishes, long food wait times and in summary just overall...

Rating previously at 5 stars. Leaving this at 4 mainly because of the service we received on the day of and the quality of the food.

If only the staff/server substracted my initial deposit from the final bill, then none of this would've happened. And if that was their oversight due to a busy night/new staff/understaffed/etc., I still gave the GM the benefit of the doubt that they initiated the refund the first time I posted my review... ¯(ツ)/¯

UPDATE #1: The GM reached out (via email/call) and said they'd gave me the deposit + tax as a refund (less gratuity).

UPDATE #2 (July 31): I've emailed the GM after almost a month but still no credit and response since follow up email was sent.

UPDATE #3 (Aug 4): Left a voicemail for GM. Still response to my email.

UPDATE #5 (Aug 5): Pretty disappointed at this point. Anyway, GM emails me back asking for my phone number (but I legit just left a vmail - you have my number).

Owner responds to my review.

GM already has my CC info via email (because they needed this for the initial deposit). But okay let's say they don't have that email anymore - as I said on Update #1, GM called me (once, not numerous times) and asked for my CC info to initiate refund.

There was no miscommunication on my end and the GM literally said over the phone that a refund (less gratuity) would be done. I'm just trying to get my money back.

UPDATE $6 (Aug 6): Full refund received (incl gratuity ). No phone call received only a single worded message/email ("Refunded") from the GM. Not even an apology for the inconvenience, but maybe that's why they gave me the full refund.

The owner should've had the facts straight with the GM before responding or better yet, reached out to me for clarification :D.

Celebrated my 36th birthday here and had a great time (Friday, May 20th).

A few things to note:

1. Riva Turner (General Manager) was great to work with when I was planning/booking
2. Food, drinks (Tito's Smoked Old Fashioned) and ambiance were a vibe (San Miguels were definitely expensive but where else could you buy it besides LCBO and Seafood City??)
3. DJ Mensa on the 1s and 2s was a highlight (Toronto legend, IYKYK)
4. I paid $135.60 (deposit, tax and gratuity) and I'm not sure if that was because I reserved the VIP area but it didn't go towards my bill. And because we had the VIP area, each person had to spend $60 (plus tax + gratuity)
5. I would suggest paying one huge bill and then splitting afterwards with your group
6. Danielle (Sp?) was a great server!
7. Not sure if it was the weather that day but it was hot in the VIP area and one of the servers said they'd turn down the AC 1 or 2 degrees, but I don't think they did lol

Lesson learned for myself (Rookie move on my part): Your server will not tell you that gratuity is already included in your bill when they hand it to you. And of course I was too drunk to even look at the bill, but I added tip when paying at the end of the night. Not complaining about this, but more a word of...