Sidebar Grill — Restaurant in Township of Langley

Came here a couple weeks ago for my cousins birthday dinner. From the website and outside it looked promising… it wasn’t. The experience as a whole was terrible. To start off we were sat right next to the door which I usually have no issue with but every time someone opened the door we were met with a cold rush of air. I wish they’d put some sort of barrier between the seating and entrance.

I joined my table about 20 minutes after everyone else and we were not greeted by the server until about 15-20 minutes later. A table touch and a water should be the minimum.

The drinks were subpar the Caesar had no flavour whatsoever.

Our table was busy catching up and chatting as we haven’t seen each other in almost a year , this means we didn’t take a look at the menu for quite some time but no more than 30/35 min. The server came by twice and both times we apologized that we were catching up. The third time she came we were ready to order.

I was indecisive on what I was wanting as I had never been, I asked the server two questions Are the wings like regular buffalo wings or is it a different sauce - as the menu says a contemporary take on the classic wing. Her answer was - yeah they’re just regular wings - they weren’t. They are actually tossed in Valentina Hot sauce - which is something I don’t like the flavour of whatsoever- Valentina seemed to be incorporated with a lot of the food.

I can’t decide. Which would she choose Between patatas bravas and the baked Brie Her answer was - we are out of Brie So I said okay well I will do the Patatas then …..

This is when the server responded with “ I was going to order you the Patatas anyways because this table is extremely indecisive, so I’m taking control.

Everyone at our table stopped dead and just looked at each other like did she really just say this to us. We were so shook and I wouldn’t say it was a joke either as she was serious in her face and had quite an attitude.

The food was so bland. The Patatas were not crispy they were huge soft chunks- there was barely any toppings or sauce but I ate what I could as I was not going to eat the wings.

Nobody actually finished their food, and it wasn’t because they were full.

Finally we get to desert, I had the carrot cake - very dry and bland My cousin had the raspberry rhubarb tarte - she said it was good but not great. And a friend got the banana cream pie- also said it was good but not great.

Once it came time to get the bills we asked for separate checks- we get our checks and they are ALL wrong. It’s like she randomly divided the items and thought we wouldn’t notice. Some had 4-5 items on their bills some had 1 item. She had to fix the bills twice which took about 30 minutes in itself. The attitude from the server to us after we mention our bills were wrong was so uncalled for. Finally we paid and couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Not quite sure the name of our server but she was a blonde haired girl. Her attitude, poor service and the bland food made for a very disappointing experience. I do not recommend this place in general but especially not for any sort of special occasion.

My only plus is they comped the wings- which...

Family of 4 visited for dinner friday night no reservation and lucky to get in around 5:30 just before dinner rush. Decore and Atmosphere is very nice... clean.. modern.

Would have liked a booth but none avail. so we were located right off the kitchen pass on 2 high tops. Tables were wobbly (I hate that) and it was almost too noisy in that location to hear the waitress. Need a booth next time!

Washroom was confusing... didn't find mens (they are upstairs) so used the handicap washroom. More confusion... could not figure out how to lock the door. Its an electric lock and when facing the closed door the lock button is tucked away behind you on wall.. you dont think of ever looking there.. the buttons should be at the door.

The washroom was very clean except celing fan vent... it was absolutely plugged with grey dust. Weird the room is so clean but then there is that and its in arms reach for easy clean.

The taps and paper towel are touchless great... but the soap dispenser is a cheap, barely attached falling apart plastic pump.. doesn't make sense.

Service was great.. waitress or bartender made a mistake on my beer and she remmedied it immediately (less than 2 minutes)

Drinks

Beer As for beer mug. 24oz massive beer mug is too big , heavy and clunky.. it belongs in a cheap country hotel bar or Bavariain beer tent, not a cool upbeat city restaurant. Serve beer in glasses please.. even if you have to take away 24oz option.

Coffee was ice cold.. i notified waitress and my wifes coffee arrived nice and hot. Sugar cubes for coffee?! That's bus stop or airport dinner style. For people who want less than one cube like me we have to crush the cube and sweep some in. Just provide a bowl of granulated sugar please.

Food, 4 dishes Blackened Honey Butter Chicken Ahi Tuni Burger Yakitori Chicken & Sesame Noodle Double Cut lamb chops

They arrived in a reasonable time.

I'm only commentimg on my meal lamb chops.

Vegetables were Corn and Peas on a vegetable pure with a roasted red pepper slice and baby bock choy. The pepper and bock choy were great but the corn and peas were bland, they didn't seem to belong and didn't add anything.. If anything they detracted from the meal. More peppers and maybe a baby carrot with stems would have been better. Or roasted beets would have really perked it up.

The potato lentil cake (ball) deep fried was not great either.. dry.. with mild flavour. It needed some sort of sauce or gravey.

Lamb. Plenty of meat.. 3 double cut = 6 meaty chops.. and they were cooked to perfection, medium rare. In fact I dont think I have encountered a better more even medium rare cook of lamb chops anywhere. But.. the chops were missing that delicious char/crust on their exterior.

I wonder if they were coooked sous vide and passed over grill after. That would explain the perfect cook and lack of char.

It seemed in many ways that this is a great place to visit but also in allmost everything there was always something slightly off.

All in all Atmosphere great Service excellent Food average

Unless the dish changes with other accompaniments I would not order the lamb...

Decided to try the Sidebar after reading several positive reviews. The hostess on the way in and on the way out was chatting with co-workers - this should not trump waiting customers and if you’re right there when customers leave - why are you ignoring them? The restaurant was not too busy as I arrived about 2pm, and I asked for a table for two. I was brought directly out to the patio (with no discussion about it) where it was FREEZING. After being there a few minutes and not seeing any server, I went back inside and asked if I could have a table inside where it was warmer. There were plenty of seats, so this was not an issue. If this were not the case, I would have walked out because I don’t wish to be uncomfortable while I’m paying to eat. Before bringing people to the patio, they should know and have an option of being there or not. The waiter assigned to us inside was young and he was nice and did fine. The reason for the one star is because the food was disappointing at best. I ordered a breakfast bowl with chorizo and it comes with egg on top. The eggs were undercooked, the whites should not run, and the rest of the bowl was mostly deep fried chunks of potato and hardly any very thinly sliced pieces of chorizo. A teen could cook a better breakfast bowl. My guest had the fish tacos and he said they were the worst he’s ever had, said the fish did not taste fresh and later suffered effects of those. We did not understand why the fries were so hard - it seemed like they reheated yesterday’s stale fries. They were so hard, my guest was knocking them against his dish and they would not even bend. I tried one because I thought it might have been an exaggeration. It was most certainly not. Why is the kitchen not doing quality control here on something as simple as fries?

It was way overpriced for what it was which was below mediocre. I would never return. We are still talking about how poor the Sidebar is and how we feel ripped off.

UPDATE: After Sidebar’s request that I contact them via email regarding my review, I did. We will see if they bother to respond to make this right which in my mind would be a refund for us to ever consider returning. I have read several times in reviews that they do not respond, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt first before I update again. UPDATE 2: As others have stated, no response whatsoever to reaching out to Sidebar as they requested. They are just trying to make it look like they care...