Absinthe Bistro — Restaurant in Vancouver

This is my first time writing a review, I just couldn’t let it slide and everyone I spoke to encouraged me to share it on here. I came here for my boyfriend’s birthday dinner. I’ve never had French cuisine before, so I’m not very well versed with the dishes, but I have never liked cauliflower (in any cuisine). My boyfriend ordered the cauliflower soup and forced me to try a sip even though I insisted that it wouldn’t be my cup of tea. He kept insisting so when I tried a sip just so he would stop asking me, expectedly, I didn’t enjoy it and made a face privately to him at our dinner table to let him know “see, I don’t like it”. Immediately after, the owner of the restaurant said aloud in front of everyone in the restaurant, “did you really have to make that face? Is it really that bad?”

I studied Hospitality and worked in the industry for years, so I understood that that behaviour is absolutely unacceptable and unprofessional, to shame a customer for their own palette and personal preferences. Completely understandable if I was a rude customer to have ordered something I knew I wouldn’t like and made a fuss and complained about it openly to everyone, but this wasn’t even my dish that I ordered, and it was between my boyfriend and I’s private conversation at our table. If he truly wanted my feedback and constructive criticism (which again, has nothing to do with their soup, I’m sure anyone who enjoys cauliflower would drink it), he should have came up to our table to ask if there was something wrong with soup instead of openly saying that in front of all the other customers and employees, bluntly shaming me in a condescending manner.

I hope the owner will know that not everyone has the same palette, and everyone is allowed to have their own preferences as long as they’re not openly bashing it to everyone in a rude manner. Safe to say that it was a truly disappointing birthday dinner, we went home without eating anything else and ended the night with a bitter taste in our mouths. Truly hope that no other customer will have to go through what we went...

Absinthe Bistro on Commercial Drive is a quaint dining spot, offering a cozy and intimate atmosphere. Nestled in the heart of Vancouver, its warm ambiance and thoughtful decor create a delightful culinary escape.

The restaurant offers a diverse and pleasing culinary experience. In total, we ordered the prawn and scallop ceviche, the esgargot, pork cheeks, lava cake, and poached pear. The ceviche, a highlight, is a testament to freshness and impeccable preparation. The seafood was perfectly medium rare and thus retaining a pleasant bite, while the overall acidity and flavors of the ceviche is well-balanced. The escargot we ordered was also cooked well with the garlic butter, but we thought that it was under-salted. The pork cheeks had a great balance of acidity, tartness, sweetness, and fat. The pork, tender and succulent, harmonizes seamlessly with the concentrated wine sauce, and the sunchoke purée introduces a starch element, enhancing the overall composition. The poached apples provided the necessary tartness, sweetness, and acidity to balance the fattier cut of meat. For dessert, the lava cake, while adhering to the conventional expectations, left room for improvement in achieving a more molten interior. However, I appreciate the use of dark chocolate and reduced amount of sugar. The vanilla ice cream added the touch that was needed for the dessert to have the perfect balance of sweetness and bitterness. Lastly, I really enjoyed the poached pear. The pear was poached to perfection and was not too sweet. The basil really brought out vibrant and tropical flavors. The red wine reduction had a rich, robust and slightly sweet profile with hints of acidity and bitterness. This really complemented the basil and the pear

Overall, Absinthe Bistro's culinary offerings reflect a commendable commitment to quality and flavor, with minor refinements promising an even more delightful...

The owner’s service was rude. We had a bad experience at the restaurant. We had a reservation on Saturday at 6pm for a birthday celebration with a requirement of having a table close to the window. When we 5 minutes late,we gave the restaurant a call to let them know that we were going to be another few minutes late. We were late because of a train crossing the railroad tracks with was just 2 minutes away from the restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant, the table that was supposed to be beside the window had already been occupied, and the owner said that table is occupied because we were late. We accepted another table far from the window. We ordered starters, entree, dessert and drinks for 4 people of a total of around $300. The delivery time of the starters, entree and dessert was unacceptable. We always had to question when our food would be arriving. There was only one waiter, which was the owner, for the whole restaurant service and all the tables have been occupied. We brought a birthday cake with us to the restaurant and we were planing to eat the cake after dessert. We also gave the cake to the owner to put aside for us. After dessert, the owner just gave us the bill and we told him that we did not even start eating the cake. The owner did not even prepare plates, forks, knives for us to eat the cake yet. He also told us that someone else was waiting for our table and the owner blamed us that we arrived at the restaurant late. So then, he quickly grabbed only plates for us to eat the cake without forks. But the fact is that the delivery time for our food was just unacceptable as I mentioned before. Towards the end of the dining, the owner was more rude, in terms of his service. In the end, we didn’t have enough time and felt rushed and unhappy. We still paid tips, but we felt like it was not worth it. We would not recommend this restaurant nor we...