Bartholomew — Restaurant in Vancouver

Went here with a friend on Sat Jan 18 at 5:30pm. I recommend you go elsewhere. My reasons: It was my first time at this establishment. The host informed me there were no tables, but I could sit at the bar. I declined and said I'd wait for a table. Less than a minute later, a server came by and said I could sit at the bar. I declined and said I'd wait for a table. At this point, my friend came to the bar and another server came up and offered the bar. At this point I was beyond agitated but did not want to ruin my night, so I accepted the bar seating with my friend.

The decor is gorgeous. The music is a mix of oldies and blues. Loved that. The place is very tiny. To the point that if you do sit at the bar or tables, each is on either side of you so someone is always bumping into you. Quite annoying.

It was happy hour, so we ordered the special drinks and the butcher's block. The bartenders actually made the charcuterie board in front of us. It's nice to see how fresh the food is.

When we were done, the server asked us if we wanted anything else. We said no. Not even less than 5 mins later another server asked if we wanted anything else. We said no. Then the bartenders even asked us. Now I'm annoyed. I asked them if it was all right that we sat there, if that was allowed. I was beyond annoyed. As if they were rushing us out the door.

My friend and I decided to go and we asked the server (Marko) to split our bill. We only had three drinks and the Butcher Block. He came back with the bills and they were totally wrong. He actually added additional drinks. We pointed this out, and said "My friend had two drinks only. I had one drink and the Butcher Block." Pretty straight forward right? He leaves and comes back and the bill is wrong a 2nd time. We repeat what we had and he leaves. He comes back and the bills are wrong. At this point I cracked a joke to lighten the mood and he was upset. He had the nerve to accuse me that I did order more drinks. I said to him "No, I only ordered one because I am driving." He is visibly irritated. So he comes back a 4th time with the bills, NOW CORRECT and he has the audacity to blame that it was happy hour and too busy. At this point the bar is empty, there are only myself and two other customers there. There was no excuses. We paid without leaving a tip. The bartenders are the stars of this establishment. Unfortunately, their service is clouded by all the hosts and servers who have no clue what hospitality service is. Suffice it to say, I will never be back which is a shame, because I liked it there. Yes, the menu is small and overpriced, but go during happy hour and you'd get more bang for your buck. Skip it due to poor service, overcharging and the push to rush you out of there once you're not ordering more...

Well holy smokes! What another treat of a place in the heart of Vancouver! Or I think it is? Whatever, I saw there was a place opening in Vancouver that was for charcuterie and I thought "Yeah gotta try that out." So here is my review! I'll TL;DR right here: Great Food, Great Atmosphere, Great Drinks, Great Staff, Go there NOW and get some memories!

ATMOSPHERE: Great atmosphere, it's a cozy nook of a place with that "Highscale Industrial Steameasy." What does that even mean? Well, it's a bit of an upscale feeling place, the staff is dressed nicely in sharp outifts and so that makes it feel 'High society/Upscale' in my mind. Industrial because it's got that wrought iron/dark steel and wooden feel with Edison lights. Steameasy is a mix of Steampunk and Speakeasy just because all of it together is...You know what just go with Steameasy. Speakpunk? Look it's got a Steampunkie Speakeasy feel okay!

FOOD: It was absolutely delicious. We had a Butcher's Board and just let the chefs pick for us. All of it was INCREDIBLY good, the meats and cheeses were fresh, and they all paired together so well. Ask for the Humbolt Fog though because it's so good! The Pork sausage is extremely tasty too, I cannot tell you how delicious it was. Now there was a couple behind us who had the duck leg and the bone marrow and it both looked and smelled DELICIOUS, and they seemed to quite enjoy it. OH! The Bone Marrow Creme Brulee was just DECADENT.

DRINK: The drinks we had were so incredibly tasty, light but flavourful, each of them had such a pairing to them that was great to drink. I would have loved for them to have some old scotches and whiskey's but of course that's my own preference.

STAFF: Great staff! We didn't interact with tons but they were knowledgeable, kind,...

My friends and I had a really negative experience here a couple days ago. My friends (party of 3) arrived about an hour and a half before me and my other friend. The server was clearly not happy that 2 of us were late; despite the bar not being full when we arrived and our friends each buying multiple drinks before we arrived. He made a 'joking' remark about how we lost him each $100 being so late; which was unnecessary. We then ordered one cocktail each and drank them within the first ten minutes. We were ready to order more but despite being there another 45 minutes did not have the server come back to offer us any water, more drinks or food. I ended up having to call him back over for the bill, since it was clear he did not want to serve us anymore. It was a very uncomfortable situation and I definitely will not be returning. He tried to fake being nice when giving us the bill, but it was clearly just to try and get a tip (which my boyfriend gave, despite my judgement). He also hadn't asked us how we wanted to split the bill and when he did it incorrectly seemed extremely irritable about fixing it, to the point we decided it wasn't worth the trouble. The bartender (who dropped our drinks off for us) did seem nice, and the cocktail we did have was good, but the server was so abominable that I will not return.

I've worked at a restaurant before and understand how it can be annoying to have half of a party come late, however that should only be if the restaurant is full. We proceeded to another bar after where we as a group dropped a few hundred dollars; I would have been happy to spend it at this bar if we had even received...