Caffe Barney on Granville — Restaurant in Vancouver

Came here for brunch today and had a terrible experience. Ive been here a couple of times and have had mixed experiences, however this last time topped it all and I feel that I just have to say somthing.

First things first. I acknowledge the fact that it was busy when we came in. So thsts fine, I made sure to be patient as I get how it can be when you get slammed.

Ive seen our server before, however I had originally thought he was part of the kitchen crew and not an actual server. Simply because he wore such sloppy clothes that were covered in who knows what. Every other server looked clean, wore professional clothing and had the decency to put a comb through their hair. Our server looked like he rolled out of bed and picked up the first thing he saw on the floor.

We had enough time to pick out what we wanted to eat and drink by the time this server came to our table. Which he had to borrow a pen from the person sitting next to us because he wasnt prepared. I ordered hot water with lemon slices and to eat the salmon scramble. Half avocado and sour dough for my bread.

Eventually he came by. Dropped off my hot water in a mug with no lemon slices. He said he will be back with my lemon. Sure no problem. However, when i looked into my mug of hot water there was somthing floating in it. Already turned off. Then he came to the table with my one lemon slice....in his hand...and handed it to me...um excuse me? Since when is this ok? Ya no. So i put the lemon by my water. Didnt drink any of it. He was too busy for me to feel comfortable enough to ask for a diff/clean mug of water and maybe more than one lemon slice on a plate like any other resturant would do. Also who just uses one mug of water for lemon water? Typically you get a pot on the side of hot water to add. Anyways! We then waited for our food and the girl who was running the food came to our table with the wrong order...not just once. But twice!

Look, This place isn't THAT big, and by this time it was starting to clear out. So im not sure what system they got going on back there but it sure isnt working.

Ok so now im turned off on everything. Nothing could go more wrong right? Our actual food came finally. We didnt wait an extremely long time for the real food btw. So thats fine. I started eating it and by my 4th bite i found a hair. Im now mad. Sure i could have said somthing, gotten it fixed. But at this point i just wanted to leave and i dont care about the food anymore. So i decided to just eat my toast which i found the SECOND hair!!!! What is happening. I wanted to leave and just move on with my day. We paid and left. I am really on the fence in ever coming back. Maybe for just a beer and no food. Also my partner has been mentioning the food has been very lack luster as of late. Luckily we live in a city with tons of restaurants so it wont be hard to find somthing else. Just sucks cuz this place is so close to where we live.

All im gonna say...

As a local, I used to love coming here. Last two times though I have found the quality/professionalism of service lacking. Seems like all fairly new, younger staff over the past year from how it used to be.

Today I took my friend for a bday brunch and sat on the patio. At first the server was pleasant (lady with long dreads), but we waited 20 min for her to take our order, then another 45 min for the food to come out. 40 mins into waiting, we inquired how long and immediately the waitress acted annoyed with us.

When the food finally came, it was burnt and when I brought it up, the server was very apathetic and rude. She didn't apologize at all for how long it took, or for the burnt food; instead, she became defensive and annoyed. The tension off her was palpable and uncomfortable.

I want to keep coming here, but I've had the same type of unprofessional service the last two times now. These guys could have leadership do some customer service training for sure.

I do have to give props though to the other waitress helping our main server, as she noticed my burnt food as she walked past the table and apologized profusely. She then took 25% off the bill (none of which the other server did). THAT is how customer service should be; Empathetic, understanding and solution focused.

Aside from the poor service from our main waitress (and the burnt meal), I still like the food and...

Because our wedding venue had a relatively early event shut-down time, we opted to hold an “after-party” for those who wanted to keep the night going, and choosing to do it at Caffe Barney on Granville Street was the best decision for this! We researched LOTS of different places and found that most required a sizable buy-out fee or guarantee, while also being difficult to book during the busy summer months. Caffe Barney is a no-frills hidden gem in a good neighbourhood and right on the busy path of taxis that are on their way to the downtown core to pick up passengers (ideal for guests to catch a cab without a struggle at 1am!). We worked with Dillon the head chef to put together a very reasonably-priced list of late-night appies for guests to snack on for their arrival and arranged for guests to pay their own bar bills. With cheap drinks already on the regular menu at Caffe Barney, this was a hit with guests! Being that we didn’t arrive until after 10pm, the venue closed to the public to allow our 60+ guest to have the restaurant, bar, and back patio to themselves. The food was great, the atmosphere fun, the space clean and organized, the staff super friendly with our huge crowd of semi-rowdy guests and the drinks were much appreciated (especially the shot-ski!) All in all, it was a great end to our day, and we would highly recommend them for group bookings...