Chi Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

We were really excited to try this place, but definitely not returning. First of all the lady (which seemed owning or running the place) was really rude when taking the order - we came not too hungry and just wanted to try what looked interesting to us - picked 4 starters and 1main (2 adults and one 6 years old - who doesn’t eat much)- and her first response was “this is really not enough food” - and then I explained the context that if it wont be enough we can always add and that we are not too hungry and so on… she was still very rudely not accepting our choice. And said what I choose is just for one person!!! Also saying they will get super busy ( it was 6pm Saturday night and we were just two groups of people in the whole restaurant - I assumed she is being helpful as she knows better)!! Still insisted on us ordering Chefs Menu, but was unable to explain whats included - her words which made little sense “we just keep serving you all the dishes” ?!.. anyway after 3 polite attempts to say out wants - we agreed that we will have this Chefs Menu. And it was a huge mistake! In the end we got served same 3(I wanted 4) starters, 1 main and desert (which is not even mentioned on the menu or verbally) — so not sure how this was better option than what we decided at the start - but it seemed she just wanted to sell whats best for her. Food was okay, but the service was really really rude. The way they talked to new person being trained was really sad to experience, because she was the only really helpful pleasant person the the restaurant :( Please do not go there and don’t waste your money for this. Places like this should be closed, for disrespect to their staff. Highly not recommended! We spent 170$ for 2people and a kid - there are plenty of better options in Vancouver! Go across the street and enjoy Maenam restaurant - it is not Vietnamese, but at least you’ll have a pleasant experience and will support the business which is worth having around :) And yes, they tried to add service fee 20% , which did not make any sense...

Chi restaurant has some of the best food I have ever experienced! Unfortunately, I had to give them only 2/5 due to some issues with their service.

PROS: Their food is absolutely amazing. Great flavours, and you can tell the restaurant puts effort into creating these dishes. I cannot stress enough how good the food was! For their food alone, I would rate the restaurant 5/5 if the service didn't make the experience unenjoyable.

Their decorations were also charming. The place has a very classy vibe. I felt slightly out of place due to being dressed down a tad.

Now onto the CONS: The service was absolutely terrible. We waited at the door for about 2-5 mins, with most tables free due to the hostess just standing behind the bar and not paying attention to customers coming in. This didn't just happen to my partner and me...multiple couples also waited for a while due to the hostess not attending to the door properly.

Once we were seated, our waitress came around and began pressuring us to buy dishes we didn't want. She told us we should get two appetizers, two main dishes and one side dish... We got one appetizer and two main dishes and were absolutely full by the end. This level of pressure was incredibly uncomfortable and made the experience not fun for a date night.

Finally, the waitress serving the tables around ours decided it was appropriate to discuss politics with the table beside us. I don't know about you guys, but I go out to dinner to escape the world, not to hear about personal political ideas. This REALLY made us uncomfortable. I don't want to hear about politics while I'm enjoying my food, and I REALLY don't care about your perspective on them, either. It was clear that the couple the waitress was speaking to wasn't comfortable with the conversation. I felt terrible for them.

Overall, if the service improved, this would be a regular outing spot for my partner and me, but the service is so terrible that it wrecked any positives we received...

Be careful of added fees in your bill!!! They tried to sneak a large party fee of 20% when we were only a table of 2!!!

My partner and I came here for their $85 Valentines Day menu and booked a reservation for 8pm. We showed up at 8:01 and were told we needed to wait another 20 mins for our table. When we were seated we were given water and some time with the drinks menu. Nobody came back to check on us for almost 20 mins and they only came cause we waved down a waiter. I ordered a cocktail and waited for the food. We were sitting there for so long and I saw another table seated way after us receive their food first… Once again, we had to wave down a waiter to ask where our food is (the first appetizer is BREAD btw).

The food itself was fine, but honestly there’s better vegan restaurants out there. The temperature of some dishes were cold for example the squash that came with the mushroom rice was cold while the rice bowl was hot.

Over two hours had past and we still weren’t done the menu. My partner and I asked if we can pack the rest of the menu items to go and get going. Waitress came out with a bag of the food and offered us candied pepitas for our patience which I guess is nice but pumpkin seeds didn’t really compensate for how horrible this dinner went. After we left we noticed she didn’t pack the rest of the mushroom rice we had… there was a lot left and we specifically asked for this to be packed up for us.

And to top it all off they automatically do 20% tip for the bill which is INSANE for that horrible service :)))) I really wanted to like this place but I will never be returning and I would not advise anyone else to...