H2 Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Vancouver

Good food, but serious service issues. We went for their special New Year's Eve buffet dinner, splurging at $95 per person with the menu specifying that it came with a glass of bubbles. When we asked for our glasses of sparkling, the server said that she couldn't give it to us until midnight! They started their reservations at 5 pm and ours was at 6 pm so there was no way they expected those early seating to stay until midnight so they were essentially saying that no one was really getting the included drink. They planned to close down their savoury stations at 10:30, so who would be there? So it wouldn't have been so bad if she had just gone off and said I'll speak to the manager but she kept saying that no and that it couldn't be done. I said that I would also speak to the manager, and basically, since we hadn't started, wanted to walk out because they were not honouring the in-print menu, Unbelievable considering it was a f'n $95, they couldn't give us the sparkling anyway even if that was what they meant, just to stop us from feeling ripped off?? Anyway, she went away and it wasn't a problem, and it might have been all about this one server being particularly bad at dealing with the situation. She said she was going to send the manager to talk to me, but it wound up not being necessary, and she just gave it to us. At one point she said "I don't even know where they put the sparkling" as if that it wasn't possible to find any sparkling wine until midnight! But if management told her it was only for midnight, then that's on them, and it's false advertising, misleading, ridiculously stingey, and for a business, really untrustworthy behaviour!).

Service in general wasn't great (for the price point especially). Although she checked on us a few times in the beginning, the same server was difficult to find later, and we waited for the machine for quite a while after getting the bills. She took away our napkins during the meal, but didn't replace them until we asked, and we had to ask for water and coffee refills. I had to basically go to the cutlery station myself because I thought it would be faster than trying to get someone over. They somehow thought of clearing the dishes and cutlery pretty regularly but rarely thought about replacing them for some reason, so you're left without being able to eat because there wasn't any cutlery (and it wasn't like at some buffets where there is cutlery available for guests to pick up themselves (if there was, I didn't see them).

Again, the food was tasty and the buffet was well replenished throughout the night (if we had great service, I might rate the whole experience a 4). But they are not going to do well if they treat their customers like this, and mislead them, and expecially if they don't know how to recover from a service mistake and instead let someone escalate to anger before a meal even starts. Trying to ruin New Years Eve for people over a few little glasses of wine (which would cost so little compared to the trouble it could cause)? I tipped the server pretty well in the end, but I regret that, and wish I could re-do that. Shame on you, H2. Of course, we enjoyed our evening anyway, but it was despite the service. I felt offended that they would even try to scam people out of an included drink when they are paying that much for a buffet meal. I organized the group, and had let everyone know that this was included (since it was in writing in their menu!!), and the restaurant was just going to not give it out. Unbelievable. No one even apologized for the mix-up or the fact that the menu did not...

Came here for Dineout on a Thursday at 6:15pm. Out of the three entrée options only one was available. The server was nice but rushed us - leaving no time to think of any other options after realizing we were not able to order the dishes we wanted.

This restaurant opens at 5pm for dinner, so I have no idea why both the chicken and oyster mushroom entrees were not available. It was also not busy, so it is very odd why we were so extremely rushed. Perhaps they were understaffed, but at the end of the meal the server (although nice enough) took our cards and tapped the machine himself saying that he would be faster than if we did it. As he rushed us incredibly, there was no time to think before he already took the card out of our hand to tap the machine.

Overall, this Dineout was a fail for our group as the only choice we were able to make was of the two appetizer options. Only one option was available for the entrée, and there was only one option of dessert to begin with. If the food was amazing, we would not have minded as much.. but nothing came out hot, just warm, and the cuts for the main were very inconsistent (one of us got meat that was twice the size of another one). Same with the dessert, some of us had a cluster of pecans with barely any caramel drizzle while another only had only one pecan but more caramel drizzle. Seems as though things were rushed inside the...

NOISY! The interior was quite nice with high ceilings, but the noise was unbearable. Since our friends suggested this place, we couldn't just walk off. The interior music competed with the patio music (which was different) and the music was turned right up. Our server was not tuned to our rhythm, and checked on us when we were not ready, but when we were ready to order, we had to wait 1/2 hour before the server re-appeared. The Smoked Apricot Old Fashioned cocktail was apparently the best old fashioned ever. The four of us ordered Smoked Beef Brisket, St. Louis Side Ribs, Rotisserie Chicken x2. We asked the server if the chicken was half a chicken with breast and thigh, but the server didn't know and couldn't give us an actual description except to say that it was a lot of meat. So, we ended up with untouched chicken breast on one plate and untouched chicken thigh on the other, and lots of wasted food – we could have shared. The food was served on iron platters, and because I ordered yam fries, I didn't have enough real-estate to manipulate the chicken – very awkward. Sharing the chicken would have solved that problem. The Carolina BBQ sauce was quite amazing. I thought the beef brisket looked really tender and delicious and would like to try that some other time, but my partner does not want to come back due to the noise and the bad service. Oh well, may...