Holts Café | Contemporary Canadian Cuisine — Restaurant in Vancouver

Today my sister and I visited the cafe to enjoy the Sulwhasoo high tea experience. For a $68 price tag, I had higher expectations than the reality we endured. First, my sister had called in to make reservations, and was clear about having high tea. When we arrived, we were told that there was no indication of our high tea reservation. The host went to check with the kitchen, and returned by telling us that there are two "extra" high tea sets. This information did not command a lot of confidence. Thoughts that ran through my head were: What are the origins of these "extra" sets? How fresh were these items? Would they be of inferior quality since our high tea was not anticipated? My instincts were correct. The food was not as advertised. What added insult to injury was when the server Cissy Chu asked me, "So you've decided to have some last minute high tea?" They were in error and yet this presumptuous server greeted me with this smug comment, instead of apologizing for their cafe's error. When I noticed my teacup was stained brown, I asked said server to exchange it. She asked me, "What's wrong with it?" Instead of using basic skills of observation that I assumed she possessed, I had to explain that the cup was stained. According to the menu, there should be ikura/squid in the cured salmon tarte, and there should be asian pear in the chilled crab, but neither ingredient was present. As well, good quality scones are usually the hallmark of a high tea, and they were casually reheated with "toast" marks. My sister is an executive pastry chef, and she noticed that the choux was stale. I would have had less of an issue if we were informed that some ingredients were missing, but this was not the case. I didn't like how they were not upfront about the situation, but tried to hide their lack, only for discerning customers to find out for themselves. Joel, the front of house or host, had the best customer service. He was humble and apologetic, and insisted that these matters be communicated to the chef and manager. Employees like him are rare, so his manners and willingness to take responsibility helped to redeem an increasingly disappointing and egregious situation. The manager and chef did come to apologize and to make things right by offering us other items- my sister and I actually didn't want anything more, but appreciated their gesture of bringing us more sweets. All in all, the server needs to have better communication instead of laying their cafe's booking error on the customer. That was one of the most infuriating parts of the experience. Retraining is necessary if Holt Cafe plans to survive in...

I would not recommend the cafe itself because of its service, but also went for the Jo Malone afternoon tea and wasn't satisfied.

The good: I quite enjoyed the savoury high tea items and they definitely were something different and nice to eat. The scones were also baked very nicely. And only the marshmallow of the desserts was absolutely delicious.

The bad: For the price I paid I felt like the desserts were lacking but the service was the worst. The entire experience took 2.5 hours and felt like there was a lot of waiting around as well as having to flag down the server to pay. It took 45 mins to even get our tea after sitting down. We were a bit early for our reservation but told we were not allowed to sit till our designated time slot, which is fine if I didn't have to wait around so long for everything else. Servers weren't welcoming, barely checked back and everything felt extremely slow. I would have expected top tier service but felt I could get better elsewhere at a more affordable price.

The Jo Malone gift was pretty basic, wasn't expecting much but again, you're paying quite a bit for not much in return.

I noticed others really having to wave down servers for help and payment too and it just put a damper on my overall...

Was rather disappointed today to learn that the server who took down our reservation did not indicate we were there for afternoon tea. Joel, the host was hospitable and mentioned that there were two "extra" available. This didn't really instill much confidence, and perhaps my sister and I should have bolted at this point. We soon discovered that many ingredients were lacking and the quality was subpar. Asian pear, Bulgogi Beef, Ikura etc. The Crème Brûlée was overcooked, curdled and a layer of syrup was pooling on top. It was very evident that it had been sitting inside the fridge for some time and highly unpalatable. It would be a stretch to even call it a Crème Caramel. The Ginger Caramel Choux was dry, stale, and embarrassing for an upscale establishment like Holts Café. The General Manager Anna and Executive Chef Derrick tried to come by and make things right. However, it is best not to serve guests inferior food when mise en place is unavailable or at least to let guests know in advance if certain ingredients are missing or if any substitutions have been made. Joel had excellent customer service and helped to de-escalate an...