Mon Pitou Bistro & Bakery — Restaurant in Vancouver

FAIL SUNDAY BRUNCH EXPERIENCE. Please note I cannot comment on the food since I never got to be seated. Also please note we fully understand that Sundays are busy days for brunch spots like this one and getting a table would involve a waiting time, however this was handled very incompetently. We arrived at 11am on Sunday for brunch with a couple of friends, table of 4 (tried reserving during the week but they don’t work with reservations). Was told the following: “we can’t give you an approximate wait time since we only have 7 tables inside, feel free to order here and sit outside and we’ll bring your order for you, otherwise please consider taking a walk as it might take a while”. It was a cold day so we wanted a table inside, we proceeded to add our names to the waitlist and went for a walk as advised. The walk took about 1h, the entire time I kept checking on the status of the waitlist (the QR code to put your name on the list gives you a status that if you keep refreshing it shows your place in line). By the time we headed back it was about 12:05pm and we were suddenly first in line to be seated (we were then discussing a plan B since we didn’t want to waste any more time but we decided to keep on waiting as we were next in line). I went inside and saw a few tables clearing up and told my group “ok we’re likely to be seated soon”, we then waited another while, but started hearing names being called (the entire time I had my phone in my hands as instructed by the owner so I wouldn’t miss the text that says your table is ready). I went to take another look and noticed all tables that had cleared up were now being seated with parties of 2 that added their names to the waitlist after us. That was about 30-40 mins later so I tried to understand how they moved the tables and had a conversation with one of the owners, only to learn that they only dedicated 1 out of 7 indoor tables to sit groups (failed to communicate this to me much?) and that they had just sat a group that hadn’t even ordered yet. He also said that if the group table wasn’t available they simply kept moving the waitlist. He kept smiling in such a hypocritical way that I just kindly asked to be removed from the waitlist and stated politely what a waste of time that had been for the 4 of us. The tables for 2 parties are so close together that they could have easily accommodated our group of 4. We wasted 2 hours of our Sunday in a place that definitely can’t possibly make food good enough to compensate for the long wait. The space is way too small for its ambitions, the owners clearly do not care as much as they seem to show on their social media, and nothing will ever make me go back there. If you value your time please consider going to many other spots around that area that will definitely not make you wait that long or treat...

UPDATE! from 2 to 5 stars and here's why. We were invited back by one of the owners for complimentary meals with a reserved table. We had lunch there today (9/9). My husband had the Croque Madame which was DELICIOUS and I had the Cassoulet. The 1st and only time I had a cassoulet was in Carcassonne, France a couple of months ago, not far from the town where the dish originated. I have to say, I enjoyed the Cassoulet far more at Mon Pitou than I did in France (FWIW, the one in France was much heavier, too heavy, came with a lot more beans. At Mon Pitou, far less filler beans and a nice egg and toast). The duck leg here was far tastier as it wasn't drowning in beans! The Cafe Mocha was delicious, too!! Great that they had a guy circulating around the tables with a pitcher of water (as well as the owner, too!). Great lunch! Thanks VERY much!!! A much better and more memorable meal for all the right reasons. My husband & I were there for the first time, 12:30 today (8/28). We won't be back. We were disappointed and annoyed. We didn't go for breakfast, just wanted a snack and coffee. My husband ordered an apple galette, I ordered the apple caramel cake & noisette for a total of about $18. I found the cake very disappointing. Didn't taste the apple and the caramel was just a bit of syrup on top of a lot of cream cheese icing. I was told the noisette was only 3 oz for $4 but I ordered it anyway. The few tables inside were taken and there were a couple of free tables for 2 outside, so my husband sat down at one of the tables while I went back in to get my coffee. I was told it would be brought out. Fine. No problem. My little $4, 3 oz noisette came out in a large takeaway cup with a lid on it. Really? Why? Not classy at all. This French Cafe/Bakery doesn't have more environmentally correct espresso cups?? Were they trying to hide from other customers how little coffee there was?! O.K., we'll let that oddity go. But here is where it got annoying. Staff need to get their consistency together. My husband told the person that we would be taking our food outside. (Again, no place to sit inside.) The person who we ordered our food and coffee from said my coffee would be brought outside. Another person brought the coffee to me at the table we were sitting at. Nothing said by her. As we were finishing up, another staff person came over to us and said, "For next time, the tables are only for those having a full meal of breakfast or lunch." So if 2 people sit down at a table and only 1 orders a full breakfast (for about the same amount of money we spent), do they both have to get everything to go? There weren't any noticeable signs about this "rule" inside or out. I just noticed it on the website. As the people next to us said, "There won't be a next time,...

I’d like to start off by stating that I was unfortunately never given the opportunity to sit down at this place and so I cannot comment as to the quality of the food.

My wife and I arrived at 11am and wanted to sit down inside so we asked for a table of 4 as we were meeting some friends. When we asked the person at the cashier if we just sat down and ordered, they told us that there was a wait list for seating inside, however, if we wanted to sit outside we had to order first and they would bring it out. It was a cold day so we decided to put ourselves on the wait list and we asked them how long it would take; they politely said they could not tell us how long but to keep checking the status on the website. They also kindly advised us to take a walk to kill some time; which we did and took an hour walk while checking the status of the wait list.

When we returned to the cafe, it was approximately 12:05pm and we were 1st on the wait list. Seeing as we were first in line, my wife went in to check if we were about to be seated and she noticed some tables clearing up. She came back out and told us that she thought we were about to be seated. After approximately 30 more mins waiting outside, she heard 3 names called for groups of 2 that were being seated. She decided to go back in and had noticed that all the available tables that she had seen were now occupied and came out to tell us.

At this point, she then went back inside to try and understand how the tables were moving and realized we would not be seated anytime soon as another group had just sat down minutes before. When she got to speaking with the manager, they had told her that only 1 table in the whole establishment was reserved for groups. All this while we had been waiting outside in the cold for the better part of 45 mins (not including the 1hr walk). At no point in time did the person at the cashier, manager, or any of the servers ever mention or go out of their way to state that other people on the waitlist behind us would be sat before us due to this policy or rule.

Now I’m trying to be understanding, but if 2 tables of 2 were available side by side, why not make it available to us? Why did no one bother to mention to us that we would not be seated in any of the available tables granted they had 4 seats? Why was it never mentioned to us that there was only 1 group table and that we would be waiting for it despite multiple tables being available? All of this could had been avoided had any of them cared enough to mention any of the above.

I don’t typically care to leave reviews, but this one left me rather bitter. Not only did we waste 2 hours of our day, but all 4 of us left annoyed and disappointed. I refuse to support an establishment that does not value their clients time and will never...