Red Umbrella Cafe — Restaurant in Vancouver

The atmosphere is nice but the food is not very good. Ordered a sandwich and it was so soggy I couldn't eat it and my husband's food was so greasy we had to return it. The manager at the front didn't even offer an apology or explanation.

I tried this place for the first time about 5 years ago and didn't like the food. This is an update as to my experience of this place a couple of days ago.

What I liked about it was the warm reception and service, but again it was also the service that ended up letting them down. I know...it's a bit of a contradiction. I'll explain.

When we arrived, they greeted us with a smile and a warm welcome and took our name down to text us when our table was ready, which was estimated at about 20 min. So, we hung out and after about half hour we checked back in and they told us that they had taken our number down wrong and that our table was ready a while ago, but managed to seat us anyhow.

Now as for the food. It took an hour for our brunch to arrive. We were almost going to leave as we had a prior engagement to attend to and were not thinking of such a lengthy time commitment for some eggs and bacon. When it did arrive, it was not worth the wait. I'll tell you why.

The Mushroom & Bacon Benny: I personally prefer my Benny on an english muffin...crispy preferably, but this one came on a biscuit and that's fine....I've had them on biscuits before. Have you ever bought a fresh scone or muffin and you let it sit on the counter for a day and then put it in the fridge for another couple of days, and when you take it out it crumbles and you dare not bite into it? Well.....that was the condition of the biscuit my Egg Benny was served on....old, stale and crying to be chucked in the garbage bin. There was barely any bacon even though it was a bacon and mushroom benny and the whole dish looked like it was just thrown together....I mean if you're going to throw together guests' meals ....maybe manage to do it under an hour? The potatoes were cold and they were not fresh. They tasted like left-over potatoes....like, you know when you make fresh food but microwave it the day after? Yeah, it was the day after version. Anyhow, it wasn't even aesthetically charming.

The Salmon & Avocado Omelet: The salmon was nice and the avocado was fresh, but the omelet was too thick. You know what happens to an omelet that has too many eggs? It becomes too saturated and thick and ends up tasting rubbery. An omelet should be thin-medium density and tossed in butter at the right amount of time each side, so that it keeps its natural moisture. Why not oil? Because, you can taste oil on eggs....if you like the taste of oil....go with oil. This omelet was rubbery and unseasoned. So, the food was a let down. Specially after waiting an hour.

I liked the fact that they had very politely put up a notice of those with children asking them to kindly watch out if their little ones become too noisy. That was the first time I've seen this and was impressed. A consideration and equal respect to those without children wanting to dine in peace and comfort is highly underrated due to today's increasing concierge parenting styles. I really appreciated the business' direct effort and attention to a matter, which is so taboo in the expectation to want to dine in peace without other people's children disrupting, interrupting and disrespecting other diners merely due to the parents' lack of attention to their dependents.

Even though I didn't like the food, the sign put a smile on my face (see pic) while we paid the...

Worst customer service ever!

I am a regular customer for this cafe and usually visit here for lunch on Saturdays. Apprently last time when I visited (July 14, 2018), I experienced worst customer service ever.

I sat down 1:05pm and immediately ordered Salmon egg benedict and my bf ordered west end sort of classic with strawberry pancake. I was so engaged with conversation with my boyfriend so I didn't realize I waited over 45minutes for my food. Turned out the guy arrived later than us got his food earlier than us. I asked one of the waitresses why my food is later than that guy and told her we've been waiting almost 50minutes, and she said she would check without any apology. Later another waitress(this lady doesn't know anything about dealing with customers) came up to me saying that that guy ordered a soup with toast, that's why his food was served first and kitchen is super busy at this time. I said " what about the other tables? Those people also arrived later than us, how come they got the food earlier? She said, "They ordered food first" I'm like " That's the thing, how come people who came later than us got the food first, did the waitress who took our order forgot about our order? If it was delivered to the cook in time, it's impossible to wait this long. She kept saying to me they arrived earlier, in fact WE arrived earlier than them.

I don't care what kind of food the other guy ordered, my point is I arrived and ordered earlier than him and the other table people and waited almost an hour. First of all, waiting for an hour isn't supposed to happen even if it's Saturday since I only visit here Saturday I get served within 15-20minutes as I know this from many times' experience.

Secondly, the waitress tried to justify herself giving me an unresonable excuse without any apology. If there were 10 people ordering soup after me, I still should be the 11th???? I asked her again when I can get my food? She again didn't say any word to apologize and it would come 5-10min. Eventually my food was served at 2:10pm after waiting one hour and 5minutes and I was witnessing all other people arriving after me already had their food served. I was completely pissed.

Even worse, when I was about to make a payment( actually I shouldn't have paid anything since I was absolutely unsatisfied with the service), she kept giving me same excuses like " you know 45 minutes is normal and Saturdays are always busy". Again no apology at all.

I know what it looks like on Saturday and it is not a big cafe. Also, on that day it wasn't even busy, acutally there were many empty tables.

I suspect that the waitress, seemed new who took my food order forgot to type in the system or didn't send it to the cook properly. Mistakes can happen as I understand the first day of work. What makes me angrier is the another waitress who doesn't know how to treat customers properly. I think first word she should say is " Sorry for the delay and inconvenience. There must be some mistakes, we will get you the food as soon as possible.

Instead, she seems as if I should be the one to understand this situation patiently and it's okay to wait longer. How ridiculous it is!

The owner of this cafe should train their employees properly since they have no ideas how to deal...

The food was excellent and the staff working the floor were doing an amazing job, but honestly, I wouldn’t return because of how poorly the manager treated both guests and his own team.

From the moment we arrived, he was rude. My husband and I (both former servers) immediately picked up on his attitude. He literally yelled at us to “put our name on the waitlist” without even looking at us or greeting us. That already left a bad taste, and since the restaurant was clearly very busy, we decided to pay closer attention to how things were being handled.

We were helped by a young woman who had an amazing attitude and a lot of patience despite how overwhelmed the place seemed. But as we sat down, we couldn’t help but keep observing the manager. His energy was so negative that we ended up spending most of the time watching how he treated the staff and honestly, it ruined the experience. We couldn’t even enjoy our food properly because we were uncomfortable with how he was acting.

At one point, while I was getting us water, I overheard him telling the same server to “stop talking” in a sharp, disrespectful tone. Meanwhile, she and one other server were running the entire floor, while he couldn’t complete a single task without asking one of them for help.

I told my husband what I’d seen, and he almost got up to say something because if someone ever spoke to our daughter like that, we’d be furious. Instead, we chose to ask the server if she was okay and if she wanted us to say anything. She said it wasn’t necessary and kind of tried to downplay it, but that still doesn’t excuse his behavior. There’s no justification for speaking to anyone like that, especially someone doing their job well under pressure.

It was uncomfortable and honestly disappointing. This team deserves support, not mistreatment. The food may be great, but that kind of toxic leadership completely ruins the experience.

I sincerely hope the owners or upper management take action because they have an amazing team that...