Riley's Fish & Steak — Restaurant in Vancouver

My wife and I went to Riley's Fish and Steak to celebrate my birthday. We had a reservation for two but were surprised when we were led to bad seating when no other seats were occupied. I understand you want to fill the bad seats first but this wasn't the right move to make a good first impression. First thing I noticed about this seat was, the table was tiny. It wouldn't fit the two entrees and sides we were going to order. Secondly, the table was on the edge of a long line of tables, and this particular table was close to a doorway where there's a lot of traffic from service staff and customers.

We asked to move to a different table and - I don't know if this was a good table or not. From this table our view was mostly the service staff as they were working close to the bar. We were also relatively close to the bathroom. But at least the table was bigger. This was probably the best they could give us because the restaurant was 80% empty.

We started with a dozen Oysters and Wagyu Carpaccio; both were great. We had Spritzer, and Red Sangria; they were not memorable. That concluded our happy hour orders. Actually, so far so good.

Next are the sides and the entrees.

The Crispy Brussels Sprouts were excellent. Very crispy, a bit bitter, everything went well together. No complaints at all.

The Smoked Salmon & Caviar Potato Rosti was great, probably the best for that night, but could do without the salmon and caviar. I didn't even notice the caviar to be honest. Potato Rosti itself was very crispy on the outside and just as creamy inside.

The Truffle Fries were standard.

I ordered Beef Striplion and my wife ordered Sablefish. I didn't want the Coq au vin or Seafood tower because we came here for fish and steak. I read their fish are done perfectly, their steaks are buttery tender.. so really, we couldn't wait.

The experience that followed reminded me to always have low or no expectations. Or else we are just setting ourselves up for disappointments. In this case, we were.

The Striploin was okay. it's not as tender as I hoped. I shared it with my wife, and she said it was "Meh."

The sablefish really let us down. Partly because I thought it is very difficult to mess up sablefish with its high fat content. And we have only had good experiences with sablefish when we dined out in the past. Sadly it is true that there is a first for everything. That includes undercooked sablefish with rubbery skin that was too difficult for us to cut.

As my wife was lamenting about the entrees, the service staff came back to offer us pepper. And salt. My usual experience with this was, the pepper and salt would be offered right after steak was served, or the staff would say they were coming back with pepper right away. We told them it's okay, partly because I didn't even want people looking at our half eaten entrees.

Speaking of service, we were in fact invisible for most of this experience. Not once did any service staff come back to us to give a check after any food or drink was served. Not once was water filled. Other than taking away the empty dishes, they have only come by once to check if we wanted more drinks. Which I did and ordered an unremarkable Pink Sunset. I want to reiterate, we were sitting at a table where we could always see 5-6 staff members in front of us at bar area because it was not busy.

At this point we just wanted to leave. We said no to dessert, got the bill, and tipped 20% because unlike the restaurant, we didn't want to be rude. Worst 300$ we've spent in the past 3 years. Why do we even dine out anymore?

Overall this was a surreal experience - this place was at a good location, the design and ambience look good, some of the food was good, and the staff members seemed to be having a good time - but we did not get to experience any of that. We were just sitting at a table facing a group of staff members, eating mostly mediocre food with no services.

Happy for those who had a good experience here, because that was exactly what we wanted. This really is a hit-or-miss place. Mostly...

My girlfriend and I have been working our way through Michelin-starred or recommended restaurants on date nights, and chose Rileys for her birthday this weekend.

I have to start with Ali, our server. In Arabic, Ali means "elevated", or “champion", and he was both. With a warm smile that said he was greeting old friends, a perfect degree of attentiveness, and a genuine warmth of personality that we both commented on, it’s hard to image a better server. 10+/10

We started with the Salt & Pepper Calamari – a dish neither of us have had in years. We certainly chose the perfect restaurant to revisit this traditional appy, as it was the best either of us have ever had. Perfectly cooked and seasoned with a delicious lemony sauce for dipping, it was a very nice start to our meal. If I’m being picky, I do prefer a bit more crunch outside, but I’d order them again in a heartbeat. 9/10.

We’re light eaters and always share our plates, so we followed this with a combination of Seared Hokkaido Scallops and Crispy Brussels Sprouts:

Despite Brussels sprouts being a divisive veggie, we love them. Given the number of times we’ve ordered them from different restaurants, we consider ourselves a bit of an authority. I’d love to gush about Riley’s take on this dish, but regrettably I can’t. That’s not to say they were bad – they were perfectly cooked with a decent if sparse bit of crunch. They were simply bland. Both of us found our palates a little bored eating a dish that’s often an inspiring blend of texture and flavour. There was a bit of flavour found in the very bottom of the dish, but by then it was a bit late to impress. 6/10

Along with the above came our scallops. Again, we both love scallops and order them often. There’s no question that the Rileys kitchen can be trusted to cook perfect scallops. They were medium-sized, nicely seared, and each morsel left our table of two silent for a few moments to just savour. The bed of cannellini beans and a charred lemon to squeeze over the dish only added to the flavours and presentation. For $54 I’d have liked to have maybe one more scallop for an even 6, but who wouldn’t pine for more when they’re that good. 9/10

As it was Kirsten’s birthday we ended with the mango cheesecake. The presentation they put together was as unexpected as it was thoughtful. Most of the cheesecake was excellent, but we ran into two small things – even with just the tiniest bit of sauce on each bite, we ran out halfway through dessert, leaving the last half wanting for flavour. Also, for some reason the crust just where it would have bumped up against the perimeter of the pan had a slight bitterness. We likely wouldn’t have noticed if there had been any sauce left, but in its absence the bitterness was noticeable. 8/10

Overall an excellent meal, and a restaurant I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend or revisit.

PS: Bonus points to the booking staff, who ensured we had just the seat I’d requested in my reservation – something many restaurants just wouldn’t have bothered with, and an example of great customer service I appreciated given that it was a special...

When we arrived, the hostess seated us to our requested seating in the dining room. We sat down and were delivered some water from the waiter. After about 5 minutes the waiter comes back and asked us if we wanted to order. We said we will be getting some drinks for now and ordered a couple of drinks. We then received our drinks and the waiter asked us if we wanted to order food. We said not right now as we just got our drinks. He then explained the specials of the day and said you may want to get the specials now as they might go fast. We told him no thanks and the waiter said ok and left to serve other customers. The waiter came back about 10 minutes later and asked if you wanted to order food. As we were still drinking our first drinks we said not at the moment as we are just drinking for now and haven’t even finished drinking our first drinks. The waiter then said you need to order food as you have a time limit for this seating. We then asked to speak with the Manager.

The Manager (MJ) came to our table. The Manager told us that we have a two hour maximum time limit for this seating. We then explained to the Manager, when we reserved this table online, it never said anything about a two hour time limit for this seating nor did it say anything about this time limit on the RILEYS website. We said the group across from us was sitting there for a while, before we even came in, and they are still there. The Manager said as they are a bigger group they have a 2 and half hour time limit. So just because we are a smaller group we are treated not the same/not as important as them? So our time is less considerate than their time? Is that fair? We then told the Manager we will stay within the two hour time limit, pay the bill and leave. The Manager said ok and left.

Approximately 10 minutes later the waiter comes back and said would you like to order food now? We said not at the moment but we would like to order another drink. The waiter then said you cannot order any more drinks unless you are ordering food. We then said ok we will order fries for now. The waiter then said the Manager said you have to order from the mains. We were like wait, what? So I can’t even order an appetizer? He said no you have to order from the mains. We were so frustrated at this point, keep in mind it only has been about 30 minutes into our dining experience. We were very taken back and upset. At this point we just asked for the bill. We then left the restaurant in disgust.

We felt rushed right from the time we sat down. We felt harassed and targeted as everyone else was enjoying and having a good time but we were the only ones who got spoken to like this. We felt embarrassed as this conversation/incident was happening right in front of the other customers that were sitting beside us. We felt the Manager was very firm, strong, aggressive in his approach when dealing with us. We never experienced anything like this in any other fine dining...