The Roof — Restaurant in Vancouver

Long story short, false advertising of happy hour, very cramped space, extremely slow service, not an outdoor patio (enclosed by walls and a ceiling), could not enjoy the beautiful day out, okay to decent too, and are liars.

The day was v day the reso was for 4:30, we were running late and they said no problem. GREAT!

When we got there just past 5 they told us there was a reso for our table at 6:30, okay no problem our fault for being late. Still gives us some time eat and laugh plus we had other plans that night as well.

Every interaction was about 15-20 minutes apart, if not longer. Ordered appts off the happy hour menu as happy hour is from 2:30-6. Although we did not get a hh menu I said “I saw on your online happy hour menu that you had” and began ordering. Order our mains as well the couple next to us to their well before our even though we ordered well in advance of them.

No biggie we ain’t complainers..... we didn’t get our main until 6:30 almost an hour after we ordered it?!?!? Thought you wanted us out before then. Did I mention the place was only at 50% if that.

After dinner we asked for the bill, I don’t usually check but my partner did, to our dismay not a single thing was at happy hour pricing. We definitely ordered everything before 6 so how could thing be. We asked my thought was holiday and special occasions omit the hh menu. ...... well I was wrong.

Apparently when you are in the ghetto tent area, there’s no such thing as hh. Would have been nice to know by the host or by the server or if it mentioned it on their website. This tent literally looks like something you get at army n navy.

Spoke to the manager and she said that only outside seating gets happy hour..... where is outside exactly in this enclosed wall and ceiling covered rooftop patio? Also you server said the opposite, should probably get you facts together when you about to try to pull on over on a guest. She told us she could give happy hour pricing for our drinks only.....we would not have order 24 oysters 3 orders of prawn cocktail and 1 order of lobster cocktail If we had known or was informed. I would have just gotten the cold platter and a tasing platter. Who goes to a restaurant before dinner and doesn’t expect hh?!?!?

I digress, we stayed until 7 waiting for the bill, thought there was a reso for our table at 6:30 didn’t have time to explain why false advertising is not our fault but their and honestly I don’t care about the money part to much, but the principle or offering something at a price. You can just be like just kidding, after the fact.

To be fair to them, they were great with topping up water. Thats about it, food was okay to decent, oyster were not shucked properly the lobster in the tasing platter.... it just wasn’t there, the chicken was under cooked(unless jerked chicken means pink on the middle, which is doesn’t), steak was a bit undercooked, which I like so wasn’t that bad, the Mac and cheese stick were bland, and we were in a freaking tent. Didn’t ask to be there, just was.

Stole about 150 bucks from me so I tipped them 5% (over 15 bucks) because I can find it in myself to not tip at all.

Beware of this place, scam artist fake review on google. One review said they have many kinds of oysters, they only have 2 kinds of oysters, kusshi and a feature (which was chefs creek).

Best of luck to this glowbal owned...

Our waitress was amazing, but the rest, not so much.

We had made a reservation 2 weeks in advance for a birthday. Party of 5. Since we're meeting at the beginning of September, we figured we would take advance of the last little bit of warmth we had in Vancouver.

Our party had arrived a few minutes before us and had already been seated at a table on the rooftop. We (bf and I) were directed to the top floor, and there, we would be greeted by a hostess and directed to our party.

We got out of the elevator and no one was at the upstairs reception to greet us. Around 4 - 5 minutes passed by and still no one. At one point, another couple had come out from the dining area and thought we were waiting for it elevator to leave. Eventually, the hostess had come out to greet us and led us to our group and table. To our disappointment, our table was in the darkest corner of the restaurant with very little lighting (an electric tea candle, and some fairy lights hanging from the ceiling). The chairs seemed like plastic lawn chairs that were extremely uncomfortable. We eventually placed our order.

The Kate's salad and garlic prawn skillet had arrived first. The server asked if we would like some fresh pepper on our food, but honestly, it was so dark, we're not sure if pepper was actually added to our food as we couldn't see. Salad was alright, nothing special. The prawns, however, were definitely frozen from the flavour and texture.

We asked our waitress to see if there was any way we would be able to be moved to another table because we weren't even able to see what we were eating. There were two additional tables available, one by the candle wall, and another booth. She kindly toId us she would speak with her manager. The manager then came to our table to let us know that both tables were called for by reservations. When asked why we were not given the option for the other two tables, the manager had replied saying that the two tables were reserved by (what he thinks) $500 deposit at the time of booking (he wasn't even entirely sure). We were not given the option to reserve a better table at the time of booking, otherwise we would've. Our bill would've easily reached $500 given there were 5 of us.

When our main platter came, the porterhouse steak was tough and stringy, the lobster tail was overcooked and rubbery, the truffle fries have no truffle flavouring, the mac and cheese sticks were overseasoned from the amount and quality of cheese used, the brussel sprouts were also acidic. The quality of food was just horrendous and not worth the amount of money that they're looking to charge.

Nothing brought to the table warrants...

I went on a Friday evening with a friend who I hadn't seen in a few months, since I live out of town. We had a reservation. The food was great, the service not so much.

Nobody told us we had a time limit on our table at any point when we arrived or during our dinner. After enjoying our dinner (appy, entrees, and desserts) and planning to stay for drinks and continue catching up, our server told us at 8pm that a party was arriving any minute now and that they needed the table back. The same server had literally just allowed us to order full glasses of wine not 10 minutes earlier. After seeing our confusion in regards to why nobody told us we'd have to leave, he said we could move to the bar or another table to continue our evening, so we settled our bill with him and moved to the bar, at which point he told us to order from the bartender if we wanted anything else.

We sat at the bar for an hour, and the bartender didn't speak to us once. Once we had finished our wine, we were about to flag down the bartender to order another round of drinks, when another employee of the restaurant showed up behind us and very aggressively said "excuse me ladies, we have a wait list for the bar, so you need to leave now." We were confused and embarrassed, as she said it quite loudly so other customers and employees heard and were staring at us. We were so confused as to why we were being made to feel as if we'd done something wrong. I would have understood if we had been sitting for hours not ordering anything, but that was not the case. We didn't put up a fight, as it seemed our business was no longer desired, so we decided to leave and go somewhere else for drinks. We then waited for 5 minutes at the door for an employee to help us get our coats from coat check, even though they were in such a rush to kick us out.

I'm not normally one to complain or write reviews, as I worked in the service industry for 7 years, so I have all the sympathy for restaurant workers. That being said, I did email the restaurant sharing my concerns over this experience, and nobody responded, which to me shows they don't care, so I figured I should share it here so others are aware.

If you're going to spend $200+ per person on a nice dinner and drinks, there are way too many other nice restaurants in Vancouver that will appreciate your business, not embarrass you and treat you with disrespect. I personally won't be returning, nor will I be recommending The Roof to anyone I know...