Tocador — Restaurant in Vancouver

I loved this place the first time I went... this time, however, we had a conversation with the owner and he was so defensive. Couldn't handle me asking questions about whether other patrons liked how loud the music was. My question was sincere and not sarcastic, but he took offense. He actually told me and my friends to never come back! I was so shocked and disappointed. Can you imagine telling customers to never come back because they said they didn't like how loud the music was?

By the way, this was not the live music that they have on Sundays... I have seen the live music group and they were wonderful.... this was rock and roll type music that was at much higher volume than a typical restaurant.

We had asked for the music to be turned down at the end of the evening because there was only three other tables in the place and we couldn't hear each other. We waited until the place was almost empty to make this request and he came over and said he couldn't do that because the vibe of the place is to have louder music than other places on the street to create a lively atmosphere. I told him I get it but would think that on a Monday night especially with just a few people in the place, it wouldn't matter and we just wanted to end our evening being able to hear each other. Ultimately, I get it that it's a preference but I was really shocked when he told me and my friends to never come back. When I asked him why he would say such a thing, he said he had to defend himself as we were being very rude to him. Wow.

I wish that they would just play Latin music to go with the whole Cuban decoration and drink vibe.... that kind of music stays in the background and just creates a great feeling....unfortunately loud rock and roll type music just didn't go with the atmosphere and very much interfered with our conversation.

The owner seems to think his place is a cocktail lounge.. he even described it that way... but the menu suggests a restaurant.... also, I've been in many cocktail lounges with loud music, but somehow the music blends into the background and doesn't yell at you the way this music was doing. I suggest playing chill lounge music if you want to create a lounge atmosphere....

Obviously not the right place for me but at the same time I really didn't think the owner needed to be so reactive just because we expressed displeasure with one aspect of our experience.

We spent over $200 and tipped the server, who was...

(Disclosure: was in the same party as the reviewer below and am also the person who had their food spilled onto them by our server)

A wholly unimpressive experience for which its' saving grace was indeed the cocktails. The drinks were quite good. I could've seen myself stopping in for a happy hour as the bar looked like a nice enough spot to post up to after work.

Except, I won't, and here's why:

As my colleague mentioned in their own review, her and I ordered the 1000 Chili Rice - a $22 main that is built around 3 core components: rice, seafood and a broth. While the broth and rice were quite tasty, it was a comically small portion. I'm very much a quality-over-quantity person when it comes to food, but this was outright absurd. The "seafood" was more or less reminiscent of flaked salmon. Take from that what you will.

Our other colleagues ordered the Cubano, which did indeed look nice enough. It is while I was regarding their sandwiches that the excitement for my own plate was interrupted by a stream of broth from not one, but BOTH plates poured indiscriminately onto my pantleg, shoe, and phone that sat on the end of the table nearest me. This was a non insignificant amount of my meal now seeping into my clothes, shoe and the napkin I was using to dry off my phone.

The server asked me if I "was good" . Not a compelling apology or any real effort to address the accident at all. I felt quite disregarded.

I'll be honest: I had planned to write a review that evening, let myself calm down over the weekend and almost forgot. That is, until our colleague reached out to say that the owner tracked her down by looking her up online based off of her name. Not to try to correct the situation in any meaningful way - no, instead to tell her that he would have rather we approached them in the restaurant than writing reviews.

This (rather unfairly) puts the onus on the customer to be uncomfortable and awkward in what is ultimately a business transaction in progress.

To the owner: I had heard good things from some very reputable industry friends. This is what makes it especially disappointing.

Will...

Probably one of the worst experiences I've had at a restaurant in a long time. I would give it 0 stars if i could. Firstly, it took about 25 minutes to get our first drinks. After getting our drinks we had to flag our server down to order food as he never came back to the table. We ordered chips and guac, and the potatoes to start. Got the chips and guac right away, however we ran out of chips fast so we asked for more. Our server came by about 20 minutes later, still no chips and was like "oh let me check on those". 15 minutes later we get our chips. Our drinks were empty and we waited another 30 for our server to even come by for us to order tacos, we ordered 2 cauliflower tacos. 40 minutes go by, still haven't gotten our potatoes, or our tacos. We called the server over to ask where our food is and he said "Oh the kitchen is very busy i believe they're coming soon" meanwhile all other tables around us are getting their appies and mains so we were safe to assume he just forgot to ring in our food and tried to pin it on the kitchen. He then comes back and says the tacos are being fast tracked (Should only take 10 mins max to make 2 tacos...) but he offered us shots while we were waiting, so annoyed, we said sure. He THEN comes back and says oh ya instead of the shots were just going to cover your tacos.....so he offers us shots then takes them away, and then says they're gonna cover our tacos (that we still hadn't gotten lol). So we finally get the tacos, about an hour and a half after ordering them. They were bland and tasteless. We ask for our bills as we just wanted to leave this place and never come back. He brings the bills and charged us for the potatoes that never came!!! He ended up giving us an addition "10% off", although our drinks were 15$ each so we both paid around 40$ with tax and tip for the worst experience possible. I would not recommend this place to anyone. I've never written a bad review ever but this place...