Bin 4 Burger Lounge — Restaurant in Victoria

I've been coming here for years so I'm going to take my time with this review in hopes when I give them another chance in a few months, it's gotten better. The last few times have been very disappointing. I appreciate that they open later than most places around, but the food quality has been going downhill.

For example, I recently got this burger, their monthly special at the time. It's painful to think that a fish left the ocean to be treated like this. Completely dry and you can taste the freezer burn. Whoever cooked it has never tasted good, fresh (not frozen then thawed) seafood. So they try to hide the poor flavor with an obscene amount of sauce, to the point the bun was soaking wet like a shower sponge and quickly disintegrating. The sauce would have been nice in a moderate amount, but this made it way too overpowering to the point it was very unpleasant. I appreciate the waiter offering a fresh bun, but there was no saving this thing; she should have offered to take it off the bill as it was not eaten and clearly told the issues with it, which she agreed with. They really need to tone down the sauce, it's an issue with most of their offerings, and it's always overpowering and overused. It should be a hint, not all you can taste.

Their salads are also pretty bad. The greens are always wilted. It's a bit more work but it'd be a lot better to buy lettuce and wash/chop it in store as opposed to these precut greens they buy, because they go bad much faster, and even if most of the bag is fine, there's always a few rotten leaves in between. You get that plus three slices of cucumber, a bit of pepper and some seeds, call it a day.

Used to love their drinks, but their cocktails lately have been so poorly made, it's just soda and a shot, totally overpriced. When you read the description, you picture something way nicer looking, better tasting and more elaborate than what you get.

So disappointing to go to a restaurant, pay for a meal and then have to go home and cook. The price with their late night special, and the fact that they open a bit later than most, saves them from one star, and because I hope they can go back to the quality they had a few years ago.

The service also used to be better. They're now usually clearly understaffed, and it shows on the attention you get. It makes sense: these people are not paid a living wage, they rely on tips. People tip on a % of the bill. So when the restaurant is the busiest (during the late night deal), the servers are also making the least per table. But restaurant owners in North America will sell their mothers before paying people what they're worth, and instead rely on the customer to do so, but overtime this has consequences. We used to come once per week and we miss it, but we have regretted every second chance we've given them in the...

We had a group come in for a birthday and have been waiting for an hour and they haven’t taken our order or even drinks. We found out that since more people than their max 10 came that they didn’t know how to deal with us. The staff didn’t communicate about where we could sit but kept saying some people couldn’t sit at any of the empty tables even though they were their own separate party of 3. There was general confusion and the staff ended up not even telling us they weren’t going to serve us until we asked. The one waitress said someone touched her arm and was rude but none of our party saw this happen, so we apologized for her experience and just left after understanding finally that they weren’t going to let us eat. I don’t understand why the one waitress told us to sit at a table and then the other server told us we couldn’t sit there. The whole experience seemed like a quiet confusion were we all had pleasant conversation and waited patiently for service that never came. Personally I don’t remember anyone being rude to anyone, or touching any of the servers. The waitress wouldn’t say who touched her or was rude, I think they just didn’t know how to deal with a group that got larger than anticipated.

So just don’t go here with groups. Seems like it would be a nice spot for a small group of like 4 though.

I hope the staff gets trained on how to better communicate their needs instead of giving us such vague explanations. I don’t think they needed to let us sit there hungry for an hour telling us nothing.

When we first got there the servers wouldn’t even give us a table of 4 for two of us waiting for the group. It all just seemed really poorly communicated with us, which is a shame but won’t...

Bring your own drinks! One of the patrons was drinking from a Gatorade bottle and at first I thought it was odd/bad manners.

About 25 mins into waiting for what I'd ordered with zero service other than a $3 glass of pop I'd ordered and the bottle of water(tap?) that was placed on the table when we sat down I realized the other patron was probably a wise repeat customer who was likely humoring his eating partner's choice of location.

When the food arrived and the waitress disappeared without any offer of a refill for my drink the mistake was clearly all me.

My simple bacon-cheese burger arrived with what appeared to be 2 half-slices of under-cooked pink/limp bacon. Fear not, I was able to perform what the kitchen could not, and separated one of the half-slices that was doubled up exposing some even less cooked bacon surface. I must have mad skills? If only I had a way to finish cooking the bacon, and the pink on the middle meat pattie I'd just waited 30+ mins for.

The fries were 'okay' but seemed to be water-blanched for health reasons vs. well fried for taste reasons. When I know/expect a healthy twist I usually just get a salad since fries are a pleasure food for me.

I also loved that the staff just re-arrange misplaced knifes/forks/napkins when guests leave vs. giving them a pass through the chlorinated washer.

I will end the review on a positive note. The potato crisps they leave were neat, and they spent a lot of money on looking fancy, hiring attractive staff that never once looked rushed/hard worked.

I don't know who goes to a place with comparably bad service/food/prices, just to be someplace fancy, but Bin 4 is your destination if that's what you're...