end dive — Restaurant in Victoria

Short review: this place has lost its lustre. It feels like they don’t care anymore. Prices gone up, quality gone down.

Long review: I had previously reviewed this restaurant highly but times have changed. I recently went in for a bday dinner on a Sunday (“cheap night”) at around 7. Nothing about closing time was mentioned and the place was full. We grabbed a seat and some drinks at the bar and then got a table soon after. The server seemed rushed and unplugged and threw some menus on the table and we had to bring our wine and water from the bar over. No biggie. At the table, we ordered and only after we ordered the server said all the food would come out at once (we ordered a lot) as the restaurant was closing soon. It was 7:30. Ok. Would have been nice to have a heads up. Now I felt rushed having a dinner with pals I hadn’t seen in a while. Then the food came out. For cheap Sunday, the food was still expensive for what we got. Well over $20 for most plates. I never mind spending this on good food but the whole experience was off that night. The fries bowl was unseasoned, dry russet wedges with a way-too-sweet sauce. My partner asked for ketchup. They seemed offended and said they didn’t have any other sauces. Ok. Everything else ordered was so saucy it wasn’t enjoyable; I couldn’t taste the veggies. Our server peaced out halfway through our meal. Then another random server showed up for bill payment and I felt awkward about tipping because I wasn’t tipping her service but rather the lack of service of the other person. This place used to have incredible food. It used to have a great vibe. Now it feels as if they just gave up. Their wine list is also much smaller than before and much more expensive. I’ve seen wines they sell for $30 (not exaggerating) less a bottle elsewhere in town. Sorry but this resto is no longer on my “favs” list. I’m sure they don’t care,...

Turned away at the door because our sleeping baby “wasn’t the vibe”. We’ve eaten here many times over the years and this was the dumbest interaction I’ve had here.

I asked if we could pull up at the bar. Server said, “I’ll need to check”, then quickly pivoted to, “It’s our license but kids aren’t really the vibe. We’re not a family restaurant.” We were well-aware this isn’t Denny’s. I’ve literally eaten here before while kids under 10 were at the next table. This seemed incredibly arbitrary at 6:30pm on a Thursday with at least six empty tables in plain sight. Especially wild given there was a disruptively loud woman yelling while seated at the corner of the bar while we were talking to the server.

So, at this point I’m not sure if it was our kid or that we’re a queer couple, but we were turned away for what seemed like a made-up -on-the-spot rationale. If y’all are a liquor-primary business, it doesn’t prohibit children if they’re with adults. And we were welcomed openly at a similar calibre restaurant moments later. We were happy to give them our business after this little debacle.

The final insult was the server shouting, “Maybe come back for a date night.” Unaware that we were on a date night for my birthday. This was a really unkind heteronormative comment.

This place is not kid friendly, nor was this interaction what I would consider a safe space for queer or trans folks. If you don’t want children in the restaurant, please put that on your website and also explicitly here in your description. It currently does not state that anywhere and is a waste of time to hear it...

Came in looking for a table for 5 and the host looked at me and said “yeah, that’s not happening.” I’m sorry… what? My issue isn’t that they couldn’t seat us, it’s that I could think of 15 different kinder ways of communicating that off the top of my head. I had previously tried to make a reservation but they were full, no biggie, except I wish they had communicated in previous emails that they generally can’t take larger tables on a Saturday night (which is what the host proceeded to tell me when i had to pry more information out of her after her initial, rude, response) so that I wouldn’t have even wasted my time there. I sent an email explaining this to whoever I spoke with when requesting a reservation, and told them I wish they had let me know prior that they don’t usually take tables more than 4 people on a Saturday night (without a reso at least) instead of casually inviting us in to wait for one. Their response was… Wow. So incredibly rude. Attached below.

I’d like to point out that there was never an option to wait for a table to be ready like they said in the email. I was immediately turned away upon arrival, and there was no wait list ahead of me (a table of 2 & 3 were seated upon arrival just ahead of me). There were many chances for the host to offer a wait time, but what I got was a rock hard no.

So, long story short, if you’re a table of 5 without a reso, don’t bother, you will be turned away at the door without a...