Friends of Dorothy - Victoria — Restaurant in Victoria

This space is aesthetically cute, it’s just too bad that the service isn’t up to par more often than not and the food / drinks are way overpriced. However, last night was an especially horrible experience dining at this establishment for my friends birthday party. It seemed like mistake after mistake was made and there was no true accountability. One friend found a live beetle in her lettuce cup and when informing the server their response was “don’t kill the bug” nor offered to replace the meal entirely. Two other friends never received their food that they ordered even though we were there for well over two hours. Another friend had wilted brown lettuce so asked to have new lettuce, however when they brought it out it was also brown and wilted and was in small bite size pieces when it was meant to be for a lettuce cup. And finally, another friend had a plate dropped on her shoulder which left aioli all over her $400 wool coat. The server was apologetic but came back with dry napkins and didn’t really attempt to clean her coat. Finally when asked to speak with a manager we were met with argumentative defensiveness and no accountability. When speaking to the server about meals that should be comped due to the circumstances we were met with literal eye rolls and talking about our table to other servers and customers at the bar right in front of us. Eventually they offered to have my friends coat dry cleaned and comped / discounted a couple bills after we had insisted there needed to be some sort of compensation. Then the rest of the table, including those who still experienced mistakes, were brought bills with an automatic 20% gratuity due to our large table size and the offered statement that this is “industry standard”. Yes, some establishments do have auto gratuity that is no problem, but to still expect customers to pay that after a night full of mistakes and bad service? I understand stuff happens and people are humans and make mistakes but as many of us at the table also work within the service industry or have in the past know how easy it is to correct wrongdoings, take accountability, and appropriately comp bills for mistakes made. It is all how you handle yourself and last night was extremely disappointing and has resulted in none of us 12 people wanting to return. I hope they make some serious changes and reconsider how they want to treat customers after a series of serious mistakes like this. Disappointing evening and birthday...

I went there with my spouse and two friends yesterday. My friend called the same day to make a reservation and they said there were no more reservations for the day but if she could come early they can give a table. My two friends arrived before us and they got the table. When we arrived everything was going really nice, I have to say that drinks were very nice, we were enjoying the music, our server was really really nice. Then my friend ordered a bottle of wine and we were supposed to keep continue ordering drinks and food. Just a couple minutes after ordering the bottle, a woman came to our table telling us we needed to leave now because they were full, and we have been there for more that 2 hours and they needed the table for more people trying to come. She said they were on a waiting list for more than 40 people. We asked for another table but they couldn’t accommodate us, because of the same. They say because it was pride week it was going to be full and that they were waiting for people to arrive. At that time (10 :00 pm the drag show staring) they were 3 empty tables beside us and NOBODY outside making a line. I went to the web page to see if I could find a policy about this 2 maximum hours “per visit” and couldn’t find it. It was really weird to me, because I have been in different places for more than 4 hours, consuming foods and drinks and nobody forced me to leave because it was going to be full. I kind of feel discriminated because even when the drag show started, the performer made a comment on someone’s else table that have been since the time we’ve been there and they were still there and weren’t leaving. Nobody mention to us this policy, not even at the phone, at the entrance, or before ordering a bottle. I was really really very excited to know this place and enjoy the night with the drag show. I am an ally to the community but I couldn’t felt yesterday any kind of union, love, comprehension. I kind of felt discriminated maybe for not be part of it. My spouse and I live here, my two friends were visiting and they left with a really really bad and sad opinion and thoughts about this whole situation. I really want to try to come back but I’m afraid to not feel very comfortable in a place that I should feel...

First off—the performers were super super great. So was our server!

When some friends of mine and I got in for a drag show last week we had a pretty bad experience in Friends of Dorothy’s. The flyer for the bar didn’t note any cover fee. After we were sat, we were informed there was a 5 dollar cover. Then when they brought the machine over we were informed it’s “$8 if you’re paying on card.” This was slightly annoying but fine. We looked it up before going to make sure we wouldn’t need to grab cash, but there wasn’t a mention of a cover charge anywhere. Kind of odd when I know that places like Vicious Poodle pay their performers out of the extra money they make off bar when they host shows and don’t charge an unadvertised cover fee. I ordered some fries which were the cheapest thing on the menu at $10 and was brought less than a cup’s worth of soggy fries with Heinz ketchup. I ordered a $5.50 cider because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. Their drinks are definitely pricier than other places in town. Got probably about 3/4 of a can’s worth which I thought was fair for the price. When I was paying my bill I noticed that I had been charged $9.50 for the cider so showed the server the menu pricing and they told me that this was a “misprint”. They brought over the manager who kept asking me “what I wanted to do here.” I told him I felt a little cheated. He kept trying to get me to pay the full nine dollars despite their advertised pricing and told me with very obvious annoyance that “no bar in town will have a cider for only $5.50.” He ended up walking away and charging me the $5.50 with obvious annoyance. Kind of weird to be talked to like this for Believing the pricing they had listed themselves? I think it’s fair to feel taken aback by a restaurant repeatedly telling me that I have to pay more than I agreed to as a surprise, and then talking down to me when I object to this. Mediocre, overpriced, and frequented by a mostly...