Little Jumbo Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Victoria

I do not currently live in victoria, but my husband and I visit my friends here once in a while and they have raved about how great Little Jumbo Is. I was super excited to come here so I made a reservation well in advance when I knew we would next be in town. My friends have only ever come for cocktails and tonight we came for both dinner and cocktails. I must stress that my rating is based on the main courses and service. We were all very happy with our cocktails and appetizers. However, we left spending close to $400 for our party of 5 and were very disappointed.

For appetizers, we ordered two orders of the Panko crusted Brie with baguette and one tomato heirloom salad. All were very good- the Brie was exceptionally delicious. Between the 4 of us the cocktails we ordered were: milk punch, spicy pineapple margarita, a whiskey sour, and a regular lime margarita, and the gin cosmo. All of the cocktails were on point. Although they are a higher price point, they are on par with what you would expect to pay at any cocktail bar ($15-$20 for 2-3oz). One of the things my friends love about Little Jumbo is that you can ask the bartender to make you a custom cocktail. Unfortunately, we did not have this option as at the bottom of our menu (which changes weekly), there was a note saying they are training new bartenders so they are only offering their select menu cocktails and variations on classics.

Our main courses is where things went downhill. If you come to little jumbos, you should expect it's not going to be cheap, but we thought it'd be worth it - we were wrong. We came on a Sunday night at 8pm. The kitchen was out of oysters. Then, after 3 people of our party of 5 ordered the steak, we were told they only had 2 steaks left. This resulted in one of my friends instead ordering the pan seared rockfish which was $35 and was to come with gnocchi, green beans and caviar. There were maybe 6 pieces of gnocchi, a few green beans and absolutely no caviar. When we mentioned the missing caviar to our waitress, she said she was sorry but she forgot to tell us that the kitchen was out of that too! So on a weekend they ran out of oysters, steak, and caviar. The menu they offer is limited to begin with, so to run out of things on a weekend in my opinion, is unacceptable. The amount of food on the $35 rockfish dish was embarrassingly small for the price (see picture). The steaks the others had were very good, served with a delicious bone marrow. However, they charge $6 extra for fresh vegetables which consisted of only a few pieces of broccoli and a couple slices of squash so again, overpriced.

Myself and another friend each ordered the little jumbo burger which I had read good reviews on. It was $25 and came with lots of fries but the burger itself was lacking flavour despite It having mushrooms, smoked Gouda, bacon, and onions on it. It was dry, no sauce of any kind on it, just butter. I've had better burgers elsewhere for half the price.

Our waitress was great in the beginning- helpful with describing the menu and drink options. However, she failed to check in with us once we got our main courses and we had to request her presence when we wanted another round of drinks. I also had to request ketchup (for my flavourless burger) twice. I understand she could be busy but it's not a large place... at the end of our night I think she could tell we were disappointed and said they were having a 'rough night'.

I was so disappointed in our experience- I was very much looking forward to coming here but leaving with paying close to $200 for my husband and I pained me because it was so not worth it. We would definitely return for cocktails and maybe appetizers in the future, but not unless something is done to compensate for our first experience.

After posting a review on Yelp, the manager/owner responded to my feedback stating they were very upset to hear about our experience and want to make it right. However, now months later, they have not actually followed up further or attempted to have us return for a...

I have not been to Little Jumbo since they first opened. I remember them being so good but last night, they did not hit the mark. It started with the Front of House. They young fellow did not accept my laminated vaccine passport because as he said "people are creating fake ones" so he wanted to see it on my phone. Sorry but I am not sure the difference, can you not tell its a fraud when you scan the passport they your stystem validates it, then you check the picture ID to ensure the name matches the passport and then look at the person? If I wanted to defraud you, I could have easily got a screen shot from a friend too; his rationale made no sense to me. I was left with the impression that person is unable to think things through. Anyway, when it came to dinner, that was a huge disappointment. They had a 10 oz steak on for $50...Really? That's a steakhouse price...and it came with nothing. We were asked if we wanted fries or vegetables. We ordered the fries but we were not told that was an extra charge (which we discovered only at the time to pay). I do not appreciate the lack of transparency. We ordered the steak because my friend wanted it, so I shared it with her but it when we got the steak, it was cold. Plus, it was thin. If I were to price it out fairly based on all aspects of what we received, I would say it was a $28 dollar meal but instead we were charged $58 for a cold steak and a small amount of fries. Then my other friend who ordered the Puttanesca also received a cold meal but he sent it back and they eventually returned a hot meal. My boyfriend ordered the Hamburger and Fries for $25. I noticed the burger was small but at least it was warm. But still, every other restaurant serves a burger for a price between $17 - $19 dollars so when I consider that, this burger did not warrant a $6 surcharge. Another negative was that the restaurant was cold. I noticed that from the moment we walked in to the moment we left. I am unsure if that is because of the oblivious customers that like to keep the door open for their groups or if the restaurant just didn't turn on the heat. Lastly, the only somewhat positive thing is our server was relatively decent and paid a reasonable amount of attention. Could she have been better? Yes, but she was decent enough. This is a long review but I think if this restaurant wants to stay in business they should take Customer dissatisfaction seriously, as there are too many other very good food options at a much fairer price. At this point, I have no intention on returning. The food is just not worth the price tag being charged.

Update Nov 15'21: When I read the response from whoever manages replying to Google reviews, I was left with the impression that customer satisfaction is not thier priority. The tone of the reply is condescending, rude, has a slight tone of gaslighting and is not factually correct with respect to the vaccine passport requirements (see gov.bc.ca) and the fries that were on the plate with the $50 fast fry steak...which sadly, I do not have a picture to prove (lucky for them I suppose). In a private email from the restaurant they suggested they wanted to win my business back but this outward, defensive reply shows to me it's more important to make me, the customer, appear to be incorrect and have lower standards than the restaurant itself. My question then becomes, if you're standards are so high, and I've been to many high standard restaurants (Aura, Boom+Batten, Brasserie L'Ecole, Il terrazzo, El Gaucho (WA), Gotham in Vancouver, etc) you would not make so many mistakes at one table then post condescending replies like this. I have dropped my review down by one star as a result (not that the...

In Response to Owner's Response to Angela Fraser's Review:

Thank you for your response to my friend, Angela’s review of our experience during our visit to your restaurant last Thursday. My husband and I were in town visiting Angela from the mainland. We were excited to try your restaurant as Angela spoke so highly of it. She really enjoyed her visit there the last time she went. Usually we prefer to dine at II Terrazzo when we visit, but wanted to try something new.

Thank you for your explanation as to why our steak was thin and cold. We appreciate that the prices have gone up exponentially since the pandemic. It is a shame that a $50 organically and ethically sourced steak at your restaurant is the thickness of one I would find in my steak sandwich or beside my eggs at a local brunch spot. I am happy to hear that you have decided to add fries free of charge with that steak for $50. I guess I’m used to paying that price for an Angus Reserve steak also ethically sourced and bred for the same price from one of our favourite steak houses in Vancouver, Elisa.

The burger was actually not bad. It does come close to our favourite hamburger on the island from Brasserie L’Ecole. Your burger is the same price. It is not quite as good, but almost.

Actually, I just checked the menu at Brasserie L’Ecole because they are one of my favourite restaurants on the island, EXCELLENT food and ambiance, and their 16oz Certified Angus Rib Eye is $59 AND it comes with a full plate of frites! I forgot about that. Hmmmm, that is a tasty steak! I’ll have to remember that one the next time we come to Victoria!

As for your response that we should dine at lower priced restaurants with lower quality food, I wonder if you are suggesting we don't know how to appreciate good, quality food. Maybe you are suggesting that we are not used to paying $50 for a thin steak. Well the steak part is true but we actually do dine at nice, high end restaurants. Not that there is anything wrong with dining at lower priced restaurants, because there are some excellent mid priced restaurants. Some of these restaurants are better than the higher priced ones! ;p

As for your reference to stay home and try cooking the meals we had at your restaurant to better appreciate how much it costs and the time involved in cooking a meal like that...well that is a good suggestion. Angela does make a killer home-made pasta and my husband's rib eye is to die for! ;P That being said, that particular evening we really wanted to be out enjoying each other's company rather than cooking.

But again, I do need to agree with you that we should probably dine at restaurants that do not subscribe to your standards of ingredients and values. You see, our standards are much higher and we value excellent customer service and establishments that value their patrons. So I thank you for reminding me of what is truly important when choosing a restaurant to dine at.

I do hope this review enlightens others to think about whether their standards are similar to yours. If not, I have put names to some of the restaurants we have enjoyed during our past visits to Victoria:

La Brasserie L’Ecole (French) European Ambience Il Terrazzo (Italian) Romantic Saveur (French) Modern The Courtney Room (Pacific North West) Great Cocktails!

All excellent restaurants with food that reflect high standards in taste, quality, and staff and managers who extend a warm and attentive sense of customer service. Most of all they appreciate their customers and can accept constructive...