The Fernwood Inn — Restaurant in Victoria

The food and the place was great, but the waitress could had been a lot better.

My girlfriend and I came in yesterday to have a quick dinner so when the waitress asked what we wanted to drink... we said, "waters." Right away, we could tell she was annoyed. The food came out quick and was ran by a different waitress. Our waitress came by quick to check on our food we said it was great but just needed a refilled on our waters. She said she would be back with some waters. She checked on everyone else and walked by and ignored our table few times. We understand if we were at a table in the back corner or it was in a difficult section or even it was busy but we sat at a table under "the most interesting man portrait" where that table was not out of the way. It was close to the server well and we could see the pitchers of water. We thought about asking the bartender but we decided to trust our waitress. Unfortunately, we waited for those water for a long time and decided to just get our food packed up and go home. Sadly, we were thirsty so we could not fully enjoy our food. The waitress came by when see saw our stacked dished and we told her we needed a box. She cleared the table she saw the empty glasses and pretended she forgot about our water and apologized which did not sound sincere. She was more attentive when we got the bill because she had to wait for us to use the portable debit machines. Not to worry, we got our waters... while we were paying. We still tipped her well, even though the service was bad. We did not want her to pay out on serving us.

If the server was busy, she could had ask her manager for help or just communicated it to us that it was. However, the waitress and I know it was not busy. She could had came by easily since we were sandwiched between four of her full tables along the window .

Next time, if we do go in, we will make sure we are not getting served by her.

Edit: I came in for Fern Fest and we had great service with Alicia. She was friendly and helpful! She changed my mind...

Went with my fiancee and a friend a few weeks ago. Definitely a nice neighborhood pub- currently nice for outdoor seating, and seems to be OK with the dogs outdoors. The speed of service was good, we didn't have to wait longer than about 8-10 minutes until our order was taken, and it looked like a busy night. The food was brought out in a timely manner as well, nothing was missing, food was hot. I has the fish burger with avocado. Unfortunately the avocado didn't do so much for me but it was good nonetheless. I would definitely come back to try more menu items, as they looked really good as well.

Update: August 20, 2023 Good visit today, but something caught my attention that I had to update my review.

Great service, great attentiveness to cleaning our table, and offering more drinks, I am very happy with that!

Just a few things to comment on the food: Hits: Flavour of the "The Inn salad" - very tangy, the goat cheese is a lovely flavour with the raspberry, definitely a solid salad. Crispy and sweet flavour of the "Honey Hot" chicken wings - great texture, has an amazing crunch, sweeter flavour than spicy.

Misses: The all-too noticeable browning of the salad... I realize the salad is a nice blend of pigmented greens, but there were leaves that were nicely browned, and have that mushy consistency that definitely didn't go with fresh greens. Now the flavour of the salad dressing, goat cheese, and almonds did a great job masking the flavour of the turning greens. But I did manage to get that odd consistency.

A second miss; the flavour of the "Classic Hot" wings was okay, just wished it was a bit spicier. The texture was also not as Crispy as the Honey Hot, which I know there's the possibility of these wings having a different treatment compared to other flavours, but the experience just wasn't as good.

Overall I may need to revisit and check out the other menu items to see if it was just an off day. Always a lovely neighborhood spot, with a great patio, though. (Last 3 photos from...

My mom came to visit me for the first time in Canada and I decided to take her out to the Fernwood restaurant, which is located in my neighbourhood. We were sat at the patio and for about 20 minutes, nobody has to come check on us. I had to ask a passing waiter and stop someone to place an order myself. There were several groups of people and couples that have gotten their orders placed and served already, while we were waiting for anyone to pay attention to us. I have ordered drinks, and they have served a wrong one which was a Ceasar instead of a beer, at that point I decided to keep it. I tried sipping on it few times but could not enjoy it at all, as it was extremely bitter. I asked the server to replace it with the wine. After we finished our food and drinks, we got our check and I was charged for a Ceasar, which I did not drink. The busser kept saying that I drank it and that they cannot remove it from the bill. I went to speak to a Manager, and unfortunately he was extremely unprofessional. I let him know about my experience, and instead of getting a professional and positive attitude, I got a very rude and snobby response. The Manager started arguing with me stating I am lying about the wait time. I let him know we will not be returning and he said "it is fine". I have worked in the hospitality industry and this kind of attitude of the manager is unacceptable. The restaurant is running because the clients are there, I still cannot believe the way I was treated, he clearly did not care about my concerns at all and furthermore was treating me like I am not worthy. This is the first time I have experienced such a treatment in the restaurant. I am also a minority woman, so as my mom, therefore I am not sure if this is the reason why we were treated this way. Please avoid this place...