Ben & Florentine — Restaurant in Winnipeg

Booked a reservation for 10 people on a Sunday, was told that they can only book big reservations before 10:00AM, so I booked for 9:30AM. Called again a few minutes later because i wanted to add one more person, and when I called back they said that they don't take reservations on weekends. Told them that someone already booked my reservation when i called a few minutes ago. So everything seemed fine. When we got to the restaurant at 9:20AM - 9:25AM, it seems that they were scrambling looking for a place for me and my family. I didn't see any big tables readily available for us. So they decided to put 4 tables close to each other so we had to divide our group. They had a big table that could have fit my whole family, but that table was already occupied. They had said "if" we wanted, we can "wait" for the other table to finish, and then they can move us. The big table haven't even gotten their food yet. I was of course disappointed, and showed it on my face. And was surprised when I received the same look from the waitress, like I should have been happy with whatever they provided us. And of course we were treated as 2 different tables. Taking our orders at different times, receiving our foods in different times. Not sure if the gratuity was for parties 5 and over? But we did have to pay gratuity (we paid 2 different bills because we didn't want to pay a 10+ person gratuity). And I was thinking about making a fuss and asking about the gratuity we received. But I didn't really know the rules and didn't want to have a argument with kids around. Don't think I will go back to...

Food and serving is good as always. Great place for breakfast, brunch, and lunch when we normally dine in.

I was to give 5 stars for all great dining experiences until today when a server dishonored the free coffee vouchers we received earlier during our previous dine in.

More frustrating as we chose this place over another place we could eat in to try a different experience.

The vouchers were stamped “Date: Feb 28 2023” not even explicitly stating “expiry” just “Date.” I was hoping there was a little consideration and gesture for returning paying customers though it “might” have appeared the vouchers were expired, but the voucher was immediately dismissed. It was a little thing that we have missed to use by the date stamped but it’s not even that long ago. There was not even any redemption code on it that would really expire. My point is, you won’t get that kind of voucher if you didn’t dine in earlier.

I was just hoping a kind consideration was showed for best customer experience but the server rather played by the book.

A wonderful weekend turned into an upsetting start. I’ll think twice next time we think about...

Ellice location Really disappointing experience today. I used to like this place, but after today, I’m seriously reconsidering. We arrived early—around 9:45 AM—and the place wasn’t even that busy. We were a group of 5 and waited for over 30 minutes, just standing there with no updates, while plenty of empty tables and chairs were visible on the left side.

We asked three times if we could be seated, and the response was vague every time. First server briefly spoke to us, said “just a few seconds,” and never came back. No eye contact, no follow-up, no apology. Another 2 server I ask if there’s available table for 5. It really felt like we were being ignored because we were a party of 5, as if that was somehow a problem for them..

What made it worse is seeing other customers—who arrived after us—getting seated right away. If there’s a wait for larger groups, just say so! Don’t leave people standing around unsure of what’s happening.

Eventually, we gave up and moved to Pancake House, where we were seated immediately and treated with 100% perfect customer service. That’s how...