Ben & Florentine — Restaurant in Winnipeg

I'm going to be fairly blunt and honest.. The only reason I'm leaving 3 stars is because I've gone to B&F multiple times and it has been great but this is the first time we've actually couldn't believe how bad it was.

Let me explain: My family and I love coming here - we are not the kind of customers to bug the waiting staff too much because we know everyone is busy but this was too much.

We sat down at around 10:05 and made our orders of smoothies and coffee - the smoothies arrived fairly quickly but the coffee didn't. That's ok, they're busy, the waiter said he'll be back with it. 15 minutes went by and suddenly the power went out. We were positive it'll come back on which it did 15 minutes later but while the power was out, we reminded our waiter about the coffee but unfortunately, by then, there was only enough for 3 out of the 4 coffees because of the power outage so I offered my family to have theirs, I don't mind waiting. Then our food arrived after the power went back on but unfortunately, it was cold.. as if it was sitting out for awhile.. We weren't sure if was because it was forgotten or because the power went out but the food was cooked perfectly - it was just cold. We told our waiter only because he asked. Originally, we had also asked our waiter for extra sauce on the side for one of our orders but it was never delivered which we were charged for (but we weren't charged for the coffee, so that kind of compensated for that). Eventually, after roughly 45 minutes since we ordered our food, we got the last coffee. At that point, we asked if we could have some peanut butter but our waiter who seemed to be running around a lot, forgot - Though he remembered last minute and brought it... Although... He then proceeded to take my mother's plate when she got up to let my sister go out to the bathroom without asking first.. My mother likes saving the fruit for last which she never got to enjoy. I know things were hectic that day and that there was a lot of running around.. Specially to the bus-boy who literally walked around the restaurant without picking up a single plate for 20 minutes.. Watching him walk around aimlessly was kind of entertaining.. Although I feel bad for the rest of the staff for having to do his job..

We're not giving up on this place, we really do enjoy the food and waking up early to come in and have a proper breakfast is always worth the trip.. This time, it just really wasn't - We hope our next visit...

Went for Father's day, busy,busy. But expected. Waited for about half hr for table. Ordered coffee and drinks. Then ordered food about 10 mins after that. Took over half hr. Didnt see our server in between that time. Had someone come by once to offer coffee refill. Another server brought us our food. Could tell right away it was cold. Hollendaise sauce clumpy ( i assume made from a powder) and cold and a slight skin had started to form. My wife's breakfast quesadillas were cold as well. Looked thrown together. My one daughter had pancakes which she gobbled up. No issues. Other daughter had egg( super small portion) hashbrowns and way under cooked bacon ,so.under cooked that the fat looked congealed. I had to stop another server, cause ours was making smoothies for another table.( i was watching him) This server wasnt warm and fuzzy. We asked for the manager, which took awhile. When she did come, we explained everything and she was very apologetic. She offered to remake the food, but by this time we had been there ovr an hr, and really didnt wanna wait any longer. Kinda soured by the experience. She offered to comp my wife's and my food, Charged me for the pancake. And took 20% off my other daughters meal. Which is fine i guess. She also said she wished she could have offered us a gift card, but didn't have that authority.

The point of his rant is, I have worked in this imdustry for 25+yrs. I watched the open kitchen struggle with putting food out. The expo station had no expediter. I counted about 20 orders sitting waiting to go out. The servers were making smoothies, this takes them away from table maintenance. And there food is sitting and getting cold. The manager i delt with had her own section in the restaurant. And she told me she did not have the authority . So no real manager or owner that I saw. 3 out of our 4 meals where not good. If she did not have the authority to make it right, where was the person that could? The whole experience should have been made right. Hopefully no one else had an experience...

Breaks my heart to leave a review like this but alas honesty is the best policy.

We came on Easter Sunday & didn’t have to wait to be seated.

I ordered a coffee and asked for creamer as the table only has milk packets- the server never brought the creamer.

My partner had the smoothie, and it was tasty.

I ordered the bacon gourmandise which was supposed to be one eggs Benedict with a half waffle, fruit and potatoes. I asked to sub bagel instead of English muffin and said I would take the remainder of the bagel on the side. They brought me a full breakfast plate - sausage, bacon, eggs x2, a bagel side, half a waffle. I had to ask for Benny sauce and make them myself. The bagel was not worth the sub- it was dry and flavourless. It didn’t come with fruit. I realized later she ordered me the wrong meal which of course had a higher price than the Benny version.

My partner ordered a breakfast poutine with a side of fruit. He never got his fruit. So I’m not sure if maybe they just didn’t have fruit that day…? His breakfast poutine came with fries instead of breakfast potatoes and he was disappointed there. Not sure if that’s how it’s listed, it just seemed odd for a breakfast.

The server was friendly enough, despite forgetting items and then charging for them. They did remove the charge for the items not received, but it really put a damper on the breakfast experience. I’d shared with my partner it was one of the best places in town for breakfast and I left feeling like I let him down. Also let myself down and will think twice before returning to B&F for a breakfast or brunch when visiting.

Clean restaurant and it has a lot of natural light. Has French cafe vibes. The...