Billy Can Can — Restaurant in Dallas

First time I've written a bad review in a while. Went here tonight and sat at the bar with my husband. We've lived in the neighborhood for 3 years and finally wanted to try this place since it looks pretty nice. Top 5 the worst service I've ever had. We sit down and the bartender (bald guy) didn't acknowledge us at all but kept making eye contact. Then one of his bar backs pours out ice he was using and he yells at him in front of us and the other customers "why would you do that?! I was using it for his drink" gave off really bad energy right away between the employees, you could def feel the tension with body language too. The bar back slams waters in front of us and doesnt say a peep, you can tell hes mad. 10-15 minutes goes by, still nobody has came by to say literally anything to us, the bartender is continuing making eye contact with us, and the bartender we've been sitting literally 12" away from he ask his associate (girl with shorter brown hair, several tattoos)"are they good" as he nods his head to us. First time I've seen her, I thought I was sitting on his bar because we we sitting directly in front of where he was standing making drinks the whole time. Not one hi hello nothing from anyone we were just sitting there with the waters the barback gave us (didn't say one word to us either). He was helping others at the bar and wasn't just making drinks, so not sure why not us as we were sat literally directly in front of his drink station.

Anyways she walks up hands us our menus and is extremely short with us, no intros not hello, like literally nothing. Ive worked in restaurants for many years, i promise i am patient and understand when things are busy. This is not it, keep reading. It's 9 pm and the place is probably like 65-70% full.. we finally were able to order drinks and an appetizer then the lady (who I guess is our server?? I'm not sure at this point if it's the bald guy or her, literally nobody introduced themselves or were friendly at all) she disappears to the other side of the bar where she is taking shot after shot with customers at the bar, screaming with them, dancing and skipping at the bar, then some customer puts money in the cleavage of her shirt. She takes off her apron then comes to the bartender in front of us and says "they gave me $5 to take off my apron!" At this point I'm really mad and so is husband because we've been trying to order food and she won't even look our way for us to flag her down. The bald bartender picks up on it I guess? And rudely is like "do yall guys need anything?" And we both say yea we've been trying to order food. He says "okay, order"...like no "sorry", no "I'm your server now" still nothing in terms of effor from either one of these people.

Then two people sit next to us at the bar and apparently the customer knows the lady that is "bartending", i think he is a regular and is with a date because he introduces his friend to the bartender" She comes and of course gives them service right away, gets them drinks, and in facts has a shot with them! As they cheers she says "I'm going to take this shot and clock out" at this point its so bizarre I have no idea what is going on around me. It's so chaotic in this place and I'm wondering where is management.

I kid you not we are still waiting on our food, I'm afraid to talk to the grumpy as heck guy and the other girl bartender is now drunk and apparently just decided to clock out even though she was our waiter? This woman literally clocked out because about 5 minutes later she comes back behind the counter, but now she's changed clothes, she pours herself a glass of wine and comes beside us to talk to her cusoltomers and has more drinks with them (one point she has a whole bottle of wine in her hand) & they are taking selfies and everything, like she literally forgot about us and didn't acknowledge us at all. It was so wild her drinking right by us why were waiting on our food. Very visibly drunk. I saw management (cowboy cat and red plaid shirt?) Witness some of this and acted like...

We really wanted to like it here but our experience fell short in so many ways. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted and taken to our seats at the back of the restaurant in a more dark, private area. We thought it was fantastic as it was for a valentines meal and we wanted it to be special for us.

The waiter came over and introduced himself. He asked if there were any allergies that he should be aware of, to which I replied yes, I am completely dairy free. He then went on to say ‘ohhh pretty much everything on our menu has butter in it’ - I was so shocked by this because even if this is the case, surely the restaurant should be ready to prepare meals using alternatives for people who have dietary restrictions like dairy free, gluten free etc? The waiter then said that items on the menu that he knows won’t have dairy would be the steak frites and the red snapper. I hated the fact that I was being told those were the only two things that I could order as neither of them sounded good to me. Not to mention the steak frites were one of the most expensive items on the menu at $37.

We then went on to order our starters - venison tartare and devilled eggs. The starters came and the smell of melted butter was unbearable - the ciabatta that came with the tartare had been smothered in butter. I could not believe it! I thought at this point I had made it pretty clear that I could not eat dairy. We sat in disbelief waiting on our waiter coming back over to check in on us - at this point he was chatting to the table next to us while leaning his hand on the chair that was literally on our table and next to my fiancé. When he eventually came to check on us, I told him about the ciabatta to which he replied ‘oh sorry let me get you some new bread’. Again, I was SHOCKED. Surely wait staff should know that if someone has an intolerance to something, simply swapping one thing on the plate for another is not sufficient as at this point the butter had touched the rest of the food and the plate. He then took away the plate and another waiter came over with my butter free venison tartar - the new waiter said ‘so you can’t have butter huh?’ I awkwardly laughed and said no I can’t. I hated the fact he said this as it made me feel like a weird spectacle to everyone - I refuse to believe that I am the FIRST EVER dairy free person to walk through the doors of Billy Can Can.

We ate our starters and then waited for our mains. When the mains came I was again SHOCKED that I had been given a little pot of Heinz tomato ketchup with my steak frites instead of the ‘steak sauce’ that was listed on the menu. I have no problems with substitutes, in fact, I welcome them. However, I do have a problem with being given ketchup with a $37 meal and no one even informing me that this was going to be the case. At this point I already felt as if I was a nuisance to the staff in the restaurant so I stayed quiet and just ate my meal. I also think it’s worth mentioning that I asked for my steak to be cooked rare and it came medium rare - the outskirts of it was tougher than old boots.

After the main, the waiter came over and said ‘dessert menu? Oh wait, you’re dairy free never mind. I’ll get the cheque’. The fact I was basically told that I would not be having dessert in the restaurant was so uninviting and unprofessional. We waited on the cheque and I was hoping to see some kind of discount as a gesture of goodwill due to how awful our meal went, but there was no money taken off at all, just a charge of ‘free ciabatta’ at $0.00. FREE ciabatta? You mean to tell me that there was a possibility that we would have had to pay for a second ciabatta simply because your staff can’t take allergies seriously and are incapable of smothering butter over things?

I have been to plenty of restaurants around the DFW area and I have to say that this was the worst experience I have ever had. The staff are unprofessional and are not trained on how to deal with dietary requests or allergies whatsoever. Do NOT recommend! Save your money and...

Update: upping my review to 5 stars. Came back with two other couples for another night out. Every item that touched our table was delicious and perfectly cooked. I didn’t even regret going for the vegetarian entree: summer ravioli not was perfection on a plate. The cocktails were exceptional (especially the watermelon Fresca spiked (with my choice of gin). Our server was great. It was a great night wit great friends.

What a fun place! Came here for a moms’ night out and really enjoyed ourselves.

Service: fantastic! We had Brenton who was super friendly and efficient. Not a single complaint. We ordered “family style” and he made sure to bring everything out so we could easily share. Such a thoughtful touch. Drinks were kept filled, and our table clean too.

Food: overall very good but there is some room for improvement. Let me add that there were some real winners and nothing we had would make me not want to come back. We ate “family style”, so I’m going to list it all.

Snapper crudo: perfection. My favorite app. The fish was fresh and the salsa on top was the perfect compliment.

Deviled eggs: very good. I don’t mind deviled eggs, but I don’t just love them. My companions seemed to really enjoy them though. You got three different kinds. One had blue crab and two had crispy bacon but were different. If you like deviled eggs, definitely give these a try.

Oysters on the half shell: we had three from each location giving us each one to try from each location. Love eating oysters side by side like this. It’s fun to see the subtle and sometimes overt differences. Both were fresh (not always true for Texas oysters) and delicious.

Rabbit pot pie: this was on special when we went. If it’s on special when you go, GET THIS!!!! Even if you’ve never had rabbit, get it. It was absolute perfection. The flavor was awesome. And only the top is crusted, so it wasn’t as rich as some pot pies can be. But it was seriously so good. And the salad that came with it was the perfect compliment.

Duck pappardelle: very good. Ducky was juicy and delicious, but this dish is mostly the pasta. It was a tad bland (and I say this as someone who tends to be salt sensitive and doesn’t like over salted food). The dish was cooked well, so maybe it was just a one off on blandness.

Catch of the day: grouper. This was very good as well. The fish was slightly dry (maybe waited too long for the other dishes under the heat lamp?). But overall enjoyable and we finished it.

Apple crisp: very good. Heavy on the cinnamon and apples could have cooked just a bit longer (I prefer them on the soft side). But overall, it was quite delicious.

Pb&grape mousse: surprisingly my favorite dessert we ordered. Everything about was just so good. I’m not normally a big mousse girl, but I loved this. It was soft like I expected, but a cut “brick” like it had been in the chiller for awhile. I loved that it was like this. Felt more like an ice cream bar or something. Idk. This was just a really good dessert. I’d get it again for sure.

Overall, this is just a cool place. If you’ve ever been to whiskey cake in Plano, it might feel like it’s saloon sister restaurant (though they aren’t related for real). But the food is fresh and thoughtful. The decor fun but elegant. Just a great place to go on a date or with friends.

Note: it’s in victory park and valet parking is $5 WITH validation. Make sure you validate, as...