I only came heard of this place when I found that I had an entertainment coupon and checked out their online menu which looked extremely appetizing. Their site also advertised a great 3 course meal for $23 which included any appetizer, any entree and any dessert so how could one go wrong? I came in with high expectations. The restaurant is located on the strip in Commercial with meter parking right outside.
The environment was very quaint and quiet. There's a TV at the super small bar playing the Canucks game but it was on mute.
We were greeted by the waitress who while very friendly, also gave us the bad news that the 3 course meal advertised online was old and that they just hadn't had time to update their website.... Instead, they offered a $25 set menu of an antipasto appetizer, a veal entree and tiramisu. Suffice to say, we were not interested in the meal nor impressed with the way the restaurant lures customers in. Also, the online menu is inaccurate and they do not carry most of the dinner nor dessert items.
I probably should have went elsewhere given the glut of restaurants nearby but figure I still had the entertainment coupon and I did for for parking so I might as well give it a shot.
Highlight of the night and probably the only one: their freshly baked bread is out of this world! Sometime after giving us the bread, I believe our waitress' shift was over as we never saw her again and instead we were served by another girl who looked like she didn't want to be at work and could care less about anyone.
Penne Pesto Pollo ~ ($15) - grilled chicken in pesto sauce. If you can spot the chicken in this picture, you have the eyesight of a hawk because I for the life of me could find any pieces of chicken in the dish. I, for one, am unable to comprehend how the chef can miss such a critical ingredient!? When I asked the waitress, she actually accused me of not looking hard enough. I asked her to look around and she refused. Finally, she said "ok, I'll ask the chef to give you additional chicken!". I said "No, it's not additional if there wasn't any to begin with and I do not expect to be charged extra for something that should have been there in the first place". She went back and microwaved a batch of dry chicken cubes and so my meal was totally soured by this experience.
Linguine Frutti de Mare ~ ($16) - assortment of seafood in cream sauce. Not bad but not outstanding. It's nothing you can't get elsewhere. I am a little surprised that they actually included seafood in a seafood linguini as I would have assumed it would be extra.
It should be noted that during dinner time, the only patrons in the restaurant were my guest and I. At no time during the meal were we checked on nor given water refills. We probably did not see the waitress for 30 minutes after being served and had to go up to flag her.
It was pretty gutsy of us to even consider dessert but given their offerings on their online menu, we couldn't pass up. Unfortunately, that menu is also out of date and they only had like 4 generic selections so we passed. It's funny how when it comes to pay the bill, the waitress acts super nice. Despite the missing chicken and lack of service, nothing was done on her end to appease us as paying customers other than a fake smile. Obviously, given our dining experience, we tipped her appropriately.
Highlights:
+ extremely good and fresh bread to start
+ they honoured the entertainment book coupon with no issues
Lowlights:
- false advertising with dinner special and menu offerings
- service, or lack thereof
- menu was plain and unspectacular
- missing chicken in a chicken pasta dish followed by microwaved dry chicken cubes
Rating: 2/10 -The only reason it gets a 2 is because the bread was very good. If you have an entertainment coupon, I'd say save your money. A lot of things went wrong this night and it was definitely enough for me to dissuade other people from going here.
604-253-1818 |
