I understand this is one of the oldest restaurants in Nanaimo, but their sister restaurant ‘2 Chefs’ was the superior restaurant, both for food and servers who actually cared. Alas, they are no longer. Sundays, you couldn’t get in it was always so busy.
Let me tell you what transpired yesterday. We took our two dear friends to breakfast. The restaurant was their choice. We arrived ahead of them and got a table at the rear of the restaurant, by the kitchen. Our friend uses a walker and we needed more space.
Two servers, standing at the counter by the entrance door, kept talking to themselves and ignored those who entered. I finally asked them if we seated ourselves or have to wait to be seated. The one girl turned her head and said, just a minute. The other, just ran off to the kitchen.
Finally seated we ordered our coffee and waited for our friends to arrive. The new thing here is live music and they were good. BUT the area is too small for the musicians to make any kind of mark. It just echoes and is quite loud. We could not understand one word being spoken at our table.
After a few moments when our friends arrived, we ordered our breakfast. Judy and my Don ordered the eggs benny and our other Don ordered, what he called his monthly bacon and eggs. I ordered the waffle.
This is the actual conversation after breakfast. For the eggs benny the ham was so tough, it was difficult to cut. The eggs were not poached free form, which is the correct way but set in a form and placed in a water bath. They were just steamed not poached. The potatoes were a mix of yams and white potatoes but were cold to the touch and soggy, not crisp.
The waffle was really different from 2 Chefs. It had 3 slices of waffle, some tiny pieces of fruit set on the side and a small dollop of whipped cream on top. No butter and not enough syrup to make the waffle tasty. Besides the syrup was ice cold. The waffle (one of them) was crispy on the edge with sugar, so appeared gritty.
The servers on the other hand, thump around the restaurant like they are pounding a drum with their feet. One of them never just walked but thumped. We watched two servers stand in the middle of the aisle chatting and giggling while a patron stood behind them, waiting to pass through. Yup! The customers really matter.
It was nice to see our dear friends again, but we will look a little further.Sorry guys, my husband and I were last in your restaurant 3 years ago. The pasta we had (on street tables) was like glue so we said that was our last time. W tried it again, but for us, it was a disappointment.
