131 replies to this topic

[gumgum]

Well I certainly now side more with Mike seeing how the restaurant has handled this on VV.

[lanforod]

I've been planning to try out Brasserie for a while. Anniversery coming up in a couple of weeks, was thinking then. First time.

We will probably still go, but my eyes will be wide open for two issues now - service issues and how good my steak will be (assuming I order steak). I'm usually very laid back about service at restaurants, but if my steak ain't right, I send it back. I've sent back a steak twice a couple of times.

[pherthyl]

Some places are noisy. Pag's is a good example. Loud rooms with tables quite close to eachother. 

 

Bingo. One of the reasons I don't go to Pag's anymore.   Just too crowded in there.  As good as the food is I don't want to be bumping elbows with the next table.   Brasserie has been top notch every time we went though and not nearly as crowded or noisy.   Still, it's not where you go if you want a quiet private dining experience. 

[Jason-L]

Of course, the people at the table Mike was complaining about are also customers.  And if we go with the arguments on here, at the point when management/servers came over to tell them to be quiet, those people were entitled to a comp'd meal and drinks, too, because those people are also always right.

 

We are all special snowflake rainbow unicorns...

[S. Brennan]

Mike i would like to apologize for your experience at Brasserie. I am writing this to comment on the food only as that's my department. One member has posted all the negative reviews from trip adviser and yelp stating that we seem to have issues with our steaks. The reviews go back to 2012, I believe there was around 20 posted. I remember most of them as I take this type of thing very seriously. Some are so far from the truth and some are spot on. Since the beginning of 2012 up until now we have served about 31000 steaks. We have strict guide lines for how we cook our beef and the type we serve. Unfortunately mistakes do happen which we learn from. Its not fair to my very hard working kitchen staff to have people saying there is problems with our food. If you do the math its a pretty low  percentage of complaints. There was obviously much greater issues than the food that night I will stay out of that. I'm just the guy in the back. Ok let the trashing begin.

[pherthyl]

Mike i would like to apologize for your experience at Brasserie. I am writing this to comment on the food only as that's my department. One member has posted all the negative reviews from trip adviser and yelp stating that we seem to have issues with our steaks. The reviews go back to 2012, I believe there was around 20 posted. I remember most of them as I take this type of thing very seriously. Some are so far from the truth and some are spot on. Since the beginning of 2012 up until now we have served about 31000 steaks. We have strict guide lines for how we cook our beef and the type we serve. Unfortunately mistakes do happen which we learn from. Its not fair to my very hard working kitchen staff to have people saying there is problems with our food. If you do the math its a pretty low  percentage of complaints. There was obviously much greater issues than the food that night I will stay out of that. I'm just the guy in the back. Ok let the trashing begin.

 

Well said.   Pretty shocked to see that VicBooster took the time to copy over the few bad reviews on TripAdvisor to here, when the place has a 4.5 star rating on that site.  Clearly a bad steak is the exception and not the rule.

 

Makes me think there's an ulterior motive behind that attack as it doesn't seem to be based on truth.  Perhaps VicBooster is a competitor.

[Mike K.]

Mike i would like to apologize for your experience at Brasserie. I am writing this to comment on the food only as that's my department. One member has posted all the negative reviews from trip adviser and yelp stating that we seem to have issues with our steaks. The reviews go back to 2012, I believe there was around 20 posted. I remember most of them as I take this type of thing very seriously. Some are so far from the truth and some are spot on. Since the beginning of 2012 up until now we have served about 31000 steaks. We have strict guide lines for how we cook our beef and the type we serve. Unfortunately mistakes do happen which we learn from. Its not fair to my very hard working kitchen staff to have people saying there is problems with our food. If you do the math its a pretty low percentage of complaints. There was obviously much greater issues than the food that night I will stay out of that. I'm just the guy in the back. Ok let the trashing begin.

Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to write, I really do.

[dasmo]

I've always had a good time and meal at Brasserie. When I want to break from my usual vegetarian diet and eat beast and frites I go here. Still will...

[Dexter]

I hesitate to weigh in on this one but there are some big issues about the perceptions of restaurants and customer service expectations being made here. Having worked in the business for the past 25 years, my opinions may be a bit biased but I will let you decide. To start, I must say that the proprietors of Brass, Marc and Sean, are consummate professionals and extremely dedicated to their business. No restaurant owner, especially one of this calibre, ever wants to upset a customer, nor enter into a debate such as this online. I have been faced with the exact scenario of a vulgar but well spending table that was affecting the experience of other guests. Sometime it can be defused with a no-f-bomb joke to the loud party, and other times there is no making anybody happy. Would a free drink really have displaced the reviewer's frustration? Probably not but it might have stopped him from dragging the whole episode out on line.

This incident is a good situation to discuss the benefits of the online review systems out there and the damage they can cause. Sean mentions roughly 20 poor steaks out of 31000? That's 0.000645% of the total served yet he's raked over the grill for having a problem with cooking steaks. Another case I know of involving trip advisor, a place has 8 one to two star ratings out of 100 review, but have served 48000 since it opened. The proportion of reviews to happy customers is never going to be realistic. In my case, I address every review issue raised with management and staff in order to not end up in that situation again, however that black mark of a bad online review stays there forever, branding the business with a black eye.

The goal of every restauranteur is to serve their customers graciously with the best product possible. We never want someone to leave unsatisified. In this case, some things could have been done on the spot to remedy the situation, however I'm pretty sure that the owners/manager weren't sitting in the office watching you tube videos and wilfully ignoring the quality of their guests' experience. Customers expect perfection 100% of the time and if a restaurant fails 0.000645% they get trashed in online reviews. People need to realize the effect these reviews can have. 1% of happy guests will leave a review, 90% of unhappy guests will leave a review. Are the tripadvisor stats really representative of overal guest experience? I think not. Yet it will heavily skew the perception of anyone who looks online for information. At the end of the day, they affect everyone who works in the place. 20 employees, and their ability to support their families are affected. People's personal reputations are affected. Many customers may not care about this important aspect of the business as they only care about their night out that wasn't what they were expected. As for the staff at Brass I would say that none of them would make it to such a place In the industry if they didn't care about their customer's experience. Personally I feel the trend of online reviews is heading in a negative direction with anonymous, irrefutable comments that may or may not represent the whole truth. If you have a negative experience in a restaurant and want to effect real change, then give the operator a change to correct the situation. The last bad situation I had to deal with because of server error resulted in 3 phone calls the next day to complain. All 3 guests came back, were treated to the experience they expected and left happy. Give a restauranteur a chance to correct the mistake and before you trash them, ask yourself, do your achieve perfection at your job 99.935%? Probably not.

[pherthyl]

1% of happy guests will leave a review, 90% of unhappy guests will leave a review. Are the tripadvisor stats really representative of overal guest experience? I think not.

 

Sure but that applies to any restaurant so it should still be comparable although overall impression from reviews will trend to be more negative than reality.   And yet despite that, the tripadvisor reviews are about as good as you're going to get at 4.5 stars.   So I don't think Brass has anything to worry about.  

 

I look up reviews before going somewhere, but I don't care so much about what they say.  Only thing I look out for is either a general trend of people reporting bad food, or a reversal in the trend of reviews (like a restaurant that started out good and went downhill).

Edited by pherthyl, 27 September 2015 - 09:49 AM.

[johnk]

I thought it was out of line to drag in the Trip Advisor comments. That was piling on unrelated to Mike's issue.

[Mike K.]

Give a restauranteur a chance to correct the mistake and before you trash them, ask yourself, do your achieve perfection at your job 99.935%? Probably not.

It's a simple request, really, to ask a group of patrons filling an entire dining space with noise to tone it down. My request wasn't to get something for free or get a discount. It's not about the money for me.

I've stated it already but I'll repeat myself. I told the individual I spoke with what my intention was and she was aware I would be writing an op-ed/review on VibrantVictoria and I couldn't in good faith not mention the laissez faire response to my legitimate and reasonable request, so I asked another time if they would be willing to act on our behalf, but again, only excuses for the behaviour were provided.

That's not good enough. Any one of you here if you had been in my situation, any one of you, would have felt the exact same way. There should be no tolerance for lewd and disruptive behaviour in a formal dining setting. It's embarrassing, it's uncomfortable and it's childish.

I eat out, with no word of a lie, 60 times a month. Virtually every lunch and dinner. I know what a response to unruly behavior looks like, I've seen it, and I've seen it dealt with in a cool, collected manner that leaves everyone happy. There is a way, believe me, and it doesn't start with an excuse. Disregarding me and my girlfriend and being made to feel like we were obtuse for expecting civility left me feeling bewildered.

I've said all I hav to say. Everyone has an opinion and is entitled to it, and you all know by now that I may not always agree with what some of you have to say on a myriad of issues but I'll defend your right to say it.

I would also like to thank S. Brenner for taking the time to address me. Again, it was much appreciated.

[sebberry]

I eat out, with no word of a lie, 60 times a month.

 

You must have one hell of a workout plan. 

[Gary H]

...

 

Sean mentions roughly 20 poor steaks out of 31000? That's 0.000645% of the total served ...

 

Just to clarify the math, 20/31,000 = 0.000645, but that's not the percentage (per 100), you've got to shift the decimal two places right for that, resulting in 0.0645%.  It's still a very low percentage, less than 1/10 of 1% but it's two orders of magnitude greater than what you wrote. 

Edited by Gary H, 27 September 2015 - 11:32 AM.

[Mike K.]

You must have one hell of a workout plan.

Don't get me started...

[VicHockeyFan]

I've loved the Brasserie every time I've been. I even shared with Mike K. privately a bit of a fun story about my experiences there.

I love the place. Granted I go on slower nights. The show up and wait thing seems odd to me so I just avoid those busy times.

[dasmo]

I've loved the Brasserie every time I've been. I even shared with Mike K. privately a bit of a fun story about my experiences there.

I love the place. Granted I go on slower nights. The show up and wait thing seems odd to me so I just avoid those busy times.

You don't have to wait too long. The system is to show up at 5 wait till 5:30 if you don't get in the first sitting get your name on the list and go get a drink. Then return for the second sitting. It's been a while but I believe the will give you a call with the heads up that it's looking like it's time to wrap things up and return.  It's a great system. As a customer you can get in if you aren't a long range planner. As a restaurant, you don't have empty tables with customers waiting.... 

Edited by dasmo, 27 September 2015 - 12:58 PM.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ Oh ya, for sure it has positives and negatives.  I'm not saying the system is bad, just different.

[Mike K.]

Actually the system works quite well. They give you a range, then they text you the time of arrival.

[RoadRunner]

...

 

I look up reviews before going somewhere, but I don't care so much about what they say.  Only thing I look out for is either a general trend of people reporting bad food, or a reversal in the trend of reviews (like a restaurant that started out good and went downhill).

 

Another interesting site to go to check out a restaurant is the VIHA Food Facility Inspections site:

http://www.healthspa...f/Food-Frameset