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| - Last night I visited Briggs for the first time, I actually didn't know the place existed but a couple friends threw out the idea and so this new food adventure began. Briggs' is on 10th Ave right beside Japanese Village, Craft and National, pretty solid area and works well with the parkade across the street.
Right away upon entering I was pretty impressed with the atmosphere and ambience, a good combination of upscale and trendy but still relaxed. This fell on game 5 of the Flames/Ducks series so it was probably a bit louder and noisier than what I'd imagine it usually is. We came well into the hockey game already starting (prior commitments), kind of on a whim not really expecting to get a table. Given the busy sporting occasion the immediate answer was they didn't have room with a view of the game. They did have some room in the dining room absent of TVs, but we were really hoping to catch the last half of the game. Upon further investigation they did end up suggesting a table with limited view, the booth sitting side had about an 80-90% view of the TV and the other side 40-50% with turned chairs. Nonetheless it was better than running around and trying to find another place with seats. The table was quite adequate in the end and I was quite happy they put in the effort to make it work. But at the same time had mixed feelings about how they thought "no" first with pretty firm unaccommodating regard. I'm big on customer service and thinking "yes" first.
From here the up and down continued, again I was really impressed with the environment and aesthetic of this restaurant/bar, they had a wide assortment of unique design touches that even extended into the washroom, this was topped off with an open concept kitchen that didn't hide anything. Beautiful establishment really. Where things were pulled down again was with the service, our server was very laid back and un-invested in making us feel welcome. He had a surfer like non-chalant demeanor which unfortunately translated to us feeling like he didn't care about making our experience a memorable one. He was quick enough on the initial drink order but then didn't follow up with our food order for probably a good 10-15 minutes, I would've accepted this had he been catering to the busier lounge but really he was only dealing with a smaller section and had approached other tables ignoring us at least once. Then came the upswing again...our food order came quick after we put it in and it was delicious! I had the "You Wrap Lettuce Wraps" they were great, a step above Earls and Cactus Club lettuce wraps IMO. Everyone else at the table was satisfied with their meals as well and the server did make sure to check-up on us during the meal. We enjoyed beers with our meals from a smaller draft/bottle selection that still had a couple unique options to make it quaint. Then the slight downhill drop again, when we needed to settle our tab our server was nowhere to found and we had to ask the manager for our bill. He did make a final appearance with the merchant machine to take care of the actual transaction and thank us though. I will say the manager was very kind and professional; he did help us secure the table to begin with and was quick to help us get the tab.
So all things considered I left Briggs' Kitchen + Bar with mixed emotions, it easily had the potential and resources to be a 5/5 but fell short on customer service on this occasion. Every time there was an uptick in something there was a pullback on something else, but overall it was more positive than negative which is why I'm giving them a 4/5 for this visit, I will be back to give them a shot at that 5/5 ;-).
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