| rev:text
| - It was originally a "1", but deservedly upgraded to a "3". I would go back, and their effort gets an A+. but ... there's a story here ... so read on if you so wish as my reviews can occasionally ramble on and on and on and on :D.
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First let me say that I am a big fan and regular at the King west location, and occasional patron of the Esplanade. Friends organized a birthday dinner, and selected this new Sherway location as the venue.
This place has just recently opened, so I cut them a very slight bit of slack to iron out the kinks and get this restaurant running smoothly.
Our experience started out with a reservation 3 weeks in advance (for 10ppl). 32 hours prior to our start time last night, we call in to update that we have an extra person joining us. They say "no". Their reasoning on the phone was that they were fully booked, and that they'd already tacked chairs onto a table for 8 for our group of 10. Shocked, we ask and what if that meant we'd cancel the entire reservation? The girl goes to (presumably) speak with a manager and returns to the phone to say "no".
I was so stunned by this that I promptly wrote up a YELP review --- to my happy surprise, the 1st review for the restaurant :). I then proceeded to paste a link to my review on the Bier Markt facebook wall (which was 'managed' so wasn't displayed to the public). I suggested to them that it wasn't too late to fix this problem, and that was all. I was prepared to not go (as I was the 11th person), but had a glimmer of hope that they would see it and fix it. And they did!
I commend Bier Markt (and/or their social media content manager) for first off seeing the post, and much more so for replying to it WITH A SOLUTION. They ended up giving us a table to accommodate the party - the "chef's table" which was a beautiful solid oak wooden table in a semi-private knook adjacent to the bar area. Good job for fixing the less than hospitable reservation experience, despite having to resort to my super-human, Elite powers in the Yelp community to urge this ;)
The hostesses were absolutely lovely upon entering. Warm and friendly and brought us to our table with a smile. Our petite vixen of a waitress was just as charming and attentive.
Having put myself through school and traveled the world as a waiter and bartender, I have great respect and admiration for good service and the hospitality industry in general ... but I can also be very discerning and critical.
The beers were all of course great, although they didn't have one I'd requested in stock. The food was very good, and at those price points what I would demand. My bit of feedback (as I know the good folks of the Bier Markt are checking back for this review) is regarding 'running' the food. Not a single runner (whether for beers, tea or the food) had a clue who ordered what. For a $20-50 entrees while drinking $6-20 gourmet beers, I expect the runners and/or server to direct exactly the right dish to the right person without disrupting our conversation or making us try to figure out if that is the pork schnitzel or veal schnitzel. The biggest problem on the running was that 2 guests had ordered the black angus burger. One rare and one medium-well. They weren't marked with a coloured toothpick or anything, and the runners didn't even know how each was cooked. We had to cut into them to guess. Turned out they were both well, which was close enough for one easy going and hungry soul. But Dave the blood thirsty burger eater had to wait 10 minutes into our meals to get his rare burger remade. I get it - mistakes can happen ... but when you're automatically adding a gratuity onto the bill, and charging the prices they do ... I expect more than these kinds of rookie hospitality industry gaffs.
So in summary - I am not writing this detail to slam the Bier Markt at all ... I'm writing it to encourage them to give the excellent level of service that I've come to enjoy at the King street location.
A+ for turning the experience around from an almost tragic blunder ... I hope you can instill this sense of hospitality management and customer service into each and every one of your staff.
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