"I'd give it one star but there is still a pretty good selection of food here and you don't feel sick after eating it. It's a buffet - you get a plate and stack some edible items onto your plate. However, here's what I don't like about this place. First off, the weight thing. This isn't Soviet Russia. I don't want to pay for my food based on how heavy it is (yes, you have to do this). I dare you to try not spending 8 bucks on a pitiful pile of spaghetti. The food is good, but never good enough to justify the expense. Would you go to a restaurant where the concept is essentially, \"We are going to give you a meal that will leave you hungry once you're done and will cost an unknown amount, but probably more than you can afford\"? I don't think so.\n\nI'm a stickler for customer service. Now I'm aware you don't technically have to tip the people who work here, but they could at least pretend they like their jobs. I usually tip anyway (I don't know why, because it is usually completely unearned). Don't act like you're going to fight me when I ask where I can get some water - that would be a start. Side note - I read a lot of reviews in Montreal on Yelp from ignorant tourists/Anglophones that think that they got shitty service because they can't speak French. This is nearly never the case; however, it is almost always a case of inadequate customer service and shitty business practices. How about you hire people who like their job? And how about knocking the prices down a little bit?\n\nHere's what my average experience here has been like (when I used to go): I'll be hungry and I'll walk by this place, and I'll remember that I'm vegan and decide to go in. I'll fill about half my plate with some mediocre food. Then, I'll walk to the cash register, and the cashier will look at me like I started the Holocaust as she tells me that I owe her $18.23. It's not like you can change your mind and put the food back once you realize how much everything actually costs. There's no way to even guess how much it's going to be. Then, I sit down and shamefully eat my too-shitty-to-cost-this-much vegan meal and I realize I'm still hungry. Now I can either go take the metro to some other vegan restaurant or lose more dignity by buying more food here. Usually, for some reason, in the past I would choose to buy more food at the buffet because it was more convenient. Then one day I realized that Commensal offers a line of expensive food at the grocery store that you can buy if you're in a bind. It's expensive and not as great as if you make it yourself, but better than feeling like you're eating lunch at a prison.\n\nPaying by weight is as ludicrous as tipping a waiter based on how many footsteps they took in bringing your food. You worked like a dog for your money - unless you're dying of starvation and/or rich and/or masochistic, go spend your hard-earned cash elsewhere."^^ . . "1"^^ . "5"^^ . . "2011-10-06T00:00:00"^^ . "3"^^ . "2"^^ . .