I'm going to give this place a 2-star rating even though I should really give it a 1-star. But I'll explain in a minute.
Here's what you have to know, this place is a Ma and Pa shop staffed by the owners and a couple of youngsters they've hired. They simply cannot execute when it gets busy. Do not, I repeat, do not go there during prime dining times.
Setting - 3/5
Quaint, right off the main drag. They've got a parking lot around the side and 4 picnic tables out front. The outside dining area is bordered with some hedges. It's a nice setup, and there's some shade during the dinner hours and a parking lot around the side. Inside could probably seat 4-6 small tables. Relatively clean, but a bit dark inside. They have these metal/steel puzzle things hanging on the wall for patrons to try. Like the ones in Science World. During COVID? No thanks, I'll pass.
Service - 0/5
Okay this is the horrible part. We're 3 families and arrived at 6pm and got a table outside no problem. It didn't seem that busy, 3 small parties inside and a couple outside who were closed to finishing their meal. Water came out, so I'm thinking great, they're pretty fast. Since we have a large party, we look at the menu for about 5 minutes and were ready to order but no one's coming out.
Then I see people walking in from the street and going inside to do take-out orders at the counter. One large party and one smaller party. I also notice there's supposed to be table settings in the holders on the tables, but I could only see 2 or 3 settings and barely any napkins. We keep looking towards the inside and the dude is seeing us but doesn't come out. This happens many times. He keeps disappearing to the back and then to the inside tables.
A third family shows up and they also sit outside. The lady in the family immediately goes inside to order. Finally my friend gets up and goes inside to tell them we're ready to order. But by now, there's at least 3 orders ahead of ours and possibly some phone orders as well.
10 mins later the dude comes out and takes the orders. So at this time, it's 6:45pm. Shortly after, a young girl (13-14ish) comes out and tries to clear one of the picnic table. She can't do it in one shot, so has to go back twice as the plates etc are heavy. I'm guessing this is the daughter.
I'm looking inside and hardly anyone is getting any food. Amazingly the family soon got their food. I would estimate they waited 20mins or less. Maybe because they ordered a pizza and two burgers while others like us ordered BBQ? Or maybe they are regular customers. I'm not sure why they got their food so fast compared to everyone else.
We all ordered the larger platter items, nothing complicated, just the usual BBQ items. It's 7:45pm now. Our food came out first. The food is luke warm. The 2nd family's food came out 5 mins later. But the 3rd family in the party, their food didn't come out until 25 mins later. I felt really bad for their kids, we tried to give them some of ours but the parents declined saying their food should be coming out soon.
Food - 2/5
Ribs were a bit tough or maybe too lean, not fall off the bone as I expected. The flavour was a bit bland though you get 2 different sauces on the side.
Sausages, more flavourful but again a bit too lean. Similar to store-bought that you make at home.
The pulled pork was okay but not shredded well, there were some large clumps.
The chicken wings and drummettes were tender but the flavour was a bit on the sour side.
Baked potatoes were a fail, they were not fluffy and even though they're called "loaded" the toppings were sparse, just dusting of bacon bits, cheese and green onions. The flesh stuck to the skin. I'm thinking these were microwaved.
The best part was the corn bread. They were delicious.
I'm not even a great BBQer but I firmly believe I could have made better BBQ than this place. Maybe because it's Sechelt and there's not much dining options, but I really can't believe so many other diners are giving this place 4-stars or 5-stars. Have they not had good BBQ before?
Summary - 2/5
I'm only giving 2 out of 5 because I feel bad for the kids. This is a family business and a negative review will obviously affect their livelihood.
But at the end of the day, the owner shouldn't be taking all these orders knowing that he can't execute. He should have asked the takeout people to wait and came to take our order first. And if he had told us it'd be 1.5 to 2hrs before we got our food, we could have went somewhere else. You're better off turning away business than turning out shitty service. read more