I have never written a review on Yelp but my harrowing experience at Nook last night has compelled me to do so about this restaurant where I not only had the worst customer service experience of my life but also in turn had the worst personal experience of a Canadian since I've been living in the country these 3 years.
My husband and I decided to pick up some take out from Nook for the first time (5 mins walk from home and great reviews helped us make our location selection). We went in and placed an order for olives, ricotta crostini, spag bol and prosciutto pizza. We waited for the food (pizza was done way before the rest and sat on the counter = slight panic but let's not judge too early), got home and pasta had zero (and I mean ZERO) seasoning so was quite tasteless and the pizza was STONE cold (not cooled on the 5min walk home cold), but more importantly had not been cooked for long enough, prosciutto and arugula was totally raw - just a few more minutes to crisp that up would have done the trick . As foodies in search of a stellar Italian take out dinner to pair with our 05 Tignanello we decided to take these two dishes back. And here's where it all goes pear-shaped.
I ran in with the two boxes and spoke to the server who helped us place the order half an hour before, she did not apologize and proceeded to tell me "perhaps your taste buds weren't suited to the food" and given this there wasn't much she could do. Now as a server myself it is not the first time I've seen this 'respond to your customer in a way that makes it seem like it's their mistake not the restaurant's' routine and needless to say it is not the best way to appease your customer and build your business's reputation! So I interjected at this point, explaining that I am a server and I understood what she was doing here and it was not going to work on me (what I was looking for was an apology and an offer to replace the food with fresh items or a refund, which I think is fair?). By this point the manager Brad was standing next to her listening and interceded and said "well we WERE going to be nice to you but not anymore, you need to F**K off". I couldn't believe my ears!! (And bear in mind the restaurant was full and this was right in front of guests). I asked "I beg your pardon?" He said "Yes that's right F**K off out of here" I said I did not think this was an appropriate way to speak to a customer and he said he didn't care and then THREATENED me saying "if you don't leave here very soon we're going to have a huge problem, so you need to F**K off". (I feel that it is necessary here to clarify that I am a sane, rational person and I had not done ANYTHING to provoke this kind of reaction. Both my husband and I work as servers at (different) Gastown restaurants that are well reviewed for food and service. We understand the industry to a certain extent and that probably makes us more critical than most but I want to emphasise that I am NOT exaggerating what happened here!!). At this point one of the two chefs cooking (Mike) interceded to speak with me and Brad walked away. While at least Mike spoke to me in a civil manner and listened to my complaint he said there wasn't much he could do and if I were to speak with the owner he would probably also treat me the same way(!!!). To paraphrase the rest of the conversation with Mike I was told that they never get complaints about this particular pizza so it must be me being difficult (I hate when people talk about how they've been to Italy when comparing Italian food in North America, but I have - I'm a Brit and have holidayed there many times, so I've had plenty of Prosciutto pizza and it is not served cold and raw there so my pizza expectations at least have some foundation), that they don't need my business as they are very busy anyway so they weren't really prepared to do anything. I pressed him saying this was unfair as this means they've basically stolen from me as I have no refund and no food (Brad had taken it from me a few minutes earlier), so Mike arranged a refund and I left.
Incidentally we went to get take out from Incendio in Gastown instead and their pizza and pasta was a million times better than Nook's could ever have been, I just wish we'd known they delivered to the West End and we would have avoided this fiasco!!!
The food wasn't even that bad at Nook - some seasoning on one dish and a little more time in the oven on the other could have made this a decent (but not great) meal. Even if I HAD been rude I don't think it could EVER justify me being spoken to in this manner, to go as far as being threatened - which, OK, it's not like I feared for my life or anything, but still is un-nerving when you're a five foot two woman and these words are coming from a six foot man. I have never been treated this way in Canada and as someone who works in the industry I am saddened that someone like this is representing its wonderful food industry. read more