I really wanted to like this place - it has stylish decor and an eclectic, fine-dining meets grandma's house in Mayberry sort of menu. But after two lackluster dining experiences and one horrible experience, it is time to give up and review Relish for what is is: all style and no substance, with bizarre service to boot. I love food, and I am generally not very hard to please, but I will never, ever eat at Relish again.
My first time there was about a year ago and I had an unmemorable, overcooked burger that was more "meatloaf patty" than proper burger. The meat tasted strongly of onions and garlic, which I can only assume were added to cover up the taste of poor quality meat, which had an overworked sausage-like texture. It is not difficult to make a good, juicy burger, so that should have clued me in to the lack of skill in the kitchen. To be fair, I have yet to have a truly good burger in Nelson, and for some strange reason most restaurants here tend toward meatloaf/meatball/sausage style burgers (Bogustown Pub is the single exception I have found so far - just straight-up beef, and only slightly overcooked), but for $16 at a "real" restaurant like Relish, I expected a lot more. I expected a place where the kitchen staff would take some pride in sourcing and showcasing quality ingredients, rather than cheaping out and adding fillers to their hamburger patties.
My second experience was a few months ago. My brother was in town visiting and we could not get a reservation at All Seasons or Bibo, so I figured I would give Relish another try. Wow, this place gets very loud on a Saturday night. It was almost nightclub loud in there, and they were blasting horrible music. Not a good vibe when you just want to relax after skiing all day. I had an uninspired salmon dish, which I think may have been a special that night. I honestly could have cooked something better for myself at home and saved a whackload of money. On the other hand, my brother seemed to enjoy his fisherman's pie. The service was extremely slow and extremely flaky. We were brought someone else's appetizer and both started eating it before we realized that it wasn't ours.
We then watched in horror as our waitress picked the plate up from our table and brought it directly to another table. She KNEW we had had our hands in it. Nasty! When we finally got the appetizer we ordered (poutine) it was not good. It was extremely dry - never a good quality in poutine. Again, poutine is a dish that is pretty difficult to screw up, even at a fast food restaurant, so the fact that it was sub-par says a lot about relish.
I did not have a choice on my last trip to Relish. It was chosen by my dining companions. I thought it would be a safe bet to order the fisherman's pie, since my brother had thoroughly enjoyed it. I was wrong. First of all, it was nothing like the dish that my brother received, which was bursting with large chunks of seafood and had a delicious-looking crust on top. The dish I received was a flavourless milky broth with a few small pieces of mystery fish floating around in it and a slightly sour tang. A few bland white breadcrumbs were thrown on top and turned into a mushy paste as soon as I stuck my spoon in the dish. Once again, the service was also bad.
I left Relish vowing never to return (my friends were also unimpressed with the food and the service). Then, within about 15 minutes of leaving I became violently ill. I will spare you the details, but the fish was twice as bad on the way back up. I have not gotten food poisoning this bad in my entire life - I was out of commission for 2 days, and could only eat toast and applesauce for a week!
You suck, Relish! read more