would not return. after reading wonderful reviews of cafe dario, our group of four were quite excited to visit the restaurant for the first time. it was absolutely the worst dining experience i, and the rest of my party, have ever had.
first of all, the waitress was not overly friendly and never went into depth about the options on the menu. we sat near the kitchen, and the atmosphere wasn't entirely intriguing.
our first course consisted of a choice of an appetizer, which were delicious. next was the soup, which sounded delicious, but was overly salted.
it wasn't until our third course (salad), that our experience went downhill. there were major descrepancies with the course. we called to the waitress, explained what happened, she apologized and went to speak with the chef. as we were seated near the kitchen, we could overhear everything that the chef and waitress were saying. the chef denied our complaint and refused to acknowledge the descrepancy.
next came the entree course, which looked amazing. the vegetables, including mashed potatoes were excellent, as were the sauces. the meat, however, was greatly overcooked. while ordering our courses, i told the waitress i wanted my meat done medium rare (i ordered the 6oz beef tenderloin). two other party members ordered the duck and asked for it to be cooked medium rare as well. one of the party members, who had never eaten duck before, asked for it to be medium to well done. the waitress indicated that duck needed to be eaten at medium rare to fully enjoy the flavours and so that it would be juicy and not dry. both members told the waitress they would have medium rare cooked duck. when we receieve our main entree, my steak was "done" and nowhere near pink on the inside. the members who ordered the duck received two well done entrees as well.
i mentioned to the table, quietly that my tenderloin was overcooked. the chef was obviously snooping in our conversations and he said to me "it's not cooked how you like it? okay, i will make you another one." at this point we were running late for our next engagement and i told him nicely that he did not need to make me another one, that the one i had was fine, but it was overcooked. he continuely insisted that he make me another one and i told him, moreso annoyed at this point becuase he was constantly interrupting our dining experience, that i did not want another steak.
about 5 minutes later, the waitress brought out another tenderloin cut with the sauces and scoop of mashed potatoes. i was becoming full at this point and gave this portion to another member of our table, who upon taking a first bite found another descrepancy! at this point, we were becoming increasingly agitated and just wanted to leave. once again, when brought to the attention of the chef, he denied our complaint and became rude towards us.
at this point, we simply asked for the cheque and said we would not be eating our dessert. the waitress then brought out a gift certificate from the chef that indicated we could get a free lunch each at a later date. we nicely asked for a discount on our meal. the waitress took back the gift certificate to the chef, who then loudly complained that he would not do this.
in the end, we barely ate our salads, did not receive dessert, and were only deducted a miniscle amount off our cheques. needless to say we did not leave a tip.
i will never return to this restaurant. our party goes out on usual occasions to try new independant restaurants in the city to support them. we think it is imperative for independant restaurants in the city to become successful in order for winnipeg to thrive and for patrons to have choice in where to eat, instead of visiting the same old chain restaurants over and over. therefore, we do not complain unless there is something significantly wrong with our meals, atmosphere, service, etc. unfortunately, this was the case with cafe dario. however, the way that the waitress and chef handled this situation is unacceptable and completely unprofessional. the chef has no right to be listening in on our conversations throughout our meals and then responding to our private comments. if he would have simply apologized for the descrepancies, then there would have been no problem, but he continuously denied our complaints and almost seemed to put the blame on us.