Mr. Shannon D. H.
Google
So Disappointed......
My wife and I spend 3-4 month a year traveling around checking out cool restaurants, breweries and wineries. We have visited some of the best in North America. When we heard about Raymond’s while searching the best restaurants in St. John’s I quickly made a reservation 9pm on a Wednesday.
We arrived about 8:50 to a very welcoming happy host and were promptly seated in the corner of the great room. Water was brought to the table (we opted for tap water) and we started checking out the menu. Then it all falls apart.
25 minutes pass before our server returns, she jokes how we have had lots of time reviewing the menu, she takes our drink order and my wife kind of indicates we are ready to order noticing how slow the service is. The server says she will be back with the drinks then take the order another 10 minutes go by and she returns. 35 minutes in now to get a $14 cocktail. Again she jokes how long it takes her to serve us.
We place our order for a cheese board and 3 course meal (recommended by a local). Nearly 15 minutes later it arrived (6 small pieces of cheese $35) it only took a few moments to eat since we have had nothing to this point and have been there 60 minutes. At this point we have had enough of the poor service (as were were not checked on between any of the previous visits by server, our water glasses sat empty for 15 a couple times)
We get up and head to the front where we are met by the amazing server whom had been serving the table beside (4+ courses while we were there) she knew what the problem was without even hearing it and promptly get the manager.
The manager is great! He convinces us to stay and be personally looked after by him. He covers our two cocktails and cheese board ($63)
Quickly brings out a tasty well balanced raw scallop on lettuce. (5/5)
Next we have a fried scallop with white turnip ribbon with beurre blanc sauce. This dish was very bland and tasteless, the scallop was well cooked. (2/5)
Our main course was the duck it was delicious, initially thought it to be bland but it ended up well cooked. The duck came with roasted broccoli a little arugula and parsnip. The vegetables were not creative or well seasoned. (3/5)
To finish I had the blueberry dessert it was like a yoghurt parfait with a delicious blueberry gelato. It was good but for the cost of the meal I would expect something more creative. (3/5)
Service by the manager was just as you would expect, he was prompt, kept our water glasses full, folder our napkins when we got up. The level of service you would expect at this type of restaurant.
Overall I think you might have to order the 5 or 8 course meals to have a creative food experience. The building is beautiful, some servers are great (the table beside us got to meet the chef) maybe because we were young (~35) and started with tap water we did not receive great service. Overall ended up being over $250 with the cheese board and 1st round of drinks covered. I am a business owner and feel the only way to make up for such a horrible start would be to cover the entire meal or at-least do something above and beyond.
Save your money, go to Mallard Cottage!