My sweetie and I are oyster lovers. They're supposed to do good things for your-ahem-"mood" Well, after two dozen oysters each on our very first visit to this welcome addition to the lower lonsdale eatery choices... we were in a fabulous mood.

The server, if he isn't related to the owner, should become an honorary family member. A well spoken, fully awake, professionally mannered young man who gave us just the right amount of service without calling us "guys" even once. In fact, even the server who wasn't serving our table kept an eye on the table and it was just professional service with no ego, no swagger, and no pushiness.

After the oysters we had a rest, my man had the sablefish and I had a hankering for fish n chips. Everything tasted delicious, even the coleslaw. To drink we had martini's, a bottle of Prosecco, followed by a delicious Gewurtz,finished off with a taxi.

When we were leaving, both the servers thanked us for our business and told us we were a pleasure to serve (we are). This is the kind of customer appreciation that brings people back. Dinner was $250 including tip, not including the taxi home.

Yes, we overdid it abit, but I have to have a good reason to go to yoga 5 times a week, don't I?

One word of advice to the owner... make your sign more prominent, it's almost invisible, we were looking for it and passed it 3 times until we saw it.

We checked into the Empress and made a reso here for a somewhat unconventional Christmas dinner. The hostess was genuinely pleasant and personable, seated us straight away and set a good tone for the whole evening.

Our server approached passed our table numerous times before finally coming to take a drink order. Unfortunately the personable hostess had not given lessons to the waiter. We ordered vodka martinis and oysters to start with. When we asked him what oysters he had available he said, "oh, I haven't had a chance to look at the board yet." Not in an apologetic way, but in a snippy, "how annoying that you should ask me just what I don't know" way. After our oysters and martini's, I was ready for another one and he again passed our table empty handed numerous times without either stopping to clear our glasses/dishes, nor offering to replenish our drinks. By this time we had figured things out and being in a wonderful mood from our afternoon of various delights we just flagged down the very pleasant hostess and ordered our drinks from her. She also cleared our glasses and plates. The waiter then took our order for mains. I ordered a whole lobster and my sweetie the "cowboy lollipop". I asked if there was any way they could pre crack my lobster in the kitchen and the waiter just said, "No, they won't do that". My hubby made a little joke about sweet talking the chef into it and the waiter, again, in flip, snotty way said, "On a night like this no sweet talking will make them do that." When faced with a snotty, snide, incompetent waiter like this... we can only do what we do best, ignore him and have a good time anyway. The mains took awhile to arrive but we weren't in a hurry and when the food came it was absolutely worth the wait. My lobster was perfect, sweet and moist. The Rib-eye was perfectly aged and grilled medium rare as ordered. The veggies were crisp and well presented. The food made up for the very annoying waiter and we loved every bite.

Funny thing is when we had finished our mains I told my hubby, "watch now, the waiters going to turn saccharine sweet just before presenting the bill". Having worked in service for number of years you know when you've given bad service and you tend to try and make up for it at the end if you get the chance.

When presenting the bill, our waiter poured on a syrupy voice saying, "Thank you so very much for sharing your Christmas evening with us". Well, no amount of sweet talking could get more than a 10% tip from us, although we did had both very lovely hostesses a ten spot each for doing basically all the work for their snippy co-worker.

We will go back to Nautical Nellies but if we get the same waiter we'll move to another section... problem solved.

The On Lok has stuck with me through 3 relationships, 5 jobs and 2 kids grown from babies to teens. They are still there and they are still the same. The give out the same calendars every year and their decorations will soon become artifacts.

For those people who are expecting great service, perfect English, spotless bathrooms and tea that gets poured perfectly every time, look elsewhere, i.e. elsewhere that charges more and is trying to impress you. On Lok doesn't try to impress anyone... they're just there to feed you... for less than what it would cost you to cook the same dish at home. This is fast, rather greasy Chinese and if you don't like fast, rather greasy Chinese, then just don't go there.

If you are expecting anything in the lines of service... again, go somewhere else. This is a place that will put the bill on your table before you get your food sometimes. If that disturbs you then don't go there. This is how they keep the tables turning and feed people for $5-$8, sometimes with leftovers to pack away.

Still, after everything I've said about the general lack of service... oddly, I get great service when I go there. The waitresses are nearly always in good spirits with genuine smiles and they are awake, working hard and have way too many tables. We go there about once a month and they know us and treat us with genuine kindness and quirky little personalities, giving my boys free pop, jello and lollipops. Sometimes I think the servers actually recognize the people who are going to be the ones who are demanding 5 star service in a no star establishment and they purposely give them bad service so they won't have a reason to return. So, if you are one of those people who can't seem to order a diet coke at the On Lok if your life depended on it... they are not that thick, they might not want you to come back... just a thought.

So, the food... our favourites: BBQ duck & Wonton noodle soup, all the congees are decent, most hot pots are good, Steamed chicken with ginger & green onion sauce (cold), Sweet & Sour Pork. The BBQ pork is sometimes excellent, sometimes too fatty.

Don't use the washrooms here unless you really have to. But then again my Mom used to tell us that about every Chinese restaurant we ever ate in.

We order from Dan's because it's close, convenient and fast. We know we're going to get the food hot because they are only 3 minutes away. However, I know the place well and there are only certain things that I'll order. These items are definitely good: Singapore Noodles, Ginger beef, Lettuce wraps, Buddha's feast, Beef & Green Beans. They used to do a great deep friend tofu but now they've changed it and it's soggy and I hate it. The weekend delivery guy is a hoot and we love it when he comes because he used to look like Elvis and now he looks like Bon Jovi and I think he's been delivering for Dan's for about a gazillion years.

We had our Christmas party there and they did a great job with the food. The decore lends to a very shi-shi ambience and it was a very nice atmosphere in general for a holiday function. Unfortunately, there were a couple of bartenders who were completely full of themselves and for what reason, I am at a loss. It was a cash bar and there were alot of people waiting for drinks and they just couldn't keep up with the volume. We were a 30+ crowd for the most part and no one was being belligerent... except the bartenders. They were just getting snappy and seemed more intent on flirting with their fellow staff and chatting with each other than filling drink orders. I looked at these guys and could tell that not one of them had worked hard a day in their lives and they weren't about to start any time soon.

This Xms party was last year and I have never even considered returning to this place although I'm at Park Royal all the time and go to several of the restaurants there all the time.

Nice face, shame about the legs, kiddos.

We usually sit at the bar when we come here because we have found the servers to be generally annoying.

Stella's is a reliable standby for good beer and decent munchies. The mussels are a little inconsistent but ask the bartender and they'll tell you if they're juicy or scrawny that day. The beet salad is also a favourite of ours. We like coming here for a bottle of Fin du Monde @ a decent price. The fries are also great with some aioli on the side for dipping.

We've sat all over the restaurant... lower front, upper front, back and patio... but we have never felt comfortable anywhere but at the bar. We just get better service there, always.

Decent place on the drive and this is our choice over Havana's.

This review is applicable to any Cactus Club in the lower mainland... I've been to about 6 of them and I will give them this... the chain is very consistent, but that's not necessarily a compliment.

Over the last several years I've been back to the various CC locations because when entertaining clients it's an easily recognizable meeting place and is "posh" enough to entertain clients and most locations are nicely accessible. Those are the positives.

One of my few non-business related visits to CC in West Vancouver I ordered fish tacos, touted as a Rob Feenie creation. Well, Rob Feenie has become more of a public relations addict than a chef but I still wanted to believe that there would be some magic in this dish. After all, fish & Mexican... 2 of my favourite things in life, how could it go wrong? Well, first, the dish was cold... but not supposed to be. The fish was dry and tasteless, oh... it's too painful to go on. It's one of those dishes that returns to haunt you in your mind for years and years everytime you think about ordering something similar in another restaurant. If I were a "Chef" and they put my name to this dish I would crawl under a rock for at least a month. Poor Rob, did he ever taste this dish? But he sure got paid for it, no doubt.

Onto other visits... I order the Rocket Salad usually because it's a salad and a safe bet. It's very big, very mediocre and very soul-less. Onto the service... I can't help but notice that all the waitresses look exactly the same and they all dress in exactly the same tight style of black clothing with slilettos which is oddly uncomfortable looking. They are all trained to be pleasant but many times they forget things and you just smile and repeat yourself whenever you need to. Nobody really seems to be there to work hard, they all look like they're looking to pick somebody up. If I was there with my date, I might be tempted to peak at the cheque to see if the waitress wrote a cute little note with her phone number on it (but I'm sure that's forbidden in the employee handbook).

Unfortunately, this chain is a sad indication of where our society is headed. This is upscale fast food chain where everybody looks good and doesn't know anything about truly good food & service. The decore is exceptional and it lulls the average customer to buy in that the food must be special too.

I feel like like a fraud everytime I go there because we make Hollandaise from scratch at home for our eggs benny and we drink wine from crystal goblets on a Wednesday night in our sweat pants if we feel like it.

I don't like these places because I think they cater to the tasteful but tasteless crowd, like people with gourmet kitchens who never cook. But Cactus club is probably here to stay and I will probably still go there whether I like it or not.

I took my assistant out for lunch today and we both had the special fish n chips. What a disappointment. The fish was soggy and floppy, the chips were good and after checking first if there was coleslaw served with the meal BEFORE I ordered and was told yes... you guessed it, no coleslaw. Apparently they ran out. Nothing was offered in it's place (a few veggie sticks maybe?) It amazes me how something so simple could be so poorly executed. Fortunately, I'll go back because I've had good meals here (pizza, burgers, salad) and generally find the pub fare to be above average here. Also, living about 5 minutes away virtually guarantees them our business. But fish n chips... never again. Also, must mention that there are maybe 2 servers who work here who are actually awake and glad to be there for their shift. We have had everything from mediocre to absolutely appalling service here but we're comfortable enough that we just go to the bar and start ordering what we need from the bartender if the services sucks.

I like the Reef on Main and we like the atmosphere @ the Commercial location as well. I used to live in the Caribbean for several years so the drink list is a big drawing card for me. Dark n Stormy's are hard to come by in Vancouver. But I've had several meals there now, each time trying something different, roti, curry, jerk chicken to name a few. Unfortunately, the food has gone from mediocre to sub standard to just plain yucky. What's that sauce they put on the jerk chicken? Not like any jerk sauce I've ever had, yikes! The roti's have frozen veggies inside and the curry tastes gluey and heartless. I will still go there for the drinks because I like the ambience and the music, but as for food I'll stick to yam fries and that's it. The service is very up and down depending on the server you get. We've had decent service there but last time we had a waitress that was clearly not in a good mood and didn't mind who knew it. She should get a job as a undertaker because those customers don't mind if you snarl at them.

We have 3 sushi places in the Cove and if it wasn't for the fact that happens to be the one that is walking distance I probably would probably never go there. The quality of fish is not high and all the food is very mediocre. The husband runs the kitchen and he is always smiling and friendly. The wife runs the front and she is just short of being plain surly. We've been there about 50 times and she has never acknowledged that she recognizes us or appreciates our business. It would be good business decision for them to put the husband out front and her in the back. The best thing about this place are the sushi boats. They are a good value and the kids still get a kick out of the whole boat thing. Still, we really only go there because it's greener to walk to the Red Tombo than to drive to one of the other better places.