I went to this restaurant for the first time for lunch. Great little place, nicely decorated and right on the water in coal harbour. The waitress was lovely and attentive but we were disappointed with our meal. We ordered the halibut salad; they were out of some ingredients for the full salad so we ended up with a few greens with flowers in it. The halibut was small, but tasty, but we were still hungry when we left. Expensive wine list and expensive lunch.

Waited 45 mins for appies to arrive, and 1 hr 45 minutes for entrees to arrive. The first bottle of wine we tried, the 2008 quail’s gate old vine foch, was terrible and had to be sent back. We tried again with the 2006 twenty bench, which they were out of. Were finally able to get a decent bottle on our third try. At $70+ /bottle, I expect every bottle to be good. Meal arrived lukewarm and had to be sent back. Had the veal cheeks which were overcooked, oversalted and arrived on a bed of “shrimp ravioli” which consisted of two thin slices of dough with a single cocktail shrimp in the middle. One of our party ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and one of the meatballs was burnt. Who screws up spaghetti and meatballs? Upon expressing our dissatisfaction to the rather prickly manager about the length of time to get our meals, were advised this was our fault due to ordering appies and entrees separately (!). “When you order your entrees separate from your appetizers, you go to the back of the line, and we are very busy” he told us. Unbelievable. Harbour front location was nice.

- when the food is completely undercooked/raw ( Lamb) and the servers are rude and not attentive for the prices they charge, what more can one say? My crab cakes also had no flavour. The view is nice but i actually go to a restaurant for the food and wine. Won't ever go back. really not acceptable.

Made reservation on Open Table. Arrived at the appointed time, checked in with the maitre d'. We had asked for a table on the patio, which we got. A waitress came and introduced herself and said she would be taking care of us all night. We ordered drinks and appetizers from her. Then, before our appetizers arrived, another waiter came by and asked to take our main course orders. Confusing, as we thought the young lady was our server. It seemed that there was something going on between them, for all evening it was duelling servers. I ordered lamb, he asked how I wanted it done. Now, lamb is not like beef, that you order with varying degrees of "doneness". It should always have just a little pink in the centre. The waiter said that would be how they did lamb "medium", so I ordered that. The lamb came and I kid you not it was practically raw - and the waiter said that was how they did medium. I sent it back to be cooked truly "medium", and of course it came back well done and tough. All the other tables around us were served baskets of bread sticks and flat bread - we were not given any. The mashed potatoes served with the lamb were glutinous. The carrots were raw. The asparagus was good - crisp but cooked not raw. My companions ordered the veal cheaks and the kung pao chicken - they reported their meals as bland. They kept trying to hurry us out, asking about desert before we finished our meal - and it was not busy. This is an expensive restaurant - for the price the food should have been much better. Go to one of Earl's or Milestones with a patio and have a much, much better meal. To top it off, the next day I got an email from Open Table that the restaurant claimed I had not honoured the reservation. This was the last straw. I will never go there ago. Truly, all the reviews that give this restaurant a mediocre rating are correct. Don't waste your money.

Went with a friend to Lift Bar for DOV because we thought the menu looked quite unique. We were seated right away, the ambiance was great. We quickly ordered our choices from the Dine Out menu, and as we were waiting, we noticed that the tables around us with the Dine Out menu all have a tray of bread....all the tables but ours! Ok, maybe they're just a little slow in bringing ours out, that's fine. First course came, still no bread. So we decided to ask the waiter if bread is included in the Dine Out menu, the waiter rudely answered "no, but I can bring you some if you really want some". Um....ok....whatever. Another table came and was seated behind us, their bread came soon after they placed their order. So we were definitely sure at that point that they forgot to give us bread, or they just assumed that we're not bread-eaters? I don't know.

Anyway, the bread finally came and it was good! (Little did we know that it was only to be the only good thing we would be tasting for a while) The first course that we got was the salmon and tuna roll. The tuna was too fishy, the rice was mushy, the seaweed was soggy and tough (it tasted like the day-old sushi from T&T), and they forgot the sauce on my plate!

Not good, so we eagerly waited for the second course, hoping that it would be better than the first. I ordered the butternut squash soup, which I thought was quite good; and my friend ordered the endive salad, which he was it definitely wasn't worth the money.

Third course, the seared scallops came. The presentation was nice, served in a shell, but as soon as we took a look at the scallops, we knew it was waaaaaay overcooked without even cutting into them. Boy, were they ever tough to cut into! Chewing them proved to be quite challenging as well. The ravoli under the scallops was overcooked as well, with the outside cooked to mush, and we couldn't figure out what those tough bits of meat on the inside were. Oh, and did I mention there were 2 "unidentified" pieces of meat on top of those scallops too? We didn't even want to try figuring out what they were since they tasted like meat left over from making broth anyway. BIG BIG disappointment!

By the time our entrees came, we really didn't know what to expect anymore. But to our surprised, our ahi tuna sashimi with tempura futomaki was actually quite decent. The presentation was nice and it tasted good as well.

Just when we thought the restaurant has redeemed itself with their entrees, out came our desserts - creme brulee for me, and the chocolate terrine for my friend. The terrine was just a mount of chocolate thing that my friend didn't quite enjoy, and the chocolate on the side was so hard that it was inedible. We tried breaking it apart with a knife but no such luck. And my creme brulee? It just tasted like an overcooked Chinese egg tart. Well, at least the raspberry and strawberry garnish tasted normal.

Overall, extremely disappointed in the food and service, and the fact that the parking lot is about a block away and you have to walk the entire way in the cold to get there (unless you want to pay $8 for valet) is enough to keep my friends and I from visiting this restaurant again.

My husband and I went to this restaurant for our 8th anniversary dinner. View and service were really good, and some of the food was great. However, there were some order you should NOT order. For example, veal cheek, the worst veal I have ever tasted. Meat was tender, but it smelled. The sauce was very sticky, and I don't know how they came up with idea that sticky caramel-look like sauce to go with veal. Halibut was good, huge portion. The oyster chowder was too salty and I could not finish it. Asian sticker was really good. Sushi was over priced and I prefer to eat Sushi in Japanese restaurant with less than a half price. This restaurant has stunning view but they need to improve their food overall.

We were a party of 3 on a business expense dinner and chose The Lift as it is close to the Westin Bayshore where one of us was staying. We were seated at a window table and ordered drinks. For appies, we decided to split the dumplings and the asian sticks. Both were awesome -- very tasty and a good sized portion. For dinner, two of us had the ahi tuna sushimi which was pleasantly displayed and was incredibly good. As we were ordering the ahi tuna, I asked the waiter to explain the dish. He asked me what I wanted to know. I replied 'everything' and he did explain it in great detail and it wasn't at all what I expected from the description, but sounded good. I then asked him to explain the halibut dish. He once again asked what I wanted to know, saying that it was described right there on the menu. Well, let me tell you that once he described the dish, I hadn't a clue how he could think that it was reasonably explained on the menu. He spoke about the mild curry, which I didn't even see mentioned. Our friend had it and liked it.

When I was eating the ahi tuna sashimi which was drizzled on the side with a wasabi mayonnaise, I asked the waiter for additional wasabi mayo. He pointed at my plate and showed me that the plate still had some wasabi mayo on it which he suggested to me was more than enough to continue eating the dish. Not in so many words, but in a rude, condescending manner. One of my dinner partners then spoke up and asked would it be O.K. to get more. Can you imagine my dismay to be treated this way. Has anyone ever been questioned when requesting something regarding their meal?!! I could not believe the nerve of the man.

I then spoke to the Manager who was rightly apologetic and said he'd make a report on it. Well, I sure hope so, because I have never, ever been treated so rudely with a 'mightier than thou' attitude. Needless to say, the remainder of the meal was spoiled for everyone. And, did I mentioned that this was a business expense. Cost was not a factor, but we sure didn't feel like leaving any tip at all.

Needless to say, I will never visit The Lift Restaurant again, nor will I ever recommend it to anyone. We go on many, many business expense paid dinners, and there are many fine restaurants in Vancouver to dine in. This will surely be off our list.

Ok, its a great view & location, but not a very good restaurant. Service is barely adequate. No attempt to interact with us, they take our order, bring us our drinks, food & bill and that's it. Feel like we're being moved through the assembly line here.Drink, Food, Bill...NEXT!
I find it funny that a previous reviewer got raw salmon, as mine was cooked WELL DONE! We're in Vancouver! If anything they should be able to cook a salmon.
On top of all this, it is very expensive, for the two of us our bill was ovef $140 for a mediocre meal with indifferent service.
Obviously they're not concerned with repeat business, they just want to bang through the one time tourist and go again. I will not be returning.

Finally. After many massive dissappointments with the service to what should be a top class restaurant; they changed the management and fired all the attitudes. Its great - as it should be for the money put into its development and perfect location. No longer are you shocked to receive rude and in most cases NO service. Now, with a great new staff, attitude and management - I can re-visit a great location to what was previously banned. I just spoke to a member of a party of 10 who was received with open arms and over the top service - presenting a brought in cake for dessert with class and flare. Having made a visit this Wednesday I actually had a server visit before a half an hour wait and without the cheesy greeting. Congratulations to the management and staff to what shall be a "new" hot spot to dine and drink. Yipeee!

I ordered a seafood paella that cost me $29, was the size of a large rice cake, included ONE prawn, and was so smothered in oil in made me feel ill. Having decided I couldn't eat it, I ordered a (delicious) lemon drop and enjoyed the truly spectacular view.
Eat before you go, get blown away by where we live and have a drink instead of dinner....