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At Charlie Don't Surf, enjoy casual oceanside dining in a fun and vibrant atmosphere.
Our dining experiance here was absolutly horrific! The slow service was a joke, 20 minutes waiting for our drinks to arrive, heaven forbide we would want to order another! Then another 50 minutes for our dinners to arrive, (we ordered an appetizer to only recieve it with our dinners). When the dinners did make it to our table, we couldn't believe the portion sizes! My puny salad for $12 was drowning in the dressing! My husband's cod & fries had only 12 fries, (yes we counted)... I shudder to think of the cleaniness of the staff as the washrooms were so dirty and even after I informed the management, no paper towels when I returned after my meal. To finish our experience, my husband suffered Food Poisoning from his meal, all night long! I called to warn the restaurant of the tainted meal, only to have the management focus on the slow service. I think their priorities are in disarray. Needless to say: WE WILL NEVER RETURN!!!
This was the first and last time I will ever go to Charlie Don't Surf. !!!! What an absolute waste of our time and money. The waiter was just horrible, and the food was skimpy portions and cold when it FINALLY came.
Our waiter was the fellow with the unkempt "surfer" kind of hair. He thought he was funny and charming, but he absolutely was NOT !!!!! I get angry just thinking about how he spoke to us last night. He spoke to us like we were idiots. His reasoning for our way tooooo late meals, was we had ordered 1 lousy appetizer and for that reason it puts the meal order way back. Are You Kidding Me Buddy????? How stupid do you think we are. I told him that right there, that that was the lamest excuse i have ever heard. He also said, yeah I can go back and yell at the chef, but its not gonna do any good. Whatever happened to apologizing to your patrons and letting them know you will do whatever you can to speed things up. We also had to ask for cutlery, and water and refills for EVERY cup of coffee. He NEVER came over once to see if the food was okay for us. I had the fish taco for 15.00, what a rip off. Without a word of exaggeration, i had 3 tiny cubes of fish on each of the 2 tacos. They were flatter than a quesadilla. Terrible, terrible, terrible value here.
I left mad and hungry, and we like to dine out frequently and we tip well for GREAT service and food, which we got neither of. I will be telling EVERYONE I know to NEVER bother wasting their time at this dump.
t was the first sunny weekend so we couldn't pass out trying out Charlie's favourite (cod & chips). The portion of cod was good ($12.95) but didn't care for the fries. Should have opted for a salad or substituted for yam fries. Definitely had better fish & chips at "Go Fish". The calamari appetizer ($9.95) was disappointing. It was essentially a bowl of crispy batter bits with tomatoes and green onions topping - really pitiful. Not knowing the area, it was nice evening on the patio under gorgeous sunshine but the food really short.
Not sure about this place. Dropped by Charlie's about a week ago after a stroll down the White Rock main food drag. It was interesting checking out restaurant prices, some were very expensive while other's were very reasonably priced. We settled on Charlie Don't Surf.
Our server started out real strong. Tons of personality, the chatty man, etc. but it seems like after that first impression he felt that perhaps he had done his job. He pretty much left us after that first drink order, someone else brought our meals, he didn't check on us or actually pay any attention to us afterward. The place was not busy at 5pm, perhaps he was focusing on the dinner rush.
I ordered their burger, at around 10 bucks comes with fries and a pretty good deal. I also ordered a Stanley Park Larger served in what has to be the worlds smallest beer glass. It had the Stanley Park Beer logo on it so not sure who to blame for this, perhaps the beer maker but come on Charlie that is one small beer glass. Perhaps you should do something about it like charge less.
The burger was just fine. It was a fairly large portion with a ton of crispy fries on the verge of being overcooked. The burger patty had little real taste and I suspect was frozen at one time or another. Like I say it was fine, not memorable in any way.
My dining partner ordered the seafood pot with bits of fish, crab, etc. and reported that it was very very salty.
The portion looked just fine for the 12 dollar order.
I gave an outstanding for ambiance as we sat on the patio overlooking the waterfront, very nice on a sunny day. Actually never really checked out the interior of the restaurant but it looked very dark.
Next time in White Rock I believe we'll just stroll right by Charlie's and check out one of the many other options on the strip.
When the response to "what's the only restaurant open on New Years day on the beach?" is "Charlie Don't Surf", and the people with you say, "Oh no!!!!", you are probably doing something wrong.
The waiter hardly appeared for the 2 hours we had to endure this restaurant. Not because we wanted to and were enjoying ourselves, but because THAT'S HOW LONG IT TOOK FOR EVERYTHING TO ARRIVE. Every time we had to wave him over for him to refill our drinks, to take our order, to come back when he wasn't finished taking our orders.
When we finally ordered our appetizers 30 minutes into being there, the calimari came soggy, lukewarm, and in a small amount.
I was finished my tea for an hour before I had to flag down the waiter to get some water to drink, to which he sighed loudly, returned with a glass of tap water with no ice, and was like "There you are, a glass of our finest water" in an extremely sarcastic tone.
The food everyone had was mediocre. No one took anything home and there was a LOT left. When I asked our party of 8 what they thought of their food, no one even said "it's good". It was disappointing. The fish was soggy, the chips were cold, the pasta was less than appealing.
Me and 2 others had the Curry Chicken Penne. NEVER have I turned away food at a restaurant. This was the first time. The chicken was fatty and stringy and overcooked, the penne was overcooked, the snowpeas were brown from being steamed for god knows how long, and it's like they dumped an entire block of condensed curry mix into each bowl. It was 100% inedible. I got the manager to take it off the bill, which he didn't fight.
I was right to not want to go to this restaurant. It's always been a let down and every time I ask someone about this place, the response is usually "ewwww".
On New Years day looking for a place to dine we headed into White Rock.
Relatively new to the area I have not tried many local restaurants.
Charlies' looked so inviting and bonus, it was open.
We were greeted warmly, seated promptly and had the cutest table in the place. I was so impressed by the quaint and eclectic decor!
Our server was also prompt and super friendly and helpful.
The menu had a nice variety of items and the prices were totally resonable. I was actually expecting higher prices because of the amazing location over looking the beach!
My boyfriend had a simple hamburger platter. I did not try his burger but he certainly was happy with it. I did try the fries and they were amazing! It was priced around the $10.00 mark.
I myself had one of the best salads I have ever eaten. It was a beet, feta and spinach salad....it was to die for!!! It was wonderful. Also around the $10.00 price range.
It was so good that the next day I went shopping looking for the ingrediants to try to make my own version!
Will I return for more???....Absolutely! It is now one of my favorite restaurants
My friend suggested we have dinner here while we were visiting the beach. It was my first time dining at Charlie's so I was pretty excited. The place is dark. Really, really dark. The booth we had felt like I was sitting at a booth at a night club. Haha, but it was nice! The interior is beautiful, and I loved the restrooms (mirrors-galore).
Service: Food took an extremely long time to come out. Our waitress asked if we wanted our appetizers before our mains, and we said yes. Well...the appetizers arrived at our table 1 minute before our other food came :S We had to ask for our refills for our drinks. Waitress only came back once to check on us and how the food was. And then once more to give us the bill and to collect empty plates. She was friendly though. Hostess was not very helpful when we wanted to pay our bill.
Food: Bruschetta was okay. I could have made that at home. Calamari was good. Spicy Italian Sausage Penne was.....meh. Ate about 1/3 of it. My Coke tasted like...Diet Coke?? :|
Overall, I have no idea what made me tip 15% (probably because I liked the restroom too much)... walked outta there thinking I will not come back. I think my friend liked it though.
I went to Charlie Dont Surf, but I was hesitant after reading the reviews about bad service. We went and I saw no reflection of bad service anywhere. I thought the service was really good. We got a table on the Patio as requested. We had 3 drink refills without even asking for them. The appetizer came out within 10 min,. My husband had the Chicken Curry Pasta and thought it was one of the best he ever had. I had a chicken burger and it was also pretty good. We would definately go again.
Probably the worst staff that I've come across while dining out. The waitresses act as if they're doing you a favor by gracing your table with their presence. Have been there twice and both times the service was a huge let down, although the waitress we had the second time was slightly friendlier than the first, which really isn't saying too much. From the minute you walk in it's as if you're a bother to them. Most of the staff is just sitting around and its obvious none of them want to get up to seat you at a table. Our first server ( a blonde girl wearing aviator glasses) was the absolute WORST! I don't think she smiled the entire time we were there. In fact, she had a very condescending attitude that screamed :I'm better than you! well sweetheart you're not. We paid the bill via debit machine and left the tip in cash on the table. While we were paying, we entered a tip amount of $0 on the machine (we had already left it on the table) and she have the NERVE to say... "what, no tip?" After that I felt like grabbing the money we had left on the table, its not like she deserved it anyway. I could probably rant on here for a while longer, but the point is the management and/or owners need to wake up and either train their staff on how to treat customers properly or fire them. The food was decent but I think I'd rather take out and eat it somewhere else.
Food was decent considering price point. The staff ruined everything. Not only do they throw a pile of silverware and napkins on the table and walk away when you order food. Worst part was when I asked for my valet ticket to be stamped and the entire staff looked as though no one had ever validated a car and asked for a voucher that the valet service clearly advertises. Took them no less than 10 minutes to find the stupid valet stamp. My blood was boiling as the staff taking a break ate and drank while casually shouting out "ugh maybe its in that drawer, ugh maybe uh its in the back, ugh". Terrible. Dear management.... pony up for some real staff pver the age of 20 with experience and keep your local (and wealthy) clientel happy.
I go to Whiterock once a year so I'm not sure which restaurant is good or not. We wanted to try fish and chips so we decided on this place since other restaurants were packed and we didn't wanna wait. There were 6 of us so we sat at the back of the restaurant. We sat beside their "storage corner" which was not pleasant to see. The service was ok, I don't remember being bad, it's not outstanding either. My sibling wanted a drink so under the "virgin drinks", I ordered Pina Colada. To my surprise, they added alcohol in it, my sister is underage! Anyways, the food was average. Fish and chips was good but a lil overpriced. I guess we're paying for the view even though I couldn't see the ocean in back of the restaurant.
I'll try somewhere next time.
Good ambiance, fun decor and a fantastic beach front patio... but the food sucks. Have a beer or glass of wine and soak in the White Rock crowd, then move elsewhere for some real food. Fish n Chips are average at best, and way over-priced for what you get. Nachos, calamari, salads... everything below average.
My husband and I went to Charlie's on the weekend it was very busy but we managed to get the last table on the patio. The hostess gave us menus, 15 mins later we still had not seen a server, I went to the bar and told the bartender we had to been helped and asked if we could order drinks from him he said he would send someone right over. Our server finally came by and dropped off waters - we told her we ere ready to order she said she would be right back - when i asked if we could order drinks she barked at us that she would be back. We drank our waters and waited for another 15 mins without seeing anyone before deciding to leave.
I'll have to agree with the majority of the reviewers here....the menu is quite limited, quite overpriced for what they're worth, none-too-friendly waitresses not knowing what to do, etc etc...
The only nice thing about this place is just the view (frankly, I think CDS has the best view of the beach than all the other restaurants on the strip), and I actually liked some of the old-timey junk that was placed around as decor.
The food was nothing special, although I did enjoy my mushroom pasta a bit. Still, I didn't think it was worth 16 bucks for a small plate of rotini mixed with some mushrooms and storebought alfredo sauce. One of my friends had the Spicy Sausage Penne, which apparently wasn't spicy at all.
Our server was a super happy blonde haired guy, and I must say he was the highlight of our stay there! He was extremely friendly, unlike the other servers who were mostly teenage/young adult girls. One waitress was talking to another about how she hated training new hireds and other unfriendly gossip. Having worked as a server myself and training others, I do understand the frustration of it all....but I really don't think that's something you should be talking about so loudly in the open, especially near a table where there's customers around.
Other than that, our glasses of water were never refilled....our other drinks that we ordered were taken away before some of us even finished it!....when I was paying my part of the bill, I asked for a certain amount of change back, but then had to ask her again when she closed her till after receiving my money. She wasn't all too happy about that...but I wasn't either, so boohoo to her.
My friends and I did leave a pretty good tip though, specifically for our waiter only. I hoped that he did get it and that it wasn't shared out with the other bitchy waitresses, but after being quite disappointed with CDS besides the fact that it always looked busy (it was our first time there), I wouldn't be surprised if it was shared after all.
What a disappointment...why is this place busy? Sure the location is easy access from the parking lot but that is about it. It was busy so we thought we would try it, but what a let down. The seat and menu's were filthy and the food was so under par. You could taste that the fish was frozen and NOT fresh. The service was okay but I would definitely in no way go back. Why is it busy? A few steps up the hill and there are plenty of more places willing to deliver more.
My husband and I meant to go to Moni Thai Restaurant that night, but it turned out that that restaurant went out of business so we ended up at Charlie's. We figured it looked casual enough to be at a decent price range and tried their feature menu.
My husband had the baby back rib entree with roasted potatoes and vegetables and I had the salmon with risotto. It was surprisingly good and we both were satisfied with the taste and quality of the dishes.
Our curly blond-haired, blue eyed waiter was extremely friendly and enjoyed talking to us. Service was great and we went home happy that night. Too bad for Moni Thai.
Why is this place still in business? Today was a seriously nice mid-spring Saturday in April. Of course, Whiterock is pretty busy, but this isn't summer yet. We were sat at the most broken down table I've seen in BC (cheap plastic patio table from many seasons ago, all cracked and uneven on top, covered by a worn and filthy square of vinyl... they can't even get new vinyl for $4 each season????)
The waitress completely FORGOT to order a guiness for my husband even though they had quite a conversation about it. I had to go inside to ask her if she had any intention of bringing it (after like 1/2 hour!) and she had forgotten to order it. She brought out the Guinness in a frosty mug. Who is their bartender? Every bartender should know a guiness is not ice cold. Keep that frosty for somebody else.
The table next to us had ordered mussels and clams (and some other items). Eventually they were brought mussels only, so returned it. I'm not kidding you, it took them at least 45 minutes to replace that dish with the right one. They brought the other portion of their food and that was all gone by the time the new mussels came.
At our table, I finally piped up to tell our server that it was approaching an hour now, and we had no food. That seemed to help, it came about 15 minutes later. All in all it was a two hour experience for one beer, one coke and two simple fish and chips (one of their most popular dishes). You know, it was a nice day, and I wasn't in a particular hurry, but that's for me to decide, not the restaurant. Good thing we could ONLY buy one OR TWO hours parking in town... now I know why. We had just enough time for that, no walk on the boardwalk for us. I was friggin BORED by the time the food came.
SO MEDIOCRE! All about the view. Nothing more.
We were told this was a good place to eat...WRONG. My burger was a frozen beef patty, (At least I hope it was beef) not fresh homemade like you would think and was not good at all. The fish & chips was slimy and half of the batter was sliding off even before it was touched.
We sat along the east side wall where the nice light is reflecting up the red wall. We took a peek in behind our seating at the light and seen some old food and a tone of dead bugs and dust. I would hope the kitchen is cleaner.
It's very crowded...... so crowded that it starts to get uncomfortable.....
Our waitress was really nice.... but seemed really pushy.
We orderd their nachos... which was burnt......
and their tomato pasta ( i forgot the real name for it ) and it seemed like they just opened up a can of tomato puree and mixed it in the over cooked pasta! It was so bland, there was no flavour at all.
Don't waste your money! I swear people who go there have money to throw away!
A group of four of us went to Charlie Don't Surf on Friday for dinner. We were told it would be a while to be seated, so we asked about an empty clean table on the patio and were told that ok, we could sit there. Great patio, great view and people watching.
However, the service is terrible. After waiting a long time to place our order, we finally received our drinks. This was the last time we saw our waitress. We asked the girl delivering our appetizers to send over our waitress as we were out of drinks. She didn't come by. When our food arrived we asked the girls delivering that to send our waitress as we would like to order some drinks. Again nothing. I flagged down another waiter and asked if a manager was available. Suddenly a round of drinks showed up "complimentary". The manager told us that the waitress was busy with the debit machine and it was a busy night. Then he said what do you do and walked away. They had empty tables on an great patio on a warm Friday night, it wasnt that busy.
We flagged down someone else to get our bill which did contain our complimentary drinks.
There are plenty of restaurants with that same view and none of the attitude like you are burdening them by being there. The food was average, we had fish and chips but the service will prevent any of us from ever going back.
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