I've been wanting to check out Barra Fion for a while now and when I saw that they do Brunch, I canceled a previous reservation to go there instead. As the Cher song goes "If I could turn back time...."
We had a reservation for 2 for 12pm. I saw 1 table of 9 and a table of 2 when we got there. 1 server and 2 kitchen staff. With a full view of everything, here were some of my observations:
1. In what universe does a reputable restaurant owner think that it's OK to have only 1 server (fairly new from what she said) working on a Sunday Brunch/Lunch alone. This poor girl was seating people, setting tables, cleaning tables, making drinks and serving food and answering the phone - all by herself!!
2. There were 2 guys working in the kitchen. They were moving SO slowly that the server was often times standing there, waiting for the food to come out. I think one of the guys was new or on loan or something and he definitely didn't have much motivation to be there.
3. The Food. We didn't see any food at our table for about an hour. We ordered Tortilla Española (Spanish Omelette) Skillet, Barras Eggs Benedict, a side of Tarragon Frites and Churros. *The Spanish Omelette was super bland. Saving grace was the tomato sauce and sourdough toast. *Eggs Benedict ...poached Eggs were rock solid. The only reason I didn't send them back was because I was afraid I'd have to wait half hour for a new plate. *Tarragon Frites - I noticed they fried them up and put them in a metal bowl to sit under the heat lamp. They sat there for almost 10 minutes. Then they put them back into a fryer and flash fried them to reheat them. So that means the fries soaked up the grease not once, but twice. Did they think we wouldn't notice?! GROSS! *Churros ... They were yummy.
Based on our Brunch experience there, we won't be going back for Brunch ... lunch or dinner. I'm someone who loves Brunch and I don't think I've ever been so disappointed..... and to pay $84 for that disappointment was heartbreaking. I felt really bad for the server and I tipped her accordingly because she deserved better.
Save your money and go somewhere else for a quality Brunch.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Cornbread, Churros
Nicole G (Nicole G)
Table of 2 , shared a spinach pepper pizza ($19) and traditional paella ($29). Both were so flavourful. The chicken in the paella had a smoked flavour and the pizza had the right balance of sweet to spiciness from the jalapeño peppers. We tried 2 dishes but suspect anything off this menu will be delicious.
Great ambiance - a good date night spot!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Traditional Paella
Chin Ting Cheng (Landy)
Tacos are soooo goood!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jaimemorton
I hope this was just a one time experience but I felt that I needed to make a review. As someone who has celiac, it is really hard for me to eat out and I had heard great things about the food and the staff at this restaurant for accommodating for celiac people. Trust me, I know the whole spiel about there not being a guarantee about no gluten due to cross contamination but I was fine to try from the reviews I had seen on some gluten free review apps. Unfortunately, when we got there, the host (who was also the bartender) wasn't very pleased to see us, but hey, everyone has bad days. He sat us in a nearly empty restaurant other than another table so I had high hopes about the ability for my food to be made celiac safe. When we came over, he was really unfriendly and honestly I just tried to give him the benefit of the doubt until it came to our order.
As I was trying to order, I have to tell people about my allergies because celiac is severe and I have nut allergies too that... yk... can kill me. As I was trying to explain to him that I have celiac, he cut me off in the middle rolling his eyes saying the whole thing about how they can't guarantee anything. This was not only rude but also belittling. Then I asked if the fries were gluten free as in are they cooked in the same fryer as gluten containing items (since it reads GLUTEN FREE on the menu when it isn't gluten free it is gluten FRIENDLY which is not for anyone with celiac or allergies so it shouldn't say that) and he cut me off again saying it was in a fryer that had gluten items so no I couldn't do that. Again, the tone was so unwelcoming and all we wanted was to explain my situation to the waiter. I further asked about the Mexican street corn salad (again, labelled GF) and he said very passive aggressively "well does it sayyy gluten free" I said "yes" and he responded "then it is." I was shocked and also sad like I am not someone who makes reviews and I know how bad restaurants are accommodating for gluten free BUT if you can't you can't! I'm not going to complain when staff can communicate that they have too much cross contamination or they aren't safe for me to eat that is fine. What ISN"T fine it belittling a 20 year old girl for trying to explain her allergies, dismissing her and not letting her finish her sentences and trying to do the order as fast as possible so he could continue to talk to another worker at the bar and play on his phone in an AGAIN nearly empty restaurant.
I really do want to eat here, especially because I have heard good things about food and staff! However, it just totally made me disappointed and scared to return because I don't want to be made to feel like that in situations where I shouldn't be. I am just as deserving of being served and served safely as anyone else. I didn't catch his name but I really hope he doesn't treat anyone else like that because that was the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant - my partner and I just ended up packing the food away and leaving. This is my experience and my experience alone. I am in no way saying not to eat here, I really did hear great things and still do from my loved ones, but for me as someone with celiac disease, this was beyond hurtful
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 1
Justin Hamilton
The food was great. The service was friendly, and the place was pretty cozy. Their tapas is some of the best I've had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Justin Liechti
We ordered an array of tapas and every single thing we had was delicious. First time here and the service and quality of the food was so good.
"I absolutely love the customer service here! The staff is amazing, and the Seafood Lovers dish was a delight. Definitely a place I’d recommend to all seafood fans!".
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Salad
Therese Silvawalker
Such an awesome fun and delicious experience here!
Vegetarian options: They have the most imaginative tasty tapas. Artichokes with pesto, olive tapenade! Beet salad with hot honey dressing. A tomato chutney that was magic! I hear that the mushrooms are amazing too. Desserts were great. The meat eatèrs had a great time too
Wheelchair accessibility: One party member was mobility impaired. Access was not a problem.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Churros, Salad, Seafood
Robert Bennett
Ordered on SkipTheDishes 5 PM order total came to $86 and was so looking forward to the items I had selected. Approximately 10 minutes later I get a message saying my order has been canceled. No reason given. And you don’t get your money back it goes onto credit with skip the dish which means my $85 Now sits on account and I have to find another restaurant to patronize, as I don’t get the money back But I don’t feel like any other restaurant as my craving was for Barra Fion. Disappointing
Gc C
Christa is an amazing boss and the chef Ben the best besides Ashley making it great time
We got reservation at 5:30pm and they told us 7:30 you need to get out. Food was ok but it was overpriced for quality of food. :/ Then around 6:20 she comes and say make sure you need to get out by 6:30. I was like seriously, .. I'm not coming back sorry.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 1
Melanie McAllister
Totally disappointed! Arrived just before 6 for Tappas Hour. Told we couldn't sit anywhere but the bar. There were empty tables. (We left at 7 with still empty tables) The bartender was terrible, gave us our first drink and an order. Never offered our second glass of wine (our glasses sat empty for about 15 minutes) He walked up and down the bar area at least 8 times that I counted, ignored us and we were the only patrons at the bar. He occasionally filled drink orders for the servers and spent most of his time on his cell phone at the end of the bar. He had the personality of a tree stump. We then asked to speak with someone in charge. No one on staff was in authority. Perhaps the reason for poor attention
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Lin Cian
The only thing good about it was the view of the lake. The food was no comment. Service was great, but the price is way too high not recommended sorry.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 4
Leah Camacho-Beamer
Went for dinner with my Husband Saturday night. We had an amazing experience. Our server was Ashley. She was super friendly and very attentive. The bartender lady made an amazing Manhattan and the mussels were amazing with the goat cheese. Would highly recommend this place. The drinks, food, and service were top notch.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Dmytro Tsurko
Hidden gem of Burlington Excellent seafood. Great service. The plaza looks like nothing but the restaurant is standing out! Definitely come back and recommend to everyone
I've been wanting to check out Barra Fion for a while now and when I saw that they do Brunch, I canceled a previous reservation to go there instead. As the Cher song goes "If I could turn back time...."
We had a reservation for 2 for 12pm. I saw 1 table of 9 and a table of 2 when we got there. 1 server and 2 kitchen staff. With a full view of everything, here were some of my observations:
1. In what universe does a reputable restaurant owner think that it's OK to have only 1 server (fairly new from what she said) working on a Sunday Brunch/Lunch alone. This poor girl was seating people, setting tables, cleaning tables, making drinks and serving food and answering the phone - all by herself!!
2. There were 2 guys working in the kitchen. They were moving SO slowly that the server was often times standing there, waiting for the food to come out. I think one of the guys was new or on loan or something and he definitely didn't have much motivation to be there.
3. The Food. We didn't see any food at our table for about an hour. We ordered Tortilla Española (Spanish Omelette) Skillet, Barras Eggs Benedict, a side of Tarragon Frites and Churros.
*The Spanish Omelette was super bland. Saving grace was the tomato sauce and sourdough toast.
*Eggs Benedict ...poached Eggs were rock solid. The only reason I didn't send them back was because I was afraid I'd have to wait half hour for a new plate.
*Tarragon Frites - I noticed they fried them up and put them in a metal bowl to sit under the heat lamp. They sat there for almost 10 minutes. Then they put them back into a fryer and flash fried them to reheat them. So that means the fries soaked up the grease not once, but twice. Did they think we wouldn't notice?! GROSS!
*Churros ... They were yummy.
Based on our Brunch experience there, we won't be going back for Brunch ... lunch or dinner. I'm someone who loves Brunch and I don't think I've ever been so disappointed..... and to pay $84 for that disappointment was heartbreaking. I felt really bad for the server and I tipped her accordingly because she deserved better.
Save your money and go somewhere else for a quality Brunch.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Cornbread, Churros
Table of 2 , shared a spinach pepper pizza ($19) and traditional paella ($29). Both were so flavourful. The chicken in the paella had a smoked flavour and the pizza had the right balance of sweet to spiciness from the jalapeño peppers. We tried 2 dishes but suspect anything off this menu will be delicious.
Great ambiance - a good date night spot!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Traditional Paella
Tacos are soooo goood!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I hope this was just a one time experience but I felt that I needed to make a review. As someone who has celiac, it is really hard for me to eat out and I had heard great things about the food and the staff at this restaurant for accommodating for celiac people. Trust me, I know the whole spiel about there not being a guarantee about no gluten due to cross contamination but I was fine to try from the reviews I had seen on some gluten free review apps. Unfortunately, when we got there, the host (who was also the bartender) wasn't very pleased to see us, but hey, everyone has bad days. He sat us in a nearly empty restaurant other than another table so I had high hopes about the ability for my food to be made celiac safe. When we came over, he was really unfriendly and honestly I just tried to give him the benefit of the doubt until it came to our order.
As I was trying to order, I have to tell people about my allergies because celiac is severe and I have nut allergies too that... yk... can kill me. As I was trying to explain to him that I have celiac, he cut me off in the middle rolling his eyes saying the whole thing about how they can't guarantee anything. This was not only rude but also belittling. Then I asked if the fries were gluten free as in are they cooked in the same fryer as gluten containing items (since it reads GLUTEN FREE on the menu when it isn't gluten free it is gluten FRIENDLY which is not for anyone with celiac or allergies so it shouldn't say that) and he cut me off again saying it was in a fryer that had gluten items so no I couldn't do that. Again, the tone was so unwelcoming and all we wanted was to explain my situation to the waiter. I further asked about the Mexican street corn salad (again, labelled GF) and he said very passive aggressively "well does it sayyy gluten free" I said "yes" and he responded "then it is." I was shocked and also sad like I am not someone who makes reviews and I know how bad restaurants are accommodating for gluten free BUT if you can't you can't! I'm not going to complain when staff can communicate that they have too much cross contamination or they aren't safe for me to eat that is fine. What ISN"T fine it belittling a 20 year old girl for trying to explain her allergies, dismissing her and not letting her finish her sentences and trying to do the order as fast as possible so he could continue to talk to another worker at the bar and play on his phone in an AGAIN nearly empty restaurant.
I really do want to eat here, especially because I have heard good things about food and staff! However, it just totally made me disappointed and scared to return because I don't want to be made to feel like that in situations where I shouldn't be. I am just as deserving of being served and served safely as anyone else. I didn't catch his name but I really hope he doesn't treat anyone else like that because that was the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant - my partner and I just ended up packing the food away and leaving. This is my experience and my experience alone. I am in no way saying not to eat here, I really did hear great things and still do from my loved ones, but for me as someone with celiac disease, this was beyond hurtful
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 1
The food was great. The service was friendly, and the place was pretty cozy. Their tapas is some of the best I've had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We ordered an array of tapas and every single thing we had was delicious.
First time here and the service and quality of the food was so good.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Cornbread, Churros, Truffle Frites, Mixed Grill
"I absolutely love the customer service here! The staff is amazing, and the Seafood Lovers dish was a delight. Definitely a place I’d recommend to all seafood fans!".
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Salad
Such an awesome fun and delicious experience here!
Vegetarian options: They have the most imaginative tasty tapas. Artichokes with pesto, olive tapenade! Beet salad with hot honey dressing. A tomato chutney that was magic! I hear that the mushrooms are amazing too. Desserts were great. The meat eatèrs had a great time too
Wheelchair accessibility: One party member was mobility impaired. Access was not a problem.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Churros, Salad, Seafood
Ordered on SkipTheDishes 5 PM order total came to $86 and was so looking forward to the items I had selected. Approximately 10 minutes later I get a message saying my order has been canceled. No reason given. And you don’t get your money back it goes onto credit with skip the dish which means my $85 Now sits on account and I have to find another restaurant to patronize, as I don’t get the money back But I don’t feel like any other restaurant as my craving was for Barra Fion. Disappointing
Christa is an amazing boss and the chef Ben the best besides Ashley making it great time
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
We got reservation at 5:30pm and they told us 7:30 you need to get out. Food was ok but it was overpriced for quality of food. :/
Then around 6:20 she comes and say make sure you need to get out by 6:30. I was like seriously, .. I'm not coming back sorry.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 1
Totally disappointed! Arrived just before 6 for Tappas Hour. Told we couldn't sit anywhere but the bar. There were empty tables. (We left at 7 with still empty tables) The bartender was terrible, gave us our first drink and an order. Never offered our second glass of wine (our glasses sat empty for about 15 minutes) He walked up and down the bar area at least 8 times that I counted, ignored us and we were the only patrons at the bar. He occasionally filled drink orders for the servers and spent most of his time on his cell phone at the end of the bar. He had the personality of a tree stump.
We then asked to speak with someone in charge. No one on staff was in authority. Perhaps the reason for poor attention
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
The only thing good about it was the view of the lake. The food was no comment. Service was great, but the price is way too high not recommended sorry.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 4
Went for dinner with my Husband Saturday night. We had an amazing experience. Our server was Ashley. She was super friendly and very attentive. The bartender lady made an amazing Manhattan and the mussels were amazing with the goat cheese. Would highly recommend this place. The drinks, food, and service were top notch.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Hidden gem of Burlington
Excellent seafood. Great service.
The plaza looks like nothing but the restaurant is standing out!
Definitely come back and recommend to everyone
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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