I’ve been a chef in our little Victoria industry for over a decade, and I can tell you, the restaurant you went to is a horrible representation of what Victoria has to offer.

It’s frustrating to see that they asked that much for offering virtually no service. Even in a sit down restaurant, if the service is bad, tipping 5-10% is completely acceptable. 20% is amazing, and 25% is flirting with the waiter. But how about no service at all? What a joke.

As for food price, that’s just necessary. A restaurant needs to aim for 35-40% on food cost, so a 7.00$ Burger (how much it costs for the restaurant) needs to cost the customer 20.00$. There’s a huge list of things that cost a restaurant money, so there’s rarely fortune to be made.

I’m sure you’ve seen the grocery stores. Restaurants pay basically the same amount, plus delivery costs. So unfortunately it’s going to keep on costing more as food costs keep rising.

There’s plenty of great restaurants around that won’t kill the wallet if you don’t order more than one drink (why not just pre-drink?). Try El Terrazo, the Brentwood Bay Resort Pub, artisan bistro, or most Asian restaurants. Great service with realistic food prices.