Bistro Le Club

Short Review: Mediocre food, poor-​quality service, was verbally abused by a staff member on my way out. You read correctly. A staff member said to me «Go fuck yourself, asshole!» (in French: «Vas te faire foutre, connard!») on my way out.
Detailed Review: I had spent a couple of hours shopping on Sainte Catherine street and decided to grab a bite before a meeting. It was a good day. I stopped by Bistro 1272 because it was conveniently located.
Although the restaurant was almost completely empty (unlike other venues in the street), I waited a very long time te be seated. An older man with long hair pretended not to hear or see me for a few minutes. I think he was the manager. It was really awkward because I was the only one in the room and he was three feet away from me. After a few uncomfortable minutes, a waitress noticed that the older man was ignoring me and finally told me to sit down where I wanted, which I did.
The older man ended up being in charge of waiting my table. He walked slowly to me, did not say a word to me or make eye contact with me. He seemed very pretentious and bored. He had a major attitude. He walked past me and pretended not to hear or see me when I asked for water, and another time for a menu. He made me feel like I was an inconvenience.
I ordered a mushroom omelet and a diet coke. He looked uninterested and left. He brought me a bottle of warm diet coke with a straw in it that would just fall off if not maintained down. No paper on the straw, I guess they do not care about sanitation. The older guy walked past me a couple of time without acknowledging me. I politely asked him for a glass with a couple of ice cubes, which he brought with a sigh. He made me feel extremely uncomfortable.
The food was not good. The mushrooms in my omelet were not fresh, they were from a can. The omelet tasted bitter. The potatoes had no flavor. All in all, a below average omelet. The place looked OK. There was a woman and her mother sitting next to me and I took a photograph for them. They were lucky enough to be waited by the woman.
I only ate half of my omelet because it tasted bad and I was feeling uncomfortable. I called the older guy to get the check and he pretended not to see me for a few minutes. I think this is the time where I had had it. I knew that in Quebec, tips are expected but not mandatory. In the machine, I decided to give 0% as a tip. Oddly enough, that got his attention. He stood in front of me with a pretty agressive posture and looked at me right in the eye. This was the first time he had looked at me this entire time. He said to me in French in a high pitched voice «You have to leave a tip», to which I answered politely «Next time, when I get better service, I promise I will». He did not deny that service was bad. Funny enough, he said «Maybe, but you are required by law to leave at least 8% tip,» which I knew was not true. I repeated «Well, next time I will if I get better service.»
The thing is: I leave good tips to waiters. I know that it is a tough job and I am supportive. But I also have no tolerance for unfairness. And in all honesty, I did not deserve to be treated that way. I am a polite customer, and the older waiter was just plain rude. I did not want to make a scene or disturb any client in the restaurant, so I thought that not paying the bill but not leaving a tip would make it clear that I was unsatisfied with the service without disturbing anyone. Plus, my bill was like 12 dollars. We are talking about a 1 or 2 dollar tip. It was not a birthday party.
I walked to the exit and the older man walked right next to me, in my personal space, in an agressive way. I have to say at this time I thought he was about to slap me or something. He looked furious. It was very odd to see him in such an emotional state because he looked so bored and indifferent the entire time he was waiting my table.
While I was walking out the door, he said in my direction in a loud voice and in French «Go fuck yourself, asshole» («Vas te faire foutre, connard!»). I did not misunderstand what he said, I was born and raised in France. French is my mother language. At this point, I walked out pretty quickly because there was still the possibility that he would throw something at me, of hit me, or what not.
Here is the thing. This was by far my worst experience in a restaurant. Sometimes, people are in a bad mood, and I can empathize with that. But the older man with brown hair, who seemed to be the manager of the restaurant, did not give me the evil eye or sighed passive aggressively. He insulted me out loud in front of the other customers, in the middle of his own restaurant. You don’t go straight from providing great service to verbally abusing your own customers. What he did to me is an indication that this behavior is a pattern in his restaurant. For that reason, I decided to post this review that describes exactly what happened when I had lunch at Bistro 1272.

Otherwise know as Staff du Village restaurant, gay central restaurant.
Again not a nice place to spend 100 $. Rude staff, ordinary food, not the place to go for food. Used to be a nice place, no more.
Pretentious, snobbish, expensive and mostly not worth it, shop around off ste-​Catherine and many great, friendly and delicious deals possible