Falconetti’s East Side Grill

Excellent vodka martini and gluten free beer choice.
We came on a Wed and it had a DJ that was fine. But I still find Dj’s on the drive strange.
We just wanted to find a place that had good music and drinks and service and this place had ¹⁄₃.
It took 53 minutes to get a drink order.
Want customers give service. Isn’t it server 101 get people drinks?

I have given Falcs a few chances because I knew someone who worked there, but I can’t ever bring myself to go back. First off, the staff is rude and unprofessional. I told them I had food allergies in a very apologetic manner and the girl got mad at me when I asked if I could have an item on the menu that I thought would probably be OK. Seriously, the full on huff and eye roll before she stormed off to ask. On another occasion, I was there mid afternoon with a friend and asked that the music be turned down a bit, as it was at nightclub levels. I asked as politely as I could and the server huffily informed me that that is how this place is run. Fair enough, if that’s the norm then I should just keep that in mind.
The final straw that broke the camels back is the two times I have gotten sick from their food. The first time I thought might have been a one off, but the second time Falcs was the only restaurant food I had eaten in two days and my friend who had dined with me there got sick as well. I’m simply not willing to chance this place again. From getting sick, so staff that seem angry and resentful at their jobs this place is a permanent no-​go for me.

Made in house sausages.
Delicious
The menu is on the level.
The staff are great. Attentive and personable.
I’d recommend this place for drinks, food or drinks and food… The patio upstairs is killer in the summer.
I’ve nurses a few hangovers there.

Stumbled upon here last week for dinner on a weekday. Was enticed by the rooftop patio, but there wasn’t a seat that I liked available so downstairs it was.
I ordered the Pulled Porky BBQ burger. I opted to add fries for an additional $ 3. The pulled pork was pretty good. Nice and juicy. There’s definitely enough to keep you full. The fries on the other hand were nothing special in my opinion. I felt robbed. Definitely not worth an additional $ 3. I also had s few bites of the poutine and it was average.
Service was great. Drinks and refills were served quickly. Unfortunately some drink specials are only applicable in the patio :(Anyway, overall I had a pleasant experience! Will definitely want to come back and have a few on that rooftop patio!

Ordered 2 Chicken Ceasar Wraps. They took 1 hour to arrive and neither had chicken. Just a bunch of lettuce wrapped in a tortilla for $ 14 each and not even a discount on the bill.

Atmosphere is a little whack and service is inconsistent.
Now I had been to Falconetti’s before. I was with a group of friends and we were hanging out on the upstairs patio. It was a great view, not too busy afternoon, and the service was good. This place was a solid option when hitting up The Drive.
When I came here last night, I have to say it wasn’t the best experience. I was going to be meeting a friend so it was just me, myself, and I when I first entered. It was busy inside and there was a sign that stated to «please wait to be seated». I waited for a bit. No one seemed to acknowledge me for a while. Then a very friendly customer at the bar just told me to seat myself. I headed upstairs to the patio and asked the hostess if I could grab a seat at the only free table. It was dirty and had cups, but I didn’t mind. She said it was fine and that she would be over to clean it. It seemed like I waited a quite a bit. Eventually she came by and cleaned it and left. It took a while for her to come back and offer me something to drink. Then it took a while for the drink to be brought. There was a live DJ, which was really cool but it made it really hard to hear anything. I just wasn’t getting a good vibe from this place and I kind of felt unvalued. Maybe I’ll come back in the summer again and give this place another shot.

I find myself at this place a lot because my sister loves the sausages. I’ve been here about half a dozen times since my move to The Drive about 5 months ago. Each time I visited, I’ve experienced a poor atmosphere, mediocre food, and arguably THE WORST service in terms of longevity, and politeness (or lack thereof). Here is a quick summary:
The Food — When paying upwards of $ 14 for A sausage, is it too much to ask they don’t burst the casing? Is it too much to ask that the inside isn’t as arid and crumbly as a mouthful of sand from the Namibian desert? Is it too much to ask that you don’t have a litre of sauce poured atop, furthermore accumulating at the bottom of the plate in an unflattering puddle and causing the over-​sized bun to be soggy? And no, I’m not cherry-​picking one bad sausage. All of these factors are an accumulation of what I’ve experienced several, several times here.
The Service — The only time I ever had half-​decent service here is when I came with a friend who knew the waitresses. Every other time, my table felt marginalized and ignored. Some of the servers seemed careless, while others were just extraordinarily sullen and moody. One of the worst examples I an think of was when our waitress kept forgetting our orders. We would constantly tell her that we ordered [insert item] quite a while ago, only for her to plead her case that «I forgot! I’m so sorry! But I’m new here so it’s not my fault!» No, it is your fault. Another equally horrific moment was when I came here with my father, and he waited upwards of 35 MINUTES for a beer. For a beer. Not a meal, or even a mixed drink… A godforsaken beer.
The Atmosphere — I can respect that Falconetti’s boasts live performances from local bands. But if there isn’t a local band playing, or people dancing, why does the music need to be so loud? I’ve found myself screaming in my sister’s ear, and she still couldn’t hear me.
In Summarium: Falonetti’s is awful. The only reason they’re still in business is because they once were on TV. This place is so bad, I’m not even going to say the cliché line of «if you’re a man bun-​wearing hipster, you’ll fit right in.» because this place is even too bad for pretentious hipsters. The only demographic I can think of who would appreciate this place are the type of schizophrenics and homeless people you see yelling at parking meters, or jumping through the back doors of the bus at the last second. You know who I’m talking about.

I don’t know where to begin with this place. My wife called in to check if the restaurant served gluten free food. She was told that the dine out menu had gluten free selections and that the key lime pie was gluten free. She was ecstatic, it has been quite a while since we had a date night and she really wanted to go here. My wife made a reservation and we showed up right on time. We were seated upstairs on the patio, which is significantly quiter than the downstairs, (you won’t here the live music from the upstairs patio). I asked my server which menu items on the dine out were gluten free. He was great and checked with the kitchen. It turns out only the sausages were gluten free, so I ended up ordering a steak instead. My wife was pissed, she had called and asked about gluten free options and livid that I couldn’t have the key lime pie. The service was extremely slow. The prawns appies that my wife from the dine out menu took 1 hour and 20 minites to arrive. People who arrived after us got their full meals. We then waited another 30 minutes to get our main courses. My steak arrived cold and my wife’s sausage platter arrived cold. We discussed it and realized the probability of getting hot food in a timely manner would be 1000:1 so we ate our salads and some of the cold sausage. The dessert came and I watched as my wife savored the key lime pie. The quickest thing about our meal was the check. Our server apologized and said he took off our order of $ 3 fries as an apology… we didn’t order any additional fries???
All in all this place had great music downstairs when I went down to use the restroom, and it looked like a fun, to bad that isn’t the case on the patio upstairs.

Falconetti’s seems to have fallen from grace. What used to be touted as a cool hangout with awesome house made sausages and wicked live entertainment, has dropped significantly in popularity over the past year or so.
I went there last Friday for dinner with a friend and it happened to be the first night of Dine Out Vancouver. We decided to go with the 3-​course dinner for $ 30 as it seemed like a great value. My friend had the sausage sampler for her main while I chose the ½ rack of ribs. We both had the same appetizer (prawn colada lollipops) and dessert (key lime pie). The prawns were really tasty but the sauce paired with them was such a bizarre choice. It was like a spicy marinara sauce, which did not go with the coconut flavored prawns. I would’ve loved some kind of chili lime vinaigrette or something.
The entrées arrived and I was impressed with the sausage sampler plate — it looked really good! My plate of ribs paled in comparison. The ribs were dry, tough and chewy. Not what I consider to be good ribs — not even close. For me, ribs should be fall-​off-​the-​bone tender — not saw-​your-​way-​through tough. The fries were the highlight of my meal, for sure. I tried my friend’s sausage (get your mind out of the gutter!) and I have to say, the lamb sausage was awesome. The other two (Thai chicken and hot Italian) were ok, but nothing special. The dessert was good — nice and tart, which I was hoping for. I did think there was way too much coconut in it, for my taste. I prefer a smoother texture to my key lime pie.
Service was friendly enough, although somewhat inattentive.
I would probably go back for the live music and drinks, but highly unlikely I would return for the food.

Falconetti’s used to be a solid on the drive. In the past year we’ve had spiraling bad experiences that culminated in our last visit, ever.
Once or twice a year I give myself the treat of poutine. Spending an arctic windchill infused Saturday walking around town my husband and I decided it was poutine night. Falconetti’s had a good one — hand cut fries (you know the type, brown with the skin on?) curds, gravy, a boozy bbq sauce and pulled pork.
Off we go. It’s Saturday, there’s a game, there’s a band, there’s a party. We get seats upstairs to watch the game and the waiter lets us know there’s ten more minutes in happy hour. We know what we want, so we get our drinks, my poutine, and a couple of the 50% off appetizers to round out our dinner. The tvs are off (weird when we asked for seats to watch the game) so we ask if 1 can be turned on. «sure!»
So another waitress comes over and explains they don’t know how to turn the tvs on. Ok. NBD, we will just eat up and catch the rest of the game down the street.
Half an hour later, getting hungry. I order a second drink, a glass of wine. I think it may have been left in a box from a Labour Day party. At least it’s cured my urge for drinks that night.
Another 30 minutes later, our server has apologized, the kitchen is backed up. He offers us shots to compensate. Having been a server, I feel bad for him. I also have a gross taste in my mouth from the crap wine, so shots accepted.
Twenty minutes later, our food is up. We get:
— pulled pork poutine with no pork, no gravy. It is a bowl of flash frozen (not handmade) fries with cheese curds and a dollop of cold bbq sauce. and nothing else.
— a «flat bread» that is undercooked, doughy bread with half melted chedder cheese on it and a puddle of bbq sauce in the centre.
— chicken satays that are basically… gristle and skin. Like you bite in and there’s all this stuff you can’t chew.
We don’t mention to the staff because they are obviously a) mortified at what the kitchen has done and b) totally understaffed and looking like they may cry.
Our server can’t stomach our food either and takes the pizza off the bill. Which was nice, except we got charged full price for the happy hour items and also for our free shots. We pay, we leave, we don’t dispute, we are never, ever coming back.

When I’m upset with service or food at a restaurant, I never come to an instant bad impression. I return, giving the business the benefit of a doubt.
Why?
Simply because if you base a business off of one coincidentally bad experience, you may miss an opportunity to discover that 99% of the time it’s actually quite amazing. And I’ve come to these discoveries before.
I’ve been to Falconetti’s a total of four times. Usually coming because everywhere else on Commercial is packed. Gee, I wonder why Falconetti’s isn’t?
The only reason they’re getting any stars at all is for their live music. The two out of four times I’ve been here I was blown away by quality performances.
Other than that, terrible customer service. Servers are rude and careless. Food is mediocre. Unappealing and just simply «alright».
The rooftop patio is beautiful however, so if you’re not too picky about the way you may get treated (or acknowledged) at a restaurant, then that may be the only thing that’s worth experiencing here.

This is the 4^th time I’ve been here on a Sunday night, and if you enjoy good blues music you owe it to yourself to come listen Dave Phillips.
The staff were attentive, and the pulled pork poutine or the kung foo fries do not disappoint.

I’m beside myself. This was a frustrating experience from start to finish. There could be a good joke from this experience… something starting with «How many servers does it take to service 6 tables?». Apparently, 4 is not the right answer.
We sat down at 12:55pm. Around 1:00pm, our server asked if we wanted drinks. We stressed that we were in a rush and hoped to order our brunch/​lunch at the same time. This was not a problem.
About 5 minutes later, an older lady and her granddaughters left citing, «The girls actually need food to eat.» My buddy and I chuckled wondering why she wouldn’t just eat at the restaurant she was at. «Vegans» we laughed and went about our quick lunch. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
10 minutes later, there’s no sign of our food. Fair enough. Mind you, they were down one table now so there were only 5 tables. The girls serving sure did enjoy gathering at the bar and chatting. It’s always nice to see a customer approach a staff member facing away from them asking if they can sit anywhere or if someone should seat them. «Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Sit anywhere.» I should have warned these guys but we were only about 25 minutes into the whole experience.
After 35 minutes we asked for the bill and to have whatever meals are being made for us to be packed to «go». We told her we have to be back to our course in 10 minutes and wouldn’t have time to eat at the restaurant.
Well, she sure did make that a priority. I watched painfully as she made 2 Caesars, something with cucumber, and as she was starting to prepare something else, we had no choice but to drop roughly what we thought we owed for a coffee and a beer and leave. She was lucky we left any cash whatsoever.
To the owners and managers of this establishment — epic fail. Four girls working serving 6 tables, 2 of which complained and 1 table walking out on their food order? Really? REALLY? Commercial Drive is filled with fabulous restaurants. We didn’t think we were taking a risk on a glorified wiener cart. At least a street wiener restaurateur would have understood the concept that you need to actually cook food to sell food. For Vancouver in general, you very much pooped the bed.
The date was today — June 27, 2015 — 12:55pm to 1:40pm. I’ll let you geniuses do the math on whomever was working that shift — both in the kitchen and on the patio.
And for your reference, owners and managers — my buddy and I could have lifted as many bottles of liquor as we wanted on our way out except we aren’t thieves. We even paid for our drinks, which in hindsight was a mistake. NO ONE was working downstairs and I’m sure that includes whomever was in the kitchen. But not a soul in the front of house, a wall full of booze and crickets chirping.
There was a mother and son entering as we were leaving. We warned them that it was an incredibly horrible experience and that they should have their head examined if they decide to stay. That was sorta alright. Telling our class of 15 people about the experience was the highlight of our afternoon.
You should have Mr. Tubesteak on retainer. He could provide some sage advice on selling sausages.

So, my previous review was on the butcher shop
This one is for the patio
I had heard great things, so decided to check it out
Really cool patio. server brought us water. but it took forever to order one beer
The place wasn’t THAT busy.
Anyway, thought about ordering another. but yeah didn’t feel like the wait. so just asked for the bill. which also took forever to arrive
Really bad service. Won’t be back. Next

My room mate loves the sausages so we keep coming back. Every time I ask my self why as we are constantly more and more disappointed than the last time we were here. The service is horrible, and generally we wait forever for the waitress to come back to our table and even longer for our food. Worst place ever if you’re going on a date, can’t hear a single thing over the music. I don’t even think the kitchen has a light how can they see what they are making?! I’m gonna be staying at home and cooking my own sausages from scratch, would probably eat them sooner and have better service. Absolute worst.

This place was a little underwhelming despite that fact they were featured on Triple D’s a couple years ago.
We were a group of 4 meeting up with some friends who had been there earlier and were still there having some drinks.
First off the 4 of us placed our orders for food and when the food came only 3 orders came out. The server’s excuse was that he put in the order as separate checks so the kitchen lost one of the orders. By the time the 4^th order came the other 3 were already more than half done there meal.
Next my bf ordered their chicken wings and they weren’t even cooked properly. They were pink and raw next to the bone. The server’s excuse was that the kitchen has «bad lighting» Umm excuse me?! That’s your excuse, ridiculous.
And lastly, the server failed to notify us that he included the gratuity to our bill and after we had paid we noticed that and let him know that we weren’t aware that we had tipped on top of that. His response was «Oh yeah a couple people have done that tonight» Didn’t apologize, didn’t offer to refund back the 2^nd tip, just took the money with no ease.
Enough excuses Falconetti’s get your staff in check.

I really want to love Falconettis, I really do. I’ve had some super fun times here — always on the ridiculously perfect rooftop patio. It faces the setting sun, and on a summer day it’s a great spot to sit and enjoy the view with a cold beer. The garlic fries are to die for, and the selection of sausages is impressive; the beer menu’s pretty decent, too.
My issue, here, is with downstairs. I find it always too loud, and cramped, and crowded with people; I think if I were coming here for a rowdy night with a few friends I’d love it, but I’m usually there to catch up with one or two people, and we always end up yelling to make ourselves heard, and jostled to no end. I’ve also found the service to be inconsistent — sometimes I’ve had amazing, friendly servers, and sometimes I’ve felt ignored in a mostly empty restaurant.
Falconettis has some huge positives, but I’m afraid the negatives mean its not a go-​to spot for me.

I really loved the sangria and the cool vibe on the patio. The artichoke dip was yummy but the fries were meh. It took forever for someone to say hello and seat us. Also… the food took forever!
I would recommend this place. Maybe you’ll get better service.

My friend is a frequent watcher of the Food Channel and he mentioned this hole in the wall that he saw on Diners, Drive-​ins and Dives. Falconetti’s Eastside Grill definitely qualifies as a «dive»! Basically, he said that the sausages there were suppose to the excellent!
When we first got there and walked in I would say we both felt alittle out of place. This place looks more like a grunge bar than a restaurant. I guess if I were about 22 years old and into the bar life I would fit right in. There was no mad lunch rush at Falconetti’s when I went there. There were maybe 3 or 4 tables active.
They offered a large selection of sausages. Falcaonetti supposedly makes their own sausages. I ended up choosing the Polish Sausage with Yam fries. The food itself was a bit disappointing! My friend and I both agreed that the sausages we got were over cooked and hard! Not tasty at all!
The person that served us was not an experienced restaurant employee. I think he was the bartender. He did nothing excessively rude, but for a person with only 3 tables going at least get off your duff and come around and offer drink refills!
I would not return to Falconetti“s Eastside Grill. Unfortunately, I’ll classify it as a «dive» and remove it from my repertoire of restaurants which I would choose to frequent!

Amazing tasting poutine for their poutine challenge. There were many flavours that blended wonderfully together. Tomato jam gave it a sweet taste, gravy a savoury mix, cheese curds for a bit of cream and the kicker was the spicy charice sausage all over shoe string fries. This was a full meal in itself. Only downside was that the fries got soggy so it was almost like eating pasta. I would have liked it with thicker fries so there would be more texture. Nevertheless loved the flavour from beginning to end.
Great service, quiet lunch place on the drive. They make their own sausages next door and the place was featured on Triple D’s!
There’s free parking down the street (2^nd?) or pay parking on commercial.
Will have to come back to try their burgers and sausages.