Q at The Empress - The Fairmont Empress Hotel

Beautiful place, but honestly too pricey given what you get

We live coming here. Best steak in town. Staff are always nice. We will be back. Thank you.

Excellent quality food and very unique menu. Service was outstanding.

Every flavour on our plates were delicious and the evening was very enjoyable. Someone came to our table and addressed us by name asking how our evening was and we had a wonderful chat about wine and BC wine in particular since we had ordered the Laughing Stock. I'm sorry I didn't catch her name because she was delightful!

Food and service were very good.
Music from the bar was live and loud, we enjoyed the music most when it stopped, very hard to have a quiet discussion.

All 4 I. Our party enjoyed our meals. We had rabbit, lamb, clams and steak

Our brunch was tasty but definitely overpriced. I think The Empress has a certain cachet and you pay for that. The food was delicious but not superior to other venues. The atmosphere and ambiance are worth something, as is the extreme professionalism of the servers and Maitre'd. I would go again.

Beautiful setting and great food. Makes for a great place to celebrate something or have a romantic dinner.

Food was good, menu is limited but everything looks tasty. Excellent wine list.

Great food, great service. Price point is high but was a nice experience.

Valentine’s Day dinner was amazing. Food was exquisite. Staff were awesome. Beautiful ambience. Will go again!

Went for valentine's day and not impressed. I wasn't told when I booked it was only a 5 course set menu. I have allergies and so this wasn't ideal. I will say the server was very understanding and tried to do her best. However both me and my partner were quite underwhelmed by the meals. 3 of the 5 courses were very small, making it not worth 98 dollars per person. Lacked ambiance, was empty when we arrived and no music for almost an hour. Simple cocktails reficulously priced around 20 to 30 dollars. This will be our first and last time here

Beautiful room...Todd was tasty service was really lame. Had to ask for water and good luck on getting a drink.

Nice quiet location with generally attentive waiter even to the point of taking away the wine before it was finished. Too dark to read the menu or decide what the vegetables were. Wonderful prime rib, nice vegetables but a very dry small and over priced piece of Empress cake.

I was very disappointed with my dining experience at Q. Despite the reservation, the hostess directed me to the bar area. When I returned to the restaurant, she realized I was there with a friend for dinner. We were seated at a table for 2, but couldn't begin to read the menu as it was so dark. Asked the waiter if there was a flashlight handy, but no, so we used our cell phones. Not a good start. I ordered an $85 bottle of wine and after some 15 minutes, had to summon another waiter to look into it. Our dinner was simple - a shared oyster appetizer followed by our mutual entree orders of sablefish. It was good, but not as good as I've experienced elsewhere. We declined dessert and coffee and decided to partake elsewhere. This evening was a special occasion gift from my family and something I had looked forward to. I now live in Victoria but would not recommend the Q to residents or visitors. Im quite sure my family will not be happy when I relay my unfortunate experience.


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I went for my 50th birthday expecting a memorable experience. Sadly, that was not the case. Service was average, I had to ask for a water top up and our server was not very attentive, uninterested. Drinks were slow to arrive (on a Tuesday night) and when we ordered a glass of prosecco each they were filled at the table with about an inch left unfilled at the top. My salad (basically greens and a few cucumber curls) was fresh but the dressing had zero flavour which was a huge disappointment. The $25 scallops consisted of 2! Our main meals were very good I have no complaint there, we had the duck, salmon, sable fish and pasta. Everyone enjoyed those. No dessert at the end, kind of expected a little treat for my birthday, but received nothing. Overall, we were not impressed with the evening and will be a long time before we return.

Taking time for myself in your lovely room with portraits of Victoria RI Empress of India looking upon the scene. I work as Dominion Building Maintenance in Victoria and was to meet two men from Monarchist League of Canada. The topic was as follows. An Elizabeth statue at Johnson Street Bridge West Green is the effort. This spot is ideal. The beautiful 13 foot tall Elizabeth statue on a 9 foot by 7 foot base,,one ton will land in Canada and be installed on a pedestal awaiting the work. I am looking at different landing sites and several back up sites, if needed. How wonderful to have Her Royal Majesty's statue glimpse your hotel. Thank you to your splendid staff,,I remain Her Majesty's humble servant, her Canadian, her pet hawk.

Our server Andrew was fabulous! Thank you for a memorable evening.

This was my first visit since the renovations and rebranding and I had a wonderful birthday dinner! The hostesses and our server made us feel very special. We felt very appreciated when the floor manager(?) came by to personally thank us. The dine around menu was excellent. The ling cod and beef stiletto were perfect. The etenia dark chocolate mousse cake were a nice finishing touch to the meal. I appreciated the extra birthday chocolate on my plate! There was also live music and I like the purple accented decor.

We were in for a birthday brunch and the service was outstanding. I love the atmosphere and the food was very good.

Food was excellent! and the atmosphere was beautiful! Will return!

Dinner was just OK. The Pan Seared Sablefish was cooked well, however, the Roasted Cauliflower & Apple Soup was garnished with a very large and chewy piece of kale that was bitter and didn't compliment the flavour in any way. Staff was unrefined, champagne is kept at white wine temp aka warm. Overall disappointing.

It was my girlfriend’s Birthday , so I surprised her with dinner at the empress Q but I was the one surprised at how many young families with babies and young children who were out late on a Friday night to eat at a very expensive restaurant. If I wanted to dine with little kids I would have gone to Denny’s. The food was a little disappointing for a evening of fine dining . Thank goodness for the great selection of wine though.The service was good and the atmosphere/decor was exceptional .

Great service and fabulous food. The live music was wonderful and we really enjoyed that added touch.

just wonderful. we may have picked a good night— everyone was respectful and quiet and the live music was a classy choice and wasnt overwhelmingly loud. the food was to die for. the staff were great, even to (well behaved) rats like us. obsessed. wanna go again

Wonderful atmosphere, service, and food. It's perfect for a special occasion.

Very good service and delicious dinner. We ate there during Dine Around Victoria and the value was excellent. A little noisy, but other than that it was great!

The Dine Around Victoria 3-course menu was perfect, both from a portion size and entree option perspective. Local ingredients and wine, plus great service in a casually elegant atmosphere made a lovely night out.

We found the service and meal very good. The noise level made it difficult to carry a conversation at times.

The food was okay and the serve was good. But we didn’t leave saying, “wow, let’s do this again.”






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Celebrated our 40th anniversary here with dessert. The staff continuously congratulated us and even wrote Happy Anniversary on a white chocolate ribbon on our desserts. It was so thoughtful and a welcomed surprise.

Friendly and good food. Highly recommended. Will definitely go back.

Dinner was fantastic, service was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed!!
Fourth visit so far this month. Just keeps getting better.

It was such a special birthday visit! Dina was a wonderful server and made us feel welcome and important. The Dungeness Crab eggs benedict was absolutely perfect, and our whole time there felt like a magical step into a different world, which was just what we were hoping for. So happy to hear that the Empress truly lives up to its name!

We have been dining in the Empress Dining room for many years and typically look forward to a Holiday dinner there as a season highlight. This year was a profound disappoint. While the service was excellent, the renovated restaurant lacks any intimacy or personality, but most importantly the food was poor at best. The prices are seriously up there , but if the food matches the price that's as it should be. However, our dinners, even at a quarter of the price would be considered , lacklustre, tasting precooked and uninteresting. We will not return and I certainly would not recommend this restaurant.

Background music was a little too loud. But food and service was excellent. Going again this weekend.

Absolutely. Have always loved the Empress and hadn't been there since the renovations. I like that most of the activity is geared towards the front of the building where the best scenery is. Looking forward to coming back in the summer and enjoying some outside seating.

Very elegant and beautiful restaurant in the prestige Victoria Fairmont Empress. Quiet location and professional servers. Food was good and considering the location, not considered expensive.
Great place for family to dates to business meals.

The ambiance was relaxing even though another waiter came to our table 2x delivering food that wasn’t ours. The service was good even though our waiter carried away the butter before our bread was eaten. The salmon was over cooked and the flavour and consistency of the pasta (served on the same plate) was not a good match. The carrots had no taste. The cauliflower fritters were enjoyed by my husband. This was our 2nd visit to the Q and we’re hoping for a better experience as we came from out of town. We will not be back.

The food was incredible! Service impeccable and ambiance perfect!