The Observatory at Grouse Mountain

Food was not what was expected from a "dine dining" place as advertised. I have been in this restaurant more than 4 times and every time it has been not a total satisfaction experience due to the poor quality of the food. The vegetarian dishes ordered this last time, was perhaps the poorest of the previous visits. Waiter asked me, but I could not report it to him as the service was exemplary.

The staff was very helpful, excellent service, and my medium -rare steak was cooked perfectly.

View was great. Food was really good. To be honest, I didn't have high hopes for the food but it was surprisingly delicious and tasty. I'm not sure whether they are understaffed but the hostess was also helping with setting tables. The hostess would be missing from the front for extended periods of time. this would result in customers waiting at the front not knowing whether the restaurant was ready to serve customers. The waiting staff was professional but not a 5 star dining experience as I had expected. Despite some of that, the view was amazing, the food was great and the restaurant is a jewel on top of the mountain. The menu could be expanded a bit, there were only a few appetizers, main courses and desserts to choose from. Not a lot of selection.

We enjoyed great food, tasting and sharing several choices on the menu. Good timing with the sunset and later a walk in the snow through the trail of lights.
Just a note to provide more detail where to pick up the gondola tickets. Thanks.

Great ambience and superb food choices. Not as expensive as it seems when your lift ticket and activities are included free with dinner.

Great staff! Fantastic food and wine pairing!

Excellent service and the food was amazing, don’t even think about missing the whipped butter with bread. The view even on a cloudy day was good watching the hikers and people snow shoeing in the dark.

The location is beautiful but the food was really not great. I had the vegiatarian pasta and the trifle and a side of the passion fruit sorbet. The pasta dish was okay but the trifle and the passion fruit sorbet we're not at all as I expected. first the cake pieces that were in the trifle were extremely dry and tasted stale. As for the passion fruit sorbet it literally tasted like mashed up frozen bananas. It's very unfortunate as the location is absolutely stunning but honestly the food needs serious improving. One more thing I wanted to mention is I was there with a group of five people. 3 of us wanted to do the wine pairing and the five course meal but because two of us did not want to do it the other three were not allowed. Honestly ridiculous it's not like it's a buffet or all you can eat to limit your guess as to what they can order that definitely needs to change. Honestly a bit disappointed.

Everyone was sweet and amazing there. We did the Prix menu and food was a bit salter than I would have preferred. The view more than makes up for it

I came here for my 5 year anniversary and Valentine's Day weekend. We live in Seattle so it was a special trip up. I was not sure what to expect with the restaurant but figured at least the view would be good. Well, I was wrong. The view was spectacular and the food was amazing. Our server (very sad I can't remember her name) was punctual and professional and friendly. The food tasted delicious, was a good portion size, and reasonably priced. I highly recommend coming here!

The scenic view at The Observatory is undoubtedly one of the best in Vancouver as most would already anticipate, but it was the food that gave me the most pleasant surprise. The chef here put a lot of attention to the finer points of the food. From the caramelized crisp of the seared scallops, the sauce used for the beef tenderloin, to the cipollini onions, you can really taste the chef's effort put into the food. Oh, and talk about the desserts. For anyone who's been to Hong Kong , the walnut ice cream would immediately remind you of the walnut paste dessert from back in the days, or the custard tart that taste just like an egg tart from the bakery. Even the chocolate ganache that looks like a caravel vessel looks really cute.

I really enjoyed he view and appitisers the service was great but when it came to the main course we had the AAA steak and it came with a wierd hash brown thing that was kinda mushy and crispy at the same time. I found it a little Unappealing. Everything else was great. Small but great.

Anniversary- very nice evening

Love coming here. Excellent service and food as usual. Highly recommended

It took a whole three hours to get through this dinner. We were left unattended at the entrance for 20 minutes, were seated 20 minutes late (which is their grace period by the way), waited 25 minutes to put our orders of drinks and then each dish took between 15 and 30 minutes to be served, on a fixed tasting menu! With a 18% gratuity included that’s just ridiculous. Some people left before the end and we wished we had done the same.

I hardly rant or review restaurants, but I felt like I really had to about this experience.

We were there for Valentines Day dinner. First time experience at the restaurant as well. Service was extremely slow for us, but it seemed to go pretty quick for some tables. It was a 5 course set menu for everyone.

Our protein dishes were given to a vegetarian table not once but twice.

1 table that came in when we were having our 3rd dish, caught up to us. We were both having our 5th dish at the same time, while they came in 1.5 hrs after us? Not sure what happened there...

Mandatory 18% gratuity. I’m ok giving 18% if the service was actually worth it. In my opinion, it was not.

So I was desperately disappointed in the observatory as it was overbooked, overpriced, and they were very casual about my allergies. It took over 4 hours to serve us!!!! I had been before on another occasion several years ago but they had the same menu and they were able to regroup from my allergies and still provide me with a great meal. It was my boyfriend and I year anniversary and we got stuck in an over flow room that was too bright and ambiance was poor. THEN we had to send the salad back 3 times as they had ingredients in it I could not have. I had even provided them with a card listing them. I had a reaction and was able to control it with drugs and did not have to use the epi-pen but regardless it ruined the night. They gave us a 50 dollar credit but the bill was still 330. The waitress tried her best but the night was just so disappointing and so unnecessarily difficult. I would NOT recommend anyone to the The Observatory again.

I took my wife out for a birthday dinner on the Valentine’s Day and the observatory was a splendid experience. It was a surprise venue for her. Unparalleled to anything else you will find on the lower mainland, this mountain top dining experience with views of the city, and snowfall in the winter is a mesmerizing experience. Food was good, portion sizes however were small as usual for my liking. But everything was flavourful and fresh tasting. We had prefixed 5 course meal with a bottle of Burring owl Cab. Wines are to be expected at 100% markup, but service was good. Our server took care of us well despite the busy night and more than compensated us for kitchen’s mistake on bringing out a dish incorrectly. The staff seemed hospitable, affable and well experienced. I will definitely recommend The Observatory for a celebratory dinner getaway from the city. Just give yourself enough time for gondola ride. Besides the Altitude bar besides the observatory makes for a good waiting place if you arrive a bit ahead of schedule:)

I have been many times but I was very disappointed with this visit. The fixed menu was pricey but the food was comparable to what I would expect from a high-end restaurant. Not Michelin star, but close. The exception was the dessert. Each course felt hand-crafted and included terrific blends of ingredients. The dessert however, felt like a bludgeoning of sugar and chocolate. Very north American, and out of keeping with the haute cuisine feel of the rest of the dishes.
But what really detracted fromt the evening was the mediocre service. They sprang a fixed 18% gratuity on us when the bill came. They should have communicated that when taking the booking. The tip is the customer's chance to reward and incentivise great service. This service was minimal and with attitude. Not at all what I've come to expect from the Observatory on previous visits. The tip didn't need to be earned and that was reflected in the effort made by the server. It's a poor system and it produced a poor outcome. Very disappointed with what could have otherwise been a magical dining experience.

We had a very good time. The food was great. The only was the weather. We can't see Vancouver.

Dine out menu was just ok, the complimentary sky ride worth the price

Great yogurt dessert!

The view and experience was nice but the food was very underwhelming and mediocre. We went for Dine out so for the price it was good but I wouldn't return.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at The Observatory - the check in experience was easy, all of the staff we encountered throughout the night were friendly and knowledgeable, and the dining experience was fantastic. We went for the $45 Dine Out Vancouver menu, and the food was great. Highly recommend everything we tried! The restaurant had a beautiful view of the city, and the servers were attentive and helpful.

素晴らしい料理とロケーション！
料理はさほど、と聞いていましたが、見た目も美しい、とても素晴らしいお料理でした。DINE OUT の期間で、割安だったからかもしれません。ゴンドラに乗るアトラクションまで付いているし、素晴らしい！

This was a strange visit. First of all, they used to be more strict about their dress code. Most diners were in jeans and T-shirts/sweatshirts, or athletic wear from being outside in the snow. There was someone at another table that was watching videos (with sounds) on their phone for about the first 20 minutes of our seating, which was very distracting and irritating not just to ourselves, but we could see other diners also irritated. None of the servers did anything until a diner asked them about it.

And then there’s the food... in the past we have thoroughly enjoyed the food here, and I don’t know if quality was down because this time around we visited during the “dine out Vancouver“ menu, but other than a nicely cooked steak my partner had, the food was all overly rich and unbalanced. First of all, bread was served with butter topped with olive oil!? Why butter AND oil? The celeriac soup was nice, but was garnished with apple slices and hazelnuts, all very rich/sweet; it would have been nice to have something fresh or peppery to contrast and compliment the sweetness of the soup. The vegetarian entree was pasta with mushrooms, absolutely drowning in a creamy fontina sauce, which did not need the addition of a barely poached egg (which I found very unappetizing), I found one or two pieces of cooked greens, which were a nice reprieve from the salty, rich sauce. The chocolate ganache dessert was about 4 times larger than necessary, and the plate was decorated with little drops of some gritty, sugary substance which was unnecessary. The best part was the fresh sorbet, of which there was just a tiny amount.

I’m quite disappointed, this was definitely not the quality and experience I was looking forward to, and not worth the nearly $200 for 2 people.

The view on a sunny day would be amazing!! The dark chocolate genache dessert was perfect.

There was a lot of cloud on top of the mountain when we went, so there was hardly any view outside. Food was delicious for dine out~

Loved the experience. We will definitely be back.

Dine out was great! Appreciated the free lift ticket. Our host made us feel welcome and seated us promptly. Food was excellent and came out great. Had the best table with an excellent view. Would come back for sure!

The food this time round was only okay because the lingcod dish was modified to a point where the lingcod is extremely salty and uneatable and even the chef agreed. They made me another one, but I noticed my dish was different from the rest so they probably remove a main component to make it Glutenfree for me. The server was excellent though!

While the observatory is a beautiful restaurant, the food was terrible. There was a group of us that went and two of us got the fish and this was the worst fish I've ever had. More than half the group was hungry after our three course meal and unfortunately I would never recommend anyone to go for the food. The service also felt rushed even though we clearly knew we had a time limit. The waitress made it feel like she was running around and in a rush all the time and honestly looked frazzled and appearance as though she was exhausted and simply just serving us. We also let the waitress know it was a friends birthday but they did nothing about it, whereas the table next to us had a candle on her dessert . Very bad experience but the company was great which is what made the evening enjoyable....the people you're with.

Thoroughly enjoyed the food and service was great, warm and efficient - thoughtful!

Our server made the awesome experience even more awesome!
She is a real value to this restaurant - superior server and a real professional yet personable.
If you have never done the Observatory - you should!
Taste of Vancouver was a good value for great food and awesome location.
Loved it alot - and it poured rain and was foggy - imagine if it was a clear day!
So much to do on top - even if you don't ski
Any bad reviews are hard to believe - I feel sorry for those sad sacks:-(
To the people that complained about others' dress and codes.....get over yourselves
To the people that complained about others' table activities.....sorry your own table was so boring you had to concern yourself and base your review on others...maybe you should eat in a BUBBLE or stay home next time

It is very enjoyable place to have dinner with my special friend. The view was not bad consider it was raining. The ride to the restaurant was excellent. A very beautiful snowy scenery.
The food was very tasty and we enjoyed very much.

The views are outstanding and unfortunately that is all that was. The waitress was great, the food was horrible. I was very disappointed, if you are not going to embrace dine out and use this as a way to get new customers by offering fantastic food you should not participate.

Very nice restaurant, service was great and attentive when required to be. The food for the special Vancouver dine out occasion was very good. Only downside was I found for myself the portion size was quite small. Considering the restaurant covers the cost of the gondola ride up I would definitely go back!

The food was very good. We were here for dine-out so a set menu. I don’t think it was of the level to warrant the regular menu prices though. Fogged in so no view. I think the spectacular view when you can see it really adds to the overall experience.

Overall service was lacking on the night we went. We arrived 5 min earlier than our reservation and were told to wait for about 5 min, 20 min later we were seated. Waitress kept forgetting what the dishes contained and stumbled on every single dish when she gave us the description. Food was pretty good. We ordered raw oysters and they were lukewarm, were a bit concerned about the safety but we didn't get sick afterwards. Cocktails were good and probably the best part of the evening.

We had a great time !!!