Last year came the news that Arcade Fire‘s leaders and married couple Win Butler and Régine Chassagne were planning to open a contemporary Haitian restaurant in Montreal, Canada.
The pair were assisted by successful Toronto restaurateur Jen Agg and her artist husband, Roland Jean for the restaurant, which is called Agrikol, meaning “agricultural” in Haitian Creole.
Unfortunately the restaurant has been receiving some pretty damn nasty Yelp reviews, indiciating that perhaps their venture into the food business may not be quite as successful as their musical careers.
One customer, known as Ahn N., noted that the food fell flat, describing the meat as flavourless and too small, and rice as “overcooked, watery and pasty.” “Did i mention that by the time the waitress had came to our table to take our order, we had waited 1 hour for her? We were drunk before even ordering our food.” In a final grim conclusion, she said “I came for the food but left hungry. Not a well 175$ spent!”
Another diner, Einrika S., complained that the food took two hours to arrive at her table, and that they even managed to run out of rice. “a haitian restaurant without rice or griot is like a sushi place only serving seaweed salad and tempura shrimp…”
While most agreed that the service was friendly and the atmosphere was highly enjoyable, almost every review complained of the wait time – with some customers forced to wait outside in the freezing streets of Montreal.
Perhaps Butler and Chassagne should stick to obscure indie rock after all.
IMAGE: Montreal Eater