Tap & Barrel Restaurant Employee Reviews

The scheduling is a major issue. Spring and Summer hires are excessive, leading to frequent call-offs or early cuts, resulting in tips comparable to slow seasons. If hired in the spring you will work regularly when you start but it won't last. Despite the potential for good earnings, securing regular shifts is extremely difficult and typically, shifts are only four hours long being cut after three hours. I've never witnessed such widespread hiring, with three rounds of lay-offs and many servers quitting, there still isn’t enough shifts to go around. You will be called off regularly even in the summer due to over staffing and will likely be layoff by Aug. Post summer many of us are scheduled for a minimum of five ON CALL shifts, however you will work only two per week (if you’re luck). Normally you will be notified if you’re needed one to two hours before your start time, which is especially horrible for shifts starting at 6pm. It's disappointing, considering the positive workplace culture, but favouritism is prevalent and will affect your shifts in a positive or negative way depending on who favours you. I recommend this job as passive income, if you have financial obligations such as rent you will 100% need another full time job. This job is perfect for students still living at home or if you don’t have any financial obligations.There is no consideration for the livelihood of employees. It would be best, for them to communicate with staff and set clear expectations, allowing them to seek alternative employment when needed.

Pros

Coworkers are great!

Cons

Lack of shifts, too many on calls.

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Lots of running and walking for everything.

Server (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 26 November 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?Lots of on calls and most called of. Very hard to scheduale your week as they pick favorites only to have real shifts.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?On call and managers have favorites.What is the work environment and culture like at the company?Everything was very good and culture was greatWhat is a typical day like for you at the company?5-6 tables section, lots of running.

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Insights into Tap & Barrel Restaurant

Based on 24 survey responses

What people like

Inclusive work environment
Supportive environment
Feeling of personal appreciation

Areas for improvement

Support from manager
General feeling of work happiness
Ability to learn new things

Not a bad place to work

Server (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 3 October 2023

Nice atmosphere, helpful coworkers. Often not enough hours. Management is ok, well organised work process. Comfortable to work. good place to work but not for a full time.

Pros

Helpful team, atmosphere, organisation

Cons

Short hours.

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Fun, fast-paced work environment.

Expo (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 27 September 2023

I worked as a (lead) expo at the Bridges location for a year and really enjoyed my time there. Worked with a lot of awesome people who I'm glad I met. Management team is nice. Hard to get advancement in the company you really have to be on top of that yourself in order to get anywhere. Very fast-paced and stressful on busy days and sometimes as an expo, servers try to walk all over you. But still a fun workplace environment.

Pros

Awesome people

Cons

Hard to get advancement, can get very busy

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Fun work place

Line Cook (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 23 August 2023

I learn a lot about cooking in this amazing restaurant ... I recommend this place for any own need to learn how to be good cook and chef. I’m happy to be a part of this place 🙏🏻

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Fast pace environment with ample opportunity

Server (Former Employee) - North Vancouver, BC - 12 July 2023

I worked at the North Vancouver Shipyards location and my whole experience with my management and peers was positive. The work environment is fun yet fast-paced. The opportunity to make money is there; with the restaurant being so large and busy sometimes you may feel overwhelmed but the management has set a tone in which your peers will help you if needed. I felt like this location became one big family and I was sad to leave. I HIGHLY recommend working here.

Pros

Making great money, discount food, cool / professional manager, great training

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unfortunately, it's the worst

Dishwasher (Former Employee) - South Surrey, BC - 26 June 2023

Despite my attempts to contact both the sous chef and the head chef, I have not received any response, which has been very frustrating. As a 15-year-old who is working to support my family, I feel that I have not been treated with the respect and professionalism that I deserve.The sous chef at Tap and Barrel has repeatedly ignored my concerns and has failed to take action when issues arise. Additionally, I have had multiple negative experiences with both the sous chef and some of the shift leaders. Despite these issues, I have been scheduled to work one weekend without any communication from management about my availability.

Pros

They would give us free food behind the managers back

Cons

No communication, unprofessional

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Alright, needs better management

Hostess (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 20 June 2023

Honestly I love the people I work with but there’s a lot of favouritism. Hard to move up unless you literally put so much effort. Servers can walk on you as a host

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Busy

Server (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 22 May 2023

The restaurants are too big for their own good. Management can be not very helpful because it's always a rotating door of new managers. The kitchen usually can't handle getting slammed. The money is good if you can tough it out

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Great people to work with! Hours suck though

Dishwasher (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 13 May 2023

Great team to work with! Learning curve wasn’t too bad for me, I just found that they were hiring alot of people while I was working and cutting a lot of hours while seniority got overtime hours, maybe it’s normal but to me it didn’t feel ok. If they got their management and scheduling better I would work here again

Pros

Team is amazing, The work is good, close to transit, views are immaculate

Cons

No free meals only 50% off, you will get cut hours

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Jobs at Tap & Barrel Restaurant

Lunch Room is atrocious....cold and messy...cramped.

Dishwasher (Former Employee) - Shipyards - 25 April 2023

I am 70 and worked with 14 to 25 year olds. Absoluteley no Supervision in Dish. Never enough employees. No training in how to perform the job correctly. I had to leave because I was Supervising the new ones, but I was not a Supervisor. I was not fairly treated and will never go back there to eat. The owners concentrate on Bonus's at the expense of the hard workers. Great food. Would not send me T-4's in the Mail. I cannot access their Website.

Pros

when it was fun, it was real fun

Cons

Long Hours

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Management needs work

Hostess/Server (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 7 April 2023

It’s a fun place to work but often you will get tied up into management issues with scheduling and time off it’s hard to move up and you will probably work on your days off

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good place to work

Food Runner (Current Employee) - Surrey, BC - 3 April 2023

good place to work not too many problems, only real complaint is that schedule was not consistent, but there were great people, and they were flexible.

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Not bad

Server (Former Employee) - Coal Harbour, BC - 3 March 2023

Beautiful view, can be busy but always lots of campers on the patio with small sections so didnt find the tips to be great and some staff was hard to work with

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stressful, with most management being hypocrites

Line Cook (Former Employee) - South Surrey, BC - 5 February 2023

You don’t get paid or treated right for the work you do. It will affect your mental state as they exploit you and not appreciate you or the work you put in. They will not give you breaks and will get mad at you if you take a 4 min to go to the bathroom.

Pros

If you are lazy you get treated better than working hard

Cons

No breaks

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Not a good fit if you require hours to make money

Server (Former Employee) - South Surrey, BC - 17 November 2022

What a waste of time working there and thinking I'll make bank as a server. They tell you not to come in or cut you in a hour or 2. Not enough hours in a week to live on. Then there's a on call shift that you may or may not work. They over hired, so everyone is scrambling for hours. Shameful. Co workers were nice. Food half price. If you're not making money to live, obviously you can't afford to eat there even with a discount. This place should only hire students as they most likely live at home and don't have living expenses. The company really needs to look at how they value employees. Many employees are walking away with a bad taste. I'd never recommended this place to work at. And that also goes for eating there. I was employed there for a short time as I ran real fast to a new employer with actual hours and being treated as an asset.

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Fast paced hectic workplace

Host (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 12 November 2022

As a hostess everyone walks over you and doesn’t appreciate anything you do. You do most of the work for the servers and get nothing in tips. The management isn’t good and they don’t appreciate anything even if you are the only host on all day. They praise the servers and make everything your fault.

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Very Fast-Paced and Mostly Stressful

Hostess (Former Employee) - Shipyards - 23 September 2022

It's a really huge space to work at. You go back and forth, up and down, every single night having to communicate with everyone through the radio. And if you don't clean and bus the table quickly, they will call you out and constantly ask you how you're doing at the table. And as hostesses, we only get 4% of the servers' tips when we do most of their work. The highest I got was only $70 in 2 weeks as a tip. Very unfair. It can also get a little chaotic here especially during the busy days, I would say it's not even worth it to stay here long term.

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Fun workplace, very busy on weekends

Expo (Former Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 15 August 2022

Working there was ok. Very busy and you don't stop for a second. Staff is friendly and management is supportive. The paycheck however does not support the amount of work done.

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Immaculate culture, impeccable vibes, great work environment, but you can do better

Server (Former Employee) - North Vancouver, BC - 4 May 2022

Everyone here is super friendly, and almost everyone is friends with one another. The culture is immaculate.You're generally underpaid for the actual strain of the work (as is normal for any restaurant), so unless you're planning on becoming a server, please save yourself some pain and go work at a garden store. I'll clarify: this is only worth your stress and time if you serve. There is a universally experienced two-month period when one starts where one hates their life. This tapers off and you eventually learn to ignore it.Or, if you must (because nobody hires a server without experience), start off at a more expensive restaurant to take advantage of how much more you'll be making in vicarious tips. There's no good reason to settle for less here.

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