Martin's Kitchen - Halifax

Service was friendly and the taste of the food was good, and I appreciate a kitchen that is not afraid of spices. but pretty much everything else wasn't good at all. At first the water tasted like blood as it was apparently full of iron from their well as they treated the water differently. they offered sparkling water or club soda but didn't even offer a basic bottle of water. the lighting is super dim (not around) and it's extremely noisy when busy. the seating isn't comfortable and, in my opinion, the decor is very tacky. while the food was packed with flavor, it wasn't amazing either. we ordered a seafood bouillabaisse to start, which literally came with two slices of baguette. One of the seafood linguine dishes also had two dead clams out of the four or five in the platter. I would have given at least three stars as I hate being negative for the companies. but what took it all off is that we brought a birthday cake to the restaurant. They told us it's $25 that we want the cake there and use their cutlery and plates. I would understand a $5 fee, but $25 is ridiculous. again, nothing against the servers or the staff but I don't want to go back.

The staff was very attentive and welcoming. Despite not having a reservation, they still managed to seat us outside with a lovely view.

This is a real hidden gem just outside of Halifax/Bayers Lake. The service/atmosphere was above and beyond and the calamari exceptional. Can’t wait to go back!

First time there and it was the last. I really wanted to love this restaurant and after reading great reviews I was very excited to try it. Soon after arriving this excitement quickly faded. While seated we asked (according to their policy you can't reserve a specific part of the restaurant so we waited until we were there) if we could sit in the "sunroom" as there was an empty table (same number seats than ours) and the view was definitely better than the table we got in the back corner. We were told, "No, everything is blanked out for the evening, and we'd screw everything up changing tables." That's fine, I understand, until we saw another group sit, settle down, and then be asked to move into the sun room and was allowed. Sitting isn't the end of the world, but it would be nice if all guests were treated equally. The service was less than par. Our waitress didn't try to start a friendly conversation that one would typically expect in a restaurant. The service was slow which is surprising since the first thing they tell you when you come to the table is "You have this table for 2 hours." We had to go to the front and ask for our bill that it was taking so long and we had just finished. While we were about to leave, there was a waitress on the table and there was none, thank you, have a nice evening, etc. and nothing from the hostess at the front. For a NS restaurant the service was very disappointing. A restaurant needs more than just "shameful" foods, it needs the total package and this one doesn't have it. Don't make the same mistake I did, try another restaurant.

The restaurant was bustling, but the staff was very efficient. The Fish and Chips were excellent!