Our 10th anniversary and our first visit here.

Our 10th anniversary and our first visit here.
Stating those points to the staff did not bring about any extra efforts to sell this place to us. It did not get us a seat at the window but out in the middle.
We waited a very long time for our first drink. In fact, had the all-around drink service been prompt we would have ordered well over triple the amount throughout the evening.
I am not cheap but at $12 a drink and $35 a plate I do expect to be impressed by service, quality and yes...reasonable quantity. Grilling halibut is not not rocket science and offering just 1 single piece of broccoli along with it is just pretentious. I think too many people are getting tricked into believing that tiny portions at a high price will instantly bring it to a gourmet standard. The sauce on the halibut was tasty but it was also no more than a simple butter sauce.
The caesar salad came as a couple of long leaves of romaine lettuce draped across and extending over the sides of the small plate. Impossible to eat with a fork alone. Cutting the salad into pieces with a knife and fork was not easy because it is lettuce and the knife was a butter knife. Perhaps I should have requested a steak knife so I could cut up my salad into bite sized pieces. (The other alternative was to eat each piece of lettuce by hand when nobody was looking as if it were a taco) Again this is just pretentious presentation before actually considering the person who has to eat it. I was originally not even going to mention it until I noticed my wife also having a difficult time eating her salad without making a mess.
I tipped 20% because that is what I do. My wife and I do have our nice restaurants that we enjoy and make a point of going back to but Cardero's will not be one of them.
When I am impressed and happy with a product I also do not hesitate to give a good review. My wife and I stopped in at IKEA the next day and ordered the poached salmon for lunch at their restaurant. The taste was outstanding, the sides were great and at 1/4 of the price of Cardero's! The only thing missing was the atmosphere I suppose but all we wanted was a good meal and it was that.
The restaurant business is very competitive in Vancouver and Cardero's needs to step up their attention to service and take a closer look at their menu offerings if they want to properly compete and to properly match up to their fabulous location and atmosphere.