John Chow dot Com Free WordPress Installation - Start Your Blog Today!
 

The Alibi Room Needs a Restaurant Makeover

written by John Chow on September 7, 2007

Profit from binary options

alibi1.jpg

Tonight we went to the 100th episode meet-up for The Lab with Leo Laporte. The party was held at the Alibi Room at 157 Alexander Street in Vancouver. If ever a restaurant needed a makeover, the Alibi Room would be at the top of the list. I can see why Leo chose it. The Ailibi Room was the only place dead enough to accommodate the large group Leo brought down. Every other bar wouldn’t be able to host their regular customers and Leo at the same time. The Alibi Room had no such problem because they have no regular customers.

The service was down right awful and painfully slow. We all ordered food at the same time but they came out at different times and so far in between that by the time Sarah and I got our dishes, Stephen Fung, Ed Lau, Michael Kwan and Rainer had already finished their. The food was barely eatable and way too expensive for the level of quality. Greg Morgan and BlueFur were the lucky ones – they ate before they came and didn’t order food. One thing for sure, you will never see a John Chow dot Com meet-up at the Alibi Room.

Despite the restaurant being a hole in the ground, we did had a good time. Meeting up with good friends makes up for a lot of shortcomings.

alibi3.jpg

Michael Kwan really likes the little ketchup bottle for some reason. Good thing they gave us three because he used one all for himself.

alibi4.jpg

Ed Lau shows off his super bling Canon digital SLR camera. The thing is huge! The bag it came with looked like a backpack.

alibi6.jpg

Some yam chips. We didn’t order this. The waitress thought we did. I took a pic and told her take it away. Here are some food that we did ordered but wish we didn’t.

alibi7.jpg

alibi8.jpg

alibi2.jpg

Alibi Room on Urbanspoon

Did you enjoy this post? Get John Chow Dot Com updates via email...

Stay up to date with all of John Chow’s tips for making money online and blog posts by subscribing via email. Your email will be kept private and never shared with anyone.

Comments have been disabled for this post.
Sort: Newest | Oldest

John,
Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy the venue or food of the Alibi Room. In my experience with these tech meet ups, it can be tough to estimate how many folks are going to actually show. With the numbers we gave them, more people showed up then we expected and thus took us and the Alibi Room off guard. The majority of the people who attended the event were understanding of this issue. The team and I were extremely happy with the way the venue and event panned out. In fact, we would like to thank Alibi Room for accommodating our event and we'll be back after episode 200!
-Matt
Producer, The Lab with Leo Laporte

It's lunch time over here now, and those dishes really look Yummy....!
However the place of the party was, the food definitely looks YUMMMM ! to me.

My mouth really started watering now ......

Doesn't look like that turned out so well, least you guys still had fun. Now you have another item for your list of places to not eat.

Mmmmmm, that food looks really good!

Wow, almost forgot to post my second entry for the contest! :D

doesn't look that bad...ok...perhaps it does...

Loks mnameee... Reminds me that I am getting hungry. :shock:

Food looked awful and the prices paid... geez...

Nice food there, and nice book too :roll:

wooo draw me for the book

I've seen you post much nicer looking food here!

Finally, looks like John had a bad day at the restaurant!

Hey hey!
Put me in the list to win "7 Winning Strategies for Trading Forex" :P

Well, it looks like the presentation of the food wasn't bad at least. :lol:

Wow, not a great review for this restaurant. Maybe you were a restaruant critic in a previous life John? :smile:

your food article photos always crack me up!

The food looked great, and the guys in the pics seemed like they were having fun, but the restaurant needs some life to it.

Looks great!
Also comment for Win The 7 Winning Strategies for Trading Forex

Put me down for the forex book.

john you should get a food blog - you have more food pictures on your blog that probably posts! lol

RSS Feed Reply for ForEx Book.

Pretty cool! :)

I've recently had a friend of mine refer me to your blog saying "there's this guy which makes photos of his meals in various restaurants", made me laugh ;)

Ha ha
I love the fact that you took a photo of the food before sending it back. Looks like you had a good night :smile:

I like those little bottles of ketchup, too - I brought a few home from ASE in Miami... mustard, too! :razz:

John, can you name me the winner of your latest 7 Winning Strategies for Trading Forex?

Hehe, yet another appetising post.

I hate it when the waitress brings over crap I didn't order. It was like that one time in Georgia, the waiter asked us if we'd like dessert and we hadn't ordered our meal yet. Then, he gave us the check....what a dummy!

Did they pay you for this review? ;)

If you've ever read Anthony Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" you would know to stay away from empty restaurants...there's a reason they are empty and you just found out first hand why. Nobody wants to eat terrible food and have bad service. Next time Leo should spring for a place that has private rooms for large guests. I'm sure they exist.

We know better, believe me. It wasn't empty. In fact, it was pretty crowded.

I'm rather sure the two tables closest to us were caught in the hurricane that is...well, us talking. We're loud...

Next time just drag a kid along and go to McDonald's playland for your meeting. At least you'll know what to expect.

Correction: Gary had a burger there, but he finished it before you showed up.

:) I very very like the personal stuff

Look at chips, making me hungry.....

Again with the food. You always make me want to eat. :mrgreen:

Looks like fun - we have had a few of those in Toronto when Leo was filming show here before the move to west coast. They are always packed with a lot of geeks (interesting people to hang out with). I wish Leo would have stayed in Toronto, but I guess it is closer for him to commute.

Hey John, Google Page Rank says you are only a four right now... what happened???

PageRank is for http://www.johnchow.com/ shows at 6... And it looks like my site http://www.tysonwilliams.com/ is at 5 which means I am slowing catching up to John :lol:

Where did you check it?
It's Still 6

Okay, it's six right now. That's... weird. I'm absolutely positive it was 4. o.0

John, why you don't invite us at the next one? :twisted:

I would eat that chips if I was you :grin:

Looks like it was a great night?!?!?
and restaurants are my "thing"
May you should all come down to Australia for your next party.

Just don't try to come to Sydney at the moment. APEC and Dubya have turned it into a fortress :roll:

Leo left his OWN party? Not that's pretty bad...

lol, looks like the local restaurant here