Stressed out Subeez experience

Three of my gal pals and I had tickets for the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soliel's Michael Jackson travelling show, "This Is It." We played around with a few ideas for places to go for dinner and decided on Subeez, which is a short walk away from Rogers Arena. We didn't realize that this would be such a crazy busy night downtown, but it was quite busy because there was a BC Lions game and a David Sedaris literary reading.

I arrived at 6:00 and told by a flustered hostess that it would be a 30 minute wait. It was busy but the open kitchen seemed to be cranking the food out at a good pace, and tables seemed to be turning around fairly quickly. I was a pretty hectic waiting area...

Two guys actually came in and proceeded tp seat themselves at a small table near the entrance. We were pretty irritated since there was a large crowd of people patiently waiting and these guys essentially "butted in line." We alerted the hostess and were further irritated when she didn't do anything about it.
40 minutes we were seated. Since we were in a rush, we had perused the menu and decided on our orders so we were ready to order right when we were seated.
We explained that we needed to make an 8pm show and our server told us the kitchen turn around would be about 40 minutes. It was 6:40 and we figured that would give us a 20 minute window to eat. Not a leisurely meal, but do-able. Food took about 50 minutes to arrive so we essentially shovelled our food as fast as we could down our throats.

I ordered their Spicy Szechuan Udon $13: Saltspring Island Smoked Tofu, broccoli, shiitake mushroom, bok choy, orange sesame glaze, toasted almonds, scallion. This was a really nice dish. The smoked tofu had a rich smoky taste that actually tasted a bit like cheese, the shiitake mushrooms were earthy and deep flavoured, and with the orange sesame glaze, thankfully the orange flavour was subtle and the sesame flavour was dominant.

Carrie ordered the Braised Chicken Penne $15: Chicken breast, julienne vegetables, mushrooms, shallots, roast garlic, chicken jus, fresh basil, bocconcini. She like this dish and all of the flavours but she thought the portion size was a bit skimpy.

T- Mc ordered the Gnocchi $14: Pan fried gnocchi, chili flakes, coriander, peaches, asiago cheese. She really enjoyed this too and although she was worried initially about the chilli flakes and the spiciness level of the dish, she thought the flavours were nice and melded together quite well. In fact, she noticed that there were no chili flakes. Also, she was disappointed that the peaches were obviously from a can.

Christine ordered the Chicken & Brie Sandwich $13: Baguette, chicken breast, brie, demi-glace, arugula, roasted tomato. She was really happy with this......it was ooey, gooey, indulgence in sandwich form accompanied with a side of fries. The brie cheese oozed throughout the sandwich and it was very rich with a bit of light-ness from the arugula.

Unfortunately, we all had to wolf down our food at a rapid pace (5-10 min) and jump in a cab to make it to the show just in time.

Now here's the thing, everyone thought the food was pretty delicious and I've had great group dinners at Subeez before so I can't give it an all around bad review- but all in all, this was a stressful and somewhat frustrating experience that highlighted flaws in their system and management that came close to ruining our evening.