I pose a question to everyone who is reading this blog post, what makes good service? Is it a friendly server, a nice environment, good food? And if it’s a good server what makes them so special, do they know their menu inside and out, do they make great suggestions, do they know when to come to your table and when to stay away? I know we have all had great and terrible service, yesterday I experienced both, but as the night went on and we talked about the bad service received many questions popped up.
Here is what happened. After JJ and I returned from the beach yesterday we wanted to go sit on a nice patio in the neighbourhood and have dinner and drinks. So we ventured up to the Ceili Cottage (We go about once every two weeks since the winter). The time was 4:50 (they open at 5pm) and we were told we had to wait outside of the restaurant until they open in 10 minutes (apparent licensing issues we were told, which is total bullshit). Now this is the second time this has happened to us, first time we thought it was a fluke, this time bad service. Now I am not a restaurant owner, but I do know that turning money away is never a good thing. If it was me, I would have told us, we are not open for another 10 minutes but you are more than welcome to grab a seat on the patio and we will bring you some water. Am I the only person who thinks this kind of customer service is unreasonable?
JJ went on a bit of a tear and here is the twitter conversation between them:
They make valid points about set hours and the staff being ready but it was 10min, really Ceili, you couldn’t have just sat us on the patio and brought us some water. I won’t be back for a while, we work far to hard for our money to not have the best service. Also, make sure your door guy and the social media dude are on the same page…licencing issues vs. not busy enough to open early are like night and day excuses for just plain old bad service.
On the flip side, we had a great experience at the Joy Bistro, mostly thanks for our server.
884 Queen Street East
416.465.8855
We have been there many times for brunch but never dinner. At brunch they always seem a bit slow, and disorganized but the servers are great, and the food is good and consistent. Last night JJ had the summerlicious menu which looked and tasted great but I choose a lighter dinner, their POPcorn Cobb Salad, which was very good! It was recommended by our lovely server and I was not disappointed. The patio at Joy is shaded which was a real blessing yesterday in the brutal heat wave we are facing here in Toronto (for all my UK readers).
I’m going to end my post here as this isn’t about the food today but about the service, JOY you get a !@#$% of !@#$%, and we will be back for dinner again soon!
Heather's Fowl Mouthed Kitchen 