The Townhouse — Restaurant in Antigonish

Last night, I received the most appallingly bad service here. I've had slow service here plenty of times, but the servers haven't been offensive about it. Last night, I walked in with two aquaintances. We all placed orders.i asked for a 9 ounce pinot noir. They received theirs, and I was left waiting. Then I waited longer, and longer. I was waiting at the bar for my friend, and the guy who took my order finally noticed me, said "oh i forgot about you" and eventually brought me a 9 ounce white wine. Ok, so I reminded him I ordered the pinot noir (a red). Fine. Mistakes happen. Proper response "Oh! I am so sorry. We no longer serve that bu the glass. Can I offer you another red?". That is bartending 101. You mess up. Apologize. Correct the issue. I've drank at award winning establishments and dives. The protocol is the same at any place. This guy takes an attitude with me and said "We don't serve the pinot noir by the glass", and I said "oh! You used to!" And he seriously rolls his eyes and says "not in a LONG TIME" and I'm thinking, ok twenty minutes ago when I ordered it would have been a PERFECT time to tell me that. So he said "I'm just going to leave this here", indicating the white wine he mistakenly served me, and took off to do something else. I thought "ok. Free wine" maybe rude and completely non apologetic service, but ok. Because in ANY OTHER DECENT BAR IN CANADA, they would throw you a freebie after all of that. He comes back, sees me drinking the mistake wine, and says "I was going to swap that out". Like...ok? You had ten minutes to do exactly that???! And I just told him "Whatever. I'll drink it" because at this point i just want my friend to arrive so we can find somewhere else to go. This is a $30 glass of wine, btw, and nothing like what I ordered, but I've worked in service, so I try to be understanding. But i'm not enjoying this grassy white so when he comes back, I offer to pay for the white, because I've taken a few sips, but ask him to also bring me a red. Anyone who works in wine knows that people can be pretty divided on red or white preference. It's super basic. So he TAKES THE WHITE WINE I AM RELUCTANTLY DRINKING LOLOL and brings me a red. I'm sorry but what tf lol. What did he do with it? Put it back in the bottle? It wasn't the first time I had a bad time there due to weird slow service, but it was the worst. Treating customers like a hassle because you have a monopoly on trendy ambience and like, expensive cheese fries is not the flex you think it is, Townhouse. Tired of being treated poorly when I'm spending $40 minimum. And I get that there are like, boomers there, in parties of 6, dropping $170 per person. But it's not like I was taking up a table, being rude, or the place was swamped. I was meeting up with a friend who was having a bad week, just trying to have a pleasant time. It takes 5 minutes to have some class and not to ruin someone's night which they were dearly looking forward to. For good food, I recommend Gabrieux. It's not as instagram friendly but they are warm, the food and wine is excellent, and they treat you like a human being. For a casual drink, I recommend ANYWHERE ELSE in town, seriously. Terrible experience....

I doubt that my review will remotely capture how fantastic and frankly, life changing our visit at The Townhouse was.

To make a long story short, my husband and I were planning to stop in Antigonish for a meal half way through our 4+ hour drive across the province. We unfortunately popped a tire in our rental car on the highway (2.5 hours from The Townhouse) and arrived 15 minutes to closing on a hope and a prayer that we would be able to get some takeout.

We assumed the chances were slim, until a glowing, angel (the manager Katie) approached us, and asked if we would be willing to sit down, have a drink to unwind. We must have looked pretty bewildered by this point (it was 9:45 PM). She poured me what I would estimate was a 15oz glass of wine, talked my hubby into a glass aswell and made us comfortable enough to order food despite the late hour.

She was kind enough to consult with the kitchen to determine which dishes could be made vegan and gluten free to accommodate my unfortunately limited diet. The food was world class delicious, the hospitality was unmatched and the atmosphere was everything I could have asked for. She went so above and beyond, and when we went to settle up, she even refused to let us pay for the wine.

I feel that this already long review fails to come close to how perfect this experience was. I’m forever grateful to Katie and The Townhouse for taking care of us on what could have been a very terrible, very hungry night.

We love you Katie! I still want to be best friends!

But seriously - if you’re thinking about going here, stop thinking and JUST GO. As soon as you possibly can, and as many times as fate allows. You...

We visited here every summer; it was a reliable spot for good food, good service, etc. While the service is still exceptional, the food has drastically changed. I decided to play it safe with the burger to see if the prices could be worth it. To my surprise, I found out that the $18 price tag on the burger neglected any side! $18 for a burger alone in a town where (I imagine) much of their clientele are university students is, in my opinion, robbery. Their reasoning is due to the methods used to cook the burger and had nothing to do with the actual finished product. The patty was horribly under-seasoned, and despite being sous vide, it was incredibly dry. The Aioli added nearly no flavour, and the bun was dry (not to mention massive). To my knowledge, the salads the others in my group ordered were okay but still left much to be desired.

The entire experience (bar the quick and polite service) paled in comparison to what we had experienced on...