Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Barrie

Absolutely abhorrent! We were seated with a view to the kitchen, while waiting for our meal, I saw the Manager (Nick) put down 2 plates of food in the prep area, and literally picked something off one of those plates with his fingers. He was not wearing gloves. He then served that plate to a customer. I was shocked to say the least. Fast forward to our meal, I bit down on something hard in my sandwich and upon inspection, I found a green and black hunk of something. The server noticed I was looking at it on a plate and said “what is THAT??”. She took the plate and a moment later Nick the manager showed up and said it was just a piece of chicken fat that got mixed up in the sandwich. Now, I don’t know what is WAS, but I do know it wasn’t a piece of chicken fat. I don’t even want to imagine what it was. While I had Nick at the table, I told him I saw him pick something off of a customers plate with his bare hands and then serve it to them. He didn’t deny it, he just said he couldn’t remember what he picked off but and seemed caught off-guard for being called on it. By this time, my friend and I are absolutely disgusted and didn’t eat another bite, which was just as well seeing as the food was lukewarm at best to begin with and the chicken had quite a bit of pink in it. Nick did not charge me for the foreign body meal, but only after my friend insisted.

Swiss Chalet Leadership… I hope you read this, and all of the reviews. Something needs to be done with this location, and quickly, before someone gets very sick. We previously had a bad experience with undercooked chicken with a take-out meal and had hoped that the dine-in experience would have been better. It was not.

EDIT/ADDITION: The manager (Lisa) reached out to me for further discussion. She advised that Nick had been spoken-to about touching food with his hands and reminded him not to do that. I asked if a Manager really ought need a reminder about touching food with his bare hands and she responded that “everyone needs a reminder once in a while”. Really? The FOOD SERVICE staff needs reminders about not touching my food? Yuck. There was no mention of the lukewarm food or the unknown piece of, whatever it was in my food, and though I do appreciate the offer of a gift-card, I think the follow up was simply an appeasement and not necessarily a taken opportunity for the leader to understand the value in the voice of the customer. Think I’ll take a pass on revisiting...

I try not to write poor reviews, but the service I just received was one of the worst I have ever gotten. I put through an order for 10 people for our family holiday. The online site crashed on my order, but they still put the order through on the card. No problem... things happen. So I call to confirm my order in full... twice. Everything seems ok. The order arrives... and they are missing 4 sides, one of the quarter chicken meals is legitimately raw... and when I call to get the items fixed... the call center tries for 30 minutes to reach this store with no answer. I pick up the phone and call myself... first try... I get through. At this point, my own meal is ice cold and the family holiday meal is wrecked. I ask politely for a refund .... they decide to simply give give a credit for the 4 missing sides and my meal which did not get eaten. .

That is how they treat a family who spent $230 on an annual holiday meal with them. I will be honest, I don't care about the money..... at all. It is the common sense principal of taking care of your customers.

I mean lets run this through.... I make an order online - problem. I call to confirm twice... yet the food that arrives has multiple problems... i call for help... their own customer service center rep tells me they are frustrated for me that they can't get through to the restaurant. I call... no problem at all... I get through (weird)... but at least I can speak to a manager. But no... the manager basically says to me: too bad so sad... i'll 'credit' you the missing portion of your meal and your own meal... but this situation is not my problem. Oh.. and you have 60 days to use your credit. A refund should have been issued. Plain and simple.

I hope a few people who are researching a nice family meal and land on this review will pause for a moment and perhaps take their business to another location or restaurant. I have my own business and when we screw up, we don't hesitate... we take care of our customers. This manager and restaurant should be ashamed...

If I could give 0 I would, I was so appalled by this experience. This location has made it that I will NEVER eat at Swiss chalet again!! My husband and I went in to get a festive special of chicken and ribs, $23, with a .99 cent dip, with tax it came to $34. The receipt read $28 (not $23). I kindly asked that I get charged for what I asked for. (The $23 meal on the board). The cashier tried to tell me that was the amount the button on the register enters and she couldn’t do anything. When I asked for the meal that said $23 she said I would need to speak to the manager to fix it. The manager came out with a chip on his shoulder and she took out food. He charged me the $23 plus .99 for the extra sauce and gave me the difference. I thanked him for fixing the problem and waited for our food. Let me tell you, why they took the food back in the first place made me question but when we got to the car to eat we discovered why they took so long!! No word of a lie it looked like they gave us scrap fries off peoples plates. They were cold, small, hard pieces that people don’t eat. The rib rack was either torn in half or bitten off, the chicken under cooked, pink and slimy tossed in with the rack. I didn’t get the extra sauce I paid for either. We left so disappointed and disgusted but I wish I had of taken it back in and asked for my money back because my husband took a bite and couldn’t eat it. I stupidly ate some of the chicken because I couldn’t stand to waste, what a mistake that was because at 10:30 this morning I got so sick, with pain in my stomach, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and cold sweats. They gave me food poisoning!!!! Please beware of this location, they will try and over charge and if you confront them make sure you have your food first!! I apologized for not taking pictures, I wish I had of just asked for a refund instead of the difference. Swiss Chalet is nothing like I...