The Carriage House Restaurant — Restaurant in Burlington

Oh buddy... where do I begin? Well, this place really should be renamed “CLASSIC BRAD’S” but let me explains why. My wife and I joined my cousin and her husband at the Carriage House for a nice Saturday date night without the kids. We were celebrating a belated birthday and were quite excited for dinner! The carriage house is a well-known classy joint, where you’ll spend a buck or two but will surely have a real dining experience. It was an experience all right. My cousin and her hubby arrived first and grabbed our table. My wife and I came shortly after that. As we sat, even before we could even say our full hellos, we were greeted by our server - BRAD. Ok, fine - a little excited there eh partner?... that’s ok - maybe just attentive service, I thought. Well, not so much... buddy boy was literally nipping at the heels to serve us. I mean, he visited the table at least three times in a matter of minutes before we even opened our menus. Real excited, this one. The word that comes to mind for BRAD would be - ALOOF. Socially awkward and had literally, the worst timing. Just wasn’t paying attention. At first I was perturbed, asking us for our drink orders without letting us even take a hard look ar the drink menu. Soon enough, I mentioned to the table this guy was rushing us - this is where the fun starts. BRAD took our orders very quickly - and yes, the apps were great and drinks were tasty. But this guy was all over us. And every time he brought our food, he placed it in front of the wrong person. We started saying it was CLASSIC BRAD as he constantly was making errors. It was so funny. The fact this server was sooo incompetent at such an esteemed restaurant was hilarious. My main was cold and was sent back, to the manager who came by to ask us how our meal was. After that, BRAD was nowhere to be found. We had to wait for refills, tables to be cleared, desert menus. You name it. We were there for a total of 3 hrs. First he was rushing and making errors, then he was nowhere to be found. CLASSIC BRAD. By the end of it we were in stitches. His face when we asked to split the bills between couples? Priceless. So rattled. Said we should’ve mentioned it earlier. That’s fine. Buddy arrives back 10 mins later with one bill. We had to whip out the calculator app and add up our separate bills on our own. He comes back and says he forgot. Sure bud. Oh man, great food overall and real cool layout. But the service was so awful for such a nice restaurant we weren’t even mad just laughing at the situation. Honestly, who knows what Brad was going thru. Maybe just having a rough night. But in the end, we will never forget CLASSIC BRAD. Shine on you...

We made a reservation for 3, two weeks in advance. We specifically asked to be seated in the bistro area. We have been customers for over 10 years, and have always been seated in this area. Upon arrival, the maître d’ greeted us and seemed to be in some kind of hurry. We three (women, by the way) were looking at the selection of meats and fish in the display case in the entry area, and the chef was describing each item to us. This did not seem to please the maître d’ as he hustled us to our table. We were seated at what is possibly the worst table in the restaurant - in a passageway between the bistro and the dining room, near the kitchen door! We said we would prefer to sit in the bistro area, per our reservation request, but the maître d’ simply said no and forced us to sit at this table. We were very unhappy with this location, and with his refusal to try to accommodate us - for example, putting two vacant tables for two together. We thought about leaving, but this was a special celebration, and we had a friend from Ottawa visiting us, so we stayed. One of us ordered a side order of asparagus, but when the main dish was delivered, it already had asparagus on the plate, so she said she didn’t want the side order. The waiter’s response was “pepper anyone?”, as if he hadn’t heard. She insisted that she didn’t want it, and he did take it away, saying that he hadn’t known that asparagus was included with that particular dish (provimi liver). He should have known that. The food which we had raved about to our friend seemed rather ordinary this night. The liver was sinewy, the pasta was very ordinary, and the seafood crepe was not as flavourful as it had been on previous visits. We asked the waiter for separate bills, but what we got was one bill with three separate totals written on the side. We either were expected to just trust that he had tallied each of our items correctly, or we had to start looking at each item, and figuring out who had what! We refused to do this and insisted that he prepare three bills, which he did. Every other time that we have been here, and it’s usually twice a year, we have tipped between 20 and 25%, because we have always thoroughly enjoyed the food and the ambiance. This time we only tipped 15%. We have always raved about this place, and every time we entertained friends from out of town, this was our “go to” place. We are having to rethink this, we were so very disappointed and unhappy...

My SO and I wanted to do something extra special for our Valentines Day dinner, since it's our last one before baby joins the crew, and picked The Carriage House after seeing it recommended for it's romantic ambience. How perfect for Valentines Day!

Unfortunately, it was a disaster from the get-go. When I booked the reservation, no mention was made of a limited menu for that night, nor was it indicated anywhere on the website.

When we arrived and were promptly seated, we noticed immediate the freezing air blowing at our table. While the restaurant is kept at a pleasant temperature, the cold air blows right in around the old windows, right on your food if you're seated by one. Not the end of the world - just kept my jacket handy. Then we looked at the menu. There were only a few options, and none of them were anything I would eat. When asked, the server stated because of the holiday there was a limited menu so they could seat more tables throughout the night. She stated there was nothing else they could make - that they had no other food on site except for what was on their limited menu. At this point I was incredibly disappointed, hungry, and tearful (large part due to pregnancy hormones, I'm sure). It was 8pm on Valentines Day (also a Sunday), so I knew there was no where else we would be able to go at this point for dinner. Fortunately, my SO found something that appealed to him, though you did not get a choice of a dside and the frites were awful and inedible. He did enjoy his steak, however. I ended up eating a small uninspired caesar salad without bacon, for $30, for dinner. The bread that was brought to the table was cold and hard, and the bill at the end wasn't pleasant either - especially considering I had no alcohol and didn't order a dinner.

This place may be nice on a regular evening, but this absolute catastrophe of an evening that was supposed to be so special has left such a bad taste in both our mouths that we will...