CORNER STREET CAFE — Restaurant in Calgary

Let me start off by saying the service was amazing, the staff was friendly and the food (at the time) was enjoyable. Unfortunately, when it comes to their management or whoever is in charge of responding to their emails, the words, unprofessional, unconcerned, and defensive come to mind. My family met up at this restaurant to enjoy their AYCE Taco night, we had a great time and really did enjoy the food. Between 36 to 48 hours later, 7 out of 10 of us started experiencing food poisoning symptoms, chills, fever, vomiting, headache, one of my family members even fainted. In our group chat we tried to make sense of the matter as there were 3 individuals that were perfectly fine, it just so happened that those 3 had ordered beef tacos or something off the regular menu. The other 7 had all tried the fish tacos. This was the first time we had all gotten together in over almost 2 months (Keep in mind, although there were 10 of us, we live in 4 separate households, this will make sense later.) Once I had even an ounce of strength, I decided to reach out to the establishment instead of jumping right onto Google, in hopes that they would look into this matter before anyone else falls painfully ill. I sent an email to the email provided on their website, explaining what had happened, and to my surprise I received a response within 2 hours (this is after I sent my email around 6:30am) where they advised they had spoken to their lawyer about my concerns and requested my complete medical records and my doctors information.

#1 the lack of concern or even the willingness to look into this matter really shed light on how this establishment is managed and how little they care for their customers. #2 I HIGHLY doubt many attorneys take calls between 630 & 830 AM on a long weekend #3 If they actually looked into how quickly food poisoning can affect a person, they would have seen that symptoms can start anywhere from 3 hours to 3 days after consuming the contaminated food. In our case 4 out of the 7 started after 36 hours and the rest after 48 hours.

As you can see in the email, I did respond to clarify a few things and the response I received back was once again showing how defensive they are instead of being concerned or apologetic. Never did I question their knowledge or freshness of their products, I simply wanted to advise what happened to hopefully avoid others getting sick as this is a family establishment, and yes, to also request for a refund as all of us affected either had to miss out on work or school or even both! It could have been a case of unintentional cross contamination, a one off for all we know. This could have been handled with alot more professionalism and care. The fact that he/she speaks on behalf of the other 100 people that ate there is not fair, perhaps others weren't able to piece together what they had eaten that caused them to feel ill where as we could. When 4 separate households get together for the first time in a long time, the only ones who fell ill ate the same thing (fish tacos) and the remaining members ate beef or chicken were fine, and we all had the same symptoms roughly around the same time, it was easy to piece together.

To be honest, I'm expecting another defensive response after I post this, even on a previous negative review, the individual responsible for responding refused to take accountability and was defensive towards the reviewer. Do better.

*Not to be accidentally connected to another recent review regarding food poisoning, our group had about 40 tacos amongst 10 of us. We are a separate...

I do not write reviews. Ever. I felt this one was needed. Let me start out by saying our server was amazing, very kind and happy… HOWEVER… I am apart of the 10 top that got food poisoning after having the fish tacos. My family very politely emailed the restaurant (just to let them know…no mad tone in the email whatsoever). We got the most hostile and aggressive email in response accusing us of eating too much (I had 3 tacos) and trying to scam them. To add, they kept pointing out that we are Filipino and even said in all caps “YOU FILIPINOS”. No way for any form of company/human to speak. This is also a Filipino fusion restaurant… so I’m confused on why that was a big point for them.

In these reviews (as of today, May 21st, 2024) only one other person is also apart of my group, Dana. Other random people have recently commented saying they have gotten food poisoning too and corner street diner has responded to all of them raging about OUR group, assuming it was us trying to bombard them with bad reviews. So to clarify, many people have gotten food poisoning, all separate groups.

I am just appalled by the management. To respond to a paying customer with attitude and accusations right off the bat… not professional. It’s sad that this is a family owned restaurant; one person in charge of representing them/responding to comments are allowing the rest of the family to suffer a bad reputation, potentially leading to less customers and in this day and age… could lead to shutting down. Please think of this before responding to my review or even responding at all.

this is for the person in management who will most likely respond cause I am sick of reading the review responses and hearing the same thing I do not need a doctors note to leave a review saying I got food poisoning. Trust me, me and my toilet knows. Your staff is lovely. Just YOU aren’t. I am not trying to scam you so don’t get your panties in a knot. At this point I don’t care if I get my money back. I went in on Tuesday May 14th night. Got sick on Thursday May 16th early morning. This is a normal amount of time to start seeing food poisoning signs. This is apart of the food and health safety course you take before working with any food. So do not say I got my timing wrong. As a reminder, the other reviews weren’t from our group so out of 100 people, many got sick.

UPDATE: ahhh the dreaded response haha. I don’t tolerate scammers or staff abuse either:) Do you know I’m not and haven’t done anything to show I’m scamming or abusing you or your staff..? Saying that to everyone in every comment gets old. It’s really just weird.. and embarrassing.. Not sure if you can’t read or just don’t want to. I am not sick today, I was and NOW making review. I also do not need to provide a medical report… no restaurant has ever asked for that. Anyways my review was just to say I will not be returning. I got sick, had a horrible experience with management and still am. Thank you for absolutely...

I walked in and introduced myself and mentioned “I came to challenger the sign” I been driving by the sign on Center street which states “The best fish and chips in Calgary”……………OMG did I get quieted down “REAL FAST”. I ordered their 2 pieces of Halibut ( other fish offered as well), I spotted the Lobsterbisk on the menu and had not had any since Houston in the woodlands in 2006 and added a bowl of that as well! Soup was served and I inhaled it without added any pepper, it was rich and flavourful, tasteful, thru the roof good!!!! The 2 piece arrived with a dispenser of tartar sauce (homemade) and fries(homemade lite seasoning on them) with enjoyment and never, repeat never….. had I enjoyed a 2 piece before! I must explain first, I sold downtown Calgary for over 22 years on a expense account with great customers some with expensive tastes and some with not, the best restaurants to +15 coffee joints, I had been to all the fine dining spots for 22 years entertaining both customers, friends and coworkers…….not on my dime. I came but with then the best seafood places( The Chowder House), the place we all booked weeks ahead to have the 2 piece on a Friday with our best customers, hell they filled it every day all week, then they were in the old “Herald Building” which got tore down. I found out soon after the “Cook” had moved with the former owners to which became the Green Bean (closed recently) which left us with Pub Style fish and chips, over cooked cod with tons of heavy batter coated many times so you can dive into cooking oil and overcooked mystery fish, so I quite eating it as the bar was set years ago. I told the waitress/owner today “That was not a meal, it was a gift from heaven” please pass that on to the person responsible for that gift………she said “Thank you”! Her name is “Roma” and she has worked hard training under some great chef’s in this town and some real good seafood chains in Canada, go support her and I am sure you will feel same as I did today if you like 2 Piece! Thank you Roma again and we has already...