Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Calgary

Me myself and my son were sick and unable to attend my family's thanksgiving this year, we had a negative covid test for all of us but still wanted to do something, relatively special so I placed an order online at 4:40 for 2 Quarter Chicken meals. Order # 20211011 1234099. Was advised to show up at 4:57 and I showed up at 5pm to get it. Naturally the place was packed, this was expected, it was thanksgiving. There was 4 or 5 door dash/skip drivers waiting and 2-3 chalet drivers waiting with a smattering of 3-5 customers. I looked up at the sign that said all ppl dining in and pick up must provide proof of vaccination in order to be here. 2 Ppl waiting had masks around their necks and 1 person without it covering their nose... Naturally I was not asked for my proof. During my wait there, several ppl showed up and were told 5-10 min for their order, all received theirs before me. Several door dash/skip drivers were flatly declined an ETA when asked as clearly they were not real clients and did not deserve respect.

After waiting a couple min I was told my order would be ready in 5-10 min. Thats fine, its crazy busy.

15 min later, my order comes out. I swallowed my instinct to check it in the bag because it was sealed and by now there was a good 12 ppl waiting in this area and more and more orders going out, I did not want to take up the counterspace. This was a mistake. I got home, it was not our order.

I took the bag back and went back to swiss chalet, my wife and I only live about 5 min from this location. When I arrived, the place was even busier. I was offered no apology for the mistake and when I pushed for a bit of satisfaction, I was offered the manager. The manager came out and flatly told me "we did our best". Then gestured to the packed room. I balked a bit at this as my experience so far had been very bad... but there was no apology offered for the mistake and it is true they were busy. I took my now luke warm food as it was not re-prepared and left.

I would not recommend going to this swiss chalet as I was offered not even the slightest hospitality at this location, I witnessed a callous disregard for their staff amongst their operations while sitting there and their obvious distain for delivery personal. Having my complaint completely disregarded in a frankly dis-respectful way without an apology for me is the icing on the cake. I can understand the wait, I can understand the stress... What I cannot understand is their complete lack of empathy for the inconvenience I had at...

EDIT: I have changed my review down to one star, because the food is just terrible now. Recently ordered-- Salad came old with that slimey feeling. Ribs didn't even taste right. Ribs were too burnt and dry, and one cut would drag the entire meat off the bone, but wouldn't cut. Asked for utensils, received none. Didn't receive proper salad dressing ordered. Will not return.

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Ordered about $200 worth for my birthday online a few hours early (noon) and went to pick up around 8pm as originally indicated. The restaurant was empty when I got there, but not a single person came to talk to me.. They kind of just looked at me and acknowledged me. (Maybe I was the only customer that evening?) Someone who I presume is the manager stood by the employee kitchen door to talk to another employee. (I'm sure it was the manager because of their conversation). I waited about 20 minutes before someone from the kitchen finally came out to talk to me, and pretty much take my payment.

About another 20 minutes later they were ready with my food, but between this time another girl came in and they ignored her because we were the same ethnicity-- so it was assumed we were together.

I took my food and left, and brought it home. I liked the salads and the coleslaw as usual. The perogies were great and still tasted like before (I've been going to Swiss Chalet's for a long time :D because my uncle introduced us) The ribs seemed a little bit dry.. And the flavour didn't really .. It's as though they boiled it, and then just smothered it with sauce. (But something else to make it dry too) The chicken feels like it's been slowly shrinking throughout the years, and same with the rib portions. (I ordered a few full racks and a few half racks). We went with some chicken noodle soup as well, because it's kind of classic.

It may just be inflation as I realize food prices are rising, but for the price and the kind of slapped on taste, I might not be able to recommend it anymore.

However, the packaging was really nice! They gave me enough boxes and bags to make sure everything fit well and was easy to carry. The dinner buns were a little bit cold, but everything else was definitely freshly made as I was essentially waiting for...

Naturally the food is good, if everyone is reviewing as such. However we haven't had the chance to even eat yet. Its Thanksgiving Sunday, so giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are EXTREMELY busy at this time. With that being said, my feedback would be to have the online program give you the right expectation. Food said it would be ready in 15 mins, great we will run an errand before we pickup. We get there and there are cars all over the place not in spots, delivery guys in and out, and a crowd of people standing in the pay/pickup area, with no protocol on social distancing. Management is walking by this crowd minute after minute, not talking to any of the customers who have been there for over half an hour waiting for their food, its just out of control. Customers are saying they've called dozens of times and nobody is answering. Now that entirely is not the fault of the restaurant. The customers themselves should know better not to crowd together like you're on the CTrain in rush hour during a pandemic, but management is doing nothing about it. Asking to take names and numbers and have customers wait outside or in their cars to be called once their order is ready would be the best way to mitigate such a crowd.

To the customers: Quit crowding together and smarten up. I was in there for 2 minutes before some lady came up to us, got a foot away from our faces to complain about the wait, so I left and sat in the car.

To the management: Take control of your restaurant. You should know better.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Edit The food was ready about an hour after promised, and they forgot an item. For accuracy of purchase, I am...