Frosty John's Pub and Restaurant — Restaurant in Clarington

My family and I have been going to Frosty John's quite often, over the course of the last two or so years. Extended family often get wings each Thursday, and we've accompanied them multiple times. I've also gone with friends, by myself and to get takeout on more than one occasion. In fact, we just ordered from there yesterday, and I picked the wings up.

Generally, the service is quite good and the people who work there are quite nice. The wings are usually pretty excellent, and I've never had to send anything back or ask for a change (not that I normally do this, or can remember when I last did so.) You get quite a bit of food for the price, and their $8 (now $9) wings and fries deal is tough to beat on a Thursday night.

Before COVID-19, I would've given this restaurant a 5. However, I wasn't impressed with some of the ways they treated us (loyal customers) during the pandemic. Now, I understand that things were tough and it was an odd situation for everyone, but these things were frustrating. I did give them the benefit of the doubt, but these things have added up over several months now.

1. During the worst of the pandemic, they would not give change. They would take cash (which was sometimes all I had), but would not return any change. Not every time at least. They did give change once or twice, but at least two other times they did not. We lost upwards of $7 or so, which isn't much, but if they were taking cash they should've offered change. We weren't told this ahead of time either.

2. For whatever reason, Frosty John's will not give you its wing deal (which is currently $10 for a pound and fries or frings, or whatever side you want) over the phone. This is a different promotion from the in-store one, which went up from $8 to $9 once they reopened. This deal is online, but if you call in they won't offer it to you. I was able to get them to adjust the price once when I went in, because it didn't feel fair or make sense, and I was polite as always. However, yesterday was another story.

I called as I was heading into town, but ended up having to decline ordering and hang up, because the woman who answered the phone was quite rude. I asked her if we could please get the wing night pricing, but she told me it wasn't available over the phone, which still doesn't make sense. What's the difference? You pay in store anyways.

I said they'd done it before, and continued to be polite, but she rudely repeated herself as if she was a robot. I said no thanks, then hung up and considered not getting food from there. However, I broke and parked somewhere so I could order online, because I'd told others that's what I was getting.

The takeout generally tastes pretty good, but those two issues are...

My boyfriend and I have been regulars here for about a year now. We come at least once every other week, we are quiet, come have a drink, eat and keep to ourselves. We enjoy the atmosphere, on occasion it’s a little bit loud but to be expected. Food is almost always fantastic, we like the menu selection and the quality of food. Our issue however is the service is hit or miss. Tonight was the highlight of a great kitchen but a lacking front of house staff. My boyfriend ordered the rib and wing combo with a side fry and a beer. I ordered the steak fajita wrap and asked to substitute the tex mex with goat cheese, and for a side poutine instead of fry. The waitress told me that it only comes as a large fry even though we almost always upgrade one of our fries to a side poutine instead without issue. We didn’t think much of it, his meal arrived and a large plate of poutine was put in front of me. Roughly 8 minutes later a waitress with a plate of actual fajitas came out and asked us if we had ordered it. We said no, and our waitress came over and said “ya, steak fajitas” I told her no, I ordered the steak fajita wrap... about 10 minutes after that, my boyfriend is now nearly done his meal and my wrap arrives as a whole meal with its own side of fries.... when the bill comes, she has charged us for two meals with side fries, a separate large fry and she upcharged me $2 for wanting goat cheese instead of Tex mex when I’ve done it previously for no extra charge. When my boyfriend confronted her about the bill as we obviously didn’t eat 3 servings of fries, just what we ordered, she said she would ask if anything could be done and came back with the poutine 50% off.... then told us it’s fajita night so she just heard fajita and assumed that’s what I wanted... admitting that it was her error, and yet we had to pay extra because of it. We aren’t “let me speak to the manager” type of people and don’t like to argue so we said ok, paid our bill with tip and left. However this type of service continues here and I would sooner go take the inconvenience and drive the distance to Ajax to have the same food with always...

Update Aug 22, 2024 -

Went in and gave it another shot tonight. I ordered a beer and the steak and mushroom pie with a side of onion rings. Wife ordered a water with soup, salad and bruchetta combo. Took 15 minutes to get my beer after we ordered our drinks....

Hers was good, mine was absolutely terrible.

The pastry of the pie wasn't cooked through, and they just piled bucket style gravy all over the top of the pie - it was disgusting. I couldn't eat it it was so bad. Told the waitress that it was bad, nothing taken off the bill. I think I'm done with this place...

Tried to order desert - creme brule cheesecake... Nope they don't have that anymore... What a bust of a place.

Waitress was rude when I didn't give her a great tip asking me if I wanted a copy of the bill twice knowing full well we weren't happy. 60$ bill for one of our meal which was terrible.

Update: March 06, 2024 -

Went in tonight and saw on their newer menu they now have smashburgers. The picture of the smashburger shows fresh ground beef, in what looks like a traditional smash burger on a griddle. Upon ordering my burger, the Diablo smashburger my wife also had one, we discovered they aren't smash burgers at all. The bun was nice, a brioche bun but when it comes to smash burgers you want that fresh ground beef. The patties in here were clearly thin frozen patties (not fresh at all)... This was completely false advertising.... The burger was terrible. Tasted worse than a harvey's burger. The patties I was served tasted nearly identical to a harvey's original burger. If I wanted fast food, I would've gone to harveys. Will not order these again here. On the bright side, the waitress was friendly, the desert was good, and the beer was cold.

I warned you! Frozen burgers at a restaurant is a travesty, especially since they have so much better things on their menu here.

Original review below;

Always a great value and a nice meal here. Good spot for families early in the evening. Prices are good! Went in tonight and it was absolutely rammed. There is a reason, good service, good portions...