St. Louis Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Clarington

I’ve been unsure whether to post this because it was so wild. Last Monday my friend from Bermuda was in and wanted to take me and the wife out for a nice dinner and he owed me some money so, wham bam. I was not into it but was eventually coerced and put a smile on my face.

We roll up and sit on the patio. Not busy at all and we saw one bartender, two staff and maybe the owner. No big deal, this will be fine I say to myself.

Probably 20 minutes before our drinks get ordered and we toss the actual orders in because it was not looking promising. We thought this after the waitress came and said to multiple tables “i gotta make you wait longer” instead of just writing their orders. Poor dear could only handle one table at a time.

Eventually the apps come (still no drinks) and we’re about 45 minutes in. All the while the table in front of us is playing roulette with their chicken wings. No one what flavours were what. They were not having a good time the whole time I was watching.

So we finish the apps and I have to walk in after asking twice for drinks. Took another 15 to come out.

Eventually the meals come out. My friend ordered the new signature chicken wing fry supreme. They bring out nachos with his sweet chilli on it. Looked brutal.

We’re like nope not us but we could see the other two orders were right. It gets ran back in before we can say anything and we hear them saying our table as they’re walking away.

10 minutes go by and they clearly doubled down and were like “get back out there and tell them this is what you get”

In fairness the girl offered to make the proper one “real quick”. My buddy said okay but quickly was like “no no we’ll make this work”

So we choke down our cold meals and watch this family celebrating graduation still without drinks after 45 minutes. They’re going crazy.

Then, waiting for the receipt took forever and there machines were down!

So the final kick in the teeth, I was the only one with cash and I had to pay for the whole thing myself! And in a sick twisted way I left a tip!

My buddy still owes...

A very mixed review for my family and I tonight. On the positive end, server was friendly and my husband and I enjoyed what we had ordered (I got the southern chicken wrap with a caesar salad - nothing gourmet but tasty, and a bit of a twist on your typical chicken wrap).

Minor pitfalls were having to wait a long time for a glass of water for my son (our server said she was waiting for a clean kids cup so she could put a lid on it...there were no other kids in the place so not sure who was using the glasses), long wait for drink refills, and being brought an empty ketchup (which had been retrieved from a server station). My kids and I burning our hands on the scalding hot water and tap in the accessible washroom.

MAJOR miss from an allergen perspective. My son is allergic to a few major allergens. We know it can be tricky to dine out safely, but we have ALWAYS been able to find SOMETHING that is safe. I called earlier this evening to find out if there would be a chance of anything...based on the information provided on the phone, we were told it sounded like yes, there would be some options. Long story short, because everything is fried in the same fryer, there is literally nothing that is safe for someone with a severe dairy allergy. We were told baking french fries or something wasn't an option. Luckily I had packed some food with us for him, "just in case", but it was disappointing that we had discussed the allergies with 2 staff members, and they were literally taking our order for him after the discussions, when it occured to me to double check it wasn't made in a shared fryer. It is absolutely our responsibility to ask, but the lack of....awareness(?)...of allergens didn't exist in this type of restaurant. Competitors like Buffalo Wild Wings, Kelsey's etc, are all able to use either a dedicated gf fryer or bake something of requested.

My husband and I would probably visit again if it were just the 2 of us, but the allergen situation is a big...

My wife and I thought we would try out the new St. Louis location in Bowmanville as we’ve eaten at other St. Louis locations and had good food/service. Unfortunately this time the service fell shy of what we are used to. Food was delicious though. I understand it’s a new location and a lot of the staff are likely new, have minimal experience and are getting used to how things work. I won’t bore everyone with details, but the service was slow, and not slow as in it took forever to get food, but slow in the fact that our waitress would walk by with her head down and not check in with her table, or she would literally disappear in the back for what seemed like an eternity. We had to ask multiple staff members for things as our waitress was nowhere to be found. The food was delicious, but our order was mixed up and my wife didn’t get what she asked for. Even when we were ready to leave, we were waiting on the bill and we asked another staff member if we could get it, she then went and found our waitress. When our waitress came out, she said “sorry, no one told me you were waiting”. I’m not sure how restaurants work, so correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you supposed to look after your own table? Who was supposed to remind her we were still there and haven’t paid? One other small detail was that our Ketchup bottle lid was covered in dried up ketchup. If it’s sat long enough to dry up and go hard, I would think someone would have noticed it and cleaned the lid. Again not a huge deal, but it certainly turns you off of using the ketchup. I would think that given some time, the service will improve as poor staff will either improve their skills or be weeded out. Food was good, service just needs some...