Old Caboose Restaurant & Pub — Restaurant in Clearwater

Like a David Lynch movie scene on budget When you step into an almost empty restaurant (at peak hour) it’s usually a sign that there may be a little something not completely right… Well, after a long drive, with two starving teenagers, you don’t really care about those details and you decide to sit down, despite a bad feeling. That’s when things start to go south. The waitress/co-owner/probably wife of the other co-owner was polite, but she seemed so tired and disillusioned as she handed us the menu. Another hint: when a simple pub has a menu the length of the Trans-Canada highway, it is rarely a good omen. After a detour by the washrooms (the Men’s were fine but the Women’s were…) which did not exactly trigger our appetite, we decided to go for what seemed like the safest bet: A cheese sandwich and 3 pizzas (1 cheese and 2 pepperoni’s). Our assumption was that the pizzas had a 99+% chance of being frozen and therefore relatively safe. After a (very) long moment, we finally got our lunch: the most basic frozen pizza you can imagine (probably a few dollars at any supermarket) as expected and a cheese sandwich that was literally 2 slices of grilled bread with one (maybe two) slice of industrial melted cheddar (most likely some sort of ultra-processed food resembling Cheddar from afar). We ate (did not finish though), stood up, went directly to the counter to pay and drove away… The whole experience was a bit surreal. Definitely not...

Comically bad. Stopped here in Clearwater for one night on our way to Jasper. We walk in and the restaurant is about 1/2 full. Waitress (only one on) did not even acknowledge us for about 15 minutes. She was extremely uninterested in being there. Finally came over and gave us menus. I asked for water, none came. After another 15 minutes or so she came and took our order. Had to repeat it several times. Still no water, asked again. Brought our drinks, still no water, asked again. My husbands beer had a fly in the foam. Finally brings the water, my husband only got 1/2 glass. Appy and mains come out about the same time. Zucchini sticks very greasy. Hubby had seafood fettuccini and I had Alfredo fettuccini. We had to ask the waitress to bring cutlery after she disappeared into the back and re-emerged after 10 minutes. Hubby had lots of seafood in his but sauce on both was bland. 1/2 way through our meal another customer stands up and yells there is a rat that tried to climb up his pant leg. It ran under a neighboring table, we saw it after he yelled. Waitress casually teases him about being freaked out by a rat and walks over to the drawer by the silverware to get out a mouse trap THAT SHE SET OFF WHEN SHE WENT TO GRAB IT!!! Clearly this is a regular occurrence at this place!...

It was a seat yourself situation, it was very quiet, but the only good part of the lunch was because we got menus right away, asked for drinks, we got our drinks quickly and she immediately asked what we would like instead of "do you need a moment before you order". We didn't even have the menu for 2 minutes! Their menu is absolutely all over the place, once we got our food that's when things got worse. His salad had no dressing, I had a chicken burger with the smallest single slice of tomato and one single pickle and she left quickly so I munched on my fries slowly until she came back as i was going to ask for another slice of each as there wasn't a lot happening with the burger. As I was munching on my fried I noticed there was also black fuzz on my pickle and tomato, still she is not in site so I just wiped it off with my napkin, no biggie. We are almost done our meals, I didn't get another drink or the extra side as she was still no where in sight so I was sipping on the melted water. Finished lunch and she was showing no interest in asking if we'd like the bill so we walked over to the till to pay and she just didn't show a care in the world. Terrible service...