Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Dartmouth

So I typically do not post reviews on my experiences at restaurants because coming from a background of hospitality I understand the struggles and hardships the front of house and back of house can go through but tonight was really frustrating and unacceptable.

My fiancé and I as well as three kids came for dinner around 17:15 and typically I’d expect a wait for a table considering it was Saturday. But tonight was different. Yes there was a wait list and yes there were people at the door already signed in waiting for their table. My fiancé brought the three kids to the washroom as soon as we walked in, but I stood there waiting 15minutes for the hostess to finally write my name down on the sheet who wasn’t there. So She didn’t give us a time on how long our wait period was which was fine, but when I asked she did not give us even a approx time, in the meantime I’m overhearing her say 10-15min wait for the other customers. Eventually the people who were there before us got sat…. You would think we would be next… nope every new table group of people who came in after us got sat before us and we ended up sitting in the waiting area for over a hour with three kids under the age of 10 getting pretty restless, and might I add we were the ONLY people in the waiting area because everyone who came in got sat. The hostess excuse was they were waiting for a table to leave and I know we don’t ask paying customers to leave, so My fiancé and I started getting a little upset because we seen a few tables and booths open where we knew we could fit, so I said “we don’t need a big table we can sit at that booth (Jennifer’s section) over there. She replied “ok go ahead” but we had been given no menus and did not escort us to our table like she did the others frankly just gave us attitude.

Jennifer your server was awesome and even though our entry was not the greatest she definitely made our night much better. If it wasn’t for the fact a family unknown paid for our food who saw how upset we were, I would have given her a big tip. Thank you Jen for making us very happy and accommodating us so well.

Again being in the industry I hate being the one to speak ill of my follow tradesmen and woman but I had to say something because what I saw was...

We were a party of three, myself, my mother and sister. We went into the Swiss Chalet at Dartmouth Crossing, Nova Scotia on January 3 . We were there at 1 PM, it wasn’t very busy, but the atmosphere from staff was less than welcoming. It started with our server interrupting a conversation we were having with another guest who we knew who we were quickly catching up with. Rather than realizing that we would need a minute she rudely stood there and waited until we finished. There was not a smile on her face, and her manner was as if she didn’t want to be there. We eventually ordered. I ordered a Caesar salad as my side with my sandwich. It arrived with fries. My sister ordered a chicken pot pie, which didn’t come with the proper utensils. Once our server left our food, she disappeared Before we could indicate her errors. We waited about a minute or so and when she didn’t reappear, we tried to flag down someone else. There were two women, cleaning tables, utensils near us. To get her attention, we said, excuse me. She wasn’t very far, but we had to say it a couple of times. It was if she was ignoring us. And when she couldn’t, the response was a ‘what!’ and a frustration at being bothered. And She actually rolled her eyes. That was the behaviour that irritated my sister, and she requested to speak to the manager. Needless to say, it was an unpleasant experience that then affected the food. I didn’t end up eating the Caesar salad as it was disgusting, and my appetite had diminished due to the experience. We’re not sure if they were staff that was called in during the holidays and weren’t happy to be there. That said it was two days after New Year’s Day, and again it wasn’t busy, but the experience literally and figuratively left a bad taste in our mouths. When my sister requested to speak to the manager, she was told ‘he’ will be right with you, but a woman arrived. Our thoughts was that she was the sacrificial lamb that they sent out because she wasn’t managerial in her responses at all. She listened and apologized, but it didn’t seem sincere. Again, a terrible experience at a basic, barely above cafeteria food type franchise employing people clearly not interested in doing their job with...

Very busy location. Cannot get through phone line unless you go through order option. They refused many groups of reservations. Is this something new? Swiss Chalet has already taken reservations. We had a party of 11, saw a part of 7 go in no problem,and saw a party of people outside who were trying to make a reservation and were denied. I asked to speak with the manager after driving over to make a later reservation, and once I spoke with the manager the reservation was made. It should not have been so difficult to make a reservation. Rather than a large group show up and not be able to be seated together, especially when it was for family out of Province! So we could tell they were not happy with us when we arrived. The hostess did the bare minimum,drink refills were not even offered and we we checked on one time besides the bill. Now we tip generously, and didn't appreciate the treatment we had to endure. When the hostess asked who's ready to order, and I was right beside her and said I am, she went the opposite way around the table and took my order last. I asked for dipping sauce for my fries and it didn't come with my order. So they were not happy to have us there, and if one of us was not a Chef, we would have not left a tip at all but it's unfair to the kitchen staff who work hard. Our chicken was cooked but pink. This can happen from slow roasting and other reasons and can be fully cooked but it out several of our party to feel uncomfortable and they didn't eat that part of their chicken. It was such an ordeal to get a reservation, that we didn't speak up,we should have. I don't recommend this location in Dartmouth Crossing and will never go back. We have a location closer to our home that we normally use and have no issues there ever. But for a family dinner it was pretty dissatisfying. Pure honesty and it was a week day! And our adventures had us closest to Dartmouth Crossing and Swiss Chalet is our custom dinner out. What a shame, and a lot of money spent. Shame on you,answer your phone and if you no longer take reservations, advertise it. If you needed a deposit,we would have...