Chuck’s Roadhouse Bar & Grill — Restaurant in District Municipality of Muskoka

Let me preface by stating at least 4-5 times a year we (either myself and my husband or his entire family) drive up from North Bay to specifically eat at Chuck’s Road House. Also— let’s note it’s Thanksgiving (long weekend) so we came expecting long wait times/ slower service as anyone should when eating out on a long weekend.

Ok— now that this is out of the way. We came in, we were greeted kindly by the hosts and they were so lovely! (Thank you). We were almost immediately sat despite how busy it was!

Once sat, we asked a few questions regarding beer deals and she disclosed she wasn’t sure of certain things as she had just returned from school. My husband wanted the 4$ beer deal advertised to which she initially said wasn’t in the 11-5pm mark but we showed it was advertised if the Leafs game was on.. to which she said “oh ya” and proceeded to list a few beer choices. My husband chose one of the choices (if it was only 1 beer, he would have chose that one beer) but she listed a couple so he chose his favourite from the list she listed off; Budweiser.

She was kind and trying the best she could although once we got our drinks it took quite some time before we seen her again for refills and/or our food order. (Again, to be expected). Our food (buffalo chicken nachos and the lobster/steak dinner) got to us and it was WELL worth the wait!! You really can’t beat the delicious food and the fantastic prices at Chucks!!

Once finished, we requested our bills. The waitress passed us numerous times and once we hit the 15 minute mark, it was starting to get concerning (we understand being busy and having to get drinks out/ take new orders) but this was a lot. (Almost 20 mins)

When the bill finally arrived we had been charged more than 4$ each for the 2 beers and my soda water was charged for the refills.

BEWARE : unsure if this is a tactic to run up the bill so tips percentage/ and or/ restaurant profit margins reflects a larger number however the following proceeded:

I asked the waitress why I was charged twice for my pop despite it stating free refills to which she stated not for soda water with lime. (When clearly on the menu it stated free refills right under the choices). She said with a tone of certainty it was NOT free refills. When asked about the beer the waitress said “oh ya it’s only Molson” which originally she was the one who listed the 4$ beer choices and when reminded she said “I can check w/ my manager”—- yes please!

The manager came to which this is when things get interesting. My husband and I embarrassingly eat out wayyyy too often and we’ve never 1) had to dispute a cost with a manager and 2) never had a manager argue in the maybe 1-2 times a waitress has gone to them for advice being new etc (usually done to check correct information BEFORE serving us)… The manager argued the beer and proceeded to tell us to come in on a different day should we want cheaper for that type of beer. We explained we picked that beer because the waitress listed that type and the manager said “she’s new” and the beer cost was what it was. Ok the beer cost being whatever it is is one thing but why would we pay for the mistake the waitress made when we made sure to inquire prior to ordering!! She (the manager) also said my pop “was a mistake though” and “she’d fix that”…

Eventually the manage reluctantly fixed our soda and beer charges however made the waitress return to finish with our table. How uncomfortable all around. I too work at a restaurant and my manager would have just finished with us at that point.

I apologized and let the waitress know these are things that are important to know and showed her where it says free refills to which she replied “I’m sorry I didn’t know”… ok, but you were adamant to charge for something you were unsure of and argue? Worst experience we can say we’ve ever had at a restaurant (not Chucks but all restaurants) just due to the arguing. Hoping to chalk this up to the stressors of a busy restaurant but , not cool! Also other reviews seem to state the same about...

Came here with my family today (April 13, 1pm), as we've been looking forward to having steak from Chuck's, so we took a drive all the way from the city to take in the sights along the way by turning it into a mini road trip to escape the city for a bit.

We were greeted and seated at the corner of the restaurant, so it was a nice little private little nook for us to converse and eat. We each ordered a porterhouse steak (Medium Rare), which came with "Corn on the Cob" and fries. R, our server, sold us on gravy for our fries, and my dad upgraded to the mash substitute, but he later also wanted fries as well.

Timing was expected; four porterhouses during a somewhat steady seating, so our food came in nice and hot.

Just by looks, everything was ok. The steaks had a nice char to them but were more on the Medium-Well-well done side for three of them, indicating that they most likely waited under the heat lamp while another fresher looking Medium-Rare steak got prepared. Fries were dry and well.. just dry and almost dead. The grilled corn cup was a cup of unseasoned dry-ish corn kernels that had been ladled out from some sort of insert, no doubt. The extra gravy was reconstituted powder-cheap demi/gravy sauce that was extremely salty and thick. I had to add vinegar and grilled mushroom juices that we had added to our dish as well. This made the extra gravy palatable -sh. I should have added water from my drinking glass.

R comes around and we pointed out that our steaks were overdone. Two of the three overdone steaks are sent back and R was cordial about it, which was nice of her. The new ones were better in colour, though still overcooked from the now 'Rare' replacements we had requested. At least now they were kind of medium-rare to almost medium. R had us slice into them and validate what was just another failed attempt at cooking steak. The voice of uncertainty from R made it awkward. We were hungry, so making another complaint would have just been too much waste at this point. So we sawed and gnawed... and pretended to like our food. My wife enjoyed hers as hers was the only one of the four ordered that was cooked to expectation.

I wish that was the end of it, but a little bit of care would have made a huge difference. It's a steak, with fries, corn, and gravy. How could the cow keep dying? Well,...

Dear Chuck's Huntsville, stop using Montreal Steak Spice if you can't control the salt. Unfortunately, our new steaks were crusted with a crust of the stuff and it was So salty. We just decided to scrape it off. Again, we were hungry.

So now, we were having the salty porterhouse steak, with really salty gravy, dry fries, ok mushrooms, and 'wth' corn kernels. Ironically, the initially most disappointing element of the dish- the corn kernels- helped with the saltiness because it was unseasoned and lifeless.

It was an expensive disappointment all around. We didn't want to complain , so I write this here in the hopes that management reads and acts on what's written here.

The only praise from our meal today was the Sticky Toffee pudding. A consolation to what should have been an honest-to-goodness...

UPDATE: Two years later and I still haven't returned and still haven't received the gift card they promised as a chance to give them another try!

Wow, now that wasn't what I expected!

I have visited Chuck's Roadhouse several times in the past. This time we were greeted by a pleasant hostess who seated us quickly. Our waitress, Nikki B, was very matter of fact, mechanical and not at all friendly in taking our order, she eventually brought our drinks but didn't return to bring our order.

The young man who did dropped off our order seemed more interested in chatting with his friends at the other table than making sure everything was ok or not, as it was the latter in this case. We had to bring it to his attention, after he just walked away, that we had no utensils or napkins.

Nikki never returned to offered to refill our drinks, many of my wings were broken as if they were tortured to death. She did ask how it was once, we replied unenthusiastically, "ok I guess!?!" and she kept walking.

She followed up our visit with an enthusiastic, "coffee, tea or dessert?" comment, we had heard her ask every other table around us, in only the way she could, that made you just want to escape as quickly as you could.

When I finally saw my freedom from this terrible experience approaching and could pay my bill to earn my freedom from this nightmare, I was told "You've made a mistake!" and her finger pointing to my selected tip amount.

My reply "no, that's correct" had her stomping off one last time and I was finally free to leave this nightmare of an experience. I really can't fathom that she actually expected a bigger tip after the ordeal we were put through!?!

We would have ordered more drinks if we were ever asked and usually stay for dessert and coffee, but not this time. Maybe never again, I don't know, I don't have to usually leave a poor review ever, as I usually find the service in Huntsville and Muskoka to be most pleasant.

Maybe Nikki would be better suited for torturing those poor chickens and not your guests. I won't even touch on the "honest fee" on the bill I have attached. Shame on you Chuck's Roadhouse and Nikki. I got much better service from Crabby Joes when they were here at least they were honest about their service and never charged you extra for it. ...