Turtle Jack's Port Carling — Restaurant in District Municipality of Muskoka

The location is very good. Right on the water. The patio views are nice. Service is mediocre, due to the fact that it took a long time to get our food. Waitress was also on her first day and was attentive, despite not knowing the menu and taking forever to get our bills.

On to the food:

I got the Hell of a Burger and caeser salad as my side.

Hell of a burger was awful. It was so bland it was unbelievable. It looked very good but was not seasoned and had no flavor. Somehow, they managed to find jalapenos that have zero spice. Not sure how I paid $30 for it. Five guys does such a better job and never leaves you disappointed. I think that's what made this burger so bad the fact that you pay$30 for one, and it blows. This burger was a huge fail.

Caeser salad was supposed to be garlicky. It had less flavor than a jar of Renee's reduced fat Caeser salad dressing. Skimped on the bacon and the parmesan cheese too. Disappointing side that couldn't elevate the burger.

The kids menu is reasonably priced and actually was a huge portion. The portion was large enough for a female adult with a small appetite.

The fries were cold and soggy.

Cheese pizza was as bad as frozen pizza. Actually it may have been worse. I asked my daughter a few days later when we were at Costco sampling Kirkland frozen cheese pizza and she preferred Kirkland. Zero char on the base. Lacking in tomatoe flavor. My kid ate one slice and called it quits.

The Red Thai curry dish looked pretty good. However it did not look like the picture. The sauce was slathered all over the rice, and in doing so the bowl of rice was no longer a bowl shape, but smashed down and also made it look like a plate of soup.

I had a few bites of the Thai curry and I would say the curry had good flavor and was a bit spicy. It was even spicier than my burger. There was enough veggies in the meal with some crunch. I think you could order a second bowl of rice to go with the amount of sauce. The ratios are a bit off here. The plating was a fail.

Another disappointing aspect of this meal was the fact that the upcharge for the kids meal for chocolate milk. The kids menu says that it includes your choice of milk, pop, or juice. They charded $3.00. How much is the cost of chocolate milk at this place? $5.00?? This seems absurd. The kids meal is only $10.99.

All around, this establishment has nice views and many failures in food. Also, the mens washroom was gross. Fix the lock in the accessible stall and hire a real company to clean your washrooms. Why have real soap dispensers but put out little bottles of soap. This is having the same vibes as a Chinese restaurant washroom. Don't cheap out if we are paying $$$$ to eat here. Actually, the women's washroom was worse I was told. 2 stalls clogged. You should focus your...

Where to even begin with this lousy place? First of all, we asked for a table by the water, and the hostess raised her eyebrows as it needed to be cleaned. She bussed it with no sense of urgency and stopped to chat with her friend in the middle of doing it. Once we were seated we ordered fairly quickly. We then waited 40 minutes for food when the restaurant really wasn't that busy. Not once did the waitress, Lauren, come and apologize. We understand that the kitchen was probably understaffed but that is something you can tell your guests and they will sympathize. Keep in mind that during that 40 minutes we sat with empty drink glasses for half the time. We had to hunt her down to fill our drinks. When we finally got our food, 2 meals were cold, my friends meal had the wrong wing sauce, missing dipping sauce, soggy salad, and a hair in it. She of course sent it back and they brought the same salad back to her and this time the wings were cold so she had to send it back again. Sent back TWO times. We also asked for a side of mayonnaise which she brought when our meals were already 3/4 of the way done. When it was time for the bills, we stated how we wanted the bills split but that went in one ear and out the other as she brought 3 peoples bills all on one bill. My friends bill wasn't even discounted for the meal she had to send back twice so she asked for the manager. General manager, Chris, peaked out and then himself and Lauren walked back into the back. Ten minutes later Chris the manager came with the bill and offered a 50% off discount. For sending it back twice, my friend brought up this situation in which Chris the GENERAL MANAGER crumbled the bill in her face and stormed away and reluctantly said for us not to worry about the meal. Not only incredibly rude but also incredibly unprofessional. Just a bad experience from the start. On a side note, the staff room was wide open and very messy and you could tell the whole staff was hungover and more worried about each other than the guests. Port Carling is an affluent area with affluent people who expect a certain level of service, especially when its $25 for a burger and a glass of water. We could have gone to the hot dog stand around the corner and got better service. Will not be going back.

Highly suggest...

After a great canoe trip on the French River, my girlfriend and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal at Turtle Jack’s in Port Carling. The restaurant had a nice water view, which we appreciated, but the chilly weather led us to sit indoors.

Unfortunately, the experience went downhill from there. We waited about 15 minutes before anyone came to take our order. I started with a Coors Light that cost $13, which already felt steep. Later, we ordered a burger with poutine and some wings.

The burger, priced at $30, came out missing its sauce — we had to add our own. The poutine was room temp, with cheese curds that were cold and hadn’t even melted, as if they had just come out of the freezer. The gravy was passable, but that’s about it. The wings were dusted and deep-fried but tasted bland, almost like cardboard. My girlfriend couldn’t finish hers, saying some were bloody. They were 29$ by the way.

Service was mixed. The waitress was generally polite with me, though my girlfriend felt bullied. On the plus side, management did make rounds to check on customers, but they didnt ever make it to us.

Overall, Turtle Jack’s in Port Carling feels like a cottager trap. The food quality doesn’t come close to justifying the inflated prices, especially when compared to other Turtle Jack’s locations across Ontario. It feels like they rely on location and the Muskoka crowd rather than putting care into their menu.

If you’re passing through Port Carling, I’d strongly recommend skipping Turtle Jack’s and finding somewhere else to eat.

Ps. In hindsight I wish that I would have waited til the nearest LCBO/Mcdonalds where i could have gotten 6 Coors lite for the same price and 2 big macs for 1/3rd of the price of my...