Westside Fish & Chips — Restaurant in District Municipality of Muskoka

In response to owners comment below - who was our server? Our server was blonde haired female whom carried extra weight. She yelled at us in front of other customers. The initial updated review was actually published Dec 2023 at the time it happened but was not responded to until recently. Which once was an annual birthday tradition changed that day. We have not been back. It’s unfortunate as my initial review was a 5 star review. It’s just feed back. Feed back is neutral and meant to help a business grow. 😊

Updated review. Dec 3/2023 Overall 2.5/5

We visited yesterday for a birthday dinner and the experience was not like our previous 5 star visits. We have dinned here every year for the last 4 years and up until now it was our favorite fish and chip place. The atmosphere is clean and the teapot collection cute. Christmas is our favorite holiday and to be served tea from a Santa teapot warmed my heart🎄🤶 (initial experience yesterday) it went down with the food and service We ordered the one piece fish and chip with gravy x2 what we usually order. When it arrived we were extremely disappointed. I know shrinkflation is a thing however this seemed alot. With each plate having approximately 20 or less French fries. It was the plate size and French fries that were under whelming and disproportionate (typically the fry portion doesn’t change from 1 piece to 2 piece dinners. With what we ordered I also thought it would be kind if our server had said 1 gravy will be enough to share for the 2 of you with the few fries you will be getting. When I asked the server if she could please return one of the gravies when the food arrived as the serving is smaller than we previously have experienced. She got very loud and shouted at us that it was the same 2.5 oz serving as it has always been and she can’t return it to the kitchen. (Yes she could have taken it away) she did however remove it from the bill. Thank you. We were not mentioning the fish size, rather the plate and fry portion. It was unfortunate that her reaction was so loud and harsh as other customers watched.and you can see from my previous review, the service was amazing previously. The fries were hard and over done and really tasted like plain frozen fries. Although fresh fries are best, in the past we don’t remember them to be so bad. And the gravy was very clumpy. You can see here form my previous post from 2 years ago the reference to the difference in the 1 piece fish and chips in 2 years. The current sizing is ideal for a senior. And when people (adults) order it it should be communicated that it is a small child or senior portion. Based only on our visit yesterday I would actually rate it a 1/5 as it was a birthday dinner and celebrating a special occasion we were going to have brownie and ice cream for desert but opted for DQ as being shouted at affected the experience. I get prices have increased for groceries (which compared to several other fish and chip places. West side is a few dollars more than average and on top of the serving size the quality has gone down so the price point doesn’t match. This is just our individual experience and based off of yesterday we would not go back. I’m sure many people will still enjoy it.😊

It is my second time dining in and the service and the food is consistent. You would never know if anyone here is having a bad day, because their customer service skills are top notch. They are friendly, attentive, and follow up with every customer after they have started eating to ensure everything is great. If you need something, you don’t need to wait long. They are very attentive to their customers. The fish and chips is on point. Crispy but not greasy. Gravy is smooth and tasty. ...

I went here on Nov 2nd, and it was an AWFULLY TERRIBLE experience. I went with a group of friends consisting of 20 people, when we came in, we did not expect they would have enough table and the white cashier named LYNN M who we asked for tables. She was clearly annoyed and irritated and said "We do not have enough tables and you should have made a reservation", even though when we asked very KINDLY. We were fine with that and started ordering food, it was even more AWFUL when ordering. While ordering, sometimes, she said something and we didn't catch we asked to repeat and she was VERY UPSET and not willing to repeat, we nicely asked her to explain some food and she exhaled and didn't want to answer, actually she was not willing to ANSWER ANY OF MY QUESTIONS (EXCUSE ME??? WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMER SERVICE IS THIS). She was plain MEAN AND SUPER ANNOYED throughout the whole time, even not willing to serve us. We had to eat outside on the patio because not enough tables. I had to use the washroom so I came inside to ask for the washroom, a staff pointed out for me, it was next to the dining area so i walked through the dining area and GUESS WHAT there was a bunch of tables not taken by ANYONE, which apparently shows that the cashier LYNN M didn't want to serve us. (The cashier and dining area were separated by a wall so we couldnt see the dining area) There was a paper in the restaurant saying that "IF THE CUSTOMER WAS MEAN AND RUDE THEY WOULD BE CHARGED 10 BUCKS". LOLLLLLL They still have AUDACITY to say that? SHE was the one who being DISCRIMINATING, DISRESPECTFUL, IMPOLITE, IRRITATED, RUDE AND MEAN. SHE was discriminating because after we finished ordering, she treated other white customers nicely.

In summary, THE CASHIER LYNN M WAS RACIST AND DISCRIMINATED due to the fact that we are a group of Asian and got treated SUPER poorly. She said there were not enough tables (There were a lot of them unoccupied), didn't offer us any tables, not willing to answer questions, mean and irritated the whole time, gave us weird look, she kept exhaling when taking orders. NOT RECOMMENDING THIS FREAKING IMPOLITE,...

Terrible food,no atmosphere ,its gone downhill since we used to love this placefor food and value.My Daughter.Son in law and 2 Granddaughters and I came here for a Saturday evening meal at 5 pm The restaurant was almost emtpy ,and after our terrible food I understand the reason .There was one couple in the large room at the side and a few others in main room.I was surprised because it was a long weekend .And we had been here 2 years ago when the place never had an empty seat . The girls ordered pasta which was fine .A simple dish My Daughter ordered perogi ,my Son in law and myself ordered the Haddock ,fries amd coleslaw. Her perogi had nothing inside one of them .The other 4 very small ,hard as arock deep fried had very little filling and she could not cut it in half. These were store bought boxed perogis but even then they could and should have been cooked in butter in a fry pan ,not deep fried in oil the fish were fried in. Her fries were of small quantity and hard . My fish had very hard batter that had been deep fried before and provably left over and put in deep fry to warm up . Same with my Son in law’s I would have complained but then we just wanted to leave this uncomfortable experience and not stay for a second try at our dinners It is a stark atmosphere and if only 2 other people in dining room there is no privacy or sound dampering wall hangings or booths . Its like sitting in a big kitchen in a persons house but only tea pots on rack around ceiling that is very old and after seeing it for 5 minutes theres nothing to ponder I was very reluctant to pay the $90.00 for what we had and went back to our cottage hungry and making snacks for everyone I would not recommend this place . Too bad because it used to be our favourite restaurant...