Messa Joe's Taphouse & Grill — Restaurant in Edmonton

I haven't been to this location in about 10 years and decided to stop in after work tonight. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Our server was very slow and inattentive despite the fact that there were very few other occupied tables. Not to mention the fact that although she had a mask on her face she was wearing it on her chin! I'm sorry, did everyone forget that first off they are mandatory in a public space and secondly that we are in the midst of a pandemic? We order our overpriced drinks and proceeded to order food when our server decided to finally make her way to our table. We order the party platter for $45, which you are even able to select what flavor of wings you would like and our friend ordered the burger special for the evening. The food came in a reasonable amount of time which was about the only positive part of the entire experience. Literally everything on the platter was overcooked. the chicken fingers and wings were dry, the onion rings were hard, and the dry ribs literally broke when my friend tried to pick on up with his fork; I don't mean fell apart, I mean splintered. The burger was seated nicely on the outside and was cooled well but the flavour was absolutely horrible. The fries were incredibly greasy and the gravy was unbelievably salty. while waiting for our server to come back to check on us the bartender started yelling at a customer about the customer not respecting his decision to not provide service to him any longer. Normally I would support this action, being in the industry myself, however the said customer did not show any signs of intoxication when he walked past our table to go to the VLTs and stopped to talk to us. Afterward our server stopped by the table to apologize and then proceeded to explain that she'd had a long night and that this wasn't the first that had happened that night. I should also mention that the bartender didn't even pretend to wear a mask despite the fact that there were people sitting at the bar so no social distancing was possible, or the fact that he was pouring drinks for everyone in the bar, or the fact that he was continually not behind the bar and walking through tables where patrons were seated. Absolutely dumbfounded by this experience and I can say that it will be a very long time, if ever, before I return...

I am all in favor of supporting my local pub but when I encounter a waitress that makes the experience tense and extremely unpleasant I will definitely think twice about going back, which is sad because I used to frequent the place regularly.

On Thursday December 5th three of us (all from Kensington) thought we would go out before going downtown to a play. One person in our group had just had shoulder surgery and was on narcotics for the pain, but when he explained this to the waitress she was still insisting that he needed to order a drink or pop because we had ordered 2 orders of wings ($11.99 each) and one order of shrimp ($9.99). We had ordered two 9 ounce glasses of wine ($23.33, more than the cost of 3 highballs or beers), but apparently that was not enough because when the third person said that he would prefer to stick with water, her friendly demeanor disappeared. She only brought 2 plates and whenever we asked for anything she dropped it at the end of the table and ran away.

I had to go to the bar to ask for water because we had asked for 2 but she only brought one. While at the bar I ran into the waitress and she said she brought one, but I explained that we had asked for two. I also told her that I found her very unpleasant and quite rude but not to worry, that would be reflected by her tip. She got snotty and said she did not expect a tip from us anyway. Her loss, usually I tip quite well.

After this encounter another waitress (who was very friendly) and the manager appeared at our table, but nothing was done. They explained their policy, we asked for the bill and against my wishes the person who paid the bill left a 10% tip and $1.50 in VLT tickets. More than was deserved.

The next time Mesa Joe's Is suggested I will counter with other options like Original Joe's, Crown and Anchor, Knights Pub, The Leaf or even Doyles Pub (not in the neighborhood but awesome food and friendly staff).

Extremely unimpressed by...

Service was very good. However, the food we ordered were terrible. The spicy dill wings had zero dill taste and were nothing but saturated in extreme hot sauce. They were really small and didn't come with the vegetables it stated in the menu. We sent them back and ordered the herb and garlic wings, hoping for a better result. The nachos came out and they were fairly burnt. Upon eating them you tasted a strong burn taste. The toppings were minimal and lacking. The cheese was dumped on a pile and not spread throughout the chips. Meh!!!! after sitting for quite awhile, the herb and garlic wings showed up. We had sat for too long and were ready to go. They looked better but they would not allow us to take them out so we left them. We finished our beer and headed straight to Original Joe's. There were no disappointments there. Drinks, service, and food were amazing as it should be. The dill wings there were large, juicy, and tasty. Oh! Even on Wing Tuesday you can take them home. In today's time it's too expensive for people to go out to eat and have a drink or two and be utterly disappointed! We won't be coming back here...