Moxies St. Albert Trail Restaurant — Restaurant in Edmonton

Went to this location for a friends birthday last night. This location has gone downhill in every aspect since the pandemic, and the service is reflective of that.

Our server, Cloe, was inattentive, delayed, and did not make us feel welcome at any point during our experience. We mentioned that it was my guests birthday, and at no point in the experience did Cloe wish her a happy birthday or anything like that. I had to specifically ask if Moxie’s did anything for birthdays. Even when the free dessert was brought out, the food runner didn’t say anything about a celebration either. In an economic climate where people are choosing where to spend their dollars wisely in hospitality, I will say, I will not be choosing this Moxie’s location again.

We were hoping to share two entree dishes and asked Cloe if the kitchen could split them so that we didn’t have to struggle with plating things ourselves. Noting that at the time of the request, there were 2 other tables in the lounge, and 4 in the dining room, I can’t see why this request was unreasonable. Cloe, however, did. She said “we don’t do that here”, and then said she would bring an extra plate. I’m sure every reader of this review can understand how ridiculous that sounds when the kitchen is fully equipped with tongs, plates, etc., and at our table, we would be struggling to figure that out on our own. Even if the restaurant had a strict policy on not splitting plates, she should have verbalized to them that we were splitting the dishes so that they played accordingly — we got the Mango Chicken, and the salsacado came only on top of one chicken and the mango puree was on the plate as normal. How much more challenging would it really have been for Cloe to make a note to the kitchen to put sauces/garnishes in ramekins so it was easier for us to divide on our own, since the kitchen couldn’t do that anyways (for some bizarre and unclear reason)?

Our entrees were run by someone else at 7:21pm and Cloe did not check in on us until 7:32pm. At that point, our food was nearly done and she was already clearing plates. What if something was wrong with our meal? 11 minutes is too long to check in on a table, especially since we did need replacement cutlery.

Lastly, I will say that I never tip less than 18% at a restaurant because I know how challenging it can be as a server. However, noting this horrible experience, I tipped Cloe 10%. I saw her look at the bill as she asked me if I needed my receipt, she frowned, and did not even say thank you ONCE. The fact that I still decided to leave a tip after such a terrible experience and she did not even say thank you or acknowledge my tip is ridiculous.

Again, I will not be back unless there is a resolution, mostly due to lack of effort, but also because of the entitlement and unwelcome atmosphere demonstrated. If all servers treat their tables this way, I am not surprised why there were only 4 tables in the lounge during our entire 2 hour dining experience.

Looking forward to hearing from the owners...

What could I possibly say about Moxies that over 2,000 reviews haven't already said? Well, a few things...

The food: It's trying really, really hard. Mostly, it's trying to justify its price. Let's pick a standard example: steak frites. It's $37. To compare, Earl's is $35.75. Let's try another: Cobb salad is $26.50 vs. Earls at $25.50. It's like that for every dish--a few dollars more. There's nothing to justify a higher price. Is the food good? It's...fine. But it doesn't live up to the hype on the menu.

The menu reads like a greatest hits compilation of every trendy restaurant cliché from the past decade. The relentless parade of "crispy," "fresh," and "ancient grains" feels like it was assembled by committee from a food blogger's fever dream.

Everything is either smashed, blackened, or glazed, and apparently no dish is complete without cashews, sriracha mayo, or some variation of avocado. It's the kind of menu that mistakes quantity of adjectives for quality of food, where a simple chicken breast becomes a "chipotle mango" production with "sweet & spicy dry rub" because heaven forbid you get anything that doesn't sound like it requires a passport to understand.

The service: It's going to depend, right? Some servers are great, others are not. We got the not-so-great. People in my party specifically asked about the spiciness of the dishes we ordered. The answers were exactly backward. The "not spicy" ones were, indeed, actually spicy. And the "fairly spicy" one was bland. We had to swap dishes. Ugh.

Dear servers, if you haven't actually tried the dishes, tell us that. Go back into the kitchen and ask someone who knows. We won't mind, really. (I acknowledge the possibility that the kitchen screwed up the spicing of the dishes.) Worse, the server only came back for a drive-by quality check that wasn't even heard by most of the members of my party--the ones who ordered the problematic dishes. Why wasn't she heard, I wonder? Because...

The atmosphere: It's yikes. Almost impossible to have a conversation. If you're trying to pretend to be something more than a diner, you've got to do more than just have high prices and cloth napkins. I know you can't do anything about the table with the screaming baby. But there's a vibe that says to parents, "Hey, come here with your screaming baby, it's fine. Just stare at your phone the whole time." (I say this as a parent of two, by the way. And, full disclosure, I actually had a child in my dining party. They did NOT care for the atmosphere either.)

Is it really the best choice to play Top Club Hits of the 90s during Sunday evening dinner? The constant oontz-oontz-oontz just doesn't fit with your aspirational menu. Haddaway's "What is Love" with a side of $55 steak is a juxtaposition I can't wrap my head around.

Still, this place is popular--on the weekends, anyway--which is what I really don't understand. Enjoy it, I guess? I'll be heading...

Update: I've since talked to the GM Alex at this location and was very impressed with him. He's very kind and has a knack for hospitality. I'm grateful he dealt with this issue.

My husband works out of town a lot, so we don't get very many opportunities to enjoy date night. Lately, it's been every three months, and with being 6 months pregnant, this was one of our last ones. This date night was full of disappointment. The first 20 minutes started out strong, with only the exception of returning our (virgin) margaritas to be salt rimmed and the Avocado Smash seeming old. But we were willing to overlook this. Then it all went down hill quickly from there. We waited with empty glasses and a cleared table for a really long time. Our waitress finally came over and apologized for the long wait time and was about to leave again, we asked her quickly for more drinks. By the time our food finally came some time later, it was disappointing, to say the least. The best way to describe it all was cold and old. The Tacos had barely any veggies on it, like it was tossed together and the fries cold to touch. After waiting so long we expected hot food at the very least. At this point, we were just hungry and told them we'd eat it. Our date night went from fun and exciting to trying to swallow this cold food in order not to wait another hour for disappointment. When the manager came to speak with us, we were left in pure astonishment. She recited some robotic prepared line, didn't let us speak, and walked away. At this point, we could tell no one actually cared about our ruined date night. There was no customer service, no hospitality. We definitely won't be returning back to this location as we left feeling robbed even after they removed our mains. Bad experience, bad food, and...