Pickle Jar Restaurant - Hilton Garden Inn Fredericton Downtown — Restaurant in Fredericton

My husband and I have been going to the Pickle Jar for years. Tonight was our about tenth trip for dinner and it will be our last. We had made a reservation two weeks ago for Valentines Day. I received a confirmation email back and I thought we were set. We arrived at our time and to our surprise we were not on their reservation list. They proceeded to "try to make space" for us. We were placed under the staircase, in plastic, outdoor patio furniture, and with a direct breeze from the lobbys front door, every time someone entered, we froze. Every date we have ever gone there for, we sat in a warm, comfortable area, with a candlelight (these is small things that make a huge difference) , this is what we, of course, expected this time as well.

I had always ordered the Westside connection drink, which was removed from the menu a few years ago, but never had a problem requesting it since the removal. Tonight I was abruptly told no, and offered the special cocktail of the night, it was not what I asked for. In the menu it said "if you do not see the cocktail you like , please speak to your waitor". This was just a small issue but on top of the horrible location of our seats, and disorganization of the reservation, it was not a good look. The reason we were given was that they were too busy due to it being valentines day.

My husband ordered the smash burger, he did not enjoy it, soggy fries, also the cheese slices were not melted and appeared to be kraft slices.

All these things seem small, but when coupled together, it made for an unpleasant experience.

I do feel we did what we could by making the reservation far in advance, and due to their lack of organization, we suffered, especially with our seating. I had to put on my winter jacket for some time due to the cold breeze. We also were seated in front of the water filling station, so the foot traffic was high.

We have been customers for years, we have brought friends there, and even a friend from Ireland, as we told him he had to try the Pickle Jar.

We will not be going back. I apologize for making a bad review but I feel it...

Our group of six stopped in for dinner recently, hoping for a relaxed evening on the patio. The space itself was nice—comfortable seating, good street views—but the experience quickly went downhill from there.

Things kicked off with a drink spilled over two of us, which we brushed off as an honest mistake. Unfortunately, it was also a sign of things to come. Service was slow and disorganized throughout, even though the restaurant didn’t appear especially busy. We waited over an hour for appetizers, some of which arrived missing garnishes, sauces, or in one case, arrived with a thick dark hair.

The live music added another…layer. The solo keyboard performance was, in theory, a nice touch, but in practice came across more like a karaoke audition that nobody asked for. Too loud, and a little off-key. It made the long gaps between courses feel even longer.

By the time the mains arrived (some of them, incorrectly), we’d settled into the realization this was less a dinner and more of a patience exercise. We engaged in a scavenger hunt where the target item was silverware for our entrees. A few dishes were fine, like the catfish, and Sarah's Mothers Meatloaf was tasty...and the Caesars were good, but others were just flat-out misses, including a smash burger that stayed half uneaten, and certainly not packed to go, and fish cakes instead of the ordered salmon dinner, because...close enough right? To be fair, they left the fish cakes (which were decent) and prioritized the salmon dinner.

By the end of it, we didn’t complain much. We just paid our ransom and left well-below-average tips.

Maybe we caught them on a bad night, maybe it was just a perfect storm of things going sideways, but it’d take a compelling reason for us to come back and roll...

The service was the best thing Pickle Jar had to offer!! The server we had was phenomenal with our 1 year old, was playing peekaboo and was simply lovely. The food however, well, this is where my partner and I were disappointed. I had such high expectations and they fell a bit short. We ordered the kids menu burger for our son, and his burger was SO salty we didn't let him finish it (not that he wanted to - he just wanted to play peekaboo with our server). I ordered the duck confit spring rolls, tuna tartar (tapas) and 2 orders of the oysters. They oysters were perfect - cold, fresh and full of flavour. The spring rolls were okay, a bit dry for my taste and nothing to write home about. The sauce was good but I would have preferred it on the side rather than being a pool on the bottom of my plate, it was hard to eat without getting your fingers covered. The tartar was a bit on the heavy side for sesame oil, and could have benefited from more acid. My partner got the philly cheese steak, and his meal also was very, very salty - he didn't finish it either. With that said, their fries... the best fries I've had in a while, heck I'd go there for just the fries! I think I'd give Pickle Jar another shot simply because their service was so good, but maybe I'd just go for drinks and fries next time, skip the...