The Waterfront River Pub and Terrace — Restaurant in Greater Napanee

I am writing this review because I am very disappointed in the response of the restaurant to an honest review from a person with celiac disease over the lack of care and consideration given by waitstaff to their concerns. The Waterfront is a restaurant with a lovely ambience that prides itself on caring for GF diners, but if you are celiac, I would recommend that you stop by for a drink only (and note, if you want beer or cider, the only GF option available on the day we were there was a cider from the Waupoos Cider House). I would not recommend you eat here as the risk of being "glutenized" is extremely high. This is our experience: two members of our party of six have celiac disease; and we identified this to the server at the beginning of the meal, ensuring they knew it was not "just" a GF dietary preference. We were happy to receive the GF menu, which has several mouth-watering options. However, there are many deep-fried dishes on the GF menu, which is a red flag to people with celiac, as restaurants often do not have a separate deep fryer for GF food. Sure enough, this is the case at the Waterfront. No problem, we were disappointed, but we're used to that, and went for the other options. The cheese platter was advertised as coming with "homemade gluten-free crostinis." Yum! But on that day, there were none of those available, nor did they have something as simple as rice crackers to replace them with (we asked). The waitstaff was able to find some regular, sliced GF bread, so, we ordered the cheese platter. We ordered the escargots from the GF menu, which indicated they came with a "gluten-friendly baguette point." The dish was delivered to the table with two pieces of non-GF garlic bread lying on the escargots, rendering it inedible for the celiac person. At that point, the celiac person understandably lost trust in the restaurant's ability to deliver food safe for him to eat, and gave up on ordering a meal. We chose this restaurant because we believed GF members of our party would be able to relax and enjoy their meals, and we were sadly disappointed. I would not have commented here, but the response by the restaurant to an honest and fair Google review by one of our party about this experience was dishonest and disparaging. Despite being aware that people were celiac, the waitstaff did not tell us upfront, as claimed, that there was no separate GF fryer. Nor did they "have a discussion with us" about it, we had to straight out ask if there was a separate GF fryer. They say there is a note on the GF menu that there is not a separate fryer but it is certainly not "stated very clearly," nor is it immediately noticeable. The server certainly did not apologize "profusely," she did say she was sorry. We were not offered "several options" after the escargots were rejected, other than a replacement escargot plate and a dessert menu. We were asked if we would like anything else, and, as the response from the restaurant admitted, the waitstaff had "erred in not ordering the gluten-free escargot", and trust was broken at that point, so we did not want to run the risk of ordering another GF choice. We know, as the restaurant says in its response, that "mistakes do happen." We responded politely, we stayed and completed our other meals, paid (including tip) and left. However, we will not be back, because we cannot, in all fairness quote "Rest assured that our gluten friendly menu is important to us and not something we take lightly," as the restaurant states in its response. Apparently, this restaurant cannot take suggestions from real customers, made politely, without being very defensive and, quite frankly, dishonest about how events actually transpired.

• Edited after owner response: I sincerely wish you the very best, too. We are open to discussing what a comfortable GF dining experience from a celiac viewpoint would be, if you...

This was our first time here and it will be our last. The food was terrible! My son got the Southwest Chicken sandwich which as stated in other reviews didnt even look like chicken. It was deep fried to the point it was completely burnt. The whole centre was gone so it look like a giant burnt onion ring. All 3 plates of fries were cold and either soggy or burnt crisp as if they were old fries sitting there and old pieces that had been sitting in the frier. We sent the chicken back and even the waitress said that it wasnt suppose to look like that. We had the chicken replaced w a burger and new fries and Those were the only fries that came out looking and tasting like they had just been cooked. I got the “steak” sandwich that isnt even steak. That was definitely a piece of microwaved meat similar to a warmed up pork chop that was cold and rubbery with so much salt I had to spit it out. My daughter always gets chocolate milk and everywhere is normally the same but here they use syrup and a very minimal amount so it only slightly changes the colour so it doesnt taste at all like chocolate milk. We sent that back. By the time my sons new meal came out we were just ready to go. We quickly passed on dessert after the quality of everything else, we didnt want to chance that plus at that point we were all incredibly irritated and just wanted to leave. We always tip the waitress regardless of how the food is because she didnt cook it. Its not her fault the food is bad but its unfortunate that they are the ones who have to deal with customers when the cook just doesnt try. We were very shocked at the serious lack of care the cook put into these meals. When dining and paying higher prices you expect that edible food is given to you. I no longer just deal w crap food that Im paying for and say nothing to be polite. People are not receiving discounts for less quality food so why should one have to pay full price but not be able to eat the food? We are paying for quality food. The cook on definitely needs some new training and quality control. Reminds me of the cook at Chucks Roadhouse where my son Got food poisoning from the chicken. The only positive was the waitress on. She was lovely but its sad that they are the ones who have to deal with the frustration when the cook just doesnt care. I do not recommend this place at all. Fast food chicken burgers are far better quality then this one hence all the bad reviews about it. Might be time to just take it off the menu. Edit as I dont know how to respond to your comment back to my review. Yes when she came back multiple times we said it was fine because it got to the point we just didnt know what to say anymore. Ask her how many things we said something about and sent back…or how half the steal sandwich was left on the plate. That will tell you that everything was not fine. As i stated we were incredibly frustrated with everything and just wanted to leave which is why when she asked about dessert we said no. Im sure if you ask her about the things i mentioned she would tell you we did mention all those things to her. There comes a point when you are just over everything and no longer say anything. Instead you pack up...

We made a 7 pm patio reservation for Sat 05 Jul. We arrived at 6:50. There were three ladies at hostess station. It took them about 2 minutes to decide where ro put us. We were escorted to a table the young lady said she would try to find us a drink menu.

A server came by and dealt with the table to my right. She then moved over to the table to my left. She NEVER even acknowledged us.

We sat there as she came back and forth for over 5 minutes before she even acknowledged our table.

She took our drink order and said it may be a couple of minutea we have a wedding and a birthday party. We are waiting for clean glasses. We placed our food order, fearing if we didnt it may be awhile before ahe returned. I looked around in our section of 9 tables only 3 were occupied, (which made being ignored even more pronounced). About 5 minutes later we were finally given a glass of water.

The section began to fill up and I noticed that NONE of the other rables were seated for more than 2 minutes before she was taking orders. I also noted that the wedding party members were beginning to leave so they had obviously been there for a while.

We waited for our drinks to arrive. At 7:40, (45 minutes after being seated we decided we would wait no more. As we got to entrance area of our section I noticed another lady carrying a tray. We told her those are our drinks but we are leaving. 45 minutes is riduclous. She tells us those drinks are for another table. We follow her back to our table as I doubted someone elae had placed the exact same order 1/2 litre of red wine and a Pina Colada. She says that is the problem they were listed as being for another table. I said doesn't matter we are leaving

We stopped to speak to the hostess/manager about our issue. She came out from the kitchen carrying our FOOD order!!!

We advised that was our food but we were leaving as 45 minutea to wait for a drink order was riduculous. There hadn't even been any cutlery or tissues placed at our table. Then to have the food ready at the SAME time is even more so. The kitchen can prepare a Schnitzel and a rack of lamb faster than the bar can make a Pina Colada and pour out 1/2 litre of wine.

She immediately handed our food off to another lady and barked "get this back to the kitchen IMMEDIATELY" As if she wanted to ensure it stayed warm perhaps to be recycled to another table??

I explained the entire fiasco to her. She said she was sorry that it had happened and then said. "IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN WHEN YOU COME BACK, PLEASE LET ME KNOW."

I said it will.never happen again as WE will NOT be coming back period.

Each time we brought an issue up we were given an excuse

Glasses aren't clean Drinks were sent to wrong table We are busy... etc etc.

NO this place simply is UNORGANIZED. There is NO acceptable excuse for these epic fails.

If you do visit and it appears even a bit busy go somewhere else to get prompt and respectful service rather...