Smitty's Family Restaurant - Halifax Lacewood — Restaurant in Halifax

My husband, my 2 year old and my toddler visited for lunch on 12/15/2024. We were seated quickly and our server was amazing. However the food was below subpar honestly. I ordered the traditional club, which I understand is usually served cold, but there was no excuse for the bread to be as cold and wet as it was. You could tell the bread was pre-toasted much earlier in the day, and was cast aside into a pile to wait until someone ordered a club . My husband ordered the ultimate mozzarella burger, and the same scenario was true for the onion rings and mozzarella sticks. Both cold, and soggy, obviously cooked earlier in the day to be ready to throw onto the burgers as they were ordered. Both our plates of fries were cold. The only food that came out hot was our sons "dino" nuggets a fries. I say "dino" because although they were advertised as dinos, we were surprised when they came out and were regular square nuggets.. disappointing yes but nuggets were nuggets at the end of the day. What absolutely floored me was when we asked for the bill, and for my sons toy that was included in kids meal, we were told they were out. Now why would no one tell us they were a) not actually dino nuggets and b) had no toys when we ordered? I literally only bought that kids meal for those two things, as my son eats only a few bites and I would've ordered chicken straps and fries for myself and him to share if they would've told me they were out. So disappointed because we usually love smittys. Feels like a waste of money for all three meals and enough of a disappointment that I don't think...

We went here for breakfast yesterday morning. The restaurant was very busy. We had a wait time of about 10 minutes for a table, expected on a Saturday morning. This review has two parts, kitchen and staff.

Kitchen:

I ordered a Belgian Waffle and a side of pancakes with strawberries. The waffle was horrible, thin, overcooked, crispy. Not anything what you might imagine when you think of a light, fluffy and steamy belgian waffle. The strawberries tasted like they came straight from the microwave, soft and soupy after the freezer. The price for some fried batter are way to high for what's leaving the kitchen that morning and hitting the table. My breakfast partner had ordered an omelet, toast and hash browns. That plate was perfect, perhaps my situation was an isolated event.

Server/Staff: Juliana:

Absolutely wonderful. Juliana souly has the 5 star rating for this review. I didnt even want to tell her about my issues however she was very professional and accommodating. I'll definitely be back to this location - with a different menu option. Thanks Juliana.

Smittys Management: You should be proud of Juliana and how this was handled. I've personally spent many years in the management side of the restaurant industry and Juliana is exactly what I look for in my employees. Better give her a raise before I come to her with...

I came here twice, a month apart, with a group (8-10 people each time). Booked ahead. We were put in a separate room with no other diners, customer service was really bad - it was like no-one had actually been assigned to look after us BOTH times. First experience was pretty poor, but decided to try again as it was a convenient location to our group. Second experience was terrible. I do not recommend this place. I made a complaint to management but even they seemed too unorganized to respond properly. They offered us a free meal, via email, (which we didn't take) but had no intention of talking to me about the dining experience or asking about the complaint. Staff were not friendly, only spoke as much as needed to take orders or payment, no smiles, when food arrived servers left and we had no cutlery (second time we had cutlery in napkins but upon opening found forks missing!). Any time we needed anything (cutlery, water, extra sauce, bills etc) I had to leave the room to go find a server.....on both visits. It was awful customer service. I do not recommend...