Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Hamilton

We went for an early dinner at this Swiss Chalet restaurant. We were a party of seven.

The restaurant was so cold, we were chattering and shivering.

The waitress took our orders, but managed to serve at least two sets of other customers who came into the restaurant after we had ordered.

She messed up the orders. Only one of us ordered rice, but three of us were served rice. The rice was undercooked.

One member of our party wanted the chicken to be very spicy. It wasn't. But when we heard one of the customers who was served ahead of us complain about the spicy food, we realized that the waitress had mixed up the orders.

Two members of our party ordered French fries with their chicken. Their meals came with small, broken pieces of fries, which led them to determine that they had been served old, possibly left over fries.

The stir fry was made with only Broccoli and was served on undercooked rice that had not been ordered.

The other members of our party also had complaints about their food.

We would have ordered desserts, but the waitress told us that the desserts were not good. So some members of our party ordered one serving of cheesecake amongst them.

When the waitress asked who was paying the bill, my son indicated that we would. However, she gave the bill and the interac machine to our guest who was sitting at the other end of the table.

We had intended to pay the entire bill plus tip, regardless of the poor atmosphere, lousy service, and horrible food.

Our guest felt obligated to pay and did not pass the machine to us. While he was paying, his daughter, one of two people with actual cash on them, pulled $12 from her purse as her tip for the food.

The waitress grabbed the machine from our guest after he had paid, loudly said "You can keep that!" and stomped off.

We were stunned. The young woman's parents reasoned that the waitress was probably talking about the receipt. They told her to leave the money on the table.

I got my coat on and was standing near the bar, waiting for my party to leave the table, when I heard the waitress complain to her colleague about an $11 tip.

My son had $100 cash on him. The girl's attitude all night and her behaviors to my guests, the bad food, and the cold restaurant were the deciding factors that I did not instruct my son to leave the money as a tip.

I did not want to further embarrass my guests. So I waited until the next morning to call the restaurant to speak with the manager, who said that he had not been at the restaurant the previous day (the day we were at the restaurant).

He tried to brush me off during the call. It didn't sound to me as though he was taking my complaints seriously.

He did say that he would talk to his staff. He also offered four free meals at his restaurant or four vouchers to be used at any Swiss Chalet restaurant in Canada.

I declined to eat at this restaurant ever again, but said that I would take the vouchers.

I continued to feel dissatisfied with how the call was handled. I have decided that we don't need Swiss Chalet food vouchers. They do not make up for the disrespect to my guests. And if I have to eat poorly cooked food, I'm sure that I could do a much better job than the persons who were working in the kitchen that night.

Since I've already shared this bad experience that we had at Swiss Chalet with family and friends, Swiss Chalet has lost more than seven customers at a time when many people prefer to eat healthy (properly prepared) ...

We chose this Swiss Chalet location to celebrate my mothers birthday. Big mistake. We will not be going back to this location ever again. How do you give 0 stars? Both the mens and women’s washroom we’re so unkept it was absolutely disgusting. The bins for used feminine hygiene products were overflowing in almost every bathroom stall to where it was falling on the floor, you actually had to be careful where you were stepping. Used paper towels and toilet paper scattered on the floors and toilets were disgustingly dirty. Completely unsanitary it was sickening. Unfortunately we were seated at the table right beside the washrooms and every so often we would be hit with this awful stench as we were eating our food. The service we experienced there was a whole other issue. Our server was rude and inattentive. We were seated, served drinks promptly which was great but the server didn’t come back to take our order until 35 minutes later. When she came back she apologized and told us there was an emergency in the kitchen. Okay fair enough; we tell her our dinner orders and when the first person mentions salad she rudely tells us theres no salad and starts making condescending remarks when someone at our table stated they would have to have soup as that was the only other option. A few people at our table literally had to think of a whole other order in seconds while she was standing there waiting impatiently at our table. When our food finally comes, our orders are not even correct. That was eventually fixed but the fries were stale and cold, the chicken was chewy and gross, she knocked a drink over onto someone’s plate and laughed apologetically. To top it all off we asked for separate bills and she put everything on one entire bill. Normally we don’t make complaints but everyone was so upset with the service it didn’t seem right to leave without mentioning all of what happened. We spoke to the manager about everything, even the washrooms. The manager seemed somewhat empathetic because these were legitimate complaints, however her approach was completely unprofessional. Her excuses as to why things are the way they are in the restaurant fell on deaf ears because there is no excuse for the poor environment and lack of service. They’re short staffed, no one wants to work, there were only 4 servers working, the list went on and on. I couldn’t believe there was a manager who is supposed to be managing is standing there giving excuses as if everything she was saying was supposed to justify the lack of cleanliness and piss poor service her staff was giving their customers. If you don’t have enough staff to clean the washrooms get in there and clean them yourself. The little staff you do have, perhaps remind them of a little thing called customer experience. Her job is to manage and it was evident she was not doing her job. The staff were not doing their jobs. We always tip well when we go out for dinner and we have never left without giving a tip. Tonight we did because I will not support that type of behaviour, attitude, lack of service and unkept environment in any restaurant establishment. I feel sick now wondering what their kitchen looks like if they can let their bathrooms which are open to the public get that bad. Save your time and money and go somewhere else. Wouldn’t be surprised if this location gets shut down after a surprise...

Had just passed a course and family decided to take me out to celebrate. Right off the bat, we knew it was going to be bad. Waitress came over and asked if we wanted drinks, my dad's girlfriend ordered a Khalua on ice. Only to be told that they didn't have that alcohol. We told the waitress that they did and even pointed it out to her as we could all see the bottle at the bar from where we were sitting. She then told us that they couldn't do just Khalua and it had to be mixed with something. Still took her forever to find the bottle and her coworker had to point it out to her again. Then came our appetizers. My wife found the dipping sauce for the peirogies a little spicy for her taste and asked for just sour cream...twice. By the time it finally showed up, they were almost at the point of bringing the entrees. When the entrees showed, the wings I ordered as mild, were actually hot sauce instead. I told the waitress they were hot and she said "yeah". I told her that I had ordered mild and right there she now said "no, that's mild sauce". Like you just agreed that it was hot sauce wings and now you're telling me it's mild, even though I just tasted the sauce and my mouth was semi on fire??!! She offered for me to keep the hot wings and go get a new order of wings made. I managed to finish 3/4 of my ribs by the time she came back and asked if I had received my wings yet, which I said no, and it still took another 10-15 minutes to get. She did apologize and offer to go get me a slice of pie while I was waiting for my wings. I told her that pie sounded good, but maybe after I finished my meal. When it came time to pack up leftovers, there was no wait for us to get take out boxes and bags, but it then took forever to get the bill. Worst experience I've ever had at...