Wild Orchid Restaurant Downtown Hamilton — Restaurant in Hamilton

So we went here during Supercrawl, and I've tried to temper my experience with that in mind, but we were extremely disappointed. I really wanted to like this place, but alas, I can't say that I did.

I started off with high hopes because we were sat right off the bat. Despite being sat immediately without a wait, we waited for a server to get to our table for about 20 minutes. Finally, a server asks if we've been helped. By that time we are able to order everything (drinks, appetizer, and entree) because we've had plenty of time to thoroughly study their menu, which was a restricted menu for Supercrawl. We get our drinks fairly quickly and I'm ready to overlook the wait for a server. They were busy, sometimes a table falls through the cracks, it happens. BUT, it was 30 minutes before any food made it to our table. My wife's entree came out. Then 5 minutes later my entree came out. Then our server brought the basket of bread. We each only got one glass of wine since our server didn't really check up on us, so there wasn't much chance to order another glass even though we had finished our wine long before any food hit the table. Note that at this point, I've yet to mention the appetizer. That's because it never showed. After 45 minutes, my wife and I have both finished our entrees and no longer want the appetizer, since, well what's the point? Which really sucks, I might add, because it was the mussels, which was the main reason we went in here. However, by this point my wife had decided that she wouldn't have enjoyed them anyway. So I find another server (since ours has disappeared into the back, I presume to lobby the kitchen staff to produce our appetizer) and cancel the order. Our server comes back, apologises, and graciously offers to take the appetizer off the ticket. Apparently the kitchen had been busy and "forgot" ours. Which I feel like they should have been reminded after 20 or so minutes. Or when the first entree hit the table. Or when the second entree hit the table. Not 10 after we were into our plates. She doesn't offer anything else to make up for it (although she does mention that she was going to try to get the chef to toss a couple extra mussels on the plate, which is kind of irrelevant to us now since we've said we don't want them anyway), which kind of bugged me. Maybe it's just different in the States, but when I worked in the restaurant business failing to get appetizers to a table before the entree, let alone at all, would have warranted offering to comp our drinks or a free dessert at minimum. Not just taking off the food that you didn't serve.

So really subpar service all around, and a disappointingly lack of effort to make it better. It doesn't help that we then found out that our server was the owner's sister. I would think she would be more inclined to give us a better experience, but I guess not.

Unfortunately, the food didn't do much to make up for this awful experience. My wife had the Petisco de Casa, which was ok but not stellar. It would have been tasty enough if we hadn't waited 30 minutes plus the 20 before our server arrived with no bread and/or appetizer. I had the Piri Piri chicken, which I was really excited for, but it was incredibly bland and kind of dry. I'm not really sure how you make Piri Piri chicken bland, but here we are. I'd love to tell you about how good the mussels were, but we never got them. At least the green wine was good. The one glass of it we had.

Overall, a really disappointing meal and in no way worth the money we spent on it. They get one consolation star since I'm sure at least part of our experience was due to them not being able to handle the rush from Supercrawl, but that doesn't excuse it all. We definitely won't...

This place was Extremely disappointing. I was hoping to Enjoy a meal out with my family, and we decided to eat in. I ordered the Samon and roasted potatoes, The salmon was very Salty, and way to charred on the outside, all I could taste was pure salt and burnt fish. the flavor was to salty, and the Quality of the salmon Tasted like the frozen cut packs from the 10 dollar bin at the Grocery stores( pretty sure it was). The potatoes where not seasoned and tasted very plain. I also almost bit into a hair on one of my Potatoes. My Daughter ordered the Rabbit with Roasted potatoes. The Rabbit was not too bad just very very oily, and mosty bone( not worth the price based on the flavor and the bone. The potatoes were the same very bland just plain no seasoning at all. My Husband, and son ordered the chicken dinner, legs and thigh With fries, my Husband tried his first the Chicken had a fishy taste and was so dry he could barely get it down with water. My son is 10 and gas Autism and refused to touch his after that ( can't say I blame him) the fries where not good either. The waitress took of the chicken meals, but did try to make excuses about the issues which made it very uncomfortable. The sangaria was the only decent that was ordered. Even the pops where flat* The order would have cost around $159 but with the chicken dinners removed it was $109 very small portions for my daughter's Rabbit dinner, and my salmon dinner but it was gross anyway. The atmosphere was also bland" when we arrived it was dinner time and we where the only people dinning( should have saw that as a red flag. Every other place we walked by was packed with people. Trust me don't waste your money dinning here. There's also not a huge selection of food so they should be able to get these things right. I'm honestly surprised they have over 4 stars for reviews. Was not...

Wild Orchid cook staff; the carelessness displayed during my first, and ONLY visit was astounding. You should be ashamed, and maybe reconsider career paths. Ruined a valentines dinner, and put myself, and my partners health at risk.

Feb. 15th 2019,

Went for a late valentines dinner w/ my partner. 5:45pm.

• Ordered Chirizo bread, as an appetizer. Dough was not fully cooked on the inside. Still gooey. Not appetizing to say the least. We ate the two ends as they were more cooked than the remaining 80% of the loaf.

** Ordered the steak and fried egg, the two bites I got to take were decent, was looking forward to my meal. My partner ordered the chicken alfredo. Meals came quickly as the place was dead, though the chicken was completely raw. Very noticeably pink, translucent, and texture was that of raw chicken. After we both investigated it, we sent it back to be cooked properly. The poor waitress was telling us how sorry she was, and that this usually doesnt happen. Ten minutes later, another chicken alfredo. Of course the first thing we check was the chicken. THE CHICKEN WAS STILL RAW. Two waitresses come this time, both check it out and quickly start apologizing. They offer to make us both new meals now, as its been an hour dealing with this. Tough to want to eat after having raw chicken in your mouth. They covered the two iced teas we had, and the undercooked app, and we left without having dinner.

• Didnt have sangria, or any soups (large portion of the menu).

The young waitress was fantastic, and tried to make the best of a poor situation. Thank you for giving my partner a rose, it certainly made her smile.

I will never return to this resturant, and I urge you to seriously inspect your meal if you do. This was without a doubt, the worst dining...