L'Escale Restaurant — Restaurant in Hawkesbury

The manager Andrew was absolutely HORRIBLE, he had absolutely NO customer service or etiquette.

We are a party of 4 whom called when we arrived to inquire about the wait time as we noticed the patio was busy. Andrew answered and asked if we were at the restaurant to which we stated yes as we had arrived and called from our vehicle (as we were prepared to leave and return, should he have suggested a time they had availability). He replied okay and hung up the phone.

As we approached the entrance, Andrew yelled from across the entryway if we were the ones that called. I replied yes to which he turned around and went inside. We stood at the front with no greeting or communication for some time and were then approached by a waitress who told us that we are to go and find any seat to sit in. There was 1 table of 4 that was available on the patio and it was dirty with previous cutlery and dinnerware from the previous guests. We sat down awaiting the waitress to clean it which she did shortly after.

We received menus and after 25 minutes, our order was taken. When asked what drinks we wanted, we let the waitress know we did not have a drink menu to which she apologized and left to bring. She came back 5-10 minutes later asking what drinks we wanted to which we reminded her that we did not receive a drink menu. She apologized once again and went to grab drink menus for us.

We sat patiently and waited for OVER an HOUR and 20 minutes. Upon receiving our order, out of 4 of the meals, 3 were incorrect, including the drinks, and on top of that, the food we ordered was cold.

The waitress was very sweet and apologized, stating the errors were partly on her for forgetting to note them but also the kitchens for the ones she did note in the order. She was very apologetic and let us know that what happened wasn’t okay but that she appreciated our understanding as we told her we understand they may have been busy. She let us know that if we re-ordered the food that it would take a very long time and asked us what we wanted to do. As one of the meals was an allergy concern, we all traded our dishes amongst each other to accommodate for the errors and avoid any troubles for the waitress. She thanked us again for accommodating. We tried to make it work however the food was cold and soggy, and we were very disappointed.

We stepped inside from the patio area and politely asked to speak to the manager. The waitress came out and informed us that he did not reply to her so she stated that she would assume it would be okay to charge us for our drinks and allow us to leave. While she was going over the bills with us, the manger stood afar and then left. He came back when the bill was paid and stood to watch us leave.

I looked over to him and asked him what his name was. He replied “Andrew”, asking if everything was okay. I politely let him know that given the circumstance and inconveniences from the restaurant, that an apology from him (as a manager) or some sort of conversation/communication would have been nice (as he stood there watching instead).

He responded angrily stating that he knew we would be a problem after he spoke to us on the phone as HE “panicked” assuming we were in a rush. He stated at that point he wanted to tell us that he was not a fast food restaurant.

I calmly explained to him that the call beforehand was just to find out availability as we could see the patio looked busy (again, we were willing to either wait or come back later depending on the availability as we were not in a rush).

While trying to reassure him that wasn’t the case as we weren't in a rush, He began yelling at us angrily.

Thrown aback, I said “Excuse me?” Then explained that as a manager of a restaurant, he should not be behaving like this; We came for a nice lunch by the water.

As a manager, yelling in front of the entire restaurant and creating a scene, Andrew should be embarrassed. That behaviour is unacceptable and he needs to take a course on customer service. Absolutely DISGUSTING behaviour...

if it's a sunny day and warm outside and there's not too much wind and they have the umbrellas up than this place when you eat outside, becomes a five-star restaurant. the view is great and his lovely to have the boats right in front and that gorgeous Long bridge not too far away between Ontario where this restaurant is located, and all the way across to Quebec side of the water with this huge river right in front of you, is an absolutely delightful way tohave a meal outside. The environment really takes a 3.5 quality of food, except for their Pizza which is great, and turn it into a five-on-five meal because it's so nice! There's plenty of parking all around the place and even if it's a crappy day and winter you can sit inside in their viewing room and see it all as well. I went with an old buddy and we found it a bit too windy cuz we were two old fartstaking a break from business and catching up after years later and we chose to sit inside but we both side facing the outside cuz it was a gorgeous sunny day with beautiful boats in front and the bridgeview and the mountains and the greenery and the Big River and it was just too easy to have a nice time . Otherwise I'll give it a three and a halfbecause they only serve Pepsi cola nut Coca-Cola and they charge heavily for that but the pizza pricing and everything else is ok. A big menu and lots of choices along with tons of parking and reasonable enough service makes this a viable place and a frequent choice.

there's a great place I won't name but the entrance is in front of a no-tell motel and I dislike that. There's another place down the street and acrossthe street and there always a 4 and very consistent maybe even a 4 in a quarter or four and a half for their incredible Pizza however it's across the street and even though it's a lovely diner style of well-endowed restaurant, you're across the street of an old town and it's kind of run-down and all you're getting is padded boost and great service but no view I'm parking isn't it . There are tons of restaurants in this small town of duxbury to choose fromand I've tried I think the majority of them. But sitting by the water or even being inside during inclement weather looking at that great view is really worth a lot. . And their Pizza is pretty darn good. 👍 . And I think it's available in like five different sizes so you have tons of choice of sizes and tons of choice of items to put on it as wellso go for the pizza or the chicken plate or whatever but stay...

Certainly all the food is good here but there's an inside room that's pretty big that has a great view of the water including the bridge which is gorgeous by the way, that goes from Hawkesbury Ontario to Quebec on the other side. As a matter of fact everybody speaks French first in this town so we know they're from Quebec and that's why they got that Great Bridge LOL meanwhile, they also have besides that big inside restaurant Room with a View, they have a magnificent outside Veranda wrapping around the building right to the Waterfront where there's a mini Marina with pretty boats and a fantastic view across the large river to the other side from one Province to the other. They have nice tables with umbrellas and it's well exposed for sunlight and on beautiful days it's the most beautiful place to be. The staff of waitresses is hard-working and they make one of my favorite foods quite well, Pizza!:-) they have a lot of other types of food, and I can't vote for it being all fantastic but I highly suspect having eaten there with friends that don't have pizza, that the food would be rated at least the three and a half up to a four out of five almost all the time. Decent food and very consistent. Hard-working waitress staff. Reasonable prices. superb View during great weather or inside in that other large rooms facing the view. And the rest of this restaurant is actually quite large overall. The litmus test is, that I have returned there several times as my restaurant of choice coming in all the way from Montreal to Hawkesbury Ontario, because the food is decent but the view is fabulous! And by the way... They only serve Pepsi Cola and not Coca-Cola. I love my pizza! But this is a picture of my homemade pizza not...