Avenue Friday Harbour — Restaurant in Innisfil

High expectations. Left hungry but it was at least good for a laugh. Wine and water were great!

This is going to be a long one. I feel the need to discuss the entire experience. After receiving a gift certificate for my birthday, two friends and I finally had a chance to dine there and we were all pretty excited about it!

The phones are so rarely answered and there is no voicemail hooked up yet so it took me a week and a half to even get a reservation.

We were greeted at the door promptly and politely. Beautiful decor but we quickly found out that their budget was all blown there.

We were sitting for five minutes when we started to make it obvious that we were looking for someone. With an early reservation of 5:30, there were only two other tables seated. Including kitchen staff (none of which were wearing masks!), we must have seen a dozen staff in the building at that time. The manager made eye contact but awkwardly looked away and did nothing about the fact that we hadn’t been greeted yet.

Servers were so undertrained...they couldn’t confidently answer ANY of our questions about food or wine. If we asked about a sauce, the word ‘like’ was used so many times that we lost count. “It’s like a red sauce but lighter like a white. But more of like a clear sauce with white wine.” No exaggeration. Almost ver batim.

I overheard the table near us talk about a dish I didn’t see on the menu. When our server came to take our order I asked about features. “Oh ya, we have lots”. Face-palm. 🤦‍♀️

The paper menu clearly states that the menus are used once and disposed of. All three of us had wrinkly, dirty, and definitely used menus.

My friend and I both returned our dirty and crusty cutlery TWICE. Third time’s a charm. Wine glasses weren’t polished. We are far from pretentious but we did expect, at the very least, clean cutlery and polished stemware from such an establishment.

Pouring wine for us was laughable. Left a trail of wine across half our table for four.

We ordered fried calamari (bland, no sauce, cooked perfectly), caesar salad (good but zero garlic...just odd), margarita pizza (6 pieces, TWO of which had basil plopped in a corner). Easiest pizza to execute and the ‘chefs’ couldn’t even handle that. Feature pasta with mussels (“like a rosé sauce but not”) and our server could have just said ‘no sauce’. Dry noodles, dry cheese cut a few days ago, and WAY overcooked mussels shrivelled up to raisins. The picture I took truly doesn’t do it justice...the size of the dried up mussels were smaller than two peas put side by side. Veal and prosciutto entrée was the biggest disaster. Looked DISGUSTING, way too salty and tasted old with no flavour. Unless the flavour profile was supposed to be just salt. Absolutely gobsmacked.

When the server came to clear our half eaten plates, I had to let him know of our disappointment. Our food and visit in general was so bad but also SO easy to fix. But I have learned that you can’t teach people to care. ‘Attention to Detail’ isn’t in any facet of Avenue and even the bathrooms (although beautiful) were dirty and hadn’t been dusted since its inception.

The server let us know that he was going to get a manager to speak to us. Five minutes passed and the server came back with the veal taken off our bill but no manager. Our guess was a cowardly and embarrassed manager. Another disappointment. And it looked like he was the one cutting the pizzas and expediting the food going out so he lacked care and attention to detail as well.

About to leave hungry and completely unsatisfied, we called Fishbone to see if they had room for three. They did and we rushed right over...food and service incredible as always. Our favourite spot...no dish or dining experience there has EVER disappointed.

Shape up, Avenue...all of the above complaints are truly easy things to fix. Start to care more and if you’re still here next summer and your reviews improve, we’ll give you another shot. We want to see you succeed but caring...

The hostess set the tone for what turned out to be a really disappointing birthday dinner for my mom.

As we walked in the door she greeted us with a cold “do you have a reservation?” Wonder if she missed her training days or they just don’t provide them here but a polite greeting would be Hello or some variant off it. We told her we did have a reservation, they sat us inside. My mother was a little too hot sitting inside so we asked if we could be moved to an outside table. They told us it’s all booked up and I said when making the reservations I wasn’t presented with the option to choose indoor or patio. The one saving grace for this place was a pleasant, I think manager, who was able to find us a table outside… but the disappointing evening continued from there.

Our server greets us with a “what’s going on?!” as opposed to introducing himself, ok fine maybe that’s nit picking but for a restaurant that’s supposed to be more upscale and charge upscale prices, they should have much better table side manners. Anyways he takes our orders and the apps were served quickly but the calamari and their version of a shrimp cocktail were average at best, and quite a small portion.

Then we proceeded to wait close to an hour for our mains, without so much as an apology or an update. My steak that I ordered medium-rare came out well done. It was a rib eye and it costs $96 so the ketchup served in a little plastic cup was a really classy touch.

Oh and all our glasses of water were empty and the server didn’t notice or didn’t care to come and refill it… terrible, unacceptable service. Try working in a real kitchen with inspired cooks and see if that flys.

They have a $9 resort fee that they add onto the bill, not sure what we got for that but oh well. Live and learn, stay away at all costs.

Oh and the reservation asked if this was for a special occasion, which I choose birthday and explained it was for my moms 78th, no mention of it at all by the staff, NOTHING. I think the fact that the owner doesn’t respond to any of the negative Google reviews speaks volumes. Just a place to serve below average food at above average prices along with terrible service for well off tourists...

Should have read the reviews. Booked an outside/patio table for Sunday at 530 (told us no problem). We show up at 520 to be seated, and the hostess takes us to an indoor table. We remind her that we booked the patio, no issues, she seats us on the patio.

Server comes over and we order drinks. Server comes back to ask what my wife ordered. Drinks arrive, all good.

We then order the prosciutto & parmagiano app and mains. My main, "ribeye special" that the server mentions is available (he doesn't mention price).

App shows up without taralli, server says nothing and walks away. We call him back and ask about the taralli and he says "we're out". We ask for something (crackers, bread, anything) so he heads back to kitchen and they make us warm fresh focaccia bread and bring it out 5 or so mins later. Focacia is really good!

Mains comes out, chicken parm really good, my ribeye "special" is apparently a "rib steak" however this "rib steak" is thin, and while it was tasty, it was half fat (yes I am aware ribeye steaks are fatty, however this was 40% inedible). The "ribeye" came with fries and small amount of veggies and garlic truffle butter. The price? $95. It was worth $35-40 max. The Black Angus strip loin on the menu is $49, which I had last year, and it was A LOT better than the "ribeye" I had Sunday .... and for nearly half the price.

Moral of the story, ask what the cost of the specials are OR, drum roll, have the server TELL the customer what the price is as they do at Ruth's Chris, Capital Grille in the US, Gibby's in Montreal etc etc.

C'est la vie. Nice decor, great patio, some training needed for staff although all were friendly and working hard and resolved most of the minor bumps quickly (although all could have been avoided). $308.85 with tip, 1 x app, 2 x vino glasses, 1 x cocktail, 2 x mains.

Nice weekend meal when...