Sunset Grill — Restaurant in Kitchener

Incident - 02/17/2025 - Family day.

I came at this location at 1 PM with my wife. We sat down and started waiting for other of my 6 friends to arrive. Looked like the location was not busy at this time. After we sat down we asked for water and coffee, after few minutes a lady ( probably owners wife ) came and started asking how much more time it will take my friends to come as they would have to pay for staff. Myself and my wife was soo taken a back and felt bad that she really said that and it’s happening. Because it was family day and I was going to see my friends so I forgot it right away and told the lady that they are on the way. Then again after few minutes a male person came ( probably the owner ) asked the same question (how much more time for your friends) and stated that the cook resides in Toronto and might have to leave. I got upset but still politely told him that my friends are on the way. After few minutes the same male person came back and stated that they are keeping 1 cook for us. Now I felt really bad and my wife too. I went there to have a good brunch with my wife and friends. In 20 minutes I’ve been asked 3 times when my friends are arriving because the owner has to pay the staff and the probably because the location is not busy at this time. I would have been more happy if the owner would have asked me from very first that we are closing for whatever reason.

This was so dis-respectful and so low in customer service. Me and my wife stood up went to pay for our coffee. My friends were just entering the location and the owner understood the mistake and request multiple times to sit. I raised my concerns to the owners and left even after multiple request of the owner to have brunch.

Then we all friends went to Ira needles location of sunset grill and enjoyed our brunch there. Ira needles locations customer service was way good and servers were so helpful with food.

Incident - 2

I came here few weeks back with my wife and mother. The same lady ( probably owners wife) came for order. I placed my order. And I wanted to eat the pancakes at last so I didn’t order but told the lady that I will order it later. However she said you have to order all together as they are busy. I said I want it nice and warm that’s why I will order later but she kept insisting that order all together. So I order but request her to bring the pancakes in last. The pancakes came with the main order. I have to request again to take it back and send it in last as I wanted to in last.

Someone for sunset grill management needs to look at this location now. Me and my friends do come here more frequent but now we won’t after this kind of bad...

Having recently eaten at a different Sunset Grill, I can tell you that they're generally pretty good if you're into all-day breakfast. This one in Kitchener, however, must be owned by the cheapest owner in town.

We went on a cold day. It was -18 outside. I expected to be welcomed by a blast of hot air when I walked into the restaurant. Nope. It was 15 degrees in that place. There was no barrier between the front door and the rest of the restaurant. We were sitting a third of the way back and we could feel the arctic air every time someone walked in or out. And in case you think we just picked bad seats, there were people sitting at the very back of the restaurant wearing their hats and coats. By the time I got to my French toast (about 7 minutes after it arrived) it was stone cold from the chill in the air. One of the servers shivered as she worked the till.

Speaking of servers, there were two overworked waitresses running around DURING THE LUNCH RUSH. They had trouble keeping up. Clearly competent, but just too many tables for two people. They also served as host when new people came in.

This all suggests to me that the owner is a cheapskate. Look, the food was fine. Clearly there are corporate standards that franchise owners have to follow, thank god. But if there is something wrong with the heat, fine, it happens sometimes: notify your customers as they enter. If you're short staffed due to a flu outbreak, that's possible, but let the customers know that wait times might be higher.

Here's the thing, though. I don't believe this was a perfect storm. The owner was actually there. I saw him at the till a few times, but he never went to customers sitting in their coats to apologize or offer to turn up the heat and he never tried to help his wait staff by doing the coffee refills or anything (by the time my mother was offered her first refill, we'd finished eating and were getting ready to leave). This suggests to me that what we saw was normal operating procedure and that he's just a cheapskate penny pincher. My big regret is that we left our tip using debit rather than cash. He strikes me as the type of guy who would skim his...

Horrendous experience! My daughter spoke with one of the owners on Thursday and mentioned that we wanted to come in at 9 SHARP for Mother's Day with my frail and ill mother-inlaw. Quite frankly it will probably be her last Mother's Day. She was told that tables can't be reserved but as soon as we arrived we would be put to the head of the line. My inlaws arrived at 8:50 ahead of the 4 of us. They were told that they would have to wait for us to arrive to be seated. My father inlaw called me and was quite agitated. My mother inlaw uses a walker and would have like to have been seated. My daughter and her boyfriend arrived 10 minutes later and they were seated. We ordered (our server was great!) but when ordering we were told no modifications (I ordered the Sunset and had to have the eggs over easy rather than sunnyside up) due to it being busy as it was Mother's Day. At this point it was 9:15 and there were still 10 tables + open. Our food arrived and was all STONE cold. My peameal on my Sunset was as tough as shoe leather. My mother inlaw wasn't even done eating when our server brought our bill. My daughter paid, our server topped up coffees and said "have a good day, take your time , finish up" and within 3 minutes we were asked to vacate our table as another party needed it. Please keep in mind that I noted that during the entire time we were in the restaurant there was never less than 10 tables unoccupied. This isn't an off the beaten path Mom and Pop shop, the bill was $190 for the 6 of us, not $7.99 a person. We had eaten here once before and it was great but we won't be back. Try Sunset Grill Ira Needles or Hespeler...