Sandbar Waterfront Grill — Restaurant in Lakeshore

I went for an early dinner today with my daughter. I don’t know why, but whenever we approach the hostesses that ask if you have a reservation, they always seem confrontational instead of welcoming. For some reason they default to you breaking the rules and you need to then pass the test to be allowed in instead of being welcomed for your business. Whatever though.

Today was an extremely hot and humid day, and with the position of the sun in the sky, the only way to get shade for two people was to tilt the umbrella. We shifted our seats slightly to get underneath the shade and found comfortable seating positions so we could enjoy our meal. The waitress came and we placed our drink order and proceeded to engage in some pleasurable conversation looking forward to a nice meal.

A few minutes had passed, when a guy who I assume was a manager or owner came out of nowhere and loudly announced that we couldn’t have the umbrella head angled because it’s too windy while moving it back to vertical and directing me to “scoot my chair over” to sit in the now non-existent shade.

I stood up and looked at the pattern of where the shade was now falling and it was barely enough to cover one chair, let alone two, so it was impossible to dine comfortably because of the hot sun. I asked him where I was supposed to sit now but he didn’t respond, he only cared about his precious umbrella. He didn’t seem to care that he was ruining the moment I was trying to have with my daughter.

It was a little windy but here’s the thing ... I’ve been a hardcore windsurfer for over 30 years. If there’s anyone that can accurately judge the amount of force being put into a piece a fabric, I’ve been down that road a few thousand times. I’ve also recently retired from 35 years in mechanical engineering and have a pretty good ability to estimate forces on structures. Trust me, the umbrella was perfectly fine ... Besides, at 56 years of age, I’ve owned quite a few patio umbrellas in my life, and being a responsible adult, I was keeping my eye on it and was taking care of it.

So to have this guy so rudely interrupt a peaceful moment with my daughter and impose his diktat on us was incredibly disrespectful and unnecessary.

We weren’t offered any options other than to sit in the hot sun so we decided to leave instead and go to an establishment with a more pleasant environment and staff.

We have been here many times before, it’s our neighbourhood restaurant. This is not the first time lately we’ve been disappointed but still we tried and gave you a second and third and fourth chance.

No more.

I give up.

Thanks for ruining my afternoon out with my daughter over your...

My friend and I went out for lunch today and left with a really bad feeling after the service we received.We really enjoyed our muscles and we were served a nice crispy pita with it. We decided to ask our server for more bread so we could dip it in the white wine sauce. When it came out the pita was white and floppy and not what we had originally been served. It took us along time to get a waiters attention to ask about the bread which I only took one bite out of and the fact that we weren't given ketchup with our fries. I got the attention of another server because ours was no where around. I asked for ketchup and asked her if we received the same bread we had originally got. Her response was the other one was "burnt" but this is how it's supposed to be and then said I'll go get your ketchup and completely ignored our complaint. Finally, we saw our waiter so we asked her again, her response was oh this is how it is supposed to be you guys were actually served bread that was on the burnt side. We actually enjoyed it this way but why would you as the kitchen and server still bring something to a table you know is "burnt". She didn't offer to make us a new one or remove from the bill as we didn't eat it. We had to say can we get one that's more toasted. She said she had to ask the kitchen. She came back and asked us to remove our bread from the plates and put it on her plate. We thought she was asking for it back? Which really left a bad taste. Usually restaurants say no problem we will get you a fresh one. Then she took it and brought it back more cooked and to my surprise it was our same bread as it had a bite out of it!!! Isn't that cross contamination? And secondly, it's a 20 cent pita. She never once cleared our dishes we sat there for a while talking and we had an abundance of dishes even from our appetizer. She didn't offer us another drink as we had originally ordered aperol spritz. We asked for the bill immediately when she brought the pita back, we only ate 2/4 pieces. Then the bill came out and we were also charged for the $2.00 pita, which is fine however she should have offered to make us a new one without hassle. As we were sitting there about to leave the couple behind us complained about her fishbowl top class and saying she didn't like it. The same waiter immediately said, I will take it back and I will remove it from your bill. The customer didn't even ask. I'm so confused as why our .20 cent pita was such an issue but she was offering to remove an alcoholic drink that probably cost the restaurant way more! We also ate two salads as well so we did spend a good amount of money. We left turned off by how we...

Let me start off by saying, I'm not trying to bash this restaurant. I really wanted to love my experience here and it's been a long time since I've been to the Sandbar. I've heard mixed reviews but I tried to go with a totally open mind and form my opinion based totally on my experience today.

That being said, I give this a 5/10. The food wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. There were parts of the meal I really liked but more of it I didn't. We got the calamari as an app. Which was delicious but was not hot when it came out and had about 3 peppers in the whole dish (which I believe was suppose to have jalapenos and red peppers). Other than that it was honestly delicious and cooked perfectly.

My husband had the steak, which although it was a perfectly cooked med rare, was not the quality you'd expect for a $38 dollar entrée. The veg was also mediocre, but the fries were great!

I got the jambalaya which unfortunately for me was a miss. But let me say that the mussels, shrimp and white fish in the dish were perfectly cooked, not overdone and delicious despite their lack of seasoning. The "Andouille" sausage was absolutely not even close to Andouille, and the broth tasted like an unseasoned plain tomato sauce. I was waiting for a nice spicy Creole Cajun sauce and was very disappointed. This dish was also 80% rice

Lastly, my mojito was great but my husband's virgin Caesar came warm and was also extremely basic.

All in all, I'd love to give this place another chance but this was not a great experience. The food and atmosphere did not reflect the prices on the menu and that's where the real disappointment comes in.

However, our waitress...