Freddy's Restaurant — Restaurant in Leamington

First of all, I'd like to say the staff at Freddy's were warm, friendly, and professional. Our server Paige was professional and prompt and attentive. The restaurant was clean and well maintained. The food....a much different story.

We arrived just after 2 pm to grab a drink and snack after exploring the point. We expected a lunch menu. But given the time weren't surprised to see the menu had switched to dinner.

We ordered drinks, two of their house beers, two soft drinks and a long island ice tea. No prices on the menus for the drinks. After deciding we didnt want $30-$40 dinner options, we picked two poutines and an order of chicken fingers for a quick snack to share between 5 people.

This is where the visit went off the rails, and why I rated the food at 1 out of 5 stars. The food arrived surprisingly fast. Here is the breakdown:

The poutine: a moderate portion of reheated frozen McCain super fries with jar gravy and what can only be assumed as cold 'no name' shredded marble pizza cheese. $15 x2

That's not poutine. Don't call it that. That's just fries with gravy and cheese.

Chicken finger "dinner": the same premade prepackaged frozen grocery store french fries with three, yes, just 3 sad looking freezer burned 2.5 inch long chicken fingers supplied by the cooks at McCains, or 'No name" kitchens also $15

Our bill for reheated frozen convenience food and a few drinks was $97. One hundred dollars for three terrible pathetic offerings and drinks

To be fair the drinks ended up being about half the bill, (the 4 oz long island ice tea was $13 which seems a bit steep...but there you are, we were thirsty) but drink prices paled to the quality of the food.

The portions and the sad state of these "snacks" was appalling and not at all what we'd expect for what we paid. For $15 I'm expecting hand cut fries or at least a higher tier frozen product, that looks hand cut. Certainly not 50 cents worth of zipper bag pizza cheese for a poutine topper either.

Fyi Poutine has brown gravy and a generous serving of cheese curds. Retail pricing on a big bag of curds is about $15 for multiple portions...I'm sure there is a wholesale option available for less.

The chicken fingers were emaciated, freezer burned, and pathetic. No more than 2.5 inches long, max. Again I'm sure better quality supplies are available and certainly don't reflect the price they applied for what they provided. We only ate two of the three fingers as they had a horrible "old" taste to them and were dried up and chewy. They are making bank on that meal, each of the three "fingers" is worth about $3-4ea. A bag of no name frozen chicken fingers retail at $9.99 for about thirty pieces, making them cost the restaurant a max of $0.33 each...$1-3 of product per $15, good margin.

We literally went up the road to Dairy Freez, and saw a much more generous portion of "fries with gravy and cheese" for $9 that did come made from what looked like hand cut fries. Presented at least twice the size. We will go there from now on frankly, and bypass Freddy's altogether.

Overall, I'd suggest the restaurant revisit their sourcing and presentation on items like this. They were obviously and shamelessly maximizing profits over quality on these items, and it showed. We laughed out loud when the food arrived at the ridiculousness of what we received. I'm fact, we wondered aloud if this is what they offer at the low end of their menu, what garbage would arrive for $35?

We should have engaged staff about our disdain for the food quality/quantity but frankly, we were hangry, and fried from the sun. We paid our bill and left quickly without creating a scene.

I think they have lost 5 customers forever as customers.

Avoid if at...

Have been going to Point Pelee for years and always passed this place but finally decided to give the place a try a couple of weeks ago.

It was a Monday night and the patio appeared fairly busy but there was no one eating inside. We were greeted promptly and asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside. We asked for inside and she turned and looked around at the empty room and asked if we had reservations. We said no and she asked us to hold on for a moment. She went over to talk to the manager or owner or whoever he was and he proceeded to look around at the tables for a minute or so. Finally, from 1/3 of the way across the room he pointed at a table and told us we could have that table in the corner. Can’t say it left us feeling overly welcomed.

We walked ourselves to the table and sat down. After a couple minutes the waiter came over with the menus and said he’d be back to take our orders. Didn’t take a drink order or anything first as you’d expect from most restaurants.

Sat there for 5-10 minutes looking over the menu which also gave plenty of time to notice the prices. Appetizers starting at $17. Hamburgers starting at $22. Fish and chips starting at $25. 10oz steak for $45. Now we don’t mind paying higher food prices if the menu or atmosphere or service warrants it. However, this is a family diner type menu, in a family diner type setting with service where all three people we had encountered made us feel like we were inconveniencing them by being there. Nothing that seemed to indicate it would be worth paying a 50-100% premium over the prices they charge at similar looking restaurants with similar dishes.

Had the waiter taken our drink order when we sat down we might have felt committed to stay and order and cross our fingers that the portion sizes would justify the high prices. Fortunately he hadn’t and for only the second time ever, we got up and walked out of a restaurant willing to chalk it up as 15 minutes of wasted time but at least no wasted money. Looking at food pictures online after we had left made me realize we lucked out as it doesn’t look like their portions warrant the prices either. I’m not holding that against them at all in this score since we didn’t get any food, so I’m not rating them for that.

All in all, between indifferent and slow service and prices that were all but guaranteed to make me feel sorry for my money I and the other two people in our party all agreed that this was our worst restaurant experience ever.

Edit from after response was posted:It was not Victoria Day weekend. It was the Monday before the long weekend. Seeing other reviews posted here I can see that the level of service we received was the exception rather than the rule. This post was not made with any intent at malice to keep other people away, but to let you know there was a problem and work toward making sure it doesn’t happen again in the future. You’ve lost us as potential future customers but that doesn’t mean you need to lose others. Seeing that your response was just a list of excuses based on an incorrect assumption that ignored most of what was said I get the feeling the criticism wasn’t received in the...

We ended up here by chance when we were rained out on a trip to Leamington. First, all the positives. Lots of patio and interior seating. Friendly owner and quick service. Enjoyable microbrewery pale ale and beer selections. Clean restaraunt. We craved fish and chips and settled on a couple of perch dinners. Good for me. However, Mum was disappointed in the lack of deep-fried options of other fish. Excellent breading and taste, certainly of as good a standard as I've had. The bad. I ordered blackened for myself and received the breaded. No big deal, I didn't say anything and just ate what came as I'm always low-key and didn't want to make my mum feel awkward. Unfortunately, the servings, as represented in many reviews, are underwhelming. For the three piece and five piece, everyone was still hungry afterward. This alone is a factor I have never really encountered before, even in fine dining, where you pay for ambiance, quality, presentation, and culinary skill. None of which are resoundingly expected in a location such as this.Not even a water view. We did receive one extra piece(sliver?) on each plate. However, I still had serving size withdrawal. At $120 for three people, there are many more great options elsewhere that combine quality, portion, and value. Past reviewers are unabashedly entitled to that accurate review as to overpriced. For that reason alone, we will not be a repeat customer to eat, yet I would certainly stop by for a pint. I feel for a family of four pulling up with a couple of teenagers and what the cost would be. I get inflation and all, are familiar with the price and availability of perch, and unlike one challenged reviewer posted, can afford to eat out. Furthermore our friends own and run a restaurant, so all too familiar with maintaining service, quality and price whilst trying to balance a living. If I had read reviews initially, I would have skipped the location based on the portion size photos and, unfortunately, the defensive responses from ownership. As a public facing service, you will always fave criticism along with your share of raves. To indulge repeatedly online in defense would suggest there might be some truth in a litany of similar reviews. As evidence, the photo of fries is a clear example. We all know how cheap fries sell even at 8% inflation. Rounding out the plate with a healthy serving would go a long way in placating many, and it is a nominal cost. It is a shame about pricing as everything else was top notch, including a delicious version of bruschetta done on a novel approach of flatbread. Google rankings put this as a two dollar sign for cost. I would warn potential visitors, especially those who are either cost conscience or value driven like myself, avail yourself of pricing before visiting to ascertain if you are part of the clienteile being courted. In my own opinion, it should carry four dollar signs representative of cost for comparable dishes elsewhere. For a one-off and considering my mum enjoyed a day out after some terminal health news, we chalk this one up to a learning curve on a bad month. Reviews are always subjective, so each...