Drayton Chop House — Restaurant in Mapleton

The return of a nice, dine-in restaurant is the kind of place that Drayton needs but this iteration of the Chop House is not it. Myself and another decided to try for the first time since the reopening and quickly agreed we will not be back.

It starts with being seated and discovering that both the drink and dinner menus contain obvious typos which in retrospect should have been a clue that this is not a place that cares about quality.

Furthermore, the descriptions on menu items did not always match what was delivered. The mozzarella stick appetizer, for example, describes being served with marinara sauce. They were served with plum. The "striplion" (really? You can't be caught calling yourself a Chop House and spell striploin incorrectly) is served with your choice of house salad or fries - the house salad barely qualifies as such being a messily assorted portion of arugula.

Unfortunately, whatever hope existed for a nice, quality meal thanks to the surprisingly nice mozzarella sticks ended the second that dinner plates were sat down. The striploin steak was a decent size but was slathered in a BBQ-like sauce that seemed to exist to hide the mediocre quality of the steak and the lack of any seasoning. The mashed potato side was shameful in quantity and was a strange, rubbery texture devoid of flavour. The cheeseburger and fries at least came with a decent amount of well seasoned fries and a fresh bun plus toppings but is completely let down by the clearly frozen burger from a box.

The service was kind but also - like the rest of the experience - lacking. The table hadn't been completely set when we were seated and we didn't receive forks/knives or a napkin until after the appetizer arrived. The steak was not served with a steak knife and one never arrived until several minutes after it had been served. I have also never felt so rushed in a restaurant in my life - after only one half of a meal was eaten we were asked about dessert and whether the bill should be brought to the table, which it quickly was. No offer for another drink and not nearly enough time was allowed to enjoy the experience, which is disappointing that it's a nice atmosphere overall.

Drayton deserves...

I have been here many times, but will no longer return. In the past we have ordered food and dined in the restaurant, and it looks very decent inside. The attraction is locally source food such as potatoes, but it comes with a sky high price. For example, I went to Tony Roma's and got a 2 piece fish and chip for less than one piece here. Burgers are in the same boat with recent price increases. A Mac and Cheese my wife ordered was floating in bacon grease, despite the fact she asked for the non-bacon version. Flavour they said, there was a pool of grease and inedible - I drained the grease and tried to eat it because I was raised not to waste food... but could not continue after my first bite. They have specials, but only for dine-in and not take-out (this can be hard with two little ones, so I cannot understand why) When dining in I like to tip my server based on how well they do. To find out some details about questionably moral tactics in pool tips being used to top up low salaries, and when 14 workers raised the concern they were all told not to return to work. Sad day, I cannot return to a place that has no morals. Since this was raised to the main company Egger Hospitality and they backed the owner, I cannot ever go to the Drayton, Nith River, or Grand River Chop House or The Breadalbane Inn (which I have also eaten at years ago and did not return for the same price / quality reason) until they change their ways. Why would I have gone so many times to this place if the food is just ok and way overpriced? Only restaurant in town :( I keep hoping someone will buy the vacated restaurant directly across from the theatre since the last (successful) owners retired after many decades. Until then I will suck it up and drive to the next town over if I want to enjoy a meal out, or if it's take-out there's always Chester's Chicken from the grocery store in town, and at least one of the pizza stores also...

Booked a surprise birthday dinner for my wife this past Saturday. Specifically asked not to be seated anywhere near the main entrance or in sight of the door. As soon as we walked in my wifes sister was the first person she seen as it was in dead straight eye sight of the door. Wasnt impressed !... Once we got seated it took 20 minutes before our drink orders were taken and other 10 minutes before we received them. Another 20 mins went by and they came to take our food order and also asked if we needed another beverage (which took 15 minutes to recieve and a few were forgotten, 45 mins later we finally received our food . Once we had all finished eating we then sat for another 25 minutes waiting for our plates to be taken and asked either if we wanted dessert or the bill and I myself had to go find our waitress (socializing with the other waitresses) to then ask for our Bill's please. It took another 15 minutes just to receive bills for half of the party and another 20 mins to pay ours and the other half to receive theirs. Add up all the time and we were over 2.5 hours for a dinner!!!!..We were forced to give up our chance at deserts as we had another establishment to get to with other reservations (almost an hour late) to finish off our evening birthday celebrations. If your looking for fresh, well cooked , tasty food and have no time frame expectations I'd recommend eating here, but if you have any expectations of a reasonable time frame or great service you may want to eat...