Diana's Oyster Bar & Grill Markham — Restaurant in Markham

I Come here regularly with my boyfriend, we enjoy dinner here and have never had issues up until tonight’s visit. We had come in just passed 8pm waited 20-30 mins to be seated which was no problem as the restaurant was super packed for their Tuesdays shuck for a buck special.

We were then given our waiter (white male brown hair past his ears, and facial hair) he had seemed rushed to serve us. Was very quick to run off after greeting us and bringing us water and explained to us that the oyster special is “shuckers choice” but that I could also select what type of oysters we wanted. As I proceeded to give him my recommendation, he then mentioned again it was shuckers choice so there was no say of which type I wanted? (Left us confused as to why he would tell us we had options but then cut me off while speaking just to tell me I get no particular choice either way).

We first placed an order or 3 dozens. ($1 each oyster with the promotion) and waited about 15-20 minutes before skimming over the menu to see if we wanted to order any mains or side dishes. At this point we expected the first batch to have already been almost ready. After the 20 minute mark (keep in mind the waiter is paying no mind to us or asking us if we’re ready or ok) I signal him to come back so I can add an additional 2 dozens and 1 fried calamari. (This was not the only time that night that I had to wave him down in order to get his attention).

He then confirmed went to the back and placed the FULL order, and came back to confirm the order with us again (second time) Waited about an HOUR and some change. For them to bring Both the first 3 dozen, and the second 2 dozens and the calamari together…

It felt as though he never prioritized the first batch and had the first 3 dozens sitting and waiting before coming in with the 2nd more. Which had us waiting an incredibly long time. While waiting we were looking around and couldn’t help but notice the head manager chatting away to a single male customer, also handing out free oyster samples for him and was not paying attention to Unintended tables - let alone making sure management and staff are doing what they’re suppose to be doing.

Not to mention when the food was served and brought out to us, a different female waitress had served us our oysters and she had been more helpful to bring us extra condiments and lemons for our meal. (More attentive than our OWN waiter himself).

After finishing off we paid our bill and were ready to leave due to the poor customer service. Our Male waiter proceeds to ask if we needed the receipt and caught a glimpse of the machine to mention in a gasp, “you didn’t leave a tip.” he then continued to mumble under his breath “SCUMS” as my boyfriend and I were about to step out the booth.

If this was anywhere out in public setting, without the walls of an enclosure, anybody else would’ve handled that much differently. He did not apologize nor take accountability of calling us names and laughing his way out of the bill. Which is a very unbelievable way of reacting in such a situation. Keep in mind my bf and I are very good tippers when we eat out at restaurants, low or high class. We appreciate a good customer service employee, and that night his actions and behaviour were inexcusable. After have been asking for the manager, she came out and told us that he had been “written up” and set on “warning” for one more strike. She told us that if he were to act like that again he would be fired. But I do not believe that is the right way about punishing an employee for foul language and childish behaviour.

If staff do not have self control or expect too much from their clientele. That is no excuse to lash out on customers. Please do not work in fast food restaurants and franchise companies if you are going to be miserable and complain about whether or not customers tip or don’t tip. You should never expect a tip with that type of shitty customer service!! Will not be coming back here again, unless it is to make...

February 12th 2023 reservation for 7:30pm.

Overall the place had lacklustre service and attention to food on a not so busy day was also lacklustre. For first impressions it was not great.

Service: Service was lacklustre. Server did not introduce themselves very well or if they did it was not made very clear. They also did not offer any advice or suggestions as we scanned the menu. The first item to arrived was the clam chowder, it was not hot maybe warm at best. Upon request bowls were delivered in a timely manner. After finishing the clam chowder there was around a 10-15 min wait before our order of oysters came to us, during that time the used bowls remained on our table until it was cleared by 3 waiters. The service was not even necessarily busy yet no one came to check in on us or clear the table. After that we waited around another 10-15 minutes before our steaks and sea bass arrived. The atmosphere was not very relaxing or enjoyable.

Food: Oysters where not bad but I would have been nice if the waiter was knowledgeable about what one might like to try or should try, even for the regular menu if felt more like we had to fend for ourselves. We had two steaks were requested to be done medium-well, at the start both steaks were on the more well-done side of medium-well both and were as juicy as a well-done steak could get. As we continued to eat the steaks the consistency changed, mine moved towards the drier side of well-done, near the bone was particularly dry somehow. As for the second it started to look more like a medium rare towards the bone, no issues with that other than consistency . Seasoning was not particularly evenly spread, the fat cap was over salted while other portions lacked salt or still had salt that had not yet dissolved. The flavour of the meat seem very dull and was not brought out. The mushrooms where not seasoned very well and lacked flavour, at first I though there maybe was a smoky taste to them but after a little bit it was clear that had been some burning and that greatly affect the flavour profile. Even when I paired it with the steak they did not complement each other. What ever topping was on the steak did not need to be there. It seemed to be green onions tops batter and fried, most of it was clumped up, more tough than crispy, and it lacked any flavour to accompany the steak. The potatoes were not the great but not bad. Potato skins were left on and the whole potato was fried, skins were not crispy rather they where tuff and hard to cut. Season seemed to okay be pepper as some bits would hit you with a strong peppery taste while others were lacking. Potato’s where fluffy and sweet but overall seem to lack preparation. Sea bass overall was good flavours were there, skin was a little dark but crisp, good amount of salt, fish was flaky. The purée seemed to be made out of cauliflower and lack any depth, didn’t taste any seasonings and still have a few sizeable chunks. For the rest I...

I usually don’t write reviews because there are good days and bad days, but the overall experience has been extremely disappointing. Food wasn’t great, mussels was so salty that you can’t dip the bread into the sauce, pasta of day was also very salty, grilled octopus was tasteless, catch of the day undercooked. But mainly it’s the service that made today's experience awful.

Server spilled the seafood stew on one of us and did not notice until we said something. The reaction was delayed even after pointing out the spill. Had we not point it out, he would have continued spilling the stew. Even then, we didn’t make a fuss cause we understand accidents happen and accepted the apology.

After a good while, we had to ask for clean cutlery and napkin (where the seafood stew spilled) instead of the server automatically changing clean dinnerware. The server did not clean up the dirtied utensils and napkin. That’s fine, we had extra empty seats so we just left it there.

Server served the pasta diagonally across the table and almost spilled on me, instead of serving directly across the person who ordered the pasta (note I made a space for the server to serve across). Again I didn’t make a fuss, since I also bumped into him, unaware he was serving diagonally.

Catch of day was served undercooked (raw in my opinion, fish was lukewarm at the center). They bought the same piece back out fully cooked. Normally, if an order is not right (at any restaurant) a new order is served. So we were surprised.

Server barely came to serve us water and soft drinks refills. I mean our bottle of wine was finished, he could have asked if we would like another bottle?

We aren’t looking for a free meal but it is disappointing for a table of 9 with this level of experience to be slapped with a “tips is already included” verbal message. I would gladly pay for the one free gelato, as I said we aren’t looking for a free meal, but the free gelato was a joke to us. I think for this level of service, a proper acknowledgement would be fair. With a table more than 6, I understand a certain tip percentage is required however management could have came by during the meal to diffuse the tension and bad experience. This gesture would at least help us justify the 18% tip. Or, they could have offer to let us tip at our...