Piggy’s Island — Restaurant in Markham

PLEASE TRUST THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS HERE! THEY ARE TRUE!

I checked out the menu of Piggy's Island on Google reviews and saw that they offer Korean charcoal BBQ, and they have a very high rating. So, I booked a table with high hopes to celebrate a friend's birthday. Unfortunately, the meal turned out to be quite disappointing.

First Issue: When we arrived at the restaurant, I told a young male staff that we had brought a birthday cake and asked if they could keep it for us. He said yes and placed the cake on the cashier counter. He then seated us, but we noticed he didn't put the cake in the fridge. It was only after we asked another staff to store the cake in the fridge that they finally did so. Otherwise, I believe they would have left it on the counter until we asked for the cake later.

Second Issue: We chose this restaurant specifically because we saw on one page of the menu that they offer charcoal BBQ. The menu had a big heading that said "100% Korean Charcoal BBQ," so we assumed all the items listed under that section would be charcoal-grilled. There was another page with a combo set that was clearly marked as non-charcoal, so we didn’t order from that because we wanted to try the charcoal BBQ. However, when the food came, it wasn’t served with a charcoal grill. We asked a staff member why it wasn’t charcoal. The older staff immediately blamed us for not specifying that we wanted charcoal BBQ. I explained that we had ordered from the section labeled "100% Charcoal Korean BBQ," but she told us that not all dishes under that section are charcoal BBQ, only the ones within the white box. So I told her that the menu is very confusing, and if not all dishes were charcoal BBQ, they shouldn’t use the heading "100% Charcoal Korean BBQ." To my surprise, instead of addressing the issue, she rudely snatched the menu from me and said, "No one has ever been confused by this, only you." She repeated this statement at least three times during our conversation. Furthermore, she said that this menu was NEWLY released, having been out for ONLY two weeks. Okay, come on!!! so it’s normal that no one had brought this issue up before, but problem really happened now. Now that a customer is giving you constructive feedback about the menu, not only do you refuse to listen, but you insist that the customer is at fault for not asking. As a staff member who knows the menu well, if there are two BBQ options, why didn’t you ask which one we wanted instead of blaming a customer? If a customer is kindly offering feedback, you should listen instead of stubbornly defending a mistake.

Third Issue: I don’t believe the positive Google reviews about this restaurant are genuine. I noticed that the restaurant offers incentives in exchange for positive reviews. Throughout the meal, I was upset, yet that same senior staff member kept coming over and approaching me to chat with a complete 180 change in attitude. At one point, she asked how we found the charcoal BBQ set, and honestly, it wasn’t that great. Yet she still asked me to leave a positive review for that set. How do you have the audacity to ask a customer you’ve offended to write a good review? It seems like they were afraid I would leave a negative one.

I rarely leave negative reviews for restaurants unless the experience was truly bad. I still ended up tipping, even though this kind of service doesn’t deserve 1%. But I tipped anyway.

I'm writing this review not because I want an apology. Even if you apologize, I won’t accept it. I just want to remind the owner that you need to fix the misleading menu. Most importantly, you should train and educate your impolite staff. Their behavior directly affects customers’ impressions of your business.

"Fake Google reviews won’t cover up...

Came as three people on a Monday night, place wasn't too busy. Service was nice and attentive, they checked on our grill and would adjust the temperature when needed, and change it every now and then. Only note is that they did not offer to refill our sides, though we didn't ask them to either. Place is beautifully decorative, very much beach vibes. Despite having the grill on, the AC keeps the place cool.

Got three meats for the grill, and it came with two salads (one is a light creamy sweet and the other is a more flavourful ssamjang kimchi sauce), pickled cucumber/onion/peppers, acorn jelly, broccoli in a slightly spicy sweet sauce, kimchi, vegetable pancake and lettuce for wraps.

Ordered the: AAA boneless short rib: highly recommend, was very good quality and tender. Regret eating it first because I kept craving it through the rest of the meal 14 days wet aged belly: wasn't the biggest fan of this, but it wasn't bad. Just your classic pork belly, nothing too special Marinated pork ribs: good flavour, slightly high fat to meat ratio, would get again Corn cheese: literally corn + mozza shredded cheese, can't really go wrong with it, but wish it was a little more saucey Rice + soybean paste stew (under BBQ sides): highly recommend getting this, has both value and flavour, comes with a good amount of firm tofu pieces and zucchini. Has enough spice for flavour (not a spice eater) which nicely complements the soybean flavour.

Overall, everything came out fairly fast, good portion sizes and variety of flavours in the sides and sauces to choose from. Would come again. Place has 20% off until...

Overall very disappointed visit. I have visited this place before the fire and had good memories of it in the past. We visited 2 Sundays ago for dinner with group of 7 people. Called before to make reservations and was not told we would be in separate tables. There is no big table to accommodate more than 5 people. When we asked why it was not told us during the reservation we were told stright to the face I should have asked myself. That was a very rude way to speak to a customer. That was just the beginning we still sat down on the two side by side table with about arm length distance and thinking if the food is right not a big deal. Then it came to the most disappointing part of our dinner that night. We wanted to order beef intestine and was told it was sold out the night before. I found it to be little bit unbelievable for an restaurant to not restock for Sunday. Then we ordered seafood pancake which was suppose to be with a whole octopus but again was told no more octopus had to be substitute with squid, but price was not adjusted. Those were the only 2 things we wanted to try. Anyways still decided to eat here. The deco is nice but the whole restaurant felt really cold we all had to ware our coats even with the BBQ grill just in front of us. Service was next to none because there were only 2 people serving for the entire restaurant. Because we were seperately seated I asked for one of the dishes to be put in 2 plate so we can share. Was told can't do that. That kinda shock me as it was a really simple request. Anyways I don't think I will come back to this...