Joe's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Mississippi Mills

To the owners of Joes , I would like to share my views on your beautiful restaurant. We drove from Ottawa and shared beautiful movements of our lives celebrating my husbands birthday , Father’s Day in the past. We had an incredible experience with cheerful staff members serving, throughly enjoyed hot meals and we were amazed by the rustic interior decoration and amazing water falls view and sound of water, while eating food. Over all we were very pleased and would love to dine anytime. However, yesterday we went to celebrate post Father’s Day as per my husbands wish to eat at your restaurant and we came with my family and encounter an arrogant and ignorant manager who was at the entrance. This women clearly has no value for business and how to treat the customers with her rude attitude and arrogance. She was having an argument with my daughter and I could hear her saying that “ I am the manager and I do not have to justify the seating arrangements with you and swinging her hands in the air” my daughter asked can we come after 7 pm ( that’s after 2 hours) and check. She said I can’t tell that now. With disappointment we left the restaurant and started taking pictures of beautiful water falls and noted that the patio was absolutely empty and only 3 tables with couples were sitting and 5 tables were empty, which includes a 6 seater outside patio. We went back to check with the manager ( Malissa) she was dancing with her hands and gave a rubbish story and said give me 10 mints and I will make changes. We know that seats were empty and there was nothing for her to shuffle. Entire our stay she passed many times but never as a manager came and asked how we are doing, with her attitude, how people are hiring these kind of people in food industry with no PR abilities. Surprisingly when we renter at 4.30 pm first seating area near kitchen tables were empty. Second room only two tables were occupied with 3 and 2 people and in patio only 3 tables with couples were occupied. Not sure why she was unwilling to accept the business. After we are done eating , we thanked the girl who served despite of horrible experience with the manager . While exiting we witnessed the same situation with another family. I could not stop telling them what we have faced as I felt that she was discriminating us but unfortunately she has been abusing the power of being a manager . We could clearly see the cooks and other servers never came to defend her behaviour. Unfortunately we have to write this to avoid any rating falling becoz the owners may not know and have to take the fall for employees...

Dined here on a Saturday evening, service was unacceptable, downright kinda rude? Drinks took far too long getting to the table, 6 adults & a toddler. Had to ask that they take the toddlers Apple Juice out of a long stem wine glass and put it in something safer? Would have purchased another drink or 2 with my meal as it took forever to get our luke-warm pizza but the waitress didn't give us a 2nd thought for the remainder of the evening, felt like we were putting her out? Had to go ask for cutlery, as the waitress never came back when someone else served our salads, incorrectly, Sooooo one person began eating someone elses salad, had to embarrass them and tell them they were eating the full size salad and not the 1/2 salad and get them to trade as sending it back seemed redicuous at this point. Had to box up some leftovers and it seemed to upset the staff as well? I got schooled on what each type of container was for what? Didn't need that in front of my company? Got schooled on the difference between a coulis and a compote by the waitress in front of my company as well? Staff needs a lesson on manners 4-sure, but seeing as how the manager was as rude as the waitress I would say not likely. After all that I made sure I gave a proper tip which I regret now...20% on the credit card machine only to find out when I got home that they add the tip on the backend, (should be illegal), so tip was 15% HST + 20% or 35% almost double what was intended. Being from out of province, this is a lesson learned🤬. Come to visit family every year, last year this place took over an hour to seat us for a reservation so we should have learned our lesson... Pinsa crust is not worth the disappointing service! Waitress was certainly giving premium service to the couples at tables around us... Obvious tip surfing if you ask me... She seemed surprised by the tip we gave and became very nice to us on our way out? Moral of this review, treat all your guest like a 5* guest and maybe you will receive a 5* review? Never serve...

I am a very honest and thorough Google reviewer, so I will share both the highs and lows of our dining experience at Joe's Italian Kitchen.

Pros: Stunning view of the falls Unique building and atmosphere The merlot marinated pears in the salad were delicious Chef took food allergies into consideration They have a large drink alcohol/wine selection They offer desert options, but we didn't try any Our food arrived fairly quickly We were able to take leftovers to-go Romantic location The food was beautifully plated

Cons: They ran out of pasta for the main course and substituted it with thick spaghetti, which was clumpy and not as expected Paid $7 extra to add chicken to the salad and received only 3 tiny slices, not even a full breast Bathroom was dirty (trash on floor, overflowing trash can, cobwebs hanging from everything, but it is designed well) They really miss the mark on providing any history about the location in the entrance and restaurant. It would be interesting to see descriptions of what the building originally was used for, old photographs or historical info... with such a unique location, you could make the entry experience more inviting. No options to select your pasta/sauce, etc, which is disappointing for an Italian place. The menu features many options that are not traditionally Italian. For example, they have meatballs and alfredo sauce which aren't authentic Italian, but don't offer eggplant or carbanara, which would be. Our waiter forgot to ask to take our drink order. We had to ask for them when he asked for our meals. If you aren't into vinaigrette dressings, you may be disappointed with limited options for salad

Overall: If you are looking for a unique destination to experience a meal with a great view, then you should definitely check out Joe's Italian Kitchen. The town itself is also interesting, with a lot of unique architecture and history. I would return again to explore the town and maybe stop here for dessert (the cheesecake...