Dunn's Famous Decarie — Restaurant in Montreal

Terrible service regarding a Food Allergy, and I am not one to complain.

I have a food allergy, non-anaphylactic to eggs. When I inquired with the waitress (Alana, dark hair, glasses) if the pizza had egg, she said "probably" and then walked away, with no other comments or service. She came back a few minutes later when I asked if she could check the ingredients for the pizza. She said "It's dough, it probably has eggs", that she wouldn't take the chance if she were me, and didn't want to be responsible. (Note, she had not gone to check, she was just arguing, when I told her that may contain was okay, that she wouldn't be responsible for anything if something happened, and that my allergy was not anaphylactic, she said "fine" and walked away). When she returned, she rudely informed me the pizza had eggs.

It is totally fine that the pizza has eggs, all I wanted was for her to check. From my perspective, it was worth checking because a lot of places had eggless pizza dough. Since I now knew the pizza had eggs, I inquired about the pasta they had. I didn't believe it was likely they made fresh pasta, and pasta from a box usually doesn't have eggs. She told me, even more rudely than before "Of course it does, all pasta has eggs", and proceeded to walk away once again.

Eventually, she returned for the third time, and another person I was dining with asked her what other solutions there would be (we had some in mind, and we will give her a small list to check). We only got through "We here to eat and are looking for some help", and she interrupted with "Excuse me, I won't accept this, if you treat me like that, I won't serve you. Get another waitress." and walked away.

We left the restaurant, having only had a Pepsi and two glasses of water. We had driven all the way from the West Island to Dunn's, to leave with nothing.

I have had this food allergy my whole life. I do not need a waitress to tell me that "all pasta has eggs in it" (which is not true), that it isn't worth checking the ingredients of pizza dough for eggs, and that she won't serve me because I am asking for help with my food allergy, having come all the way there for a sit-down meal. If all pasta had eggs, and it wasn't worth checking the "dough" (a broad term, that can apply to more than pizza), why would I have inquired? I would have known that. My expectations were not high, just that she check the ingredients...

We came from Toronto for a wedding decided to give this restaurant a try ! Food was amazing, very clean, fast service we were so hungry so that worked out ! we had a great time with our server until the end of the visit, the bills came and she forgot one of couples bills. I went ahead to pay for my bill and the waitress had the audacity to tell me “really ?! You only gave me that, when you picked the options you could have atleast gave me %15 that’s what your supposed to give” while pointing at the bill tip amt. she told me as if I came from another world. I rounded up the total with the tip and planned on leaving the rest cash with the rest of the group. She then went on to say that it wasn’t enough and that I should of left atleast %15 as per the lowest option allowed other than “other” I was so shocked at what she had said. She said “you should have given me atleast $20 tip and I was just looking at her flabbergasted, as this was totally uncalled for and didn’t look good on her part. She then proceeded to see my sister laws bill print out and say “and this one didn’t even give me anything” again, shocked! my sister in law replied with look at the table the tip is right there… very bad customer experience at this point and didn’t deserve anything anymore ! WHO SAYS THAT ? I replied back to her with in Toronto we can leave what we would like too. Our group of 6 was so disgusted & disappointed with this behaviour after such a good experience that it left a bad taste in our mouth. She then aggressively grabbed the debit machine and then cash and walked away. Rude, unacceptable,unappreciative,unprofessional. We would not return based on this response from the waitress. IN TORONTO THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN ! The nerve to complain about your tip when we are not even finished paying...

What a difference the passage of time makes. Years ago this particular Dunn's rivaled classics like Snowdon Deli. Today, however, it's hit rock bottom. Without question the worst smoked meat sandwich I've ever experienced (and that includes cold cuts from the supermarket!). I ordered my sandwich "medium", and got bite after bite of unchewable chunks of fat. It also lacked the juiciness I expected, and served just luke warm. I sent it back for a replacement "medium" and--perhaps out of spite, the chef cut me an extra lean sandwich. It lacked spices, any traces fat or juiciness, just completely dry and tasteless. It was comparable to a canned ham sandwich in appearance and taste. Just nauseating. Worst it was this time served room temperature, almost cold, as were my french-fries. Do they just keep food under a warming lamp, or microwave it when customers arrive? I politely complained to the waitress who was indifferent and coldly told me "Sorry you didn't like it" and quickly walked away. They couldn't have cared less. I even inquired if the owner or management had changed, I just couldn't get over the extreme plummet in quality. The pickle slice was tasty, but apart from that, it was a terrible experience--from the food to the service. Felt like we threw money out, and Dunn's is far from cheap!

On an interesting note, my brother and his family ate at the Dunn's in the West Island just a few nights before and had a very similar experience. Is there a problem with their supplier, the staff they're now hiring, or just figure they can live off their long historied name and past fame? Either way, I will not likely return. I suggest avoiding Dunn's unless they can get their act...