East Avenue — Restaurant in New Glasgow

East Avenue has great reviews, so my group picked this place for dinner. The service was good. We had a friendly server who was attentive and through. The atmosphere is nice. It felt comfortable, yet trendy and modern. The food sort of fell flat though. It wasn't bad by any means, but it also wasn't spectacular. I've been travelling a lot recently, so I've had my fair share of restaurant food. One of my favourite foods is salmon, so I usually get it everywhere I go. East Avenue was no exception. The problem with the salmon here is that it was dry, overcooked and just lacked basic flavour. I expected much better from a high end East coast restaurant.

One of my co-workers ordered the steak medium, but it came well-done. This is something you might expect and a chain restaurant, but not at a place like this. It's an amateur move. Very disappointing.

I have many more trips coming up that will bring me this way, but I doubt that I'll eat here again.

UPDATE: Sept 21, 2022. I returned for another trip with some coworkers and the local people we work with wanted to eat here, so we came with a relatively large group.

I previously rated this place 3 stars with my review above, but I dropped it down to 2 stars after this most recent visit.

I gave the salmon another try. This time it came with a dish called Hodge Podge and it was definitely better than the last time I came here and ordered the salmon. The problem was that it was a $32 dish for a $4 piece of fish and barely any Hodge Podge. And it's not that the salmon was bad, but it also wasn't anything special.

Anyway onto the real issues. One of my colleagues ordered a medium rare steak and just like last time, it came to him well done. He described it as tasting like the sole of an old shoe. When I saw him add salt to his steak, that's when I knew things were really bad. How can you screw up cooking a steak so badly at a restaurant like this?

One of my other colleagues ordered the fish and chips, and without exaggeration, the fish tasted like it was left out on a counter for a few days before it was battered. It was not good at all. I tried it. Her fries also arrived cold and unsalted.

We ordered a bunch of appetizers which were all good for the most part, but we received the chicken wings unsauced. The sauce came in a separate little cup. How strange. Also, we ordered the mild sauce, and if that sauce is mild, I definitely don't want to find out what their hot sauce tastes like.

In closing, there is really no chance I'll be coming...

My expectations were diminished when the appetizer arrived. When I ordered from the menu I made it clear that I had a gluten allergy. I ordered the seafood chowder and as a main I ordered the gluten free turkey burger option. The seafood chowder was really good, full of seafood and I enjoyed it, however it was served with a wedge of bread that wasn’t gluten free. It looked delicious, perfectly toasted and buttered, I wish I could have eaten it. I asked our server if it was gluten free, she quickly apologized and took my appetizer away to replace the bread with a gluten free option. The plate came back without a bread substitute but said it was coming. A few minutes later the server came back with a bowl and a soggy thin slice of bread - clearly it had been frozen, microwaved and looked completely unappetizing. Very different from the bread originally served. It was not toasted or buttered and once again, I felt marginalized as a person with a gluten allergy. I addressed the server and explained that the bread was soggy, obviously microwaved from frozen. I expected that the kitchen would make it right, but nothing came out to replace the bread. Now, this may seem trivial - if you don’t have an allergy to gluten, but this type of response is the norm. The menu has many gluten free options, however the kitchen staff are clearly unprepared for it. The burger was good, the gluten free bun was good, but overall the food and service are not extraordinary. If anything, I have had better food from...

I have dined at East Avenue Diner twice since it has been open, one time for lunch, and the other dinner. The food has blown me away each time; however, the quality of the service I received for the first time was so poor I strongly considered not going back. I genuinely did not know who was waiting on me and I watched as the tables around me received their menus, then their beverages, their meals, desserts, and the bills while I had to work extremely hard to simply make eye contact with a server to flag them over. I watched the table beside me receive their beverages, then their mains before my water that I ordered even arrived. The second time, which was yesterday, the service was not great either. The gentleman who waited on me, although pleasant in demeanor, seemed sincerely lost and confused. Again, I watched as people arrived after me where served first. Then after my meal I asked about the desserts and I could not have either of them as there were no dairy free options (not a big deal), the waiter did not return to the table for another 10 or so minutes with the bill and when he did return he asked about desserts again and I had to prompt for the bill. Like I mentioned before, the food is absolutely spectacular which is why I went back and will go back again. Front of house management improvements need to be made for this beautiful restaurant to survive. Here's hoping that the third time will...