Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in New Minas

We had an experience about a year and a half ago that really stood out to us. We have 3 kids and unknowingly went out to eat on a night something was going on in town so it was busier than usual. We are pretty easygoing and would have understood if we were greeted and politely told of a long wait but as soon as we opened the door to come in the hostess looked at us and said in an annoyed voice "For 5? We don't have room for YOU" Not even a hello, or any mention of how long the wait might be, or explanation that they were full for the night. We left but this bothered us as we are pretty friendly people so aren't used to people being rude to us, we emailed a complaint in which we got an apology and asked for our mailing address so we could be sent a gift card or coupon that never did arrive. We let it go and have been back a few times since. We've had a couple decent experiences but also one last year where my husband's chicken wings were raw inside. He didn't eat it but didn't say anything and we still went back as mistakes happen. We went back again tonight and I think this was our last time. We got in the door and waited a very long time behind another group for the hostess to show up. We asked for a booth but she said she can't seat 5 right now because she's not allowed to put us in a booth for safety reasons. Up until tonight we always took a booth and can fit in easily, the kids are small enough to sit three on a side. I thought this was silly but understood she can't break a rule. So we kept waiting while she kept looking past us to seat about 3 other groups who came in after us. Finally we got a table in the middle of the floor and we were very hungry. At this point the restaurant wasn't as busy anymore but it took a very long time to get our orders taken, we knew what we wanted right away. We asked for the kids meals to come with an appetizer for us, so they would have a bit longer to eat. This took a very long time to come out, but if the food was good it wouldn't have mattered. Our appetizer was the garlic cheese loaf where the cheese was barely melted and it had significantly less green onions and tomatoes than any time we've ordered it before. All of the food was lukewarm or room temperaturewith the exception of one kid's rice being hot, and the gravy on my poutine which was hot but some fries had a crunch like they were partly raw. My husband thought all the fries seemed reheated, or at least not fresh. Our quarter chickens were room temperature. My youngest had a cold pizza with lukewarm fries piled on top of it. Throughout this time our server did not really talk to us or ask us how it was, we did get our drinks refilled once but that was it. She did stop to tell our daughter to push her chair in further as it was along the walkway, which could have been avoided if we just had a booth. We had planned to order dessert but we didn't even take the ice cream that came with the kids meal and instead stopped at the grocery store afterwards to buy a tub of ice cream because at that point we just wanted to get out of there and were disappointed knowing we were about to spend $100 for cold food. We can't afford to eat out often and almost got fast food but we figured since fast food would also be expensive that we would spend a bit more and do something a bit nicer. I'm sorry this is long but I'm really not sure how to explain it, this is just twice now that this location has made us feel like a major inconvenience just for coming in with kids, and we got that feeling before we were even seated which isn't fair, I'd understand if the kids were difficult as kids can sometimes be, but tonight they were very patient...

Swiss Chalet is our go to restaurant. We’ve been to many locations in several provinces and it’s always consistent. We are on the go a lot with kids sports so it’s a quick place to stop that we all enjoy. I do not often write reviews unless a place has exceeded my expectations or is way below my expectations. Unfortunately our visit to the New Minas location was way below for several reasons. We went for a late lunch around 2:00pm August 3rd and there were only a few other tables there. There were several dirty tables, the floor around many tables was very dirty and there was food splatter dried on the wall of the booth we were sitting in. For an appetizer we ordered the garlic cheese loaf. Our server said she would have to check as she wasn't sure they had any left. She never came back to confirm if they had it or not but it did arrive. It was very very tiny compared to the loaves we’ve had at other locations. For my main meal I asked to order the wrap with no bacon and was told I couldn’t do that as the wraps were pre-made. I order the wrap all the time, probably about 90% of the time that we eat at a Swiss Chalet, and I always ask for no bacon and have never been told I could not order it that way. And I don’t recall ever reading on a menu that no modifications to the items were prohibited. So I ordered it anyway, disassemble the wrap and took the bacon off myself. Not fun as I hate fatty meat and this bacon barely looked cooked. For my side I ordered a poutine. The fries were terrible. They tasted burnt. I thought maybe it was just me but the other 3 people at the table tried them and they all said the same thing. Thank god for the cheese and gravy which made it somewhat edible. My daughters sweet potato fries had so much salt on them she had to stop eating them. I like salt and I could only eat a couple. You’re probably wondering why we didn’t return the items? Because our server never came back to the table to check on us, not once! My husband kept looking around to see if he could wave her down but she was no where to be found. We were on limited time and hungry so we gave up and just ate it. The rest of the food was fine: When she finally came back we were done eating. She didn’t even ask us how everything was. At this point I figured my complaints would fall on deaf ears as it was clear she really didn’t care anyway. She was friendly and smiled but the lack of service was frustrating. So I just asked for the bill. We were ready to get out of there. I debated on whether or not to even leave a tip but I did as I used to be a server and know minimum wage doesn’t pay the bills. The last disappointment was the women’s washroom. It smelled like it hadn’t been cleaned in a month. And to top it off there was no soap to wash our hands. Overall a very disappointing experience at...

We ordered online from this location lastnight. We ordered for pickup to be ready at 4:50pm. We received the email to confirm curbside pickup. We did the confirmation and told them our vehicle make, colour, etc and our phone number. We waited 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. The front door was locked. I got a call about one of our meals and the restaurant being out of two of our items. I asked what was going on with the pickup. He said "oh head office screwed up, we don't do that, you have to go through the drive-thru". Seriously!? No one decided to tell us that. We thought they were likely just really busy and that is why we hadn't gotten our food yet. We started in the line-up for the drive -thru. There were 3 cars in front of us. All ordering. 30-35 minutes after getting in the drive-thru line we get our food. We attempted to complain about the fact that we weren't notified of the pickup process for online ordering but was rudely cutoff by the drive-thru attendant(who we later found out was the manager). We received our food 50 minutes after they had indicated our order would be ready for pickup. Everything was cold. They forgot fries for one of the kids meals and forgot the yummy dipping chalet sauce for one of the meals. We realize that the COVID situation is challenging for many restaurant businesses but we aren't sure why this location wouldn't have the curbside pickup? Or at the very least notify the patrons who had been sitting in the parking lot for 30 minutes that they don't offer this service. If we had known this was the process would would have just gone through the drive-thru. Swiss Chalet isn't a small mom and pop shop - it is a giant corporation with an abundance of resources. We are extremely...