WeinLoKaL — Restaurant in Niagara Falls

This place is always empty and it's dying for several reasons. Beer is good, they have some craft beers at the bar, and the general aspect of it is pretty good. The service, though, is very bad, especially after 4 PM. It seems to be managed by an older guy who is apparently quite nice. But it also seems to be co-managed by a younger lady (blonde, mid-30's, early 40's), maybe his daughter, for events that take place after 6 PM, but who also serves at the bar. She's rude and condescending, always turning her back and ignoring clients. She acts like she was the owner of the place and makes you feel like she was your boss or something, extremely cold and with an attitude. She is always seated at the bar before her "shift", surfing the internet, answering emails, pretending to be very busy. The other day she had reserved the bar for a 50 people group for 6 PM and expelled the people that were already at the bar about 15 minutes before 6 PM. I heard someone from the group saying that most of the people of the group were late. In any case, she has been unpleasant, as usual, for no reason at all. This kind of management error and some other failures are maybe the reason why this place is dying. The place is pretentiously one that serves local wine, with huge publicity of a local winery, but the bar looks like any other ordinary bar with just beer taps in front and other liquors at the back. The other bartender girls are also bad, brainless parrot style, equally rude, talking to you with loud voice so anyone around can hear what she's saying to you, but before 4 PM the mid 40's blonde lady is very nice. If you are a low self-esteem kind of person, a sheepie, or if you like to be bullied, then that's your place. If not, avoid it after 4 PM, or at all.

I read most of the comments in this section but I am very skeptical of any comment that also puts lots of very well taken photos. It's extremely difficult to do that discretely without being noticed. Therefore, all these comments with photos seem staged, done by professionals. This could be a trick used by the owners in order to promote their place. I have seen a lot of this kind of gimmick at Tripadvisor, giving extremely good recommendations for bad places and especially ill-managed places on Queen St, for example. One of these places is Queen Bean Café, with an "over present" owner, always on the internet, and also with a similar attitude. In comparison to that place Wein-Lokal is definitely much better, but both places clearly share similar bad management styles and cunning ways.

I frequent many places in Niagara Falls, and there are many good and very bad places. I have owned a brewery and I have learned a thing or two about management during those 7 years. The main thing I learned is that the public is very demanding. When you are dealing with the public you have to be very careful with what you do, with what you say and especially how to deal with them. One should never react impulsively and much less write comments based on emotions.

From the response we see below, one can notice the careless on typing the answer. Bad copy-paste from another comment and edited with special notes about my personality. Interestingly, nobody there really knows me personally, so this comment just confirms the bad attitude and ill management style. It also confirms the façade of "busy person," pretending to be busy and accusing others of not being busy enough. Isn't that typical? Bad times, yes indeed, but bad judgment, bad attitude, bad personality, bad management, lack of professionalism, and incompetence will eventually sink this place. Some people just don't get that they don't have the skills to deal with the public. The best to them is to put a real professional to manage this place and to keep out of the public's eyes.

Meanwhile, even the bar of Boston Pizza at Morrison St, in front of Zehrs is far much better. Want a real good local brewery and restaurant? Counterpart Brewing at Stanley Av. or SilverSmith Brewing...

Not as good as Weinkeller.

Admittedly they've only been open a few weeks so there's plenty of time for things to change, but we left wondering why we'd go back here any time soon when Weinkeller exists.

First things first, the food was top notch (as expected). Really one of the best meals you can get in Niagara. That being said the menu options are still pretty limited and it's pricey (not a shock if you know Weinkeller). There's definitely a psychological bonus to Weinkeller's fixed price menu though and knowing you’re getting 3 courses and a couple of glasses of wine for ~$80. Wein-Lokal's a la carte menu makes you really notice how much you're spending and it adds up fast with $13 glasses of wine, $50 bottles, and $40 entrees.

As for everything else it was pretty underwhelming. Perhaps we went in with too high expectations. The inside is having an identity crisis - it feels like a mix of a bar and a standard restaurant but you're still paying the fine dining prices. The huge high ceilings and hard surfaces everywhere make everyone's voices (and the live music) echo so it can be hard to hear people at times, and the general layout of tables just doesn't feel right. I don't know if there needs to be more booths but currently it has a weird feel. The service was fine although not as good as Weinkeller; the servers were very young and seemed inexperienced but overall they did well enough. Finally it was very quiet for a weekend night. Again, they're new and not a lot of people know about it so I'm sure that'll change, but we were surprised that it was maybe only half full.

Overall it was a 7/10. We left somewhat let down (again probably went in with too high expectations knowing what we know about Weinkeller) and we will probably give it a miss for the Summer while they get up to speed. Ultimately the food was fantastic and as good as Weinkeller, but everything else is better at Weinkeller which left us wondering why we'd come back here when we can get a better experience on...

First time visiting as this restaurant was highly suggested online by the locals. Here is my honest opinion, we came in and there are 3 of us, we were greeted promptly and seated. We were not offered water at all and provided 1 drink menu when there are 3 of us which was not a big deal but coming from the restaurant industry; its odd. Lets move past it, the server wasn’t very friendly but more neutral, did not explain or introduce any specials. She was gone most of the time and checked us once and seemed like in a rush. We get the appetizer and drinks, the food/drink are fantastic. The run time from appetizer to entree’s were just right but lack of service and introduction to the place created a more of unknown/unwelcoming atmosphere. Evening sets as we came on the afternoon, we got a switch on servers and service did not improve, no checkups except to notify us of the switch. Slow and we had to wave the server to get dessert menu, instead of it being offered. The dessert was good but servers seem to lack experience in guest management. By the time we have coffee and desserts the restaurant was very cold and hostess kept staring at our booth but no check ups by anyone (just an awkward stare). We had to flag down the server to get water and to order more coffee. The server seemed lost and inexperienced (which if he’s new makes sense and understandable). Overall id like to give this place another try as the food is definitely high quality but the lack of service and unwelcoming atmosphere made the place seem snobbish. Also when the first server was asked about the food, her knowledged seems to be non-existent and only stated that “everything is made in house” (which honestly probably is true from my experience working as a cook) but the lack of explanation is honestly disappointing at the very least. However, great job on the kitchen side...