Stage Coach Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake

10/10 would NOT recommend this place. My sister, her partner, and I came here today (Dec. 27) at around 11:30am, excited to check out the cuuute, local, diner and end our stay at NOTL after staying at a hotel nearby for Christmas. The lovely experience ended there. There was a couple ahead of us waiting to be seated. After about 5 mins they got seated, but there was ZERO acknowledgement that we even existed. ZERO attempts were made by the elderly lady with glasses or the blonde woman. All 3 of us have worked and are working in the industry. A "hello" or even a nod would have been nice. Or just saying "we are a bit busy, I'll get to you in a few minutes" would have worked. The second we entered, we heard the older lady complaining to customers how she had to work every. Single. Day except yesterday and how she wasn't happy about that (in less nicer words than that). In my head: "Nice. WOW. Ooookaay" My sister's partner after no one gave any indication that we existed: "should we find another place?" but my sister and I had wanted to support this family-run restaurant and told him "we should be seated soon considering a table just left". So after another 15 minutes of us trying to catch their eye, another group joined us by the door. The two ladies were by the till (literally next to the door where we all were standing) and I was just observing and the elderly one says in a mock whisper "Why do they keep looking at me?!" And both women look up and I make eye contact "HALLELUJAH!" Eye contact! FINALLY! I guess they weren't expecting me to answer so I say "we're just waiting to be seated". The blonde one goes off and points at herself and the older woman and says "There's only TWO of us here working!" Someone obviously got caught acting/talking poorly... I just stated a fact and hadn't even raised my voice. My sister, her BF, and myself looked at each other and we didn't even need to say a single word as we turned and walked out. Hopefully the couple after us, did too. Glad we didn't support this restaurant that definitely needs their 2 servers to take a course in BASIC Customer Service and a crash course in "How to be friendly 101" We gladly found another local diner to support and who greeted us right when we walked through the door. Stagecoach Family Restaurant left an unfortunate sour taste and ending to what had been a friendly, cute...

We were a larger group and were able to be seated outside, however we were a but put off by our experience. It took the server a long time to get us menus and again to order even though the restaurant wasn't very busy (only a couple of tables seated inside and outside our entire visit, however there were two busters, 4 servers and who I believe was the manager standing around). Meanwhile we watched 3 different sets of people come and go when they were seated and offered menus but promptly left after speaking with the servers. When we did order, the food took a while (which is fine, we understand it's made to order) but one order was forgotten entirely while everyone got their meals. When they input the forgotten order they didn't have anymore mashed potatoes left, meanwhile we watched another table order it without being told the same thing. The food was sub-par and dry. When paying, we were advised we had to pay inside but we watched other tables pay around us with the machine. They had a default 18% tip out on their already high prices for sub-par food. We paid inside either way. The overall attitude seemed as though the staff were annoyed with our group, looking around it seemed they were all just annoyed and didn't care. Lastly, the bathrooms needed to be cleaned and tended to. There was zero toilet paper in the women's bathroom and I had noticed, as a result people before me were using the paper towel to 'wrap up' their business and toss it in the overflowing trash can beside the toilet. We were disappointed and grossed out. We ended up going to the Starbucks near by to wash our hands and refresh ourselves after as their bathrooms were in horrible condition. The men's bathroom...

We're here now, as I'm writing this. Cute place, that's why I picked it. BUT, beware! We stood in line forever behind a young family and were completely iignored. Another couple in line behind us. They didn't bother to mention the patio seating and diner seating are SEPERATE lines, leaving us three parties to bicker it out when the only table open came up and it was, of course, on the patio. I had to assert to the staff that the family was here first and they should take it; the party behind us was ready to steal it from those ahead of them. We took it when the family turned it down. I commented that they needed better signage indicating lines for the patio and diner are different. Our server was pleasant, and I was very nice to her (I had been a server back in the day), and I am normally very empathetic in a busy restaurant. However, we drank our coffee dry with no refills in sight. I had to get up, go in the restaurant and I very nicely asked for refills. The hostess grabbed the pot and followed me to the patio (I offered to take the pot myself, but I knew they'd turn me down). This girl seriously filled EVERYONE ELSE'S CUP before finally getting to us!! I was the whole reason these people even got a refill in the first place! Hello!! So rude to do that. How about filling the requester's cups first, since they're bone dry??? Wow. That was it for me. As a former server, I would have fixed the squeaky wheel FIRST. The food finally arrived, and I knew that would take a while...it was the best thing about this place. Train. Your. STAFF. Sometimes service is...