Metropolitan Billiards — Restaurant in Northwest Industrial

The advertisement on their website is misleading. I understand that everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but the apology given felt cold and hostile. It kind of ruined the mood for the whole night, since I no longer felt welcomed.

After leaving the review above, I got an reply from the staff. I’m quite disappointed with the reply received. All I wanted to do was voice my opinion and provide some feedback to help enhance future experiences; instead the response given by the staff felt like a passive aggressive attack on my character. Assuming they HAVE NOT CHANGED their reply or delete it to hid what they said, it is still shown on the bottom (but i summarized the main points of their review below). The restaurant is making me sound like I’m trying to play pool for free, which i did not, because I knew “girls” night out does not apply to guys. The confusion lies with the wording on your website, it made it sound like guys only pay for pool, while girls get to play for free even if girls and guys come play pool together. Since we have never came here before, we thought that each person pay individually to play pool, instead of paying for the whole table (this is the confusions on our part and all we asked for is some answers since this is our first time). It was a simply misunderstanding. All we did was ask for clarification about the rules, but in doing so, we were treated with hostility and disrespect. Everyone who came didn’t mind paying $6.50 for the pool tables, since the price was still really cheap, what we weren’t happy with was the way the staff treated us. If your staff treated us with kindness and respect, we wouldn’t have had a problem with your establishment.

Your response to my review made me feel even worse. Your response made me sound like a cheap character with no common sense who just want to play for free, which is an incorrect assumption as discussed above. You are correct in the fact that we were confused about the rules, but you don’t have to label my friends as “embarrassed” just because we wanted some clarifications. By labeling us as “embarrassed” you essentially imply that we are 100% in the wrong when all we asked was a simple question. I would have never expected to be punished for asking questions. I feel this situation is more of a grey area, where both parties made some mistakes. But I don’t appreciated the way you handled the situation at the restaurant and after I posted my review.

It has became clear to me that your restaurant does not take kindly to feedback, or for people that are willing to voice their concerns. I am deeply disappointed. Losing my business probably doesn’t mean much in the grand scale of things for you guys; but I hope you will change the way that you deal with situations with your future customers.

Lastly, the response to my friend is even more aggressive than the one you responded to me. Please address the concerns of your customers in the future, instead of playing the blame game and attacking our character over a simple misunderstanding.

If you choose to respond to my updated review, please be more respectful and avoid any personal attacks, since the last reply was highly unprofessional.

Thank you.

Hi Michael, I am going to post a more detailed messaged below to the girl who was part of your group. Our Facebook page clearly states that free pool is not for guys for the Ladies' Night Special. If you can find otherwise, please screen shot and post. I don't know why you didn't feel welcomed to play pool? I'm sure you weren't expecting to play for free? I think the person who invited you out was confused and then embarrassed. ...

Went to a birthday party for my daughter at this place last night. We have been there before and thought it was a good choice for our party. We even called ahead to let them know we were having 20 or so people meeting up there to make sure they could accommodate us. Well, THAT was our mistake because at the END of the night when I went to pay the bill, they told us, for the first time, that because we called ahead, they tacked on an automatic gratuity charge of 18%. Now, dont get me wrong. I dont have a problem with giving a tip and quite often I give 20% BUT, ONLY WHEN THE SERVICE IS WORTH THE PAYMENT. We were there for 7hrs. The first 2hrs was great with a lady we have seen and dealt with several times before who was an excellent server. She was very nice. Very quick and very attentive. Sadly, she was off work to leave our service to a gentleman who seemed excellent....at first. He was such a nice man. Big smiles. Seemed awesome. But we weren't there for a smile and a chat. The service was terrible. We didn't get service most of the rest of the 5hrs. We watched him several times, walk around another part of the place and glance over seldom but didnt even come and ask the birthday girl for a drink. We played pool with empty glasses for hours literally. My daughter had to go find him for her drinks all night and I went up and told him too that she was asking for another drink. We thought maybe, because the place had alot of people, that he was overrun with customers and he would get to us, but that didnt happen. Infact, we sat and starred at him while he sat at the bar looking like he was too tired to get up mostly. He sat in that chair alot throughout the night. So much so that we got fed up and just left. All the people that were with us went to other bars where they could be served. I will never plan anything to go there again with friends. We asked for one pool table to be reserved for us. Someone from our party opened another table when they came in and paid for it after one hr. And then the bar, instead of asking who's table it was, just added it to my bill??? One of my daughters friends came up to the bar as this was being told to me and offered to pay it out of kindness to me but, the way it was done was quite underhanded on the part of the bar. Putting it on my tab without so much as a word to anyone was wrong. Then they overcharged us 30$ on top of all of that. Yep, you guessed it...for pool. If I didnt read the receipt before payment, I would have eaten that too. The whole experience left a really bad taste in my mouth. What is so sad about all of this is that, had that guy actually done his job all night, that place would've made WAY MORE MONEY. Our crowd all wanted drinks and had the money to pay for them. He just wasn't interested in being a server. At one point in the night, one of my crowd "helped him clean our area". She got there late and saw the dishes left everywhere around us so she went to get him to clear things and get some service. He literally asked her if she worked there and gave her a bin to put dirty dishes in. Wow, now my guests are working for them and im paying them for service??????? It's truly insulting. We left a short time later. Kudos to the lady that served us at the beginning of the night. She deserves that 18%. ALL OF IT. She was fantastic, as she always is. I gave a 2 star reveiw and both stars are for the girl at the beginning of the night because if not for her the stars would be...

Will miss this place dearly. Reluctantly posting but Needs to be said. Do not eat at this establishment. Tried to work there, gave them 4 days of free professional labor because I did not want any connection after my experience. Owner and staff were great, seem to be flailing a bit but manageable. Kitchen staff are driven enough to provide a mediocre product but feel righteous in their practices. Major problems were food safe standards, cleanliness, work area efficiency and lack of basic care and cleaning. Food storage lacking food safe and common sense practices, for example leaving meat to the at room temperature for entire shift with my comments of which repeatedly ignored, leaving food containers open with serving utensils in them for ease of access and ignoring food safety, cleanliness, and concern for human consumption. Lack of planning and organization led to food prep and food storage being done hastily in unkempt areas. I saw the "head" cook pre par cook battered fish, place it under the serving line station, and grab portions by sliding it out on the floor to fry again for service. I saw buckets of meat sitting for majority of my shift, some in water. I saw a catered meal where the prime roast was braised and lacking a beautiful crust and flavor served with instant potatoes and the only memorable contribution on the plate being the roasted vegetables. I saw the bacon placed on the serving line without a cover or temperature control, precooked, unlabeled/undated, sitting at room temperature and heated as needed for orders. I saw cooked meat stored next to raw meat. Buckets of sauces constantly left open with serving spoons left in them, the sides and walls in close proximity splattered with bucket contents. A staff member told me he rarely cleans his uniform. I saw no hand washing being done. Nothing is labeled or dated. The basement area stores everything, food product, equipment, uniforms, random needless items that are strewn about with no real recognizable system in place. I cleaned the staff washroom because it was unsanitary and showed no signs of being done in a long while. There is a desk that is utilized as a sitting area for staff breaks that the kitchen staff sit at to eat as well as smoke, a drawer being used as an ashtray, smoke permeating the air from the constant flow of staff. Uniforms and kitchen cloths strewn about, no idea as to which was "clean" or what it's intended use was. Needless to say I was ultimately disappointed and disgusted for the lack of care and respect for the place and anyone in attendance. I used to frequent Metro for the atmosphere, billiards, and food. I will not return and I will tell people to avoid it at all costs. Sad but even sadder is all that it encompasses. The staff and owner should be ashamed and held accountable. I enquired and have found no faults with health inspections which is highly questionable on that departments practices as well and will continue to see that this place...