The WORKS Craft Burgers & Beer — Restaurant in Oakville

Mid-afternoon on Tuesday, July 5/22, I stopped in at The Works on Lakeshore Rd in Oakville to ask if I could make a reservation. After being assured that I could, I made reservations for four for Thursday, July 7/22 at 6:30 pm in one of the patio areas. I watched the staff member write down my name and the particulars in a notebook that presumably was used to record reservations. I explained that we had tickets for a concert at The Oakville Centre For The Performing Arts, with an 8:00 pm showtime. "No problem!" Close to the the theatre, and 90 minutes - plenty of time, right? What could go wrong? Please read on.

Maybe it was an 'off' night, or new staff, but when my partner and I arrived at about 6:25 pm on the appointed day, we noticed that all of the patio tables were occupied. The person that greeted us said that no one had noticed our patio reservation for four, and it appeared that they had seated patrons as they arrived. It took the staff almost 10 minutes to 'solve' this by seating us next to a street-side window, and the staffer rolled up the window. Almost on the patio - not. Then, we explained, as we were being seated, that we had tickets for an 8:00 show, and would appreciate that being considered, and that our guests would be arriving shortly. I could see them parking across the street. The server took our drink order, and our friends arrived by 6:35. Our drinks were delivered, but the server didn't take our guests' order. It took another 10 minutes to get their drink order taken and 10 more minutes to get it to the table. We placed our food order at 6:50-6:55 pm, and it took about 35-40 minutes to arrive. In the meantime, we ordered a second round of drinks, but two drinks were "missed". At about 7:15, we asked our often MIA server about the food order, and she assured us that she had seen it in the order pickup area. About 10 minutes later, when our food was finally delivered at about 7:25 pm, one order was stone cold, and because we had theatre tickets, we were were out of time to get a replacement. That order was taken off our bill. Those of us who got our orders didn't have enough time to finish our luke-warm meals or drinks, but no effort was made by any staff member to correct any of the wait times or the reservation problem. We never saw a manager or supervisor. Elapsed time for an unsatisfactory visit: 90 minutes. Suggestion: if you're going to be in the hospitality business, train your staff and have an on-site supervisor paying attention to the customers. Make adjustments as necessary. And the food? Mediocre burgers with lots of dressings, and a very limited beer menu. Zero recommendations, not going back. By the way, I had to click on at least one star before I could post this. If I could have posted this with no stars, I would have.

Edit note: I was at another popular downtown Oakville restaurant on Friday evening, July 8, sitting at a table on a real patio, when I glanced up and saw the server from the works going in with a...

We were looking forward to a nice meal, but unfortunately, the experience turned out to be frustrating and disappointing.

When we first sat down and began ordering water, the server suddenly paused mid-sentence and said, “Oh, one sec,” before walking off without explanation. He came back a couple minutes later and casually resumed asking about our drink orders like nothing had happened. It was a little odd, but we brushed it off and continued with ordering food, which overall went smoothly, though the server did seem unsure—he double-checked each dish slowly, as if unfamiliar with the menu. Still, no big deal.

The first sign of real trouble came when the wrong dish arrived, though it was quickly corrected. But by the time we were halfway through our burgers and fries, we realized we still hadn’t received any water or drinks. It had been almost 30 minutes since we ordered them. Eating dry food without anything to drink became increasingly uncomfortable, so we began trying to flag someone down.

One female staff member walked by and made eye contact with my friend as he waved, but just looked away and walked off without acknowledging us. ?? Then we tried to approach another male server, not the one assigned to our table, and told him we were still waiting on water and drinks. He said he’d go get them, again with no apology or sense of urgency. A few more minutes passed. Still nothing.

Eventually, our original server returned. We explained the situation again, and he brought the drinks pretty quickly. But then, strangely, a few minutes later, he came back again with the exact same drinks. We told him we had already received them, and he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you asked someone else?”—as if it were our fault for being thirsty and trying to solve a problem he forgot about in the first place. No apology, no explanation, no mention of whether we’d be charged for the duplicate. Just dropped them off and left.

To top it off, the food was mid at best. And while we later realized that the female staff member seems only responsible for handling the waitlist, if a guest clearly tries to get your attention, is it too much to say, “I’ll grab someone to help you”?

Overall, extremely poor service, forgettable food, and a team that seemed totally disconnected from the dining experience. Won’t...

Terrible experience on Mother's Day. We called last minute to ask for a table for 5 adults and 3 kids. We were told we could be seated. Upon arrival, we saw there was only a booth available for 4 adults. We crammed into that. The corner table we were promised emptied 30 mins after. We have not been notified, just carried our drinks to the new table. Waited for another 20 minutes for food for a total of 50 minutes. Asked the waitress twice with no answer. Finally, I figured something went wrong when staff talked to each other. They told us that the food was coming in 5-10 mins. I asked if they had forgotten about the order they said "no, we need to prioritize restaurant and delivery orders." When I said that this was unacceptable, the young and obviously undertrained waitress said: "Oh, this is not even my table". There are three big mistakes in this: 1) If there was a miscommunication between waiting and kitchen, do not assume you can outsmart the customer by lying "your food is being prepared, it will take 5-10 mins (it took 12)." We know how much it takes to make a burger. 2) Don't tell me you are prioritizing. This translates as: You are two families with kids on Mother's Day but that's not important to us. We prioritize Uber customers because there is a third party customers can complain through. We just assume you are nice Canadians who can roll over and accept the wait. Well, we are bitter Europeans for a change :) 3) Train your staff to deal with adversity if their parents haven't . They are not supposed to put the blame on kitchen or other waiters, roll their eyes to the customers or avoid them. Food arrived after 1 hour of waiting. Salad was stale, fries were cold, burgers were ok. I understand you can be understaffed, people make mistakes but own it before customers escalate. Finally, we were compensated and we even tipped. We tipped because we know it's not a few kids' mistake. It's lack of management. Own the mistake, take preemptive action and communicate, communicate, communicate. Never assume you can outsmart a customer. I would never take the time to write such a long post if I did not feel disrespected....