555 Brewing Co — Restaurant in Ontario

Disappointing Experience Despite Excellent Service

Date of Visit: Aug,12,2024 Time: 7:30 PM

My recent visit to 555 was, unfortunately, a disappointment despite the best efforts of the staff. Arriving at 7:30 PM, my party and I were promptly seated, and our drink and dinner orders were taken by 7:40 PM. The waitresses, Sydney and Brandi, were exceptionally attentive and made every effort to ensure a pleasant dining experience.

However, the evening quickly turned sour due to significant delays in the kitchen. By 8:19 PM, nearly 40 minutes after placing our order, we were still waiting for our appetizers. The delay was acknowledged, and the waitresses kindly brought out chips and guacamole as a gesture for the extended wait. Unfortunately, this small offering did little to compensate for the overall lack of efficiency.

Our garlic fingers finally arrived at 8:29 PM, followed by a #2 pizza at 8:33 PM. The pizza, which was advertised as wood-fired, appeared to lack the distinctive qualities one would expect from such preparation. The crust had the telltale dots and lines that suggested it may have been pre-made and bought in, rather than made in-house. It was also missing that smoky char flavor you expect for something wood fired. For a restaurant that focuses solely on pizza, and given the price point, I would expect the dough and pizzas to be of much higher quality—certainly better than something I could purchase at a grocery store.

By 8:40 PM, the #12 pizza was served, but by then, the experience had already been marred by the lengthy delays. We decided to leave at 8:50 PM, not because we were full, but because we simply did not want to eat any more of the product given. We brought the pizzas home for a second opinion, which ultimately solidified our view of the restaurant.

As a business owner in the food industry myself, I was shocked at the lack of professionalism exhibited by the owner in response to poor reviews. I was hesitant to write this review, particularly because, judging by the owner's responses to other unsatisfied customers, it seems that they are not receptive to any form of criticism. However, I believe it's important to provide an honest account of my experience. As a local, I would be happy to return if the issues addressed in not only our review but the reviews of others were resolved. While the service provided by Sydney and Brandi was commendable, the kitchen's inability to deliver in a timely manner and the subpar quality of the pizza overshadowed their efforts. Regrettably, I cannot recommend 555 based on this visit, and I hope that management addresses these issues promptly.

Rating:2/5 (Service: 4/5, Food: 2/5,...

I've never had worse service in a restaurant in my life. I've been to 555 more than once and had come to know them as a place for fast, reliable service, even reccomending them to hotel guests frequently. This was not my experience on a Sunday at 1:30 in the afternoon today. Our server took a few minutes to acknowledge us then said we could pick an open table. It took 20 minutes to get a cider and we ordered our appetizer and pizza at the same time when we ordered our drinks explicitly stating we were sharing the pizza and wanted the appetizer to come out first. Around the 40 minute mark we were really questioning the time line and the people next to us got delivered the wrong pizza which also wasn't ours, they sent it back and had a new one made. At that time our server said that our pretzel bites would be out in a minute. I believe she forgot to place our order. Ten minutes later she said she had made a mistake and placed the appetizer in a seat in their ordering system stating it would come out at the same time as the pizza. When we asked if they were already making the appetizer and she said no and she asked if we still wanted it and we said no we just wanted the pizza, another ten minutes went by and the other server came to our table. The original server didn't even have the decency to come back to our table. The other server, a young girl, asked if we wanted the appetizer, and yet again we stated we did not, as already confirmed with our server. Then the 2 tables that sat after us, one that sat down 30 minutes after us and had only ordered 10 minutes ago, got their food. We waited an hour for food and got nothing. We went to the bar to pay for drinks and told them we were leaving for being there over an hour without food and they seemed angry at our choice, while they wouldn't allow us to pay for the 2 ciders, they seemed disgruntled at our behaviour when the whole time we were there they had a cold tone and didn't check on our table, and they didn't even offer to refill our empty water glasses. Our server said she would have to pay for our drinks out of her pocket and our pizza which was still in the oven after over an hour after we ordered it. She was rude and unemotional or unempathetic to the situation she created. It was beyond a disappointing experience and I will really hesitate to come back and will unlikely recommend 555...

Visited July 16 at 1:15pm. Approached the hostess (dark hair in two short braids) to ask for a table. She said they didn't have any and that there is a waitlist. Okay fair enough, so then I asked how long the wait is. She responded by laughing "Oh I have no idea". I had to ask a few questions like how many people were ahead of us, what are our other options (take out etc) in order to get some kind of answer from her that perhaps suggested our business was wanted. It's not a huge deal but I feel like a hostess' one job is to provide the customer with that kind of information without me having to pry for it. After she finally confirmed the wait would be really long (again, that's fair), we decided on just ordering the food to-go. She directed us to a different line by saying "well you can't stand here anymore if you're ordering take out". Fine, so I went to the 'take out' side and picked up a menu to read on the picnic table she directed me to. After I put it down and proceeded to the counter, she approached me and said "Did you just touch that menu on the table? Because if you did now I have to go sanitize it". That was kinda the final straw for me, I was not going to drop probably $60 on a place that within 5-8 minutes had already given me 3 unfriendly interactions. I'm not a Karen, and I'm patient understanding of the changes due to covid, which is why I didn't leave after the first interaction, or the second. All of this isn't a huge deal either, but it was enough to deter me and my party from your business. It's little things like an inviting welcome in the first 5 minutes that would have made that difference in the last restaurant we stopped at on our little vacation. Just thought I'd let you know and hopefully this can be worked on for future guests.

*Edit: no need to further discuss as I don't live in the area anyway, just wanted to leave feedback and I appreciate...