Birdy's Fine Casual Dining — Restaurant in Ontario

I don’t often leave negative reviews but I was incredibly disappointed by this restaurant and I would strongly discourage anyone from dining here, especially if ordering takeout.

My grandmother placed our order over the phone while my mom picked me up from the train station (I was coming from Toronto for Christmas break). I wanted the roasted vegetable sandwich and had asked my grandma to order it with a side of soup if the soup of the day was vegetarian (because I do not eat meat). If not, to just order me a side salad. We ended up ordering 2 sandwiches, each with a side salad and 1 extra side order of soup. My mom opted for the mediterranean linguine with chicken.

The food was ready right on time and we brought it to my grandmother’s house. We were starving and ready to eat! But upon unpacking our order we discovered our soup was missing. I also noticed that the roasted vegetable sandwich was lacking the hummus that the menu said it would come with. We called the restaurant to ask about the lacking elements and they said that they no longer serve hummus on the sandwich and haven’t for 2 years. So be warned if you are ordering takeout, the online menu is horrifically outdated. Re: the soup, they offered to let us either come back for it or refund us in the form of a gift card. We went back for the soup since we will never be returning here so a gift card would do us no good.

My mom, my hero, drove back to the restaurant to get my soup. The staff was incredibly apologetic and actually gave us a second soup for free. Anyway, the soup, which we were told was leek and potato, was actually leek, potato, and BACON. And just to remind you, I don’t eat meat. However, I dodged the bacon bits and was able to consume a few spoonfuls. It was not worth it.

My mom’s pasta was an abomination. Excessive oil pooled at the bottom of the container and some of the pasta was all stuck together (refer to the photos), rendering it inedible. The only positive was that there was a decent amount of chicken.

As seen in the photos the sandwiches were dry. The chicken one had one splotch of sauce and it was literally just a piece of chicken and some greens. The veggies were half heartedly thrown onto my sandwich—all the peppers in a pile atop a chunk of onion. It is clear that whoever prepared our meal did not make an effort to make it appealing or tasty.

The only reason we ate any of this was because we were starving and the reason we got takeout was because I had just returned home from travelling.

I try to be gracious when it comes to restaurant mishaps but this was an incredibly upsetting experience and given that there was a consistent lack of quality across all the items we ordered, I think this really was more than a “mishap” and that the restaurant is not doing a good job. I’m sorry Birdy’s, but...

Do NOT be fooled by all of the positive reviews of this place! Last Sunday was my first visit for breakfast: my homefries were cold and had to be reordered; by the time they arrived, everything else was cold. Decided to give them a second chance today (Sunday 12 December): the front room was freezing, so they kindly moved me to the larger room near the fireplace. Before changing tables, I ordered coffee, a Western omlette and toast. At my new table, I watched a couple arrive and be seated, order their breakfast and then begin eating. However, 40 minutes later, STILL NO FOOD FOR ME, so I got up and left. The LAST TIME I will ever go there! Are there black holes available for rating this place, instead of stars? Sitting across the street at the Olympic restaurant, enjoying my breakfast as I write this review. Only ten minutes for a full breakfast at the Olympic!!!

Tina, You are treading dangerously close to a lawsuit for Libel. To cite your reply to my completely candid review:

"Another issue is your statement that it was your second time at the business. The servers and I know you well and you have been a frequent regular thru out the summer and fall. I have no idea why you would lay down that false hood. [...] In my personal experience with serving you I have always felt you were unhappy or bitter. I will remember you in my prayers and pray for the Lord's blessing upon you."

I am a practicing Christian, with absolutely NO NEED NOR REASON TO LIE in a public forum, and certainly would not waste my time nor my reputation to lie for a review of your sad little restaurant. Today was indeed my SECOND VISIT to your restaurant. I have NOT BEEN A REGULAR throughout the summer and fall! (Please learn how to spell in the English language: it's "throughout", and "falsehood" is ONE word!)

Neither you nor your servers have EVER served me before last Sunday; you and I have NEVER MET before!

Save your prayers for your incompetent kitchen and serving staff! If you are willing to accept and reply honestly to positive and even mediocre reviews, then at least have the fortitude and integrity to reply honestly to negative reviews. Otherwise, I suggest you find another form of employment. A public apology for your incorrect statements, your own "falsehoods" in your reply would be most appropriate. If I am unhappy or bitter, it has only to do with wasting 40 minutes of my time at Birdy's! It shall not...

This was the most uncomfortable restaurant experience we’ve ever had. We arrived and were seated promptly. Our server (the one with the red hair in a braid) informed us that he kitchen was backed up and our food might take a while, which was fine. We then looked over the menu our server came back and we ordered our drinks. As we were waiting for our food, we could hear our server arguing with a table because she thought they tipped too little. Another server was arguing with her table about what they ordered. It was really awkward. When our server came back we wanted to order our appetizers, as we weren’t ready to order mains and we knew the kitchen was backed up, so we wanted to get an order in. She said “it’d be better if you ordered both!”… I was so confused, I just said “ummm…ok I guess we aren’t ready yet…” i was starting to understand why other tables weren’t tipping well. After she walked away, the entire restaurant could hear her bad mouthing the table that had tipped poorly. Another table commented to her about it and she started arguing with them about why the other table should’ve tipped more. After this, yet another table apparently had asked the red headed server for something and was denied. They asked the other (less confrontational) server for it. The red head server must’ve found out because she shouted at them from the bar “you’re not going to get it just because you asked another employee”. This was all in the span of about 20 minutes. As someone who worked in hospitality for almost 2 decades, I’ve never even witnessed such terrible service. Not negligent, but the fakest most passive aggressive tone or otherwise belligerently confrontational attitude I’ve ever witnessed. Anyways, we ordered our food. We had the arancini to start and I got the tenderloin club. I asked for caramelized onions instead of tomatoes, she said “there will be a charge for that”…all I said was “really?” And she went off telling me how they had to cook the onions, which took work and gas. I said “ok that’s fine, I was just surprised, sorry, not a big deal”. Though never have I charged for substituting carmies lol. I got about $0.05 worth of onions…Anways, we got our food, which was decent, which is the only reason this isn’t a one star. We were had planned on getting dessert, but didn’t want to spend another second in there. Most awkward and uncomfortable dining experience...