Shoeless Joe's Sports Grill — Restaurant in Ontario

Went fairly recently on two separate occasions. Shoeless Joes was fairly mediocre years ago but had something of a renaissance about two years ago, although I’m afraid to say that they’re slipping into their old ways. There’s a list of some things that were wrong with my two times there recently:

Some of the cutlery was dirty. Not with food nor with water stains, it looked more like someone pressed their fingers to the cutlery and it gave it a grimy look. Generally gross looking.

The French fries are not only subpar, but my mother’s fries were cold. Mine were fairly warm so the difference in temperature and thus quality is befuddling. Not that it matters because the fries suck anyways.

It looks like they’re skimping out of toppings on their nacho, possibly as a money saving scheme? Not sure.

They no longer hand out wet naps with their wings. This one is a personal pet peeve. They used to do this but stopped, again possibly to cut costs. You can only clean your hands to a certain point with normal, dry napkins however. I’m not going to eat my wings with cutlery either like I’m some sort of British aristocrat. This leaves the awkward only alternative of asking your good friend or sister (I’ve experienced both) to shuffle out of the booth so you can wash the barbecue sauce off of your hands, and you waltz to the bathroom with your hands curled like some sort of creature, trying not to get the door handle dirty or God forbid your cotton dress shirt.

Honestly I’d probably have put Shoeless at three stars but the diminishing of quality recently has been sorely disappointing. The foods pretty good at least besides those painfully mid fries. I would advise Joe to put on his shoes and start locking in. I’m not going to get my wings from a place that cheaps out on wet naps...

This was our second visit to this location as we are from Montreal. The first visit was back in 2021 after things started opening up more after Covid. Some friends and our children came to Cornwall to catch a movie and get a bite to eat. We ate at Shoeless Joe’s and it was a great experience. Our waitress was a lovely young lady named Taylor.

Fast forward to this past weekend, we were in Cornwall for a dance competition and I had to eat at Shoeless Joe’s at least once. My daughter, her boyfriend and I were quickly seated. Our waitress helped the fussy teens pick something to eat (double cheese poutine with a salad to share). I got the Souvlaki Chicken Bowl which was the same thing I ate back in 2021. The food was delicious.

The waitress was extremely attentive and then said something that made me have to ask her name again and how long she had been working at Shoeless Joe’s. Turns out she was the same lovely Taylor that had served us 4 years ago. She continues to be a wonderful waitress - but clearly left a great impression that I remembered her from so many years ago.

I recommend checking out Shoeless Joe’s Sports Grill in Cornwall. Wonderful selection and amazing staff (ask for...

I ordered the chicken cordon blue, and was quite happy with it overall. I could go into great lengths about the food as someone with Chef training, but that's not necessary, as it's just a bar. However, I will says that I was disappointed to see that the "seasonal" vegetables were just standard fair veg that were under seasoned. Given that the carrots were overcooked compared to the rest of the veg, I suspect they were previously frozen which is rather disappointing considering how inexpensive carrots are. For a bar style restaurant the food was quite good overall, and the waiter was quite personable even volunteering to take photos of us without any prompting. Regrettably I accidentally skipped the option to tip and didn't notice until after my transaction had completed and was to embarrassed to bring it up.

The atmosphere , however is a quite oppressive with 27 TV being visible from our seat in the restaurant alone. It was extremely obnoxious even by the standards of a sports bar. Overall I give the restaurant a...