Southside Grill — Restaurant in Ontario

I am a strong advocate of supporting Southside Grill and up until today I have had no complaints, ever. The staff has always been amazing and the food delicious. I had called to make a reservation 6 days before Father's day for 10am. The person I talked to on the phone was great, but come the day of, turns out something occurred and my reservation was no where to be found. When I arrived it was evidently busy and as soon as the hostess came around I politely interrupted what she was doing and inquired about my reservation. She did not see it at the desk and said she would go back and check on the computer. 5-10 minutes later she comes back and completely ignores me until I directly address her and ask about the reservation. She says "Yeah there's no reservation", and I say, "well how is this possible? I called because I knew it would be busy and we had a party of 5 which is not as convenient as other amounts." She says, "I don't know" I say " well what is going to happen about this?" It was 15 minutes past the reserved time already. She says "You'll just have to get back in line". There were half a dozen groups that had lined up since I got in and I did not save my space as I was off to the side not to get in the way of others. The blond hostess was very evidently rude, unhelpful, and had horrible customer service. There was a male hostess that later came over and when I mentioned my issues he helped me immediately and was super nice and gave me at least communications about what he was going to do to try and help. I sincerely hope this other hostess undergoes more training or finds a job in a industry where she does not have to deal...

First of all let me tell you what I like about this restaurant. They have great parking, are easy to get to, the food is great and the prices are reasonable. What else could someone want, right? Unfortunately the service was very poor and I suspect they were under staffed.

Our server took care of her set of inside tables, all the outside tables, phone orders (which meant going to the parking lot with food) and skip-the-dishes pickups. It was too much for one person to handle. As a result, we were left to languish with no table service for 10 minutes after seating and the drinks only arrived after 25 minutes. There was no apology for the excessive wait nor any updates on what was taking so long to get service.

I have eaten at this restaurant many times in the past and frankly this was my worst experience. As a business owner myself, I know that customer service is everything followed by a continuous flow of information.

The last review I left before COVID was 5 Stars (which I have kept in place). I will likely give Southside Grill another chance but the disappointment of this poor service will need to ebb.

Follow up.

After leaving the above review I was contacted by the management at the Southside Grill. They took my disappointment seriously and took some concrete steps to help their staff communicate more effectively in the future. I have a high degree of confidence that they are really trying to provide a positive dinning experience.

I have revised my review from 2 stars to 4...

My husband and I went for lunch, for the first time, on a Saturday.

We were seated quickly and our drink order was taken. Our server didn't seem super happy to be there and had zero personality but I go out to eat food, not to make friends with the server.

We ordered garlic bread with cheese to start. It was okay. Maybe a 4/10. It was literally just four pieces of sourdough bread, toasted, with what seemed like butter and garlic powder, then sprinkled with cheese. The cheese was barely melted and the taste wasn't very garlicky since garlic powder was used as the garlic. I was anticipating more of a baguette type of garlic bread with garlic spread and broiled cheese on top. Super disappointing!

My husband got a burger with double fries (you can choose two sides). He said it was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. However, his fries were fantastic! He would order both again as a safe option.

I had the traditional club, which was delicious! I had fries and a salad for my sides, with a side of gravy for dipping my sandwich! The fries were honestly the best fries I've had in a long time (shout out to all restaurants who fresh cut their fries!). The gravy was delicious and would have made a delicious poutine!

We also had two beers and a diet coke, for a grand total of $55! Price and portion wise, it can't be beat. We will definitely try it again...