Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Ontario

I want to be fair so I gave 3 stars instead of the typical 1 star, because the food was quite good. However, the experience overall was very poor.

When we sat down at the table my 5 year old son commented that the seats were sticky. I could see that the table was recently wiped down and assured him that it was just a bit wet. Well, as it dried up there was a clear filmy residue on the table and the chairs were in fact sticky. I worked in a restaurant long enough to know this is probably because whoever wiped the table down used a dirty rag that had probably also cleaned up something sticky like pop and now it was all over our table too.

But we were out to try to enjoy a family dinner so I was going to keep things positive.

It took forever for our server to come back with the drinks. He seemed nervous so I asked if he was new, and he said no he's been there a while. The beer was 3/4 full with no head. He seemed embarassed by the pour and said the "head must've just dissolved on his way to the table"... more likely either the glass was dirty with soap residue or the beer sat on the bar for several minutes before he brought it to me. But, I told him not to worry about it and assured him we are very easy going diners - which we typically are. However, my patience continued to wear thinner as the experience got worse.

I looked around and couldnt help but notice the disrepair the whole restaurant seemed to be in. The walls were literally DIRTY and the paint was crumbling off and raw drywall was exposed in multiple areas. There are framed photos and artwork on the wall which are completely faded, dusty and clearly neglected.

Then came my trip to the washroom with my 5 year old son.

The only child-height urinal was full of disgusting and stale urine. Upon attempting to flush it away I realized that the urinal would not flush... this urine had likely been there all night. So we went to the stall, the toilet was disgusting and covered in pubic hair and urine droplets. So we opted to use the filthy urinal and I literally had to hold my son up so he wouldnt get splashed on.

Almost worse was that the only paper towel roll was not in the dispenser but sitting loosely on the counter soaking up dirty water. We dried his hands on his pants.

Later I would talk to my wife who took my daughter to the women's washroom and she said it was equally as disgusting and neglected.

At this point my food has arrived so I asked for a second beer. The server said "I'll grab that right away!" Keep in mind this isnt even 5pm on a Saturday. The restaurant is steady but not busy. There is a large party, but my server is not serving them.

7-8 minutes passed, no beer, so I catch my server's attention. I hold up my empty beer glass (which he didnt clear from the table earlier) and he goes "Oh right! I'll get that for you right away! Sorry!"

A few seconds later my son complained of a sore tummy and said he needed to go to the bathroom again... meaning I had to use the disgusting stall. So I went and battled that mess with him, Did the staff's job and wiped down the toilet myself.

5 minutes later or so we return to our table and still no beer.

By this point my food is cold, my appetite is ruined by the bathroom experience, and I'm just plain thirsty. So I go and stand by the bar area... multiple staff walk by me including the 5-6 bussers in black teeshirts, no one asks me if I need a hand. Finally I see my server and he says "Oh right, sorry!" and goes in the back and gets me a beer... once again 3/4 full. he apologizes several times. So I was trying to be polite and not get upset so I said "Its fine man, its just that I'm almost done my meal at this point."

On our way out I couldnt help but notice that even the decals on the door reading "Swiss Chalet" were peeling off and the Door dash sticker was bubbled and peeling. The door trim was filthy and clearly hadnt been cleaned in months... just a filthy...

BE WARNED!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could Rate this at MINUS 10 STARS!!!!!! WHAT FOOD???? WHAT SERVICE???? WHAT ATMOSPHERE???? By far the worst service I have ever received!!!!!!! My wife and I arrived at 6:18pm on Sunday, Feb 11, 2024. They had to clear a table so we could sit in the open section, as there was more than 10 dirty dish covered tables not available. As we were sitting down, we ordered 2 coffees and a water. The waitress only brought 1 coffee and the water. She wanted to take our order, I said give us a minute please, and could I get my coffee, so she went and got it, but no milk or cream. She just put the coffee on the table and walked away, came back a few minutes later, I thought she was getting me some milk or cream, but no, she wanted our orders first, so I asked for some milk, so she went an got it, but then walked away again. Side note here, both coffees were really only lukewarm, not hot. She served another table and placed his order, before coming coming back to us. At this point, we were starting to get a little annoyed. Finally, she came back and took our order, which was 2 bowls of chicken soup, a combo 1/3 rib with dark meat and fries, a double leg dinner with fries. The young kids in the back were bringing out various plates, and bowls to the different customers, including the guy whose order was taken before us. By this time, it was about 20 minutes since we had ordered. The waitress came back around asking if we wanted more coffee, so we said sure, which she brought right away, but no more milk or cream to go with it. We asked how much longer for the soups, and her reply was it will be a little while longer. We asked how much longer, she said again, a little while longer, and walked away. My wife said she was going for a smoke. I said to her lets just leave and go somewhere else, this is ridiculous. I left $6 on the table for the coffees, which was being generous, considering the situation. By this time, it was 7:05pm. that's over 40 minutes waiting just for the soup!!!!!! TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WON'T BE GOING BACK THIS LOCATION...

Went here for dinner before seeing a show at landmark, as a gift from our mom. We arrived before 6pm and our show was at 7pm (figured we had a decent amount of time and worst case we just pack up the rest of our food and run to the show).

To start off, it took the waitress over 10 minutes to come to our table just to introduce herself and to take our drink order (6:08pm). We told her right away that we needed to leave by 7pm to catch the movie across the street and she made it clear she understood. We ordered everything all at once to save time, just water and three main courses. Proceeded to wait 45 minutes (6:50pm) with ZERO human contact, for them to finally bring us our food and we immediately let the server know that we needed the bill and takeout boxes for our food because we had to leave. Of course the takeout boxes and the payment machine were brought over right away. To add to it, I ordered a side of chicken cheddar broccoli soup, to which they brought me plain chicken noodle soup with my main and told me they had to replace it because they were out. It is common courtesy to let the customer know before making a substitution and ESPECIALLY common courtesy to let your tables know if there will be a significant delay in getting their food out, or if you will not be able to accommodate them. For 45 minutes between bringing our waters and our food, no one even looked in our direction.

Sadly, we had to pay for this meal and even used a $50 gift card our mom had received as a gift. Total waste of a nice dinner out.

Bottom line, communication is the most important part of providing good service to customers. Waiting wasn’t even the issue, the problem was the total lack of communication from the servers that there would be a delay, as well as not communicating that they didn’t have the food we ordered available and bringing us an un-agreed upon substitution. Really sad to have this experience and wish we could at least have our gift...