The Early Bird — Restaurant in Ontario

My wife and I were truly excited to try this place out, we are both brunch lovers and appreciate great food in fun environments. Before I go on, I want to say that I worked Hospitality for years, in my late 20’s and early 30’s (and loathed most of my brunch shifts with a passion) and I have a deep level of empathy for all involved in making a brunch shift work. Sadly, the Early Bird failed us miserably! The service started off poorly. The guy who took our name/number and told us he’d call in 30 mins or so, was on the phone, at the bar for over 5 minutes (less than 2 minutes after he called us) leaving us twiddling our thumbs at the entrance and ignored by the rest of the staff the whole time. Things got better when we were seated with water and coffee quickly delivered by our lovely waitress. Unfortunately, things didn’t stay that way long. We ordered our food after confirming that the simple (but possibly annoying to BOH staff) modifications would not be a problem - egged poached well & the addition of a single ingredient to the breakfast burrito. 10 minutes after we ordered, the food was delivered to the table next us and my wife asked me to see if it was too late to ask for one of the toppings on the side. Based on the server’s response and the wait that followed, it was clear she had not put our order in at all - something, I failed to do in the early days… I get it, brunch is controlled chaos. The food arrives, my dish is amazing but the eggs are as runny as any poached egg can be. I let it go. It’s not the first time and I guarantee it won’t be the last. My wife’s meal on the other hand arrived and it was missing two of the ingredients listed on the menu: salsa and black beans. And the cilantro that she had ask be added when we ordered was nowhere to be seen. To be clear a breakfast burrito without beans and salsa is a wrap with eggs, cheese and potato… The waitress did offer to grab side plates of all three but clearly that is not the same as well made burrito and the dish was a bland mess because of it. I’m hoping this is “recovery from Covid” related but it was a truly poor experience. We will try again in a few months and see if things are improved.

Additional note - the waitress did try to make it up to us by offering to apply a discount to my wife’s order. When the bill came it included an -$8.50 line item that read “staff lunch”. I truly appreciate that she gave tried to make this right with a discount but if giving away her lunch discount is the only way that staff here can fix a problem like this, that’s absolutely terrible and management should be ashamed of themselves! Sadly, we didn’t even look at the bill until we were in the car or I would have asked her about the -$8.59 and refused...

tl;dr -- long wait line, terrible service, mediocre food AT BEST

After a long night, my friends and I were eager to get brunch the next morning at The Early Bird. We had been here before, and it was arguably the best brunch spot in London a few years prior however, it seems like their quality of food and service has taken a turn for the worse. We got there about 11:30 am, greeted with a long line out the door of the restaurant. Not a huge deal because we dressed for the weather but I noticed a few customers shivering in the cold and complaining. I understand the idea of first come first serve, however it would make more sense if the restaurant took down our phone number and gave us a call when a table was available so we didn't have to stand in a line out the door facing the elements of nature. Again, not my biggest complaint.

When we were finally seated, we were stuffed into a tiny booth that was definitely not meant to hold 5 people comfortably. Due to the long wait for another seat, we agreed to squish into the booth despite one of our friends having injured his leg and carrying crutches. Again, not a huge deal but, for details sake, i'll include it. Our server did not greet us for at least 15 minutes as we were all ready to order by the time we got sat (to put in perspective how long we waited in that line). I could tell she was weeded however, not a good first impression to her guests. The least she could have done was greet us and maybe gotten us started with some drinks. When she finally greeted us, we ordered everything all at once as to avoid having her leave us for another 20 minutes without taking our order. The food took so long to come out, and when we got everything it was stone cold. I asked everyone at our table if their food was remotely warm, not a single nod in the crowd. To say we were disappointed is an understatement. However, we were all starving at this point so we ate it anyways. The food was mediocre at best, nothing unique or rave worthy.

I ordered the pulled pork eggs benedict - my poached egg was actually hard boiled. How could you ruin a dish like that? To paint a picture, I punctured my egg and the yolk disintegrated into dust. I alerted the server about my complaints and she did not offer to compensate nor remake my meal. She simply said the restaurant poaches their eggs to medium (which she should have asked/told me when I ordered) and that she would get me ONE new poached egg on a side plate.

To conclude, our server was very cold to us and all in all a terrible server. We felt very neglected and not welcome. So long Early Bird! If you're still reading this, you're better off going...

This place is ah-freakin-mazin'