The Old English Pub — Restaurant in Ontario

Tragically brutal night. Worst restaurant experience of my life and probably same for other tables around us. Disclaimer, this was Valentine's Day and not a typical night, which is usually good and I'll definitely be back but tonight was a trainwreck.

We had a 7:30 reservation. We arrived early and sat at the bar with no service for 15 minutes. You were out of the wine we wanted so we picked another, no big deal.

Finally seated in the back room. Long waits for service, and Virtually every other table had no food and/or empty glasses. The booth beside our table eventually went and got their own drinks from the bar and later left before their food arrived. We saw two other tables walk out.

You were out of Prime Rib which was the only reason we came. It was a 3 item menu. You don't run out of the main feature on a set menu, whats going on back there? We reluctantly ordered the fish and chicken. You were also out of the sweet potato mashed for the halibut and the Spanish rice for the chicken. You served us overcooked halibut on lumpy regular menu mashed potatoes which was an absolute comedic culinary travesty and the chicken on literally completely plain unseasoned rice instead of the Spanish rice... Wtf guys haha. It would have taken literally 10 seconds to throw SOMETHING in that rice to pretend it's what you charged us $26 for. Both plates were served with the most brutally murdered and unseasoned soggy pathetic asparagus I have ever seen in my life. I can't imagine the guilt you guys felt as you sent those plates out, or I hope you felt. There are some serious questions of integrity here as the food was served to us without a word and only taken off the bill when we apologetically pointed out that it's literally not even close to what we ordered.

Servers don't get a pass either. The entire back room went a solid 10-15 minutes at a time without a single staff member walk through. So many miserable people, empty glasses, people waiting for bills, drinks, or to order. As I said before, multiple people walked out or went to get their own drinks. Even for us, after the server quickly knocked the mains off the bill, she scooped the plates away, and literally never came back. We sat there for 15 more minutes with empty glasses and no food until we flagged down another bus girl to bill us. We ended up spending over 2 hours in there tonight and all we had was a shrimp and a half each (for real, you couldn't put 4 on the dish??? It's v-day) and a few bites of our main.

Leadership is the biggest problem here. It didn't seem like anybody was managing the floor and whoever was running the kitchen seriously dropped the ball. You can't entirely blame your staff for poor performance when the night was doomed to begin with. At some point management should have stepped in, made a call that you can't serve more people, made a call that you need to notify customers that you don't have the food you are advertising, and made a call to notify people that you are behind service-wise. Nobody took ownership of that. Serious lack of integrity was shown tonight and the failure to address these problems ahead of time is why I'm writing a public review instead of chalking it up to a bad night.

I hope you all have a few drinks tonight and unwind. Nobody feels good about these nights, I've been there but this was an absolute trainwreck.

You guys are typically great. We will be back but never for Valentine's Day. I'll probably delete this and change it to 5 stars in the future because we do love this place but...

My husband and I travelled from Toronto for a mini break and to celebrate our wedding anniversary. On Saturday night June 28th we went into this pub for dinner looking forward to what we thought would have been a wonderful night. We were greeted and seated, ordered our drinks and them went to order our apps 1st choice Baby Yorkies , politely told not available, we then aske for Potato Skins , again not available as my husband has fish & shell fish allergies we asked for spinach dip. For main course we asked what the steak of the day was the server said she would have to check in the back came back after a few minutes and said it was striploin we asked for 2 and off she went. After waiting more than 20-25 mins she came back and told us now they did not have any steak????? I said this was now the 3rd item we had ordered, still waiting for the spinach dip, she apologized and asked us to pick something else off the menu to be honest at this point it was too late to leave and find another place to eat. My husband picked a burger and fries and with much hesitation I picked the traditional meat pie. Still waiting for the spinach dip which when it arrives was some sort of a cream with spinach and a piece of processed cheese melted on the top absolutely not a spinach dip. When our meal finally arrived the meat pie looked charred on the crust the mash cold and not a speck of butter on it, the ground beef was dry inside . After 2 mouthfuls I left it the server said well it wasn't your 1st choice and she would discount our whole meal. The bill came over $70. I would have happily paid for the drinks but to actually present us with a bill for $70 which I paid was totally unacceptable. There was no manager in sight just 3 or 4 young girls. As we left the server once again apologized and said to us it was totally unacceptable I told her I was very disappointed. Not a place I will ever go again or...

Was so excited to go get food here. What a cute place!! It was such a good idea, Until we actually got there. It started with the hostess who told us it would be a min wait while she cleared off the table. Flash forward ten+ mins and we’re still waiting. No problem. Things get busy. But still, odd. We ordered. Our 3 apps, baby yorkies, calamari, and the mussels took 55, yes 55 minutes to arrive. Our server said “sorry for the delay” and left (didn’t come back for 17 minutes to ask us how it was) The food was cold to the touch as soon as it hit the table and I couldn’t wave her down because she bolted from the table and didn’t return back onto the patio. For 17 minutes!

We had to eat some of the stuff because we were starving and already waited about an hour for our food and she didn’t come back to ask how it was. (Stuff closes in this town pretty early for the summer. No problem, but we were starving and needed food!)

We asked if we could just totally start fresh and order something new. And she said sure, but you’ll have to pay half of the original bill.

Ya, not happening.

Server actually suggested that I should’ve tracked her down on my night out to have dinner with a guest to tell her the food was cold vs her doing the standard check after 2-3 minutes.

In the end the manager comped the meal, but we were still starving so did that really solve the problem? So we went to The Purple House and had the most amazing pizza that was HOT and service that was beyond helpful and friendly.

Don’t like to be this person but, 0 stars if I could....