Village Pantry Restaurant — Restaurant in Ontario

NEVER GOING BACK We have been there many times but our experience has only been with one of their head waitresses. Everytime we have had this young man he doesn’t even come to our table we have to get his attention to get an order after waiting a long time and doesn’t come back to offer tea or water or anything. We recently did the buffet which was down right disappointing at $15.99 a person. Buffet had dropped food all over the table and no one cleaned it up over the time and not much selection when we were there and the food was bad. You are better off to order off the menu. We have given this place many chances but are completely done with it now after the service this time yet again. My son didn’t even eat a bite on his plate he was so disappointed but of course charged needless to say we didn’t leave this male waiter a tip not felt bad at all about it he shouldn’t be working there ...this is our second experience with this man ....he never bothered to ask us if we needed water or coffee we had to get up and go to buffet ourselves as he never came to ask for our orders after waiting forever while he waited on others who got there after us. It’s was unclean and for a father’s Day family meal I was embarrassed to say the least. The tables were so crammed together we had no space and my pregnant daughter in law had someone’s chair stuck against her arms because there was no space to move. Very bad bad service and set up and I can’t inagine where these good reviews come from when we saw what we saw except from the staff and owners themself. Someob said they were newly renovated I’d can’t see where !!!!!! Save your money and go anywhere else. Sadly this isn’t the first time we have had poor service and when we told them they did nothing to rectify it not even an apology. Yep today was the last time we will go there and we heard another family say the same thing. It’s about the dollar for them not who their customers are. Disappointing never going back and they need to get rid of their young male server he’s loosing them customers but I’m assuming he’s the owners family which said a lot about his work ethics. To many strikes we are out. They’ve made a lot of money off us and I won’t spend another dime in that place. My son also found hair in his meal which is why he never ate his food. He’s not one to complain but it’s disgusting and I’d assume gainer health standards . If the company actually cared about their reputations by customers reviews they’d contact them and make it better but they never do. Not even sure they read them. They take the money and run well over time people will catch on and find new locations to go to. When you work hard for your money you expect quality it was dirty and the tables are not set up for comfortable seating and the service sucks. The last time I was there the waitress I had long dark hair literally read the paper at the counter while my food sat there getting cold for 20 minutes I was mad never left a tip couldn’t believe a manager didn’t fire her over this behaviour and she was not kind when you’d ask her for syrup or a drink which comes with your meal she acted put out to have to do her job. They could do so much better firing a few to start and cleaning up there restaurant to actually fit people as many booths or tables are to tight people can’t fit in them even reg sized peope. People shouldn’t have to have someone’s elbow in their back while they eat and they did nothing to help. Disgusting !!!!!!!sadly we will never give them another chance even the food on their buffet was either soggy for French toast or bread items of over cooked definitely not a chef cooking or one that knows food well ....NEVER GOING BACK

Ps the owners replied like a month later to my review as you can see and basically didn’t care put it on us as our fault we didn’t say anything but we did to our serve staff and to the person at the counter when we paid. The owners reply said it all and the fact you can’t reply back says it all. Getting customers is easy keeping them is an art of...

My husband and I had been looking for a new breakfast place in London as our favourite was in Chatham so we found Village pantry and it became our new favourite place. We were even planning on getting gift cards for family from there for stocking stuffers until today our last day going there. Food has been pretty good but it really depends on who is cooking or serving you that day. Today we had a young man who we have had before who has on occasion missed a bit of our order but today completely did not give us what we ordered nor offered much apology kept saying "no worries" meanwhile a breakfast for $25 people want what they pay for. I asked for deep fried potatoes which I always ask for and when he came to the table he said "well we just cooked them longer on the grill" which is not at all the same" and they were all burnt along with the onions I asked for. My husband also ordered onions but did not receive his with onions. My husband who ordered regular home fries his were cold as mine were sort of half hot half cold. We always order the same meal which includes juice and coffee or tea but we had to go ask for our drinks ours were not even offered even, not even water and it kept going after that for items needed. We were so disappointed that we "both" left very disappointed and no apology or even a discount was offered. Needless to say we did not leave a tip and although this was by far our worst experience since we first started going to this place each time it has gradually gotten worse. I don't feel the warm friendly vibe like a family restaurant would be nice to have when you have been a regular. We never complained until today. The waiter was a kind enough young man it seemed but sort of ignorant to his job but didn't bother to write anything down and just didn't know how to serve and we have had issues with a few servers forgetting things but nothing like this and clearly couldn't keep his order straight or even get it right and for two people it shouldn't have been that difficult. Sadly what the owners do not realize is that an experience like this makes a loyal customer stop coming. It's nice to come in and have a wait staff who are kind, pleasant and get what you ask and pay for. Our feelings were that maybe because we came in closer to lunch they possibly wanted to use up earlier grilled potatoes before the lunch crowd which would explain the burnt taste and them not deep frying them and only over cooking them on the grill which was not what was asked. It would explain also why they were partly cold. Needless to say we are going to be looking for a new place to be regulars at as we are always pleasant to the wait staff and our last few visits haven't been great but the worst today topped the scale and made that decision easy for us both. At the start we loved the food and I bragged about it but it's not as good as it was so I'm not sure if it's a reflection of the servers or the cooks. It just has not been consistent and the one female wait staff always look upset or depressed and also has forgot items that should come with our meal like juice which is part of the deal we get. Just some closer paying attention or care for customers would be nice. I'm sad to say we likely won't return. I have it a three star only because it once was very good and went down hill. Makes me sad because I was excited to find a new breakfast place...

We stopped here by for takeout passing through town. The name caught my attention and gave the feeling that your meal would have a home cooked feeling.

The restaurant was fairly busy for a Thursday at 1pm. There are quite a few tables inside which you wouldn’t expect from outside.

We were welcomed by a lady and were given menus to look through right away. She then carried on with serving tables.

My husband and I were discussing what we might want as we often share each other’s meals to give variety! He stopped looking at the menu first and started watching the news on the TV behind the bar. We always quite enjoy it when restaurants put on a news channel!

I was still deciding, when a gentleman came to us two minutes later and asked what we wanted to order. As I had not yet decided, he unfortunately appeared a little annoyed for a minute that my husband wouldn’t place his order until I was ready.

Everything was fine after that, he was very helpful and packed everything we needed for our takeout lunch!

We ordered the Club Sandwich and the Avocado Tomato Grilled Cheese. The Club was tasty hefty sandwich with lots of turkey and perfectly cooked bacon. The Grilled Cheese was also tasty but I would ask to hold the tomatoes next time, they made it harder to eat and made the sandwich mushy.

Overall the food was quite tasty although we were glad we took it to go as there was an odd smell lingering in the restaurant that day. Nevertheless, we did see many other things on their menu we would try on...