Portly Piper Pub Oshawa — Restaurant in Oshawa

We stopped in Oshawa for dinner after being delayed by a nearby accident and chose Portly Piper Pub based on its 3,000+ reviews and 4.3-star rating. Parking seemed limited at first, but there’s more available in the back. Just a tip: be careful not to miss the entrance, since exiting is a one-way street and re-entering can be tricky.

We arrived around 6:45 pm and saw a small line with two groups ahead, but the place is much bigger than it looks from the outside and we were seated quickly in a comfortable booth for four. The pub was clean, and I was especially surprised at how spacious and tidy the washrooms were—not what I usually expect from a pub, which tend to feel older and worn.

The menu is huge, and TVs are everywhere—even in our booth. Between us, we tried a good range of dishes: Caprese Salad with Steak – nicely balanced with pesto, though the steak was a little dry. Fish and Chips – incredible portion for $18! Crispy, perfectly cooked fish with fries, coleslaw, and even a Caesar salad. The fries were well-seasoned (no ketchup needed), coleslaw was enjoyable despite me usually not liking it, and the Caesar was delicious. Mexican Salad – flavorful, fresh, and generous in portion. Tuesday Wing Special – wings were $0.90 each, so I ordered 15 with a Coke Zero. The garlic Parmesan was disappointing—dry and lacking flavor—but the Buffalo ranch wings were tender and spot-on.

Service was friendly, though our waitress could have been more proactive with drink and water refills.

Overall, I was impressed. Clean space, huge portions, good value, and a welcoming pub atmosphere. Definitely a solid stop if you’re...

As always the food is great however the reservation experience was terrible. We booked a reservation for 6:30, leaving arrived at 5:55.

However we never even got our full reservation to a point where some of our friends had to leave because it was too busy. For one in reservation is booked you should already have the table cleared off and ready and not be allowing other people to sit there beforehand. We were told that the table next to us had been there for 3 hours. If that's the case then you should be asking them to leave if they've already paid and had their meal then there should be an issue to say that hey we have this table booked for people at 6:30 it's already 7:00 now they've been waiting an hour at this point.

Just very unorganized and chaotic, even the spot they told us to stand in we were blocking the pathway for everyone, at which point even a customer walked by me and said can you guys move out of the way you're right in front of the path. They told us to stand here meanwhile we've been standing there for 50 minutes at that point.

And honestly just felt like a first come first serve basis it seem to have made no difference making a reservation.

It was unfortunate to you as it was my birthday and we did expect 12 to 14 people to come and we were unable to have everybody sit and I had to tell some of my friends that they have to go eat somewhere else which was pretty embarrassing.

I would not recommend making a...

My husband and I decided to go here after my father-in-law suggested it as he is a regular customer and it's one of his favorite places to go.

They had a special on for a pound of wings and a beer so we got wings and another appetizer to start. I can't remember the name of the appetizer but it was a Thai chicken strip dish and it was really excellent and my husband said the wings were the best he's ever had. We both had burgers and they were huge and delicious. The food was amazing all around.

The only issue we had was handled better than any other restaurant I've been to. When the burgers were brought out to our table there was a small thread on my husband's burger but it appeared as though it was from packaging from something in the kitchen and we deducted that it wasn't a big deal so he picked it out and ate the burger anyway. I mean this thread was tiny. I've worked in restaurants for years and understand that sometimes things get missed. After our meal, when we were about to pay, we mentioned it to the waitress so she could tell the kitchen staff. We were not upset by any means and he ate the burger (which was amazing) despite the thread so we didn't ask for it to come off the bill. Without hesitation the server notified the manager who then came over to our table to formally apologize and took the burger off of our bill.

We were amazed. They were so professional! We had an excellent experience here and...