Whisky John's Oshawa — Restaurant in Oshawa

This is my first bad review, and it honestly deserves it.

My wife and I come regularly, since fall of 2021, pretty much weekly. To the point most servers know we do not need a menu. We placed our order with a server we haven't met (keep in mind they have a high turnover) and it was over 30 minutes for our drinks to arrive by an alternate server, though the restaurant was 1/4 capacity. Once the drinks arrived, we waited a further 20 minutes for the wings to arrive by a different server. We were missing the vegetables, dip, napkins, side plates, cutlery... and the food was stone cold.... It was clearly forgotten about and left under the warming lights what would seem like an eternity. Again, waited 15 minutes to see if the server would show her face, but didn't. Our server then showed up a few minutes later, where we asked for our cutlery and missing items, and she said she would come right back with them. (She didn't show up again until giving me the bill). I went to the bar and asked for a manager to discuss the cold food, lack of attention and all the missing items associated with eating.... Unfortunately, he wasn't receptive at all, all he said is he would remake our food and left, (didn't ask if we wanted drinks, or any apology). We waited a further 15 minutes to receive the same food back that was reheated in the oven. TOTALLY overcooked, dried out gross wings. Again, missing the vegetables, side plates, or anything to eat the food with. after a further 5 minutes, our server appeared and presented the missing vegetables, and we requested another round of drinks. The drinks, they never showed, I told the bartender after waiting 10 minutes to cancel the drinks because at that point we just wanted to leave. We never did see our server, we had to flag another down just to request the bill. Food was comped, and rightfully so.. Waited a further 10 minutes to pay the balance of the 2 drinks and left. Management or the server did not care one bit. Majority of the staff just congregated at the bar to chat between themselves. (1:45minutes to get cold and over cooked wings and 2 drinks is horrendous, given the place was only 1/4 capacity and at least 7-8 people working the floor).

Its a shame as we really loved our past experiences there, however the service has made a rapid decline, and some certainly neglect the customers or even provide a sub standard experience. After 30+ visits, we wont come back, or make any more recommendations to friends based on our past few visits over the past 2 months. The management certainly doesn't care about the customers, that was evident, or the reputation of the business. Shame as it has potential. Food was always great (when served when it should have been), its the service (or lack there of) that ruins the enjoyment of going...

This was one of the worst dinning experiences I've ever had. My gf and I came out for dinner to celebrate a successfully event I had earlier in the day.

It started off on a bad note the second we got in the door, with how long it took us to even have a server come to our table. She eventually showed up after about 10 minutes and though her service was pleasant, she was not very attentive and we went long stretches of time without being checked on or having our drinks refilled or food quality checked, despite the floor being relatively empty. It happens, but still frustrating.

Things got worse when at a point, some DJ, who must have been part of the make a wish program for he surely can't have been getting paid, considering how god awful his music selection was, how obnoxiously loud the music was and the fact that he felt the need to continuously interrupt whatever song he was playing in order to should something indistinguishable into the mic or use the same cheap effect over and over. Very obnoxious.

The icing on the cake, that resulted in us leaving without finishing our meals was when the lights were turned off, despite no one being on the dance floor making it virtually impossible to see the food on my plate or my partner sitting across the table from me 3 feet away.

I had to eventually go to the bar and tell the bartender that we were going to leave and wanted our bill and takeout containers as after looking everywhere else saw no trace of our server who had dropped off our food and never reappeared.

I'd like to say that I haven't had similar experiences at the Brooklin location, but that wouldn't be true. As a former regular patron I was surprised to see how drastically downhill the service and management at this establishment had gone and warn future guests to rethink giving Whisky John's their patronage if you value your money, time, eardrums or...

...this one is a mix for me. Their wings are top notch. Huge, cooked right, and available in a variety of interesting flavours although not all of the flavours are fantastic. Their jerk for example is the typical "don't really know how to do it" way of making it a sauce to put on afterwards instead of a marinade that you would put on beforehand, then bake the chicken...how the Jamaicans do it. They invented it after all. My real reason for writing this review though goes down a darker path. I ordered their lamb rolls, a deep-fried dish with curried chunks of lamb inside. While it tasted okay, I found the curry flavour extremely potent. Not hot...very strong. That I could deal with. However when I went to bed that night, about 5 hours after I ate it, I developed the WORST heartburn I have ever had in my entire life! I have tried the hottest peppers/foods from all over the world and have had heartburn to varying degrees, but not like this. In fact it was so bad it would seem to erupt suddenly in my stomach and come up as vomit, waking me up suddenly and causing me to rush to the bathroom choking and throwing up! This continued all night long, at least 10 times causing some pretty scary moments of me waking up choking. I drank some milk, which always soothes my stomach (I know this doesn't work for everyone) and even took my prescription heartburn/reflux pills which can get me through an entire day to no avail! I don't know how Whiskey John's prepared this dish but I STRONGLY recommended taking it off the menu or reconsidering how you make it because, no exaggeration, I nearly choked to death in my sleep multiple times from severe heartburn and vomiting. Just for context, I am writing this review at 3am, on the toilet this...