Alice's Village Cafe — Restaurant in Ottawa

To start off with the positives. We had a waitress, who when delivering our food, took the time to listen to my niece mention over and over again that she was cold and if the cafe could turn off their air con, (which they weren’t going to do), but the waitress then went off and came back with a blanket, that my niece could not have been more happy about. I can’t and won’t find any fault for waiters and waitresses in their very busy jobs not having the time to listen to the ramblings of a small child, but when someone does and does something about whatever the child is speaking about, I have to give them massive props. I just want to thank her again for doing that. It was definitely one of the best experiences I have had dining out with my niece. Majority of the other waiters and waitresses we had were also lovely, and the food was quite good and well priced, and I can understand why this is one of the top places in Carp to visit.

Unfortunately, at the end of our meal, we had something weird happen, and weird is the best word I can think to explain it. To keep this short and hopefully not confusing, at this cafe they have this, in my experience, unique, but very interesting, way of pricing things. In our regard, my sister ordered the waffles which included berry sauce and whipped cream, and was listed as being all inclusive for $13.75 on th menu but than on the bill it came out to being listed as $13 for the waffles and very sauce and $0.75 for the whipped cream. Unfortunately, as it was slightly confusing, my sister believed she had been charged extra, and wanted to ask why the meal is separated on receipt but not the menu and also about her being ‘overcharged’.

Anyways, we had a conversation with our waiter to gain some clarity on this whole thing, which went fine, I genuinely believe, if a bit strained. He offered to take the charge off, and then left for 10 minutes as he offered to go grab someone more knowledgeable on the menu, and we said sure to that. Anyways, while he was gone, we realized our mistake, agreed to say so to the person he bought back but still ask some clarity questions we had, and then moved our conversation onto to other topics. Then, the same waiter came back alone with our receipt printed out and a printed menu, and this is where frankly the train went off the tracks. He kept on going on about the whipped cream and how my sister should have just asked for it not to be there, and how he wasn’t taking the charged off, and how this pricing is just how they do it, and how you can order anything to be removed and get a discount on your meal, well not anything, and how he didn’t make the menu, and how this was common, and how my sister just needed to ask and they could have had a conversation about it before the meal, and on and on. Finally, after my sister tried to explain how she was mistaken and tried to ask a question, she finally went so ‘you said you were going to go get someone but then just came back to argue’ and he said ‘well they were busy, this is a busy restaurant, you know?’ And she said ‘ok, so you just came back to argue’, and he said ‘yes’, so I guess that was the whole point of that second conversation. After he said ‘yes’, my sister tried to disengage from the conversation as it was going nowhere, but he would not get the hint. I had to jump in and say we were just going to pay online before he finally just left. I think the way they do pricing and the menu is very unique and good, and if they do offer discounts on things being removed from a meal, they should say that on the menu. Make it known to people, why not?

I genuinely hope he got out of that conversation whatever he wanted to, cause we did not and generally don’t know what happened. That was embarrassing for everyone. Anyways, I don’t know what to say about this place, as I had one of the best and one of the worst dine in experiences in the same meal. I will say that I have been to other cafes in Carp and they were lovely, so don’t feel like this is the only place worth eating at...

I would characterize my experience at Alice within 3 parts: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good: food was al right and it is a great atmosphere as in my review we had the opportunity to experience it for a very long time.

I generally rate businesses not only on the initial service but more importantly, how they take care of customers when thing go wrong. In this case they failed miserably - the worst I've ever experienced!

On with the review...

The bad: we were quoted 15 minutes for a table for 3 to open up. No big deal, we were hungry and the restaurant looked nice, so we were happy to wait. After about 30 minutes I approached the hostess and asked if a table would come available soon. We were told nothing had come open yet. After 45 minutes we were sat.

The ugly: we got drinks fairly quickly, and placed our orders within about 5 minutes of sitting down, since we had long enough of a wait to look at the menu. We patiently wait. After about 30 minutes, and noticing people who were seated at a similar time to us received their food, we flag down our server to say it’s been a while since we ordered. He replies “oh, you think so?” As if he had not noticed us sitting there with no food, long after other tables received theirs. He says he’ll check for us. We’re hoping it comes out soon, as we’ve only ordered sandwiches and a burger. About 10 minutes later a different server comes out (we can only assume she was a server, as she didn’t mention anything about being a manager), sets down some chips, and apologizes for the wait. Another 10 minutes pass as we sit with the chips. It’s now been almost an hour since we ordered. No one has followed up with what’s happening. The people who were sat at a similar time as us have all finished their meals. 5 minutes later, our server comes out, apologizes and says the food is free, we’ll just have to pay for our drinks, and it should be only 5 more minutes. We watch other tables, sat longggg after us, receive their food. 10 minutes pass, he comes out, says the 5 minutes have come and gone, and our bill is entirely on the house. Another 5 minutes pass and we get our food. After receiving our food the staff seems to be hiding from us, and we are offered no refills on coffee, water, or checked up on as to how the food is. It has taken over an hour for us to receive our food. Another server (who knows, this woman again didn’t introduce herself) comes out and says “oh sorry for the wait, I heard your food took a while” as she picks up our plates. We are never told what happened, sent a manager to talk to us, or even really acknowledged for the remainder of the meal. Total, from the time we asked for a table, to the time we left, it took 2 hours and 15 minutes. Of which 15 was spent eating. Because we wasted so much time on our “quick” lunch stop, we were not able to tour my daughter around her new university campus as we had planned. Absolutely would...

This pains me to write, as I am a local who has loved coming to Alice's for many years. I have no idea what happened, but this Sunday was really an unfortunate experience. We were seated on the patio, in a highly visible spot, and we never received our food. Our drink orders were taken, we received those - but the only other time in 2 hours approx. that our server approached us was to tell us it would be ready soon, and we waited about another hour, still nothing. We were never asked if we wanted anything else to drink or re-fill on water, even though we pushed two empty glasses to the edge of the table. We did however watch at least 4 tables enter well after us, eat and leave both from indoors and the patio. We heard the server rather abruptly tell an older couple behind us who also asked for an update "she would ask what was going on", so I thought she would be checking on ours as well. We'd given up at the 2 hour mark (we waited so long because I was giving Alice's the benefit of the doubt, having loved it before), and went inside to ask to pay for the two drinks we had and go. Our server seemed completely unaware of what was happening. She told us sorry, but staff were on vacation (understandable), but then she told us repeatedly someone else paid our bill, and she had no record of us. I tried to ask for clarification, when she then added she just went and threw out our ticket in the kitchen? The manner in which were being talked to was blunt and non-apologetic, and seemed to suggest she thought we ate, and someone else paid the bill, and like we were in the wrong somehow? I re-iterated that she did take our food order, and we got nothing. In reality, seems like the staff made a mistake and someone else was billed for our food by mixing up table numbers; or the ticket order was never entered at all, or it was closed prematurely in error, so the kitchen even get our order? There was no honesty or accountability for a genuine mistake which might have taken place on their part, and a sense of defensiveness from her when we tried to do the right thing and pay and leave. Thanks to the other two ladies though who stuck around the cash, and who promptly grabbed me a cinnamon bun, which I paid for, before I left - thanks! I have worked in a restaurant, I know how mistakes happen; and how kitchens can be slammed. I get how short staffing means longer waits. To make it right would have meant checking in on the table for water re-fills at least, communicating with us...