Boston Pizza — Restaurant in Ottawa

Food typical of a BP. Customer service/professionalism/integrity questionable.

The short: If you want to "reserve" a table in the sports bar to watch a NHL playoff game do not phone early in the day and ask to make a reservation. Just phone later in the day and ask for a table to be "held" for you (and your party) for a specific time.

The long: Went to this location to watch a NHL playoff game and, when calling about reservations, we were told that reservations are not accepted for the sports bar. It was indicated that if we arrived by 2 - 2:15 pm (the game was at 3:30 pm) we should be able to get seats. We decided to meet at 1:30 pm to get the best possible seats. I arrived first and was given my choice of seats picking a hightop well situated in front of a large screen TV with several other screens nearby.

Shortly after being seated I was asked to move. When I asked why the manager told me the table was reserved. I relayed the details of the call made earlier in the day and she then asked if I was with the party of 8 for "Janet" (my party was a party of 6). When I said I wasn't she reiterated that I had to move and told me it wasn't a "reservation" it was a "hold" and there was nowhere else for the party of 8 to sit (the sports bar was empty at this point). After some back and forth where I asked what the difference was between a "reservation" and a "hold" (during which time I was complying by moving in spite of my displeasure) never getting a satisfactory response and, from my perspective, being addressed in an unprofessional and disrespectful manner. Once I was situated at the new table the manager walked away mid-sentence. Had myself and my party felt we had time to switch establishments AND get a good table we would have choosing to stay to watch the game. At no time was it suggested (or asked) that I take my business elsewhere.

From this point on the only adequate service myself or my party received was from a server who we knew who was coming off shift. To the best of our knowledge she was not serving in that section yet, when she saw we were not being attended to, she took it upon herself to take our orders before leaving.

Myself and my party recognized that when I interacted with the bartender (she was supposed to be serving us) we were all treated in a brusque, impatient manner so we agreed to have other members of the table ask when we wanted service. Often we had to resort to asking other servers to assist us. Fortunately we were seated at the end of the bar near the till so we often could get someone to serve us if asked yet it became apparent my interaction with the manager earlier was the motivation for such poor service. This was in spite of me saying "please" and "thank you" with every interaction (particularly after identifying the staff's apparent friction with me) and never raising my voice even when interacting with the manager earlier in the day.

Prior to the game starting the table that had been "reserved" was still empty (the "hold" never showed) and the staff allowed another party seated elsewhere in the sports bar to move to that location. My party was not approached with an offer to switch prior to this being allowed (in spite of being at the bar over an hour earlier). This seemed to prompt the manager to reengage with, what I can only assume was a conciliatory act, of informing us that the reservation never showed and giving us a bunch of Molson Canadian promotional cards (which seemed odd given there were children under the legal drinking age). No apology was offered or any other sort of restitution mentioned.

Based on my experience, my perspective is: The managers at this location are always "right" even when they are "wrong" and the customer is...

Went twice over the last two weeks for family celebrations. The first time, as a group of five adults and two children and the second time was just my mom and I with my two kids. Both times, we felt as if we were an annoyance to our server as she wasn't friendly or welcoming at all. It was a damper on our first family gathering- we were celebrating the first anniversary of my son's life saving bone marrow transplant and it was our first family restaurant gathering in more than two years. We had really been hoping for an uplifting, great family meal but instead felt like a bother asking for mustard for my husband's burger, and refills on our drinks.

We went again this past week to celebrate the first week of school, and had the same server- I'm sorry to say the service was even worse. She brought us our drinks then pulled a handful of straws out of her apron pocket, all of them flattened and bent as if they'd been sitting in her pocket the whole shift. Gross.

While she was at the table taking our orders, my son accidentally spilled a small amount of his cotton candy drink on the table, causing my mom and I to fumble quickly unwrapping cutlery to use the napkins to clean up the spill. Our server, a witness to the whole thing, never offered to grab a rag, take the wet napkins, or replace the napkins which we were now out of.

After another server brought us our food, and our main server never once returned to check on our food, refill the drinks (we had moved the cups to the edge of the table so she would see they were empty on her way by) or take the wet napkins that were still sitting on our table from our drink clean-up. When she finally did arrive to ask what the kids wanted for their dessert, there was no offer to refill our drinks or to even take the empty cups.

It wasn't busy at all. Only 1/3 of the tables in the restaurant were full, IF that, and I had seen a lot of our server talking to the other tables she was looking after.

I was very hesitant to tip out of principle, as this had now been two experiences with the same server that was really sub-par, but in this day and age of heavy inflation, I didn't want to mess with someone's income that they rely on to pay their bills. But tip or not, we were very unhappy and left both times feeling less happy than we were when we arrived.

We love Boston Pizza, especially the kids, and will likely be back regardless, because the food is always great (This is why I gave three stars instead of one.) I just hope next time we are greeted by a more welcoming and...

I'm not usually one to leave reviews, let alone negative ones, but I'm appalled at whoever the hostess was working around 2:45PM Sunday September 7th.

I entered the doors and was in the restaurant for a total of five seconds when she came around yelling at me. Not even a hello. I asked her to repeat herself hoping she realised she's talking to the wrong person, because I have never met this lady before.

To begin, I was picking up an order for Uber Eats, and I always make sure I'm respectful and courteous when entering a restaurant. I'm not on the phone, make sure to hello, and ask respectfully for my order.

So to not get basic respect left a horrible taste in my mouth. The issue she said was for reporting that I had been waiting for three minutes (?) even though I had just arrived.

Yes, I had just arrived and I had told her I had no idea what she was talking about. All that can be done from my end is verify an order and complete the pickup. To top it all off, she proceeds to ignore me and serves the gentleman who entered literally two seconds behind me.

As someone who likes to come here as a guest, I have to say having this level of unprofessionalism no matter who is walking through the door should be a must, especially for such a huge franchise.

It's one thing if you're having a bad day, but to take it out on somebody who has just entered your doors is another.

I left by saying that next time she should treat me like a human being instead of immediately being met with vitriol for something that was either out of my control or some sort of automatic alerting from Uber. I still am not sure what she was so angry about.

I hope nobody else has the displeasure of being treated so horribly, and I do hope that this particular staff member is trained better.

Since I will still have to do pick ups here, I will see if the attitude remains the same.

Honestly, still in shock since this has never happened to me or anyone I know before.

TLDR; Disrespectful hostess, maximum levels of unprofessionalism and a terrible impression left...