Chuck's Roadhouse Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Ottawa

I really hate to write reviews, and it sounds cliche but I've worked in the industry for 30 years and still serve, so this place is so frustrating to me. The food is solid and affordable and the drink specials are great as well... It's just too bad that it's seemingly run / managed so badly. Its just that the product is great but no one cares about the actual business or staff that supports it - make the money that night, close early to party and everything else gets swept under the rug, so to say.

I have now been there three times, today was the make or break: The first time was awesome; knowledgeable server, fast response and all around attentive, which is why I went back the 2nd time but unfortunately that experience was below sub par. My wife and I showed up 30-45 minutes before last call for a beer before going home after a baseball game. We were immediately told that they did last call already and every staff member was 100% 'over it' despite several bar tables which, upon chatting would like another round or two to watch the game that was on. After a little back and forth the bartender made it sound like he would do us a favor and "sneak" us a quick beer. He then immediately started to stack the stools on the tables around us. Keep in mind this was still 30ish minutes before advertised closing. Thanks for making me feel welcome.

Tonight I thought I would roll the dice and try it again. Honestly that was a bad decision. Again, had great food and solid drink deals but the service and overall experience sucked - and not because of our server. We were one of the first tables on the patio because the inside was full due to Copa America, which has been going on all month - that's fine, but staff accordingly. The patio became pretty full very quickly. The ONE server that was out there tried her absolute best to get things done - she had 14-16 tables including a team or two. I would say she did very well due to the circumstances. It's not her fault she had such little support or help - there were a few runners but they would literally drop things off and run. Requests for condiments - even when going inside and saying 'I'll wait here for it' was answered with 'I'll bring it to you' for it not to show up.

At the end of our bad experience I asked to speak to the manager just for feedback and wanted to let them know that I had a bad experience. The server did as well as she was set up for so I made sure to pay and tip first before asking to speak to the manager. After waiting a few minutes, the manager did come out to chat. At no point did he introduce himself, even though I gave my own name, which I find a little weird. While being calm and reasonable, I let him know that I had a terrible experience with a brief explanation. He more or less pretty much just left me standing there while I was still explaining myself and giving reasonable feedback (and lauding the servers efforts)

I don't get it, I had paid my bill, I wasn't looking for a handout... Just expressing how hard the server worked with absolutely no support and was essentially on a one man island. The person that said that were the manager made no effort to understand or care about the situation. I will definitely not be returning and I will also not recommend this place to anyone at anytime. I will actually due the complete opposite and it's unfortunate because the food is good, the prices great but the servers seem like the only ones that care with...

We'd heard a lot of good things about Chuck's and decided to try it. Our first couple of tries, the place was so packed we didn't even try to get in. Thinking that was a good sign, we tried lunch, and likely won't be back. The place is small, and oddly open concept. When you walk in you are greeted by a tiny entry way, a sign asking you to please wait... and a solid wall of sound. There is no baffling or dividing walls, and the booths are simply tables with bench seats that hit mid back. Because of this, it's an echo-chamber; the music is extremely loud, and the voices of people shouting over it is nuts. Took us a while to be served. The server was curt, seemed disappointed we weren't there to get sloshed, and really gave the impression she'd rather be anywhere else. This is a theme will most of the staff; no one was nasty, but no one was pleasant. We ordered the Garlic pan bread to start. The bread was soft, and quite tasty once you pulled off the burnt top. What it didn't have was any garlic. No garlic butter in the pan or on the bread. I'd have commented, but that would have required someone wandering by the table, so didn't happen. For our mains were both chose sandwiches. They arrived with boring, basic, tasteless, undercooked fries (what you'd expect to find in a school cafeteria) and Chucks BBQ sauce that was okay, but had no depth of flavour and tasted watered down. My Philly sandwich was fantastic. The meat tasted fresh, the veggies perfectly cooked, and the cheese, while not plentiful, tasted like cheese. My companions chicken club was equally delicious. Both sandwiches were slighy over toasted. Not burnt, but very crispy. We skipped desert. Overall - meh. Chuck's can't seem to decide if it's a family restaurant or a sports bar. There are huge tv's everywhere, all playing sports, and the bar takes up half the place. I have no idea why restaurants/bars think showing interviews, game highlights, or news with neither sound nor subtitles works. It doesn't. Not that we'd have able to hear it over the music, but subtitles would have helped. Overall, it's cheap, it's a better option than Ikea (who have better fries btw, and that's just sad), but excellent sandwiches don't make up for the headache inducing atmosphere, the indifferent staff or the garlic bread without garlic. Don't expect much, but it's a LOT cheaper than Big Rig...

I had given Chuck's a 5 star review early in the year, but something has changed, and the place is not the same. I've contacted head office 2 times through their contact us form in the last 2 weeks, and nobody has contacted me to discuss my points. I always give positive reviews because it's important to use Google reviews for complimenting a business and not complaining about it. Look at the reviews in the last few months for Chuck's, and many of them are now negative compared to before. On Dec 26th, I brought 5 members of my family, the music was so loud, the nice server had to ask us to repeat our orders every time. We could barely talk at the table, and it was crazy to repeat every food and drink order. On Dec 31, only a few days later, I brought friends from across the city to Chuck's saying it was a great place. This is the worst story. There were lots of sports games on TV from World Juniors to NFL to the Sens game at 6 pm, so we arrived at 3 pm. The sign on the door said they were open until 9 pm. The atmosphere is like a sports bar with lots of TVs except it doesn't feel like it. We got last call at 750pm, which is too early. They started to put the chairs up on the bar and tables around us, and the best part was they turned off the TVs at 810pm. We were watching the Sens game and the Packers and Vikings game!! We asked why this was happening, and the bartender whose picture is in another negative review said because "he wanted to go home." Crazy! We had spent 5 hours at Chucks and ordered lots of drinks and two rounds of food - not good treatment for a regular customer. They reluctantly turned the TVs back on - see my photo from our seats. Some TVs didn't come back on, they weren't on the same sports channels, and we had to look through chairs that they should have put up on the bar after we left. I have never been to a restaurant where this happens. Earlier in the year, they called last call an hour before the bar closed and the place was packed - see video. The washrooms also stink really bad and have for a while now. Chucks is not as busy as it used to be, and it's obvious why that is. Fix the service! And an update, I have contacted their email address as I was asked to do in their reply TWICE - days a part - and nobody gets...