Crust & Crate Fast Fired Pizza Pub — Restaurant in Ottawa

Worst dining experience I've had in years. My first experience here was great so we decided to go again tonight and take my family who are visiting from out of town. Right off the bat the vibe was bad. There were three very snotty Kardashian-like hostesses at the entrance who were extremely rude and unwelcoming. It was nearly enough to leave then, but we tried to ignore them and move past it.

After seating us at what was basically a coffee table on the patio we asked if they had any normal tables and they reluctantly showed us to a dinner table. Eventually a server came and took our drink order. After waiting nearly 10 minutes I was ready to walk-out and go to Joey Landsdowne, but was convinced by my family members to stay and give them another chance and wait some more. Meanwhile, the music (which was great if you're 13 or younger) was so loud we couldn't hear one another so we decided to move inside where it was marginally quieter. The waitress made it clear that she was not impressed. She dumped the menus in a pile at the new table and stormed off.

Next began the wait to place our order. Despite the restaurant being half-empty we were forced to wait endlessly for service. Meanwhile, there were no less than 6 staff members standing around the central area giggling and chatting. Eventually our order was taken. We then waited close to one hour for our food. In the meantime, I had to struggle to get the server's attention for refills and water, though in her defense, she was very busy chatting with her coworkers.

The food eventually arrived and was mediocre at best. The tomatoes on my burger were green and hard, some of the food was lukewarm, other dishes were super hot. I got the sense the kitchen was under-staffed, so I can cut them some slack, but I can't tolerate the abysmal service given how quiet it was and the number of staff working. There had to have been 10-12 non-kitchen staff just hanging around.

After waiting some more to finally get our plates cleared and the bill we were thrilled to get out of there. I wanted to complain to the manager, but it was clear she was no more receptive than the vast cadre of idle servers so it didn't seem worth the effort.

TLDR: Highly recommend if you like very loud music for pre-teens and an abundance of idle servers with bad attitudes. Do yourself a favour and just go to Joey Landsdowne instead. More expensive, but...

Good Evening,

Before I forget, I wanted to tell you about the amazing service our hockey team and our families received from your entire team.  From top to bottom, back of the house to front of the house we were well taken care of from the start.  We know it must have been a little disconcerting to invite roughly 50 people on a Friday evening...the busiest time for a restaurant.  We thank you for taking the risk, and all of the families wanted to know how much fun they had.

Food: fresh, fantastic, and tasty.  We had 50 people ordering everything across the menu...apps like calamari, salads, burgers, pizzas, and later some great desserts.  An open menu for a 50 top? A noble feat, as everything (but 1 pizza) was out within 15 minutes from start to finish.  No messed up orders, and no complaints at all. Service: well organized, timely, and extremely professional.  Each ticket was kept track of by jersey number which made it super simple to keep what could've been a disaster organized. Environment: Clean, inviting, and Fun!  TVs on to the Habs game (we're from Montreal), tables set, and all that we needed was set for our time together. Your waitstaff, management, and kitchen were in harmony which made us feel important on a trip that was definitely tough as we lost 2 out of 3 games in a hockey tournament.  It was amazing.

Thank you.

Again, my hats off to your staff, your food, your service and we hope to see you...

My first visit to Crust and Crate was great... We were in a hurry to eat before a movie, and service was quick and the food tasty. I was impressed and couldn't wait to return.

Unfortunately, my most recent visit for a late lunch on Fathers' Day Sunday left a lot to be desired.

Our party of 6 arrived at 13:30 or so and the restaurant was less than half-full. There appeared to be two or three servers, plus a hosts.

Despite this, service was exceptionally slow... We waited more than ten minutes for our very simple drinks order (two beers, soft drinks, coffee, and water) to arrive.

At 14:00, we ordered lunch--five burgers/sandwiches, and a salad--and waited almost 30 minutes to receive it.

The salad (C&C Power Bowl) was unimpressive; the Korean Fried Chicken burger bland; and the Crate Club sandwich, while tasty, was garnished with an unripe tomato. (Disappointing when your consider that the Ottawa Farmers' Market was operating literally 20 metres away from the restaurant.)

The plain burger patty with cheese arrived, confusingly, with fries, and the meat was overcooked and burnt. This patty should have been the best of all our burgers as it was not going to be masked by sauce... But it was the worst. (Sauce covers a lot of sins. :)

All in all, an unimpressive meal that took far too long to get to us. Based on this experience, I regret having recommended this resto to my family, and will think twice about...