The Barley Mow (Westboro) — Restaurant in Ottawa

The restaurant was mostly empty early Saturday night when I went. Yet, we were put beside a table with a small child which would scream bloody murder at random intervals (happened every couple minutes). I'm usually fine with kids who are upset but this was high pitched and very, very frequent.

Now I know they have no control over the screaming (they do over the seating though), but something they do have control on is the service and food.

The waiter could not care less about our table or the table next to us. Took him 15-20min to come see me when I sat at the table, my friends had been there for another 20min and had only their drinks served. He asked me if I wanted water, I said yes. He said be right back. It took him another 20 minutes to come back.

Finally we ordered. I was informed a small little plastic cup serving of Mayo was an extra dollar! Same for an extra of the small serving container of ranch sauce for my sticky fingers. I think that's a bit cheap to be honest. Almost everywhere gives at least free mayo or at least puts condiments like ketchup and salt on the table.

All night this guy server paid us pretty much no attention and reminder the restaurant was very quiet. It's not like he was the only server on a busy night.

Here is another example of bad service, I asked for a bill because I had to leave early, took him over 10 min to bring the bill, another 5-10 to bring the machine. He finally sets it up, hands it to me and leaves right away.

I pay, rip the receipts off myself and then the machine stays on our table for a solid 15+ minutes before he comes back. My friend was like "I have honestly never seen anyone leave one of these expensive machines on a table for so long"

The servers attitude was honestly just rude. His face expressionless, his answers curt and short. He seemed annoyed with us the whole time. We were only six not noisy or demanding in our orders so I don't think we did anything

The food was also so, so. Portions were small. Someone at the table got a poutine and barely ate any because she said it's was not so good. The people behind us ordered gluten free, the same server had to be called over instead of his just checking on them at the same time as he brought me water. The woman says "Is this gluten free? We ordered Gluten free" Server says in an annoyed tone "The bun is gluten free, but there gluten in the mustard and in this and this." Why wasn't that all taken off before it arrived to the customer who was maybe Celiac? Or even better, why wasn't that mentioned when she said she wanted a gluten free bun?

It's not the first time this place and the service has left me feeling bummed and frustrated. It's also frustrating because the Barley Mow closer to where I live has such a completely different atmosphere and amazing service. I would avoid this location if at...

Being the long weekend, I expected a pub/restaurant to be reasonably busy on such a nice day. Given this, I was expecting slower than usual service.

However, after boiling in the sun for nearly 20 minutes on the patio we had to ask a server to bring us menus/take our drink orders, which took another 20 minutes to arrive. Another 20 minutes passed before we again had to ask for someone to take our food orders.

I wasn’t looking for a full course meal, so I ordered the Meatbowl “shareable” to split with a friend. For $17 we received a disappointingly small bread loaf (about 1/4 the size of a standard grocery store loaf of bread), and about 5 or 6 meatballs in tomato sauce.

My other friend ordered a crispy chicken wrap off the regular meal menu, with substituted sweet potato fries for an extra $2. This wrap, like the meatbowl was delicious, yet contained only about a 1/4 of a chicken breast, leaving the rest of the wrap to be stuffed with lettuce. As for the sweet potato fries, there was about a small handful and should not be considered a side to a meal that costs more than $10 dollars.

Unfortunately, the hyper-inflated cost of the food and drinks ruined our experience and meant we could not tip our waitress as much as she probably deserved.

My portion of the bill came to roughly $70, but with everything considered I tipped only $10. If the price was lower to reflect the portions, or if the portions were larger to reflect the price, I would have happily tipped our waitress more.

Essentially, the restaurant is making a fortune with high cost food/drinks and the servers are...

A few weeks ago, a group of 11 of us had a reservation and came over for lunch on a Tuesday to sit up on the patio. Everyone's food arrived to the table at different times, never a good sign. One person had a very burnt veggie burger that she was disappointed with. I ordered the fish and chips, something a pub should be perfect at! My piece of fish was very thin and small and the batter was super thin as well., almost non-existent. It was very over cooked and dried out. A total let down. I upgraded to the parmesan truffle fries which were an even bigger let down. I was served super greasy french fries with no extra taste. Parmesan and truffle are strong flavors, but I couldn't taste a thing. Someone else upgraded to those fries too, and at the bottom of her bowl of fries, there was a ton of oil/grease in the bottom. Super disgusting. If you're in this area for lunch or dinner and looking for incredible fish and chips, go down the street to The Royal Oak - their fish and chips are out of this world and the service is phenominal! I will NOT be back to Barley Mow, dried out greasy meals just...