The Royal Oak - Wellington at Hinton — Restaurant in Ottawa

If I could give it to zero Stars, I would. To start with, it took over 10 minutes just to be recognized by our server after we seated ourselves. That was a red flag as we could tell they were short-staffed and we should have just gone elsewhere. However, just as we were about to leave, she came by and took our drink order. She told us she was the only server on hand. The restaurant was busy enough that it should have warranted a second or third person. I'm not sure the dynamics of whether or not someone called in sick or what. But we decided to stay as there was live music playing and we hoped things would improve. The drinks arrived relatively quick and we told her we were ready to order. Another 15 minutes passes and she has not been by once to refill our drinks. My wife and I both had a beer and my sons had pops. I ended up going up to the bar myself and letting her know that we would like another round. The food finally arrived and as my wife and I had joked about 5 mins prior, the order was wrong. One of my sons received the wrong kids meal. I can accept that a waitress punches in the wrong meal on most days, but our frustrations were certainly starting to mount at this point. Next was the matter of no condiments. I had to get up from my seat and grab ketchup, mustard, and relish from the nearby server counter because the waitress nor busboy were anywhere close by. After that, noooo cutlery which was not visible to go and get anywhere. I had to walk up to the bar and ask. Once my son's fish and chips arrived, the fish was so dry and rubbery that it was clear they were simply reheated, or overcooked. That was pretty much the last straw. When the waitress came back after 10 minutes and asked how things were, I voiced my displeasure and ask to speak to the manager. She arrived a few minutes later and said that her manager was willing to offer 2 free desserts. I said no thanks and that does not make up for the lack of service and poor experience. She came back 5 minutes later with our bill and both mine and my wife's meal were taken off. By this point, I was fed up and it was clear that the manager did not care to hear my concerns or talk to us. As I was paying, I had to remind our server about the kids meal desserts. While they arrived quickly, they did not come with the chocolate sauce as described in the menu. Just a scoop of ice cream.

In summary, given all the choices along Wellington and Richmond Rd, this particular Royal Oak has dropped to the faaaaaar bottom of my list....

I was insulted there today. I ordered a salad. Avocado in the salad was completely ROTTEN. I complained about that, and they replaced it with an unripe avocado. It was so unripe that I wonder how they managed to cut it at all. When the waitress asked me how it is now, I honestly said that I'm still not happy with the avocado as is very hard, but it's OK. I thought to myself, at least it's not rotten so I can leave it aside on the plate. The waitress said that she will talk to the manager and maybe they will take it out of the bill. I agreed. I still ate the salad, didn't finish though, because I wanted just to spend my time with my friend who I came with, and I didn't want to replace it with another dish because I wanted something light, and there's not many options. There were some guys sitting next to us, and one of them started asking questions about what happened. I explained to him, and also I mentioned that in some places, if something is wrong on the plate, if it's not how it's supposed to be, they chef redoes the whole dish, not like he takes something rotten from the salad and replaces it. After those guys left, the waitress came to us and said that that guy told her that I came here for free food and she doesn't want to deal with it and here's my bill with no reduction. I was SHOCKED and I couldn't take that INSULT. The friend of mine simply got furious. We wanted to talk to the manager, but she said that the manager is not there, even though she said before she's going to talk to the manager about the avocado. First of all, it wasn't my intention to not pay for the salad. If she just came to us, saying something like, sorry, we can do nothing about that, then I would pay with no question, but as she based her decision to not take the salad of the bill on another customer's words after he drank some beers, that was completely UNPROFESSIONAL. And not only they made this decision, but she dared to tell me in my face that I came for free food, and that's why I complained (of course, not because of the avocado was rotten and replaced with another one as hard as wood). I still think of talking to the manager as it was simply unprofessional. I need to mention also that she came with the bill BEFORE we asked about that and with all this story we even didn't want to finish our drinks. I left almost half of the wine I ordered. It was awful experience. Not coming...

I was there with a group, and we were in a separate area, which was great so we wouldn't disturb others. However... The music was too loud so we had difficulty talking to each other. Ruined the whole point of our finally getting together for a social event for the first time since Covid. Only one waitress for the group, and she only worked with 2-3 people at a time. Then left, came back later. Also not enough menus on the tables, so by the time I got to order food, others had already finished and were leaving. Ordered fish and chips, with salad substitution. The fish was disgusting. Breading was thick and soggy. Pulled it off to just eat the fish. Salad was fine. The waitress forgot the tartar sauce, and took forever to come back to the table, so food was cold by the time I was able to flag her down and get the tartar sauce.

Overall, a huge disappointment. Will recommend the group not return for any future events. Will definitely not come...