The Waverley Elgin — Restaurant in Ottawa

Absolutely appalling. What used to be a place that I was delighted to show friends as a gem in Ottawa (introduced ~7 people to their establishment) became a shameful suggestion last night. Our waitress completely lacked in customer service skills and was not at all helpful when our table was ordering food or drinks. She was completely negligent to the individuals seated at a distance, I felt fortunate to be nearest to her but often had to speak on her behalf because she would not communicate effectively with the rest of the party. We are all kind people most of our group are East Coasters if that is any indicator and there were only 6 of us. There was an issue with our bills, which is completely fine, accidents happen, but we ended up waiting 20+ minutes for the issue to be resolved before we all popped in to pay. Again I believe due to a lack of experience, our server should have checked in with us but never did. At time of check out the individual who was asked who our server was, and indicated who it was, was scolded by the server who was defending herself when it wasn't necessary. We as a group wanted to pay and leave and no one was making and= effort to get her into trouble we all innocently wanted to settle up and leave but had no idea what was going on because, again, there was no effective communication happening with our table.

Previous experience here left me in delight, servers and other staff used to go above and beyond and I would have rated this place a minimum of 4 stars back then. I recognized one face last night, and he was a bartender. Drinks were awesome but the majority of the staff is dramatically different than what it used to be. They are certainly employing less experienced people to possibly save on wages. This just brings poor attitude and a lack of care for many things that a more experienced server would otherwise recognize. I don't mean to be a jerk in any of this but I am just incredibly disappointed to discover that a place I loved had turned...

I’ve gone to dinner at this place twice now, and have been disappointed and will not be coming back unfortunately.

The first time I went my server was pretty friendly, but made myself and my partner feel a bit rushed. He was by himself as far as I could tell but there weren’t many tables, so I’m not sure what the reason behind it was. I ordered the fish tacos and received chicken instead. The server apologized, and brought the fish tacos instead which I appreciated however the tacos themselves had almost no sauce, were very dry and bland. The fish was also dry itself. We paid, tipped and left.

The second time we went during Super Bowl. It was not busy despite that - a few people at the bar, and one table other than myself and my partner. Our server was great, she was friendly and accommodating - absolutely nothing wrong on her end. The issue I had was again, with the food. I ordered the balsamic glazed salmon, and asked for extra glaze since I was worried it might be dry again. I got a very bland fish with a few drizzles of sauce on top. The roasted vegetables that came with tasted as if someone washed them and threw them in the oven then onto the plate with no seasoning. The potatoes were also bland. I asked for a vinaigrette and it did not help. Our server brought me a second dish; the mushroom ravioli. It was also plain, and tasted like a microwave dinner pasta. Super disappointing. I ate a few bites and decided to just end the meal there because I didn’t want to ask the server for another dish. I offered to pay for both dishes but she said the first one was on the house, which was not necessary but appreciated.

Overall, pretty good service and an alright atmosphere but the food is terrible. Would not recommend unless you’re going for some drinks and...

I'd been here before and sat at the bar and had amazing service. I'm writing this review as a 3-star to reflect the service, not the food.

My boyfriend and I had dinner here and had made resos for Valentine's Day. We got seated and it took about 5 - 10 minutes before a waiter came by which was a bit disappointing. We were pleasantly surprised afterwards, as the waiter was very interactive and ensured we had the drinks we needed and seemed sincere when asking how our food was.

All was great, from the oysters, to the steak we both had, (was cooked almost to perfection) and the drinks. My boyfriend and I are quite adventurous and while deciding what to order we were offered the opportunity to have a special drink made by the bartender. We both enjoyed that and the drinks were good.

It wasn't until we were nearing the end of the meal that our waiter disappeared. Our drinks were empty and we hadn't asked for a bill yet. In fact, I was contemplating getting another drink. I looked around for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and didn't see the waiter anywhere in the restaurant. I even saw another patron from another table head to the bar to ask for a drink. It came to the point where I went to the bartender to ask for the bill and he almost immediately came over with the machine, (thank you!).

While we were paying, I suddenly noticed our waiter was actually bussing the table directly next to us. Absolutely no acknowledgement from him as we paid and left. The bartender however was apologetic and friendly.

I was hoping to give a better rating but when it comes to the service as a whole it was disappointing. Food was good. Not sure I'll be back for a...