Pickle Barrel — Restaurant in Pickering

Update (Dec 2024): Kid's menu changed, salmon option is no longer offered, most items are $10.99-11.99. Service was almost non-existent. Our server took our order and came to check on us immediately after our food was dropped off, I didn' even get a bite in yet. Unfortunately, that was the one and only time we checked up on. We sat for a long time after we were finished eating before attempting to flag down our server. When he finally made his way to our table, we asked for the bill, and he asked what we wanted for our daughter's kids meal dessert, a choice of cookie or sundae. After dropping off the cookie and a box for my daughter's half burger left over, our server proceeded to take care of a large table that was celebrating a birthday, bringing out cake. However, he then continued to do other things, including making drinks for other diners, all while we were waiting for our bill. Even at the end, he never asked how our food or experience was, which did have issues, as my chicken cutlet was quite burnt. For a $100 simple meal for 2+kid, I expected better service than this.

Food: The butternut squash soup of the day was odd with a heavy sprinkle of nutmeg. The caesar salad was dressed well and at a good portion. The mac and cheese poppers were tasty, but only 3 pieces. My chicken parmesan flavour was decent, unfortunately 1/3 of my chicken was quite burnt and very off-putting. My daughter got the burger Kid's meal, she enjoyed it.

Original review: A good menu variety! Family friendly with a separate kids menu.

Kids menu is ordered in 4 steps: beverage, main, side, and dessert. Most of the mains were $9.99 with the exception of the teriyaki salmon which was $13.99. It has a good variety suitable for brunch/lunch and dinner. We got the salmon with caesar salad side, a milk, and the chocolate sundae for our daughter, all her picks. The salmon was slightly overdone for my standards but the portion was huge, not a half portion, and much appreciated, especially as it's from the kid's meal. The teriyaki sauce came on the same and was immediately spilled/poured everywhere by excited little fingers. My daughter (3yo) even had to take home half the salmon and almost all the salad. Of course, she had room for half her sundae. It was served in a bowl about 3inches diameter but it was so shallow that everytime she scooped, ice cream would fall over the edge. It was a messy eat but a good value meal overall.

Mains: 3.5/5: My husband tried the Pesto Feta Sirloin, cooked medium rare, and came with a side of beans. He added sauteed mushrooms and upgraded the potato side to loaded mashed potato. The cook was good, but the pesto sauce took away from the natural flavour of the meat instead of complement it.

5/5: I got the Lobster and Shrimp Linguine with white wine garlic cream sauce. It was cooked well, flavour was fantastic and there were large morsels of lobster and visible and unbroken claw meat. The shrimps were large and had that fresh, crisp bite.

Starters: 5/5 shrimp and salad; 2/5 cream of broccoli Our steak and pasta dishes came with a starter, choice of soup, caesar, or mixed greens. We got a caesar and cream of broccoli. The caesar was well made, but the soup was disappointing. It tasted more like cream of mixed veggies, almost completely without any hint of broccoli, and heavy on potato or cornstarch to thicken. We also got a Coconut Crusted Shrimp, and confirmed the sweet Thai chili dipping sauce came on the side so our daughter could try it. It was crispy and sweet from the coconut, we all enjoyed!

Service: 3.5/5 We arrived at 7pm and there were quite a number of other patrons including a large party table. The server was courteous, but service was slow. Each table appears to only have a set of 2 tableware, so when the food came my husband needed to wait to ask for another fork as my daughter was already eating. We also asked for extra napkins, knowing our daughter, but wasn't given any until the server saw the teriyaki...

We get here and they made us wait but lied about the tables needing to be cleaned when they were already cleaned. I asked several questions naturally as a result before we wrote our name down to reserve a table and waited in our vehicle. During that time— a bunch of their staff members all came out and were talking about us. Then another kid comes out and starts grilling me over and over while I am sitting in my vehicle. He begins tapping his feet and acting tough because he assumed it would intimidate me. He was doing it in the presence of the same server that was talking to us earlier. They were clearly talking about us and later she admitted they were. I stuck my head out my vehicle to ask “what’s up?” And that’s when the kid knew I was the wrong guy for his little display of intimidation. He quickly scurried away and dropped all that bravado he had earlier. He was leaned on the table, kept looking at me and flicking his shirt near the belt like he had a gun while gripping his belt line and tapping his feet. I know body language really well and picked up on it. Hence why when the server called us to sit us down— and I asked her why they were talking about me; she said I was just telling that guy that “he will probably call the manager”.

When I spoke to the manager, she was apologetic and treated us well throughout the evening for their staff’s behaviour. Even gave us a discount at the end of out meal which was unexpected. I have security concerns due to my notoriety in the Music industry as well public service and my tenures. People want to engage in lengthy conversations when they recognize me out in public. Hence why we wanted to sit in quicker than later. Even after somewhat knowing who I was— the staff offered us the corners of the restaurant with poor tables. When we said no to the tables on the right, they took us to the left with even small tables and near the garbage disposer. Lol I was appalled and felt disrespected. The table was so tiny that our food wouldn’t even properly fit on it. Not to mention it’s disrespectful to offer a small table to a guest period let alone someone older and that you clearly know is a VIP guest from the subtle hints and statements. The manager was able to eventually get us a respectable table.

If it wasn’t for that— I would have left a one start rating. The calamari was terrible. Worst I have had in Toronto (I genuinely mean that). My shrimp bowl was soggy but I appreciated the regular (pre-covid) portion shrimps in the bowl (Fiesta Bowl). I was told we would only add 4-5 shrimps which I was surprised by but the manager went ahead and added more. I didn’t ask for it but the fact that she did it was nice of her. I appreciated that. The shrimps tasted old and the texture was soggy as opposed to meaty like reasonably freshly opened out the sealed bag shrimps taste like. They still had their tail on them which I feel should be removed in a power bowl because it’s not meant for consumption. The cooks should have cleaned them off before placing them in the bowl for mixing. I had to manually remove the tail on each bite that had a shrimp with my fingers. That’s not how a bowl is consumed. I will say that it still tasted decent.

Worst part of the entire evening wasn’t the rude behaviour of the staff earlier but the mosquitoes 🦟. We were bit the entire evening while trying to eat. There is no mosquito zapper and we were told its because of COVID 🤦🏽‍♂️ Not everything has to do with the pandemic regulations guys. Please get zappers. You NEED them on the patio. Otherwise add a fan that blows strong air and it will prevent the bites.

3 stars and I am being gracious. The kind manager saved the day. She was probably cursing us behind the scenes but if she wasn’t— she’s a genuine soul. I love and respect people like that. Maybe I will come again some day—...

I’m not usually one to review restaurants, but this was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in a bit. My girlfriend and I went to Pickle Barrel in Pickering for dinner on June 8 around 6pm. The person who seated us was very kind and welcoming. Upon being seated is where everything got worse. Despite the table being “cleaned” prior to us sitting, there wasn’t a single spot that wasn’t sticky. I’m not exaggerating either when I say any time I lifted my arms up from the table, the table would move from being stuck to them. I asked our server to wipe the table down again and despite a second “cleaning” the table was still just as sticky, as were the menus. I think some more heavy duty cleaner and a little elbow grease was needed. Then we ordered our food. It didn’t take very long to come out but when it did it wasn’t correct. I ordered the PB Bacon Cheeseburger with no tomato. The menu says it should have 2 patties, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, crispy onions and their secret kicker sauce. I got the no tomato, but I also didn’t get crispy onions or secret kicker sauce. I didn’t even want to send it back and get it corrected because at this point my girlfriend and I just wanted to finish and leave. Our server didn’t once check on us during our meal. No “how’s everything?”, no “do you need anything else”, just nothing. After we finished our meals, we tried to flag him down. My girlfriend made direct eye contact with him as he was about to walk by and said “excuse me” and he just kept walking. We eventually were able to flag him down after a second attempt to ask for our bill. When asked by the machine if we would recommend the establishment to friends, we selected “no”. When asked for a tip, we opted for a custom option of 10%, which is the lowest I think we’ve ever tipped. The atmosphere was nice, the host that seated us was nice and the bubbly hostess that wished us a good night was nice. However, based on everything in between, we will not be returning to Pickle Barrel in...