Local Croffle House — Restaurant in Red Deer

Incredibly inhospitable. My wife and I visited Red Deer Easter weekend. We were talking about restaurants, and my sister had some pretty high praise for Croffle House, and seeing as we hadn’t eaten lunch yet we decided to try it.

It’s somewhat important to say I do have 7 kids, which are truly quite good kids. No screaming, no shouting, “please, and thank you” kids, but they are ages 3-12, so still a handful for certain. I’m used to feeling slightly unwelcome at restaurants, because of the large family, but it usually wears off, and servers almost always enjoy the kids.

We went with my Sister and her husband, so we were a fairly large party, but again, mainly just my family. When we walked in the doors a young lady greeted us, and asked if we had a reservation. We replied that no, we did not. Her response seemed slightly stressed, but still professional. Then it took a hard turn. Another lady, a bit older interjected in an incredibly rude tone “Sorry, did I just hear that you’re just dropping in without a reservation??” I’m not exaggerating to say she sounded incredulous. I’ve never felt as unwelcome. I felt guilty, and unwelcome, and gross. “No, sorry, we don’t”.

Then she turns, and with the younger lady, they walk away. Nobody said “please wait” or anything. The cranky lady just stormed off, clearly talking about us. It was clear we were very unwelcome, so we discussed briefly, and decided we should leave. We talked to all the kids, who were really disappointed, as were we all. So we started on our way out, and the rude lady comes back and sees us leaving, and my Sister said, “We decided we shouldn’t stay, we really don’t feel welcome.

“Really!? We just pushed tables together for you!” In a very hostile tone. Which she had. In the entirely empty half of the restaurant. It was EMPTY. And they treated us like they were a freakin busy Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and we were a group of belligerent A$s Holes.

But they weren’t, and we weren’t. We were a large family, excited to try a new restaurant we had heard great things about, and they were a local restaurant, in an old Quality Inn, next to a dive bar.

So I’ve never eaten at The Local Croffle House. We all felt fairly deflated, so we bought rotisserie chickens from Sobeys, and went home.

Another young man was working, and while nobody went out of their way (or really made any effort) to make us feel welcome, he and the first up young lady were fairly professional if not friendly. The last lady, should not work in the hospitality...

Went for dinner tonight and was super disappointed with the experience. Went here because of all the recommendations on the local foodie facebook pages and won’t be back. We ordered the bacon burger, the signature burger, the spinach dip, and the chicken platter. Waitress didn’t know much about the menu and then when they brought the burgers out we asked which was which and she didn’t know. Then we had to ask another staff member and they said uh I think this one’s the bacon one and this is the other one. Then the signature burger was supposed to be on a croffle but they put it on a different bun and it also had different toppings than what the menu said. Menu said kimchi jam, onion rings, the burger and lettuce. It ended up having tomatoes and a fried egg which we weren’t expecting because I have a tomato allergy and neither of us like eggs but luckily my tomato allergy is only if I ingest it. They might want to update that incase there’s a different allergy and they surprise people with different toppings than stated. Both burgers had a burnt flavour to them and the chicken was super greasy. Spinach dip was okay but the wonton chips broke as you tried to scoop the dip so it was hard to eat together. We didn’t like the honey mustard sauce that was recommend for the chicken so I asked the waitress for a different sauce and said we don’t mind paying and then she asked which sauce and I said I’m not sure what do you have and she just walked away and sent someone else over to us. Tried the secret sauce but it wasn’t great either. Both sauces tasted old and the honey mustard tasted like kraft honey mustard not home made or anything. After this we just wanted to go but then we waited over 20 minutes for the bill. They had a big party leaving in the middle of this so we waited but after they checked everyone out and we tried to get their attention four times, they still didn’t come over. Tried to get their attention during our meal as well for side plates and to refill our drinks but it took a long time for anyone to notice us. The only positive was the place looked clean, the fries were okay and the spinach dip was okay. Won’t be coming back, spend your 100...

I get breakfast here because it’s free when you stay at quality inn, next door. Yesterday morning I got a weird, super lightweight waffle thing, with a one egg omelette on top, and a solitary slim breakfast sausage, butterfly cut on top, to appear as two sausages. It was as much food as I like to see my 3 year old eat for breakfast. It tasted ok, but the portion size is WAY too small for an adult. I really wonder what eggs they use because it doesn’t taste like eggs. Maybe powdered egg? Or some egg product that’s not pure egg? The texture and taste are lacking. I had to get a second breakfast within an hour.

Today I was told I get an egg sandwich and hash browns. So I was glad, because how can you fake an egg sandwich, right? Well, the folks here are very inventive. Just wait and find out. They brought me a diagonally cut egg sandwich, it appeared normal, and hash browns (only 7 hash browns, because potatoes are so expensive). I took a bite of the sandwich and couldn’t taste eggs. Just raw crunchy vegetable.. I looked at the egg, and they’ve very carefully folded a super thin layer of omelette back and forth over chopped cabbage, to get the thickness you’d expect from an egg sandwich.. I think it’s only one egg. And cabbage??? I guess it’s super cheap filler. These guys are really cutting corners here. What comes first? An empty restaurant because the food sucks? Or the food sucks because of an empty restaurant?

Conclusion: don’t come her unless you’re under 3 years of age, or you will be hungry one hour after leaving, so you can easily pop over to Burger King and get two breakfast sandwiches for only$5-6.

Ps: the waiters seem to be friendly, I feel sorry for them. Management/owner seems to be a real cheapskate, and likes to sacrifice his business. Making super small portion size, flavourless eggs, and cheap fillers aren’t fooling me....