Stoke's Inland Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Sarnia

Inexcusable lack of concern and customer service. We will not return to Stokes inland.

Five members of our family had reservations at Stokes Inland for 6:30 pm to have dinner before attending an 8 pm show at Imperial City Brew House, Friday May 12. Our beverage order was taken, the server brought our drinks and shortly after, our dinner order was taken. Our early Mother’s Day celebration had begun and we awaited the arrival of our Stokes favourites. Time went on and at one point the server showed up with pop and water refills put them down and left so quickly we couldn’t ask about our dinner. We saw her on and off and tried to get her attention but she did not return to our table. We began noticing people who had come in after us being served their food. By the time we got her attention 40 minutes had gone by. We told her told her we needed to get to a show that starts in 20 minutes. She abruptly said “I know I am trying to take care of it in the kitchen, I’ll get a manager”. A “manager” then came to the table, we explained that we’d been there since 6:30 it was now 7:40 and we needed to leave right away for a show. She looked flustered and said I’m so sorry” and “I’ll get it sorted out”. She returned a few minutes later and said it’s being plated now. Clearly the order hadn’t gone to the kitchen originally. Once again we said we need to leave now and would have to take it to go. She looked surprised and perplexed even though we had made it clear to her we had to leave promptly. Next thing the server comes over with the bill to be paid. She said nothing about the issues as if everything was fine and we still had no food. She finally came back again with bags of food. We asked if there was cutlery in the bag as we are likely eating in the car at this point and of course there was none. Off she goes again and comes back with eating utensils oblivious to how poor our experience was. Generations of our family have loved Stokes for decades. We will not be going back to Stokes Inland not only because the service was deplorable and the server couldn’t care less about the incident but also how poorly the...

I have been going to Stokes for as long as I can remember with my family. We had the same waitress for years (who watched me grow up and is still there and is amazing!!) and the food was always incredible!! Unfortunately the experiences lately has not been the same. An example is our Mother’s Day celebration with my husband, parents, and Grandma. We had an event we were going to that was located close to Stoke’s Inland at 8pm on Friday, May12th. We decided to meet at Stokes at 6:30pm and made a reservation for that time. We showed up and our order was taken around 6:40pm. Around 7:20pm we began asking about our order as other guests who came in to the restaurant after us had orders taken and food come to their tables already. When we asked the waitress we had said nothing other than I know that, I’ve been trying with the kitchen and then smiled and said I’ll get the Manager. Now around 7:40pm the Manager comes out and says I am sorry I will check on it. She seemed extremely flustered. She came back and said they are plating your food. Now 7:45pm we said we will have to have it packed to go as we have an event to go to at 8pm. She was shocked we would take it to go. We had explained several times to the waitress we had an event we paid for at 8:00pm. They came back with the bill, had us pay, and then brought the to go boxes. We had to ask if there was cutlery in the pack as we would be needed to try and eat it in the car at the venue before we went in and there was not so they went back and got some. There were no other apologies however there was more of a feeling that we had inconvenienced them by asking for it to go at this point and absolutely no mention of any amount off the bill for the extremely long wait. This was the worst service I have experienced anywhere and it truly makes me so sad to say that as I have LOVED Stoke’s Inland. After this experience our family will unfortunately be finding a new favourite restaurant. I hope that the manager can take this information and reflect on how to make experiences for other guests better...

I've been going to stokes inland for 20 years. Drinking there since I was 16 (illegally, but uncarded, bartender knows who they are. Served my wife underage too). Today with a party of 8, which to be fair, the owner Terry, sat quickly and easily with no reservation, on the restaurant side. But I had a starving and sad (possibly with a cold) 7 year old. The 3 kids plus teenager were never offered to be fed first. New server oversight, apparently. No worries there. But the bar side of the restaurant has free popcorn available to patrons. So, as a patron, with beer already served to us, I went over to get a small basket, to keep the beer going down nicely and to keep the kids from whining. Not for me, I'm told (by the bartender I've been served by for 20 YEARS!). Popcorn is for bar side only now. All the years I've been coming there (20), and with a whiny child and a tab for 8 diners looming, I'm told no? And the owner himself explaining it's because of the cheap "St pats kids" from elsewhere coming in and eating all his free popcorn that has ruined it for the rest of us. I mentioned this to the server we had, and then Terry Mr Owner-bot told the sad story of the stolen popcorn, and I told him, in all honesty, I'd never return. I realize this is a common overreaction and petty thing to say, but I am principled to a fault, and over trivium such as this, deservedly so. You will earn my money, I shouldn't have to beg to give it to you. Terry, and later our server, both said "over popcorn?" To which I retort, you have lost a longtime customer over popcorn. You may keep it. If someone could set up a gofundme or something to help stokes inland and Terry "all business" Slowka to afford popcorn for the people, I think it would greatly improve our great shity. Sorry, city, Shitnia. Sarnhole. Also I did not tip. Poopoo me on that later, but on 130 bucks I would normally leave 25. Popcorn is expensive. Gotta come...