The Duffy — Restaurant in Shelburne

My husband and I visited this establishment yesterday from London, Ontario. We had been day tripping all day, looked up a great place to eat, and well, we were disappointed. It all started upon entering and nobody was there to greet us, no big deal, place was empty inside, it's just nice knowing what protocol is in places these days. We were soon met by a lovely young man, our waiter, who brought a menu and took our drink order. He returned to tell us they were out of iced tea, we asked for lemonade, out of that too. We fully understand the situation restaurants are in these days, so we kept ordering until we found something in stock. We could hear a few tables on the patio, and soon, one other table joined us inside. We placed our order, chicken wings for my husband, and a taco salad for me. I have a gluten allergy so I tend to stick to salads. As the time passed, more than an hour, that we waited for our food...we watched the owner discuss dating apps with his young staff, covid and politics with some dining patrons but not once check on orders. We witnessed a young waitress pour a pitcher of beer and scoop a fly out. There were too many flies to count in this building. My husband used the washroom, and couldnt handle how dirty it was. A bucket of soiled clothes sat right outside the door of the washroom attracting even more flies. My taco salad arrived and I quickly realized there were stewed tomatoes and no meat. Odd, since the menu didn't mention it was vegetarian. I asked the waiter to take it back as with a gluten allergy I am careful not to eat items in a can that I haven't read the label. Ordering a taco salad with fresh ingredients, never an issue. He did so without issue. The owner came to my table, lowered his mask to speak to me, and told me the stewed tomatoes were there because his wife uses chilli in the salad? I simply said I didn't see any meat, but if that's the case he should just change the wording on the menu. They did remove the charge from my bill. The restaurant needs better cleaning, that is very important. I can sympathize with wait times but all the rest of the experience was what prompted the one star. Not a pleasant...

We went there knowing it was a pub-style restaurant with supposedly good food.

Now it is in the basement of a church so they've done a pretty good job of decorating however it is in an old building and it was cold and damp. The seating on our side of the table was on old church pew extremely uncomfortable.

As for the food - two of us got the roast beef dinner special and two got the meatloaf. Apparently the meatloaf wasn't to bad only that the portions could have been larger. The roast beef was ok - it was basically a big slab of cheap beef that was over cooked, dried out and tough with a very salty gravy, the garlic mashed potatoes were good - however all of our meals when they arrived were warm - not hot simply warm - by the time somebody came by to check up on us it was too late to even bother to complain about the temperature of the meals our dinners were more than half gone.

The dessert offering was pretty pathetic; brownies with a reduction, coconut cream pie and some left over Carmel cheesecake. One of us tried a piece of the coconut cream pie, the presentation was wonderful, the pie wasn't to bad either - the price?! Outrageous! The four coffees were luke warm - we did complain about that and they did offer to make us a fresh pot of coffee which when it arrived it was certainly hot however it was not a great cup of coffee, really watered-down.

Then the bill arrived to discover we paid $24.99 for a over-cooked, dried out, tough piece of beef. Outrageous! We were shocked to say the least. $24.99 should get you a beautiful primed rib with a starter salad! The piece of pie - $7.99!

It's like this restaurant doesn't know what it wants to be yet! It wants to have a pub-style feel & flavour which Shelburne needs BUT it wants to charge fine dining pricing! You can't do both! Make up your mind which direction you...

In a word.. Disappointing. My husband and I went for our first wedding anniversary, I tried calling several times throughout the day to make a reservation and no one picked up so we chanced it and went in.

Luckily it wasn't busy and we were met by a nice server. We ordered the bruchetta flatbread which was extremely oily, but since it was our first time there I figured that must be the way they do it.

My husband ordered the pot pie and I ordered the ribs. Took about a half hour/45 minutes for food to come out, I saw the cook come out a few times without her mask covering her mouth or nose at all, coming from the service industry I sympathized with the heat in the kitchen.

When our orders arrived, my husband's meal looked good. Mine however was not what the menu had promised. I asked the server where the coleslaw was and she said it didn't come with it, even though it clearly says on the menu I read in the restaurant and online that it did.

She said she would double check but never did and her demeanor was steely from that point on so I didn't want to bother with my other complaints.

The "roasted vegetables" were steamed corn and the Mac n cheese was bland. The ribs were dry and I ended up feeling very ripped off.

I imagine the locals know what to order that is good but that was not my experience and far from a warm reception.

Knowledge of menu and honesty in what they are serving would have made the experience a lot better. Likely not going back and I am very sad that this was...