Glasshouse Kitchen|Bar — Restaurant in St. Albert

This was my first and last time ever going here unfortunately. I have never went out of my way to leave a negative review about anything, however the way my group and I were treated today was genuinely awful… I have been in the service industry for 5 years and the last 2 years I’ve worked as a Guest Experience Manager, and I have never received or witnessed an experience like this before. Going to the hostess and getting sat was no problem, the hostess was lovely by the way. It was as soon as we sat that the problems started. My grandmother is visiting town and we wanted to have a nice lunch before she flew home. We all decided on the glasshouse as it looked lovely and she was so excited to try it. There were 4 of us and we were sat at around 12:20. At 12:35 we had not been acknowledged by any staff member or server, with no water or anything. We had sat silent for 15 minutes waiting for someone to greet us and not once did anyone come by. At that point I had got up and let the hostess know we had been sitting for 15 minutes with no service - as we were super hungry. 3 minutes later the server came over and there was no apology for the long wait or anything of that regard. It was straight to “what can i get you guys”, as if she was annoyed we were there? We brushed it off, maybe she was having a bad day? But then when asking about non alcoholic beverages/coffee there was annoyance from her about having to explain what coffees and teas there were saying “there are too many to list”, but there wasn’t any sort of menu for us to see what the options were??? We ordered 2 matcha lattes and one chai latte and they took 10 minutes to come out which was unfortunate because at this point we were already feeling very disregarded. Our food finally came out past 1pm… and there was a hair in my salad. Yuck… I literally had to take someone else's hair out of my mouth. Absolutely vile. (I have long brown hair, the hair was short and dirty blonde) I was 2 minutes into eating my salad and I completely lost my appetite. When the server came over I told her about the hair and showed it to her and she apologized and took it away. She offered me a new dish but I explained to her that I lost my appetite and would not be able to eat a new dish. My salad remained in front of me untouched and not once did a manager or ANYONE come over to rectify the situation. I understand that the server offered a new dish but that was not an option for me as I felt extremely sick after grabbing a strangers hair out of my mouth while chewing my salad. Our plates were cleared and we asked for the bill. On the bill was the salad I had 4 bites out of and found a hair in ??? I was not expecting the whole salad to be taken off the bill - but it’s the fact that there was 0 attempt to rectify any issues that we had during our experience such as waiting absurdly long to even be acknowledged, being disregarded when asking about menu options and finding a disgusting hair in my salad that I had barely even eaten??? There is 0 care for guests here, and no regard or accountability from any of the service team. As a restaurant manager in this industry I’ve dealt with many issues like this and I would have NEVER handled it with such carelessness. It’s actually not hard to rectify an experience like this at all. But no one even tried?? And I truly understand if it was busy or if the server was having an off day. We weren’t even upset with her after waiting long to be greeted. We brushed it off hoping our experience would be better from there. But it was just issue after issue and no effort or attempt at any way to save the experience. We all left genuinely flabbergasted at the experience we just had, and I left feeling sick, and ripped off after paying for something I didn’t even eat? Do better. I’m embarrassed for even recommending this...

If you're looking to take your partner for the worst birthday brunch date possible, this is the place for you!

TL;DR: Over 20 minutes before waitress even acknowledged our table Waited an hour after ordering food and still no food. Ended up settling the bill for our drinks and leaving. Server came to our table 3 times over the span of this hour and 20 minutes. The 3rd time was when I called her over so we can settle up to leave. I understand being short staffed or busy but your management needs to learn to limit tables and at bare minimum COMMUNICATE with your customers.

We arrive for our reservation. All seems good. We get seated, place has a cool vibe.

We sit there for 20 minutes. The only person who's come to the table was the busser who brought us water.

We watched several servers walk past our table, not even eye contact.

Finally the server comes to our table. Again, 20 minutes at this point, how do you as a server not AT LEAST acknowledge the table and say you'll be right there. We order our drinks and food at the same time.

One drink comes fairly quick, good news. But then 15 minutes later the moca comes out?

Finished our drinks and continued to wait...

Nothing.

No one checked in on the table.

No one to say "your food is delayed" or "your food will be out soon" or "can I get you anything else while you wait". Literally radio slience.

We're starving.

After an hour from when we ordered, decided it was enough. Flagged the server over and asked if we could settle up for the drinks.

Her response: "Oh I'm sorry" and walks away. Comes back to say they took the drinks off and we don't have to pay. Mentioned that they are short staffed.

Sure, bare minimum. No manager to comment on anything. No way of seeing how they could do better. Just took it on the chin.

I've worked in restaurants for over a decade. Have done hundreds of busy brunches. I've been to hundreds of restaurants throughout North America and Europe. I have never seen an establishment drop the ball this hard before.

To make it worse, by the time we left, it was too late to go anywhere else for brunch.

Happy Birthday.

P.S. If the owner is reading this, I strongly advise finding a good manager or training the one you have. Simple fixes, a lot of low hanging fruit that could quickly improve your restaurant. Starting with regulating your number of guests based on staffing and training your servers to communicate...

Let me begin with this. I booked a reservation online. And when you explicitly ask what we are celebrating on your online reservation form and when we share something as personal as that even more so when we did not have any intention of mentioning that, one would think you would in the least bit get a superficial acknowledgment of our wedding anniversary. There was no mention of it at all. And this is inexcusable. If you do not intend to acknowledge special days that people celebrate, do not even ask about it on your online reservation form. Next year, we are going back to Red Lobster where we received a fabulous experience and the food was top notch compared to what Glasshouse serves.

I find this rather appalling especially when you give us a tip guide at the bottom of your receipt indicating your obligatory 18% which is the minimum upto a maximum of 25%!

Now, one would imagine being the recipient of an extraordinary service with a personal touch other than the customary, "is everything good?" Or, "is your food ok?" which we receive at far less fancier restaurants. But everything to the contrary.

Besides, I found the food ordinary at best and unreasonably expensive. And we left famished and drove to Wendy's to continue to celebrate our anniversary after paying an exorbitant price of $70 in total for Arugula leaves, baby tomatoes, few slices of cucumber, and about 6 very tiny pieces of beef that had little to no flavor and the other bowl that my wife ate was pretty much the same thing but chicken.

This may seem like a scathing review but when you implicitly demand a minimum of 18% tip under "tip guide" then you do all you can to earn it. My rating of a 2 is me being charitable here.

Finally, appreciate the fact people are willing to spend their time and money to celebrate their special days even during times of inflation. We took a day off to do this and we walked away with a sour taste. We are not coming back and we are not recommending this place to anybody with good sense either.

And please do not take it out on the employee there as she is simply a reflection of the philosophy behind,...