Jack Astor's Bar & Grill St Catharines — Restaurant in St. Catharines

Saturday 7 pm, bar is dead that is where I sat. And sat and sat. The bartender chic sucked. No timing, no greeting took way to long to serve me. Cleaning was way more important than taking care of me and the only other couple at the bar. They left cause she sucked. I mustered through it. Painfully. Pan bread was the goal. Been 20 years since I had it. Waitress brought it to me. And my main was also brought to me by a waitress. Good thing cause it would have been cold if bar chic hooked me up. Food was fantastic! My main was the Hunters chicken. So worth the price tag. Amazing how service can blow up your entire night. I would have stayed and drank more however miss OCD cleaner bar chic ruined those plans.

I go in today a month later as I now have a very nice gift certificate and a free appetizer for my first bad experience and this one was worse. Same bar keep- Maddy I come to find out her name. She is so bad at her job. The General Manager who sent the card in the mail was there and he came up to the bar to adjust the music and I took the opportunity to thank him and gave him a play by play during my short visit today as I waited for my drink. I guess if you are a man Maddy serves you first. During my first 10 minutes on arrival I sat and sat, got a menu, no drink for me however, the guy who just walked in got drink right away. Really? To top it off, 2 more guys walk in and sat on the other side of me and guess what? She gets their beers right away while my drink sits empty. I came there to eat as well, so I decide to go over the restaurant side away from this extremely bad bar person and again, I waited. It gave me time to decide that good service is way better than free food. Go back? Hmmm, I need time to cool off and I have a few months before these cards expire. Keeping people happy for return service? Not this restaurant if coaching is not done quick enough to satisfy and a month is plenty of time. It should have been implemented her next shift after my first review was posted. The GM was quick to satisfy me with free stuff but not...

After waiting 30 mins for our table (reservation ahead of us wouldn't leave and sat longer out of spite) we were finally sat. The manager and the wait staff were absolutely lovely in the beginning to help my large party be accommodated. We were offered free appys for the wait and the trouble, it was very appreciated (nachos were delicious, spinach dip was like cool pesto in a big bowl that was not appetizing at all). When our meals came, I was very disappointed as I have eaten her many times before without complaint. I ordered the steak as did my husband ($45 each), the vegetables weren't cooked (crunchy), the fries were barely warm, and my steak, while cooked to perfection! was cold and the sauce barely warm. I asked for more sauce that was hot to help me eat it, and the sauce that came was barely warm. The manager was very kind in listening to my concerns, I could not eat it, I brought just the steak home in hope to heat it without overcooking, sides I left to throw out. In fact, all the meals at the table were barely warm and lacked much flavour. My husband's steak was cooked mid to mid well when asked for mid rare and tasted mostly of char, and also undercooked vegetables. All the food served was below average to poor. The manager offered to provide additional discount for the bill for the two bad steaks, but she was no where to be found when the server came with the bill 30 mins later. There was no discount. Normally I wouldn't have been so bothered, but I paid 169 (that includes an automatic $25 gratuity for larger party which I had no problem with) for two very sub par meals, one that I couldn't eat and the manager had offered the discount.

I may go back again, but not in a big group and definitely be more careful with my menu options, simple food only. Overall, happy with our servers, luke warm with the manager after she ghosted and saddened...

Wow, easily one of the worst experiences of my LIFE. Went to Niagara Falls for my birthday, and wanted to come to Jacks’ for my favourite burger. Not much to ask for, but it clearly was at this location. Made a reservation well in advance to avoid any issues, but there was nobody even there to seat us. We waited about 4-5 minutes for the host/ess to arrive. When we were seated, we were given the staple crayons, but no menus. We figure our server would arrive in a few minutes with our menu and drink-offering.

Those few minutes turned into 10 minutes. Then 20. Then 30. In that time, not only were we not served or given a reason for the absence, but other patrons were seated and given menus. Looking back, I guess we only stayed that long to see if they would be served before we even got our menus, but we snapped out of it after 30 minutes and just walked out.

This location was empty at the time we went, and the establishment looked as though it were well-employed. Now this is St. Catharines, so I could chalk it up to racism (the other patrons being tended to were all white), but the person who seated us looked like me, so I’ll stop there. Either way, there was no reason for the service to be non-existent.

Now, after we left, I still wanted my birthday burger (never had a bad experience at Jacks in Toronto in my several years being an adult) so we went to the location in Mississauga, closer to home. It was evening by the time we got there, so naturally it was pretty packed. Even so, we expected to wait quite a while for our food, but not only did we get our menus right away, our server got back to us often throughout the night giving us notice and apologizing for the wait.

Don’t know what you guys are doing in St, Catharines, but I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen to...