Big Al's Family Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Tatamagouche

Stopped by this restaurant in tatamagouche before some snowshoeing and adventuring... left with disgusted guts. I ordered the nachos, the chips of which were stale. A friend received frozen guacamole and when we mentioned this to the server, he simply said that they must have run out and put the guac in the microwave to thaw it (which is a violation of food safety). The server, although kind, ended our meal by complaining about how he had spilled coffee all over himself and had earlier fell at the restaurant which we all found somewhat unprofessional. Furthermore, the oil used to fry both the deep fried fish and French fries was extremely old and burnt tasting. This is coming from someone who has worker fast food and as a server, knowing the violations and realities of the food industry. 2 bottles of pop were outdated and although I know it can't harm someone, all stock should be checked weekly. Furthermore, in the middle of a covid pandemic and the 6 feet rule was not being followed as the entire building was full of snowmobilers. Honestly, based on other negative reviews I've read, the owners are also extremely rude in regards to all criticisms and constantly blame it back on the customer, which, in my opinion, is a terrible way to run a business and to validate the concerns of your customers. Perhaps people would be more willing to return if they weren't criticized for reviewing honestly 🤷‍♀️

Edit: unfortunately the owners response includes incorrect assumptions about my dining companions and a lack of validating my concerns. I have no responsibility to correct this restaurants ability to serve the proper food, follow the proper protocols, or alert the restaurant of any issues while I'm there. It's their responsibility to ensure these issues are occurring in the first place. Passive aggressive caps lock on, complete ignorance towards the food safety violations, incorrect assumptions and blatant lies towards a previously paying customer. 🙄 its a shame that tatamagouche has to put up with such horrific management and I'm shocked noone has...

Made a reservation for my little sisters 15th birthday. The place was packed and we waited for 40 minutes, my grandfather then politely asked the waitress if our food was going to be coming soon, she apologized and said it should be here soon. Another 30 minutes goes by, no food and no one in the tables around us had any food. My gramp sees no one is having a good time and we’re all hungry, he decides to go ask for a manager to see why this is happening, she gets angry, rude, and does not handle the situation in a polite manor like restaurant managers should. Then another manager comes and starts yelling in his face telling him to get out. He refuses because he didn’t want any trouble he just wanted to sit down and have a nice meal for his granddaughters birthday. The manager then takes him out the front of the restaurant and pushes him to the ground. His elbow is bleeding everywhere, the manager is smiling and amused that he pushed a 74 year old man to the ground in front of everybody. The police officers show up and the managers lie. They say my gramp tried to punch them, and that he tripped, when we had witnesses that saw him be thrown out of the doorway. Don’t believe and of their posts on facebook. The police told us to leave without paying and just to go. My sister was bawling on her birthday, didn’t even get to eat her clams after all of that wait and terrible management. The only positive thing was the sweet waitress who felt so bad and came out to bring my sister a piece of cake and hugged her, she was an amazing person considering how busy it was and how horrible that management is. Never going there ever again. Would give it -5000...

These owners are blatant liars and have no idea how to deal with constructive criticism, constantly blaming the customer for leaving bad reviews and placing responsibility on them for alerting the serving staff to all FOOD VIOLATIONS and outdated food. That's not my responsibility nor is it my job to save face for your restaurant. I've attached an image of their response to a previous review, for those who are unaware of how these people treat paying customers.. well, previous paying customers.

The way these owners treat people who review them negatively or have anything to say is with complete disdain, going as far as to caps lock yell through the phone. As someone who worked food industry jobs for 5 years, I'm well aware of food safety and that management such as this one does not stay in business long.

Why would I have any reason to lie about the pop or the taste of burnt oil on the French fries or the fish? Never once did I insinuate that the fries and fish had been cooked together (although guilty consciences DO read into things...) and I can assure you, bringing up separate complaints and assuming things is the most unprofessional way I have EVER been treated.

Save yourselves time and money and don't bother going here unless you want to be blamed for not doing their jobs for them and alerting them to all the outdated, stale (thus improperly stored), and oil-burnt food not to mention the servers lack of...