Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Thunder Bay

Experience at swiss chalet was absolutely atrocious today. Party of 6. 3 adults. A 13 year old. A 2 year old..and an 11 month old. We were seated at our table quickly. Within 5 minutes our lovely server got us our drinks..15 minutes later we got our appetizer. The chicken spring rolls..absolutely tasty as always. The server was really kind. But this is where the good experience stops.

We placed our orders. They took our menus.... at first it was busy. I sh** you not. 1.5 hours goes by. No food. Not even being checked on by the waitress even once...either than her coming up behind my daughter and refilling her 7up one time and then i swear we didnt see her again.

4 tables came after us were served including the booth behind us that in the time we were there.... two new groups of people filtered through came and went and got their food ( first group wad about finished) Around 40 minutes...my niece started to get whiney and bored and we had some looks our way. We calmed her pretty quickly. Im suprised my 11 month old son held out longer than she did but at the hour and 10 mark he was crying and wiggly.

We were patient. Figured they were busy. Didnt bother anyone. Didnt say anything... until a waitress that wasnt ours brought food... But ONLY one meal. My daughters ...whos 13....not even the little ones food. I asked her is that all you have? And she said its coming...just working on it. I said no no. Please just pack it up. We have waited too long.

Another 5-10ish minutes goes by and they have the bags out to us. Rather quickly and thankfully warm... finally our waitress comes back. The first I've seen her anywhere in at least an hour. She says : so how are we doing the bill. I said : yes. Actually what are we doing about the bill? I would like some sort of compensation for the wait if you dont mind. She said im sorry ill get my manager.

She was still extremely nice. And i dont know what happened to cause our order to be so late.... but she might have not been able to stop it or whatever the case was. The manager was also really nice. They only gave us 25% off. Which I think it should have been more but we were tired...both littles were acting up now and we were exhausted at this point. By the time we dropped my sister off and went home it was 830 before we even could eat and had to warm up our food.

We didnt even Order a big complicated meal either..my sister ordered a wrap. Her daughter had mac and cheese . Me and my daughter had the rib sammies and my hubby ordered wings. The baby usually just picks off our plates. And eats whatever.

I should mention. Even though the food had to be warmed up and eaten at home....it was still pretty tasty. I was also disappointed i couldn't order the delicious mini donuts :( Just used to love this place. ..not the...

UPDATE What can I say. Terrible experience at Swiss Chalet Thunder Bay. Ordered at takeout, white meat, got dark, call, told next time can get free replacement. I go to store, some young kid, says he the supervisor, says can't do anything. Then gets frustrated and just storms away. I ask a lady in the back what that guys name is, she says Matthew. Then he comes flying out if the back yelling for me to get our and don't come back. I'm the one that should be upset, but I was very friendly and calm. This guys nuts. Then the Seiss Chalet GM manager Riki calls me after I talked to their head office, she was useless. Only one thing was good came out of this. WE WILL NEVER GO BACK !! To everyone reading this, if something goes wrong, expect rotten service. Maybe this is one reason why the Thunder Bay Health Department rates the restaurant a "B" rating. Best advise stay away from Swiss Chalet.

Corporate told me the manager of customer service at their headquarters will call me, but haven't received a call quite frankly. I don't even think they will.

So I did receive a phone call yesterday from corporate by SUMIT. He was very polite and professional. He volunteered to give us a $20 gift card. I wasn't expecting anything because we just weren't going back. However, he said he would email me an electronic gift card. So I said to him, you send $40 as it was 2 meals and they were both half chickens. He said no, $20. I said okay.

Funny thing is he never did email it to me. So now another let down from Swiss Chalet corporate. Unreal, but real. So I sent him a text message GTO the number he called me from. Telling him to keep the $20, but I don’t want it. Told him to donate it. I never did receive a response.

So this just reinforces my initial statement to stay away from SWISS CHALET and for that matter, probably at RECIPE UNLIMITED restaurants, The Keg, Harvey's, Kelsey's, Montana's, Second Cup and that's just some. Look up what they own...

We typically eat here at least twice a year and this is our first bad experience in many years. Tracy was our waitress unfortunately. Once we ordered, an appetizer each and a meal, it took 25 minutes to get our soups which were both barely warm let alone hot, then 30 seconds after receiving our Luke warm soup our meals arrived. A “Hot Chicken Sandwich” implies a few things, although it was a chicken sandwich it was the exact opposite of hot and the fries were just as cold as the gravy. Still not the end of the world because we have had very good experiences in the past. My wife suggested sending the food back but sometimes you get the feeling that that would be handled with professionalism but this was not the case so we (our fault) decided to eat our two cold meals in silence. Well not in silence because our waitress wanted everyone in the restaurant to know she was struggling this evening instead of letting people “enjoy” their meals in relative quiet. 5 tables at a time does not seem like a lot but I might be mistaken. Then we asked for our bill, she then asked us two more times after that if we would like our bill, 25 minutes later I spoke to the “greeter” because Tracy could not be found and explained what a disappointment the meal was. No apology just an excuse that she was working on the bill. The only apology we received was by Tracy who said sorry it took management forever to correct my mistake. In over fifty years it is the first time my wife and I have never left any tip. Please do everyone a favour and amend your note on the front door that states you are fully staffed. Perhaps add “but not appropriately”. We understand the service industry is tougher than ever but this was 100% someone failing at there job and management choosing to do nothing about it even though it was brought to there attention, which in our case is not a comfortable...