bb.q Chicken — Restaurant in Toronto

TLDR: The waitress is openly hostile, extremely rude, disrespectful and unprofessional. Worst restaurant experience i’ve ever had

We visited bb.q Chicken East Liberty on Sunday, Aug 31st with a reservation at 8 PM. What should have been a fun birthday dinner quickly turned into one of the worst dining experiences of my life because of the waitress’s behavior. As a frequent Korean fried chicken consumer who has been to different brands (Chicken Plus, NeNe, and other bb.q chicken locations in Vaughan, Scarborough, Elm street in Toronto), I have never had such a horrible experience until today.

I arrived at 8 PM and the rest of the group joined at 8:05 PM from CNE. The restaurant was nearly empty when I arrived. The waitress was hostile and rude to me. She was yelling at me and claimed that she had called the person (birthday boy) who made the reservation multiple times and that we had to call the restaurant to confirm our reservation because it was a holiday. As someone who grew up in the GTA and has dined at countless restaurants, I was confused as I have NEVER had to confirm a reservation this way as it is certainly not the norm.

When the rest of our group arrived, the waitress continued to be hostile, yelling and singling out the person (birthday boy) who made the reservation and demanded to know why he did not answer her phone call. Turns out throughout the day, the waitress called him 6 times from an unmarked number between 4 PM until the reservation. The phone service was not the greatest at CNE but she refused to accept that he hadn’t picked up his phone. She even called him again in front of us to prove her point. Despite our apologies, she rolled her eyes, sighed loudly, and continued raising her voice. At that point, we no longer felt welcome and decided to leave.

Shockingly, it didn’t end there. We were outside and she followed us from the restaurant and yelled at us while stepping uncomfortably close into our personal space to intimidate us. You can check the CCTV footage of her behaviour as it speaks for itself. She was questioning why we are not eating there anymore and demanded that we eat there since we made a reservation. She felt entitled to our business. After our initial interaction when we arrived at the restaurant, who would want to eat and support a business that has such hostile service? She also claimed she had turned away customers because of us, despite calling earlier in the day at 4 PM for an 8 PM booking. Why would anyone be turned away for a reservation four hours later? Who eats fried chicken for four hours straight? This was clearly mismanagement. Meanwhile, there were three dirty tables inside, one seated group, and multiple Uber drivers waiting for pickup orders. Instead of managing the restaurant, she chose to chase us outside to berate us further.

I’ve worked in customer service and always try to empathize with staff. At no point was she professional. She was aggressive and hostile from the moment we entered. Recent reviews show many customers that have had a similar experience with her. When so many people report the same thing, it’s no longer an isolated incident. It’s a clear pattern that the waitress is the cause of negative reviews and horrible restaurant experiences. For every review written, there are likely others who had experienced the same thing and quietly chose not to return.

To potential customers: If you value being treated with basic respect, avoid this location. To the owner: You have someone on your team who is actively driving customers away and sabotaging your business. High ratings won’t last if they’re propped up by bribes (like free cheese balls for 5-star reviews) while genuine feedback goes ignored.

I will never set foot in this restaurant again and will reconsider ever dining with bb.q Chicken as a...

❗❌🚫 ATTENTION❗❌🚫 ATTENTION❗❌🚫

TL;DR: extremely rude and mean server and inflated 5* from free cheese balls...

The experience with the front lady was the absolute worst. I made a reservation for 8pm on Aug 31st the night before. The lady was calling me multiple times throughout the day from the business' unmarked number between 4pm and up until my reservation. Found out later that she needed to confirm with me "my reservation since it was a holiday". I was utterly confused because we weren't late to our reservation so we weren't holding up any tables and the restaurant was closing at 1am AND there was no line up waiting to be seated. (The restaurant was quite empty and the only other table at the time also left a review, hey Donna sorry you also had to experience that). I don't see a reason for calling a customer 6 times. I didn't even know I was getting a call because I was at CNE and the service was not the greatest there. Even with that explanation, she couldn't seem to grasp the fact that I didn't pick up the phone.

The minute we walk in, she was rolling her eyes and demands “who is William?” I answer confusedly me and she is scolding me “You know I called you TEN TIMES! why didn’t you pick up?” and proceeded to walk over to the phone to call me and to prove her point that she was calling me the entire time. I apologized and explained that I was at CNE with terrible service and therefore couldn't pick up and she continued to yell at me for not picking up my phone. I was appalled at this interaction and decided I did not want to eat at a restaurant where the staff were yelling at me and my friends and decided it was best to leave.

Hang on, it doesn't end there. As we are outside deciding where else to go eat, after only 2 minutes, she comes storming out after us! She then proceeds to question why we are not eating inside anymore after that interaction. Claiming that we made a reservation and that we now must eat there and she had to turn people away since we made a reservation and also not picking up my phone. I peek inside the restaurant. They had 1 table currently eating there. 3 dirty tables that needed cleaning. 4 Uber drivers waiting to pick up their orders.. We explain we apologized for not seeing the calls and that we already confirmed the reservation and arrived on time, only to be met with an unwelcoming server who was yelling at us. I think it’s pretty reasonable to not want to eat at a restaurant where the server has yelled at us, given us dirty looks and rolled her eyes at us as soon as we step into the restaurant. After that it was just pointless exchanges of back and forth that didn't go anywhere.

Please avoid this place. Take a look at all the bad reviews and you'll understand. The only 5* are from free cheese balls, please stop giving 5*.

The owner is probably going to say that this reply is false and that she's going to call a...

The women working evening shift Sunday Aug 31st NEEDS TO BE FIRED ASAP! Yesterday was my second time here. The first experience was great but last night was so bad I will not return while she is employed there. We arrived around 8pm and the restaurant was empty. Just one customer eating in the corner. The gentleman at the front seated us (he was out server the last time and he was amazing both visits). We waited about 20 min before getting up to ask the gentleman if someone can take our order he sent the woman over. As it's only our second time there we had some questions about some of the dishes. She seemed annoyed with every question to the extent I asked her if everything was ok. I know how hard a servers job can be so I prefer to lead with empathy when experiencing bad customer service. She ignored the question and continued with her attitude so we stopped asking about other flavors and we each ordered what we got last time. When the food arrived the other two orders were as expected but the third order had a pile of dry uncooked seasoning on the top of the chicken. I tried to knock it off but I couldn't even get thru one piece. I took the basket back to show her and she immediately got angry. She snapped back, it's supposed to be that way. I let her know I've been here before, that I ordered this last time it is not supposed to be this way. I opened the menu and showed her the pic and description and then showed her my pic from last time. I said if someone spilled dry seasoning on top it's not that serious, make me a new one and I won't even complain about the inconvenience or my time being wasted. She said no we can't make a new one now so I told her fine just take it off my bill. She grabbed the basket from my hand, walked past me back to my table and then threw the basket down. She yelled no, you are not returning and stormed off. We were all silent just staring at each other stunned. Never in my life!! The gentleman came rushing over and apologized. He took the basket back and brought us our bill without that item. He explained they had a large group reserve and they turned down many people only for the large group to show up and decide to go elsewhere so the servers lost out on a lot of tip money that evening. No matter what's going on in your life it's unacceptable to talk to any human being so rude. I will never eat here again while she's still...