Firkin on Harbour — Restaurant in Toronto

This was the worst experience I have ever had at a restaurant. If I could give them 0 stars I would however Google does not allow me to do so. The story goes on Tuesday night a friend from out of town (Alberta) came to visit myself and my boyfriend we wanted to show him a nice Toronto experience. We went for a walk on the harbor and decided to stop of at the Firkin for a small bite to eat before we had to say our goodbyes. We walked in and there were literally maybe 10 people sitting at around 3 tables. This restaurant is a big establishment and it looks like it can hold around 120-180 people comfortably. We wanted somewhere that was more quieter anyways so this was perfect for us to say our last goodbyes. When we got in the restaurant there was no waiter to greet us and so we sat at a table of our choosing. A male bar tender eventually walked over and asked if we wanted anything to eat, My boyfriend wanted a coffee and we asked for 3 waters (we were thirsty after our walk). When we put in this order the Bartender very rudely stated "THAT IS IT" I stated that I will be ordering a small bit to eat and possibly some drinks. He stormed away and continued to serve the people at the bar. He came back 10 mins later but as we were chatting I did not get a chance to look at the menu. He then asked what will you be ordering, I said I needed another min. " he stormed away again mumbling something under his breath. We did not understand what was happening at this point, were we being treated rudely for not putting in our order as yet? Anyways he came back and I ordered sweet potatoes fries, again he stated "SOO THATS IT" I said yes. when we clued in that he was mad we were not ordering more food or drinks (yet I may add) we asked another female bartender if it was ok that we were sitting there and ordered the coffee and sweet potatoes fries. She then proceeded to tell me "we have a 10 dollar spending limit, we do not allow people to come in here and take up a seat without spending over 10 dollar's as we do not want you taking up a seat for other guests." We said "that there was like a hundred seats available." she said "well yea we do not want to clean up after you if you are not spending more then 10 dollars." We got the sweet potatoes fries and they were soooo greasy and burnt, almost inedible. By this point I was so angry we asked for the bill and left. The point is we were going to order more food and drinks but they way the treated us was extremely embarrassing. I was very upset at the ending of our night, but eventually we did go to another restaurant around the corner and ordered the drinks we initially wanted. VERY BAD...

Let me start with the positives... the food was grand. The portions were incredibly generous and the location was convenient (seeing as I was staying at the Westin Harbour Hotel)!

As for the negative... the service was appalling. It was so appalling, in fact, that I believe it merits this 2-Star rating despite the positives. The basic ethics of a "bad waitress" were there, slow with our orders, slow with delivery of said orders, etc. Though... she somehow managed to top this. At no point did we have ANY utensils and we were forced to use paper thin napkins (used to serve drinks with) while eating... without utensils. She even took over ten minutes to return with our refills! (And no, the restaurant wasn't busy by ANY sense of the word).

On top of all of that, the cherry on top, was when we thought we had escaped this hellish service. We asked for our bills and she returned, two of said bills were wrong. She went off to fix those bills and came back snarkily, then began to accept our payments. We already agreed that we wouldn't tip her, so we refrained from doing so. She gave myself and my friend a nasty stink eye when noticing our debit receipts had no tips, then took the money from the other two bills who paid cash. Both of the latter asked for their change back and she said she would be RIGHT back.

After another ten minutes pass (and her still serving and tending to other customers in the area), one of my friends inquired about the change. She leaned in and glared at her, outright saying, and I quote, "Do you guys not tip?" We were all literally appalled. It's common sense to provide people who paid with cash their change (especially upon request) so that they can sift through the change and make their tip based off of that. Well... she was incredibly persistent about receiving a tip, considering she was witholding change from a customer!

She looked at my other friend (the other person who paid cash) and dragged him into it by saying: "Well YOU told me to keep the change, right?", which he promptly replied by saying no. She then stuffed her hand in her change pouch, threw the change on the table, and stomped off.

Story time finished. I'm never stepping foot near this establishment again. If a restaurant allows a bratty, entitled, young woman like this treat customers in such a distasteful manner, colour me...

2nd experience (11 months later) We recommended our friends here and made a night out for dinner. I was honestly so disappointed and frustrated. We ordered hot honey chicken and I ordered a side salad. Ended up with fries (which is fine it happens) But our server (Linda) didn't even come to check on us or ask how the food was. We lost sight of her for quite some time. The chicken was ...sad - soggy and no honey whatsoever it was literally just tossed in Frank's red hot sauce or something spicy. Fries were okay 👍 we didn't have any follow up condiments. Our waitress was chatting with another table for a fair bit when she finally reappeared... we had no refills till I asked another waiter and for some honey on the side and he said they didn't have it just plum sauce so we agreed and we asked for the refills. He found our waitress and I believe he advised her of our drinks, he came back with the sauce and our waitress disappeared to clean tables ... we finished our food by the time she came for refills (this was including a appetizer and meal between not having her come to us. She walked by quite a few times without acknowledgement. ) She suddenly had the refills after we were done. We had our cards out for payment while sitting at a table full of plates (appetizers and dinner plates) we waited a good 25 minutes for the bill after. I have never been so upset with a waitress before. It wasn't crazy busy - I I understand capacity for care as well but we totally felt ignored and we were literally beside the computer the staff type bills in? We should have checked the previous recent reviews. X.x I'd honestly give it a 1 if it weren't for our first visit. We won't be back I'm sorry. Good luck to your facility. ‐------ The first experience was 5 stars: Awesome place. Gravy is delicious (highly suggest it) Our server was amazing! I've never had someone as great as her before. I do believe her name was Victoria?? I had one of the berry mojitos and it was a bit over kill on berries but still delicious and everything was a...