Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Toronto

First and foremost, it’s a Swiss Chalet so my expectations on service are vastly different from a dinner restaurant downtown. I acknowledge that.

I try my best to be very understanding of the service industry. However, not only did we patiently wait to be greeted by a host that never came (we had to flag someone down) but then we also had to wait for the server to come to our table. They never did for 20 minutes. We attempted to flag someone down multiple times and they all blatantly ignored us. We had to ask someone else to call a server to come by.

Now, I do NOT have an issue with the staff since our server was kind but visibly stressed out. However, she did amazing given the circumstances but these are not the ideal circumstances she should be in.

I noticed that there were only about 2 servers on a Sunday afternoon which I flag as poor scheduling on the management’s part.

No host and only two visible servers on a Sunday afternoon is a bit baffling and as a customer, we can definitely feel the flaws in their scheduling. I’m sure the staff feel it much worse.

Regardless, as paying customers- this needs to be properly addressed. We witnessed the table behind us sit down and leave. However, they waited a lot less than us. Our patience was much longer.

If you are cutting costs, it should definitely not be on servers. Especially if the manager will also blatantly ignore us and not properly assist servers or customers (we called on him as well to order).

Overall, though it wasn’t our servers fault, the experience at this restaurant was not enjoyable. Even in a busy restaurant (which it definitely was not, if anything just visibly short staffed) I am quite willing to be patient. But being ignored and waiting 20 minutes by the door to be acknowledged, then 20 minutes for us to be heard let alone have a server come by is absolutely unacceptable.

Kindly do better for your...

To try out the roast beef dinner special, I drove away from my usual Swiss Chalet location to go to this one on Dufferin instead. A different franchise owner. Along with family members, I'd been there before and everything always went well. Just as it did today with a few glitches.

I had to wait about five minutes at the door because there was no greeter. There were six tables of customers already eating. The waitress/hostess had disappeared into the kitchen area. When the busy waitress finally showed, she yelled at me nicely to find a seat anywhere. But, after that, I got the best possible customer service from the ever-smiling, courteous, helpful waitress.

Even though there has been extensive advertising that "Roast Beef is Back at Swiss Chalet", there wasn't any mention of it on the menu or anywhere else but the waitress knew about it.

The mashed potatoes were cold so she cheerfully removed the whole plate of roast beef dinner. The second waitress or hostess or manager brought a second plate of hot food. She did so cheerfully, with an apology, and even gave me an extra container of beef gravy which I devoured.

The whole meal was so delicious, e.g. tender, juicy beef and very tasty gravy. Since I don't cook roast beef well at all, I was happy that this was being offered again at Swiss Chalet, even if only temporarily.

When I was finished, there were only three tables of customers, myself included, and no waitress in sight. I hope she didn't have to cook and wash dishes, too, back there! She was so busy handling everything herself! But, the second worker took care of the payment of my order and was very gracious. Of course, I gave a big tip because it was an enjoyable time there with good food served by really nice staff members. I will go back there again and would recommend that...

Food is generally good. Chain is fine, but this particular location has problems. Manager appears to be incompetent, service is extremely slow for take out, and they seem to be unable to process multiple orders. Many people are waiting over an hour for food that should be able to be out the door in 15 to 20 minutes. Takeout staff move ok in terms of efficiency but seem to be a bit overwhelmed at times. An increase in completely trained staff is a must to increase efficiency. A manager that knows what they are doing is also necessary. We watched as a customer who had a $15 credit waited 20 minutes for the manager to come out to help. The manager did not know what she was doing, why she was there, or how to give the credit and had to ask another staff member how to do it. We had ordered by calling in our order then came to pick up at the 15 minute mark that they had told us to come in. When we gave our name for the order, the manager proceeded to tell us that she was the only one in the office and was not taking phone orders because they were "too busy" and so we probably didn't have an order in. She finally went to check and yes, our order was there and being processed. It would be an additional 15 minutes. 15 minutes later, we still don't have the order and they are telling us that part of the order (the pies for the special on at the time) was not available as they ran out of them. Then they found another pie. Another 15 minutes of waiting and we are still waiting for the food to be ready. We have had issues with this location in the past in regards to time management and incorrect orders. We check the orders now constantly when we order it. Truly, the young lady and young man who man the take out desk do a good job, I think they might just need some additional training. Oh look,...