The Crooked Cue — Restaurant in Toronto

I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 8 years, and been a service manager for 3 years. In my tenure, I’ve NEVER seen such a poorly run establishment by the management- Jennifer Stark (GM) and Mary (manager). These two lack greatly in costumer service skills! Visited this location for my boyfriend’s birthday, we were a group of 13 people, we generated around $1000 in revenue for the restaurant. All was well until another guest WRONGFULLY started accusing us of stealing their phone, we were asked several times by the individual and all times we responded that we did not have anything to do with his lost phone. A few minutes later, myself and two other friends went to the bar to order a few more drinks. We were then aggressively approached by Jennifer who asked us about the phone. This is greatly insulting for us (who had nothing to do with the missing phone) to be asked time after time if we stole a phone, unacceptable!! Jennifer then continued saying to us if you have it, give it back and take ownership. Which is disgusting and ridiculous. She completely ruined our night! The guest who was accusing us of taking the phone found it. Jennifer was notified that the phone was found, but REFUSED to apologize to our group even though she insulted us and ruined my boyfriend’s birthday!!! The manager, (Mary), came to our table and was rolling her eyes at us, HORRIBLE attitude towards us. Our server apologized to us on their behalf, which was ridiculous. He was the only one capable of delivering good costumer service. As management you do everything you can to please the costumer. Jennifer refused to make things right with us and we left the establishment angry and insulted. Will not be coming here and getting accused of being a thief!!!...

This was the first time I’ve ever left no tip at a restaurant. Went with two friends to play pool and after about twenty minutes we hadn’t had a server come over so we unsure of whether or not the pool tables had dedicated servers or if we just get drinks at the bar. We had to ask twice after waiting nearly an hour and both times were responded to pretty rudely by the bartender and hostess. Our server then spent 20 minutes talking to friends at the table next to us and then walked away without coming to take our order. When she finally did come over (an hour after arriving) she came over and said nothing about the wait, just asked in a pretty rude tone if “everything was okay”, then took our orders and came back with the drinks. We then weren’t served again for close to forty minutes, and then it took about half an hour to get the bill. So essentially, we were at the restaurant for 2 hours, weren’t served for nearly the entirety of first hour, then got served once more 45 minutes later. I have worked in service as a bartender so I understand what the job entails, but when it came time to tip I legitimately racked my brain trying to think about what service I was tipping for - We probably had about 1.5 minutes of unfriendly service in the time we were there? Left totally dumbfounded as to how it could be so insanely inattentive and...

I’ve frequented the Crooked Cue driving over from Markland Woods for over 20 years, from first dates and now married with kids we’ve had many social gatherings for St Joes, our swim team family and after music lessons at Kaos. It was a great place to grab a pint and to watch the game with the Dads. But with the shift in negativity surrounding bike lanes, safety, and dividing the community I can no longer be a patron of this establishment or others that share this car centric mindset. They are putting the accessibility of cars over the connection to the community.

However it could easily shift to a more positive tone especially with the growth slated for the area. You could simply invite people to ride, drive or take the TTC over. You’re 5 mins from the new Condos in which many residents don’t drive, and also on the Subway and Bikeshare network.

It’s bad marketing for the neighborhood and not a good look for Balance anywhere.

All of my kids, teenagers and now adults who started going there don’t feel welcome because we have people we care about who ride along there and in the area being persecuted for how they get around.

The Kingsway is going to be sandwiched in with development soon. Embrace the change now, or no...