The Gull and Firkin — Restaurant in Toronto

Ugh. I am kicking myself for not complaining and getting a discount on our bill. I cannot believe we paid the money we did for the experience we had. My husband and I came in at about 9:30pm for a couple drinks and an appy.. it did not look busy inside or outside. We sat out on the patio and there were 2 servers working out there... neither of them approached our table for a good 10-15 minutes. After the 10-15 minutes, a couple of obvious 'regulars' sat down near us and a server was with them within about 5 minutes, happily greeting them by names.. even after bringing over the newer tables drinks, no one came to take our order.. or even to ask if anyone had been to our table yet. And I saw them glancing at us!

I am a server myself, so I hate complaining or being rude to servers because I know they have a tough job. I wanted to just leave, but my husband really wanted to eat there.. so we just sat back and waited for 10 more minutes, enjoying being outside on a nice night... just as we were getting ready to get up, to go to a bar where we might have been acknowledged, a server finally came over to take our order... she did seem embarrassed though. A food runner dropped off our food, and no one asked us how our food or drinks were or even checked up on us until they saw our debit card on the table. Not to mention the food wasn't very good.

It was saddening because I really wanted to like this place.. The patio is so nice. Having worked in restaurants I am usually very sympathetic and understanding when I go out to eat... but there is never an excuse for this...

This is literally the first time ever I write a review. Long story short, my friend had to leave for about 40-50 minutes during our dinner, because she had an appointment and she forgot about it. After about 5 minutes the waitress came over and made a joke about her leaving me, so that's fine, I have a sense of humor. After about another 25-30 minutes she came over again and made a similar joke again, instead of offering to take the obviously cold dishes away. As if I was not enough embarrassed by then. So I was sitting there for 45 minutes, all by myself, watching baseball, with a dirty plate in front of me, and my friend came. we quickly wrapped up and asked for a bill. After I paid the bill, in 1 minute the waitress came over to me and started shaming me in front of my friend by asking if I actually meant to leave no tips. Well, the food was OK, but her behavior was quite inappropriate. Good thing I don't hold the mentality of "GIVE ME YOUR MANAGER NOW". And to be fair, the other guy noticed me being bored and offered me another pint of beer (so he also made some extra money to the restaurant of me) and was generally very nice to me. I wish, he was my server. Or I should have just tipped him in cash in front of that waitress to teach her a lesson. Anyways, that was my first and...

I’m so shocked. Came here to enjoy some food and the hockey game. We ordered the spinach dip and buffalo cauliflower bites. The spinach dip came with chips, and they were completely stale. We let our server know and our sever named Mariano and he said “oh that’s the first time anyone has ever said that but okay” and then proceeded to abruptly rip the plates from our tables. He then came back and said “I tried the chips and they were fine by the way”. I let him know that we were hungry and would eat really anything, so the fact that we sent it back said a lot. He continued to argue with us about how the chips weren’t stale. At this point I was fuming because I had never in my life experienced service like this in my entire life. After 5 minutes of him full fledge arguing with us that the chips “were not stale” and this “how they make it Mexico” I had completely lost my appetite. I didn’t expect for Mariano who is apparently the manager (after I asked for a manager) to act like this and still hold the title of a manager. We ended leaving and not touching any of the food because at this point if Mariano’s service was like this AND he’s the manager I can’t imagine what they would have done to our food in the back. I’m extremely traumatized and will be boycotting this place from my family...