Zee Grill [Phebe's] Seafood & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Toronto

This restaurant was a place we visited regularly, about once every month or two. The food quality was indeed good, which is why we became repeat customers. However, from today onwards, we have decided never to return, due to a highly unpleasant service experience.

We are absolutely certain that we ordered fish & chips, but what arrived was surf & turf. We immediately pointed out the mistake to the server who brought the food, and she said she would check. Shortly after, the female server who took our order came over and asked in a questioning tone, "Didn't you order surf & turf?" We reiterated that we had ordered fish & chips. She then said she could change it, but we would have to wait, to which we agreed.

However, she quickly returned to inform us that the fish & chips were sold out. In the end, we reluctantly accepted the surf & turf, which contained duck – a dish we do not particularly enjoy.

Throughout this ordeal, we had hoped the restaurant might offer an apology (perhaps by comping a dessert), but disappointingly, they never showed any remorse. Given that we two ordered a considerable amount of food, receiving such an unapologetic and insincere level of service was deeply disappointing.

To be honest, if it were just about the food itself, we might have considered returning. The problem is, we consistently encounter the same female server taking orders on every visit, and her attitude is consistently indifferent and perfunctory. Rather than continue giving someone who repeatedly makes mistakes and fails to apologize the opportunity to serve us, we have decided to permanently stop patronizing this establishment.

We are sharing this experience as a reference for others: please think twice before choosing this restaurant, or you...

Zee Grill is one of my favourite restaurants in downtown. I’ve been there a few times in the past a couple of years. Tonight I invited my friends to there. Unfortunately, we got unpleasant experience. Food, especially oysters are always the best. The smoky flavour of the shrimp in Surf & Turf impressed me. If I have to describe the dishes in one word, I’d say “fresh”. From the vegetables of salad to all the sea food. The fresh material expressed their original flavours perfectly. I always appreciate gourmet. It means the chef and the owners put a lot of efforts on it. The food is excellent. But the service ruined our joy. We got okay service during dinner. The worst part is the payment part. We are 4 families. When we asked if we can separate the bill. The waitress refused to do that. So, We’re counted as a group of 9. She put 20% gratuity on our bill. When I asked for the merchant to pay by credit card, she showed me the screen with 18%, 20% or more tips choices. Then she left. I called her back and asked why she wants me to choose tips again after she already put 20% in the bill. She said “oh, you can choose no tip.” I call this is a very sneaky move. I don’t mind to pay 20% if we get good service. The waitress didn’t even ask us how we want our steaks done. She made a decision for us. And we only got one time water refill during the 2 hours dinner. And to be honest, we didn’t notice that 20% gratuity apply to a group of 5 or more. The waitress told us it’s on the menu. I post their menu here. Please try to find it if you can. And I have a question for the restaurant: should we to be counted as a group of 9, if we want to pay separately for our...

Unfortunately we did not have a good experience. And partially because we didn’t realize that the place is absolutely not child-friendly and we had our 2.5 old with us. So note to all parents with toddlers- this is not a place to bring your kids to dine with you. They don’t have high chairs- AT ALL and that means they don’t really want little ones there and will not accommodate you. The staff was not friendly when they saw us with a child and put us at a table right in the middle of the dining floor ( the worst place ever to sit with a busy toddler)! When we asked to be moved to another table somewhere away or in the corner the answer was “no” even though they had lots of open tables at the time we arrived ( apparently they were reserved for other people and they couldn’t accommodate us at all). We decided to stay anyway (our mistake) and ordered the drinks and food. Our son started being restless since they didn’t even bring any bread fast enough until I reminded them and we waited forever for drinks to arrive but they actually never brought them since the waitress simply forgot we ordered them!! We ended up taking our dinner to go and leaving anyway. The only nice touch was the kitchen staff who were super sweet and added a piece of delicious chocolate cake to our order when packing our food. We ate the dinner at home and it was good, but in any case the evening would go much better if we would go somewhere else where the staff understands and supports parents with yonge children who just want to have a nice evening out. This is just not the right place for us and I would not recommend going there with...