Char And Chowder — Restaurant in Town of Saint Andrews

Unsafe food preparation practices. On August 17th, 2024 my husband and I ate here. The way the layout of the restaurant is placed you can see directly into the kitchen, especially if there is a chef working in front of the main window-facing out to seated customers. There was a chef with the name tag that began with a T (I will give him the courtesy of his privacy online- but he should know better), who was handling shellfish from a package. I believe it might have been pre-cooked, once frozen, lobster or crab?? If not it was raw crab or lobster? Either way, he was taking it out of the bag and putting it into a large pan...juices and all.. He was separating and shredding out the seafood meat with his bare hands. My husband's ordered came up (Chicken sandwich and french fries). The chef reached into the bowl with his shellfish hands and grabbed a fist of the fries from the large bowl and plated his food. The server then brought us over our food; it was the plate he had just plated. It was quite shocking that the chef had used his seafood hands to directly pick up the fries and plate the food. Worse yet, this was a large bowl of fries and so all of the fries were now contaminated. A patron could have an allergy, or someone could have been a vegan, but worse yet this goes against safety food guidelines. Specifically from the Canadian health food and standards website on shellfish: it states, "Don't use the same plate or utensils for raw or cooked shellfish because cross-contamination can occur. Juices can spread bacteria to your safely cooked food and cause foodborne illness. Nov 22, 2011". We sent back the fries only to see that they replated the fries from the same bowl of fries, this time using tongs. However, those fries were containment too since the chef dipped in his whole hand contaminated. Then they continued to use the bowl for further fries after I pointed this out. I will not trust the standard of food safety of this place again... It is disappointing considering this should be standard training for health and safety of a kitchen. This chef should know better. Cross contamination of food from meat or shellfish, especially straight from the package that still needs to be cooked/heated up, to other things should be basic understanding and part of strong health practices. Someone could have gotten food poisoning (which can be extra dangerous for pregnant women), or go into anaphylaxis.

Other comments: no service provided other than to bring our food over after you order from a window. Your drinks are given to you in plastic cups, which environmentally speaking is terrible (also additional, avoidable, micro plastics ingested). It also cheapens the meal considering the price of everything. The lemonade was very bitter and made you cough it was so "dry". It was already a really disappointing experience before it became an unhealthy/unsafe experience (food safety practices...

Really dirty kitchen habits. The chef uses his plain bare hands to handle/plate food food. No gloves. Wiping his forehead every once in awhile with his hand, scratching his nose with the back of his palm, and goes back to assembling plates. No hand washing between dishes or touching his face. When people order fries the kitchen staff cook them then poured them into this large metal container to pour salt on them. As the chef is plating the food, he is casually putting his bare hands in and out of the fry bowl eating some of the fries, putting his fingers close to his mouth, and then touching the food again. It's all very unprofessional and unhygienic. I tried speaking with the " server" if you could call them that (there is no service other than for them to walk your food over once). But they seemed intimidated to bring on any health concerns about the kitchen. The manager or owner was nearby and could get the gist of what was happening and didn't seem to care. Was so glad none of us got the fries or handhelds, but after seeing how dirty their staff was, I was still really uncomfortable with the hygiene of everything else after that. Couldn't even enjoy the meal. Overall impression, this place is really gross for safety, owner only cared about getting your money upfront then doesn't care about anything after that. I regret not speaking up in the moment and just canceling everything and getting my money back. In the moment you feel pressure to not cause a scene, but now I'm kicking myself. The disrespect was not coming from my end, but from the lack of professionalism and cleanliness of the staff. It's like they are all 16, working at a summer camp assembling food for campers. Definitely not a high quality dining experience with trained professionals- even though it seems like there are some that might technically be trained. They also bring you plastic cups to drink out of. This is also strange considering the amount of money you pay. It also can't be good for their local landfills. I ordered a soda and I got a flimsy plastic cup filled with ice to give me as little product as possible.

Overall gross hygiene and food handling, no service, staff not friendly, plastic cups filled with ice to give you as little drink as possible, and small portion sizes. Won't ever come here again. Don't risk getting sick from these people. Regretted every dollar spent. Go somewhere else because...

THE GOOD- food, drinks, vibe, atmosphere, and live music were all excellent! The BEST veggie burger I’ve had in a long time and the lobster roll was very fresh with bright and delicious flavours.

ROOM FOR GROWTH: the portions, particularly the sides, were a bit on the small side. The menu listed ‘hops and dulce salted fries’, which sounded really interesting, but the fries we received had no dulce or hops and were regular, run of the mill fries in all respects.

It is a bit of a unique setup where you order at the counter, and the food is brought out to your table. This is all good, but at other places we’ve visited with a similar setup, the servers that bring out the food still offer some basic table service like water and cutlery, sharing about specials, and checking in from time to time to see if anything else is needed (condiment refills/napkins/anything missing...) This was not the case during our visit, and could go a long way in enhancing the overall service experience. Also, when we ordered drinks at the counter, we then had to move over and stand at the (quite crowded) bar and wait for them to be made. Again, not a huge deal, but just a bit of an awkward flow.

Overall though, a really nice night in a unique and beautiful space with a delicious meal and good drinks. We would definitely eat here again and recommend it to anyone looking for a special spot...