McCabe's Irish Pub & Grill — Restaurant in Waterloo

My daughter, husband and I arrived around 530pm on Tuesday night. We sat on the patio as we always do in nice weather. I wouldn't call our group regulars but we certainly frequent this location as it's always been a fam fav! I must say, we're used to the service being slow. We typically ignore it, waiting 10-15 minutes for our drinks is not unusual here.

During this visit, however, it was an all around poor experience. When we sat on the patio I went inside to let the staff know we were there. I was greeted promptly and our menus were brought out to us. We ordered 2 beers and a sprite, unfortunately my 6 yr old was being a 6 yr old and need to be talked to so we were not ready to order food. We asked for more time. I would have expected my server (Brooke) to return in 5 mins or so, instead it took another 15 mins. We were done our drinks at this point and continued to wait. Our server finally returned to take our orders. My daughter requested a water for a refill and our server headed back inside. We then realized we had not been offered nor did we ask for another round so I headed inside to save her a trip. I requested 2 more beers as she was at the computer punching in our order.

We then waited for our refills. They never came. Our food was brought out, (2 burgers, kids noodles) and we had condiments but no cutlery. At this point, I requested that the server who brought our food look into our refills as it's now been 15 mins or so since we asked. She came back with cutlery. Another 5 mins later a different server brought out 1 beer and told us that they were experiencing issues with the keg and couldn't pour the second. I then requested a bottle of beer hoping it would be faster. It took another 5-10. I was basically done my food at this point.

Throughout this entire time, we had yet to see our original server come out. We watched other guests sit unattended to on the patio for a long enough period to hear them complain to the one server who did ask them if they had been helped. Not one person checked on us, I had zero opportunity to tell anyone that my side was cold and my daughters noodles never came with chicken as we requested.

We then sat for another 15- 20 mins awaiting anyone to show a glimmer of proper customer service. A different server (purple hair) then comes out to the patio and hands us our bill, that we never requested. I then requested my daughters dessert, and notified the serve that the bill brought wasn't even ours, nor did we request it. I then requested our actual bill to be brought out with the dessert. She apologized and went back inside never to be seen again. After another lengthy wait, my husband about ready to shoot fire from his ears, looked into the dining room through the window to see all 4 servers chatting around the bar.

He wanted to leave without paying anything. I wouldn't allow it, he then entered the restaurant, addressed the serving team, stated we had requested our bill and our daughters dessert, multiple times at this point. He returned outside, a different server brought my daughters ice-cream, no bill. After another lengthy wait, we are standing up at this point clearly irritated with the experience. Brooke finally returns, asking us if we would like our bill! It's clear as day, the communication with staff is non existent, much like our server was! She then got our bill, returning fairly quickly. I reviewed the bill, no charge for the chicken, letting me know it was her error, not the kitchens. But I was charged for the draft that took 30 mins and was never actually brought. She then had it removed from the bill, we paid and left.

I chose not to address this at the moment because of the anger my husband was displaying. I didn't want to disturb other guests. I feel that this entire experience was deplorable, and with reflection, the restaurant and serving team can see several areas available for improvement.

Thank you

Victoria

Get...

Strange service here last night; The host seemed a little miserable... I was told to wait to be seated as there may not be a server available for a table that a group was just sitting at. 5 minutes later I was seated in the same spot after waiting for a few folks elsewhere to receive their food.

Shortly after a server arrived with water for the table and, on a budget of $25, I ordered 2 beers... my friends ordered drinks and food for themselves. Long story short, I have no idea why the server decided to bill me for half of my friends' food and 2 additional drinks I didn't ordered. We would have mentioned it to the server, however, it was so difficult to get anyone to pay attention for more than a few seconds before they were distracted by another tables' needs. I mean there was no cutlery, napkins, side plates for friends' entree, nobody came to see if everything was ok with the meal or drink. When it came time to pay, the server would drop off the bill and run to another table, come back ask if we need the machine, go to another table, come back with the machine, take the money quickly and off to another table, with barely a word spoken.

I have never been to a restaurant and felt unwelcomed, rushed and tossed out, nor have I ever not had a server not fully serve the guests, provide everything needed for the stay nor ask how to make up the bill when multiple people are sitting together. I am sorry to say but, McCabe's, there are so many bars/restaurants uptown Waterloo that do get these sort of service and hospitality things correct, that was my last time visiting. This place has a very nice setting, it's a shame that the service is so slack, otherwise McCabe's would...

I’ve never written a review, but I felt compelled to write about my experience this evening because I’m still dumbfounded.

The server took about 20 mins to come by and take our orders despite us being one of three tables outside, but this didn’t bother us too much. I ordered the fish and chips and realized after she walked away that I was given sour cream instead of tartar sauce. She took a long time to come back (see the pattern here?) and I asked for the right sauce which my meal needed because it wasn’t seasoned and had a lot of breading. She came back with a small cup of tartar sauce and, again, I realized when she walked away that the tartar sauce had separated. There was a layer of liquid sitting on the top. Very unappetizing and my meal had gone cold. When she finally came around, I told her she may want to check the sauce. She did take it back inside and I was asked if I wanted something else and I said no because everyone at the table had finished eating and by this time, we had been there for an hour and a half. I had maybe 3 bites of fish and a small handful of fries and was still charged even though I didn’t eat my meal due to their mistakes and slow service. Our bill was $100 so $16 would be a small but appropriate way to resolve this issue but the manager told his server that they don’t do that for this type of situation. But for me, $16 is still too much to pay for one piece of fish, soggy fries, a cup of sour cream, a cup of tartar sauce gone bad, a slow waitress and a manager with no...