The Duke of Wellington — Restaurant in Waterloo

I will never visit again… Up until my last visit I generally had positive experiences here. That was all ruined one night when I came here with a group of friends and the place was absolutely packed. My friends and I grabbed table and we figured we would have better luck ordering from the bar rather than waiting for a server since it was so busy. My friends and I all took turns going on the “beer run” to the bar and eventually it was my turn.

I walked up to the bar and noticed just how crazy it was… It was so crowded and under staffed that I had to wait 10-15 minutes before I could even order. The service was so slow that many people were eager to just grab their drinks and get out of there and they were leaving significant amounts of change behind after they had paid.

I ordered two pitches of beer and paid cash. The bartender came back, looked me in the eye, told me how much change I was getting back, placed it on the bar, and quickly moved on to the next customer. It was probably 5 – 6 dollars in change (bartenders will intentionally avoid giving you bills so you are more likely to tip).

Initially I thought about leaving it (or part of it) as a tip but I figured… The service was slow, they are understaffed, our table didn’t even have a waiter, and 5 – 6 dollars is more than enough for the bus ride home or I would be able to split a cab with one of my buddies. I decided “I am not tipping this time…” I grabbed the change, the beer, and I went back to my table and thought nothing of it.

A couple minutes later I am being tapped on the shoulder by a bouncer asking me to leave. I was a little confused since I had just poured my third beer, we had been there over an hour, and my group was one of the better behaved tables in the establishment that evening. After speaking with the bouncer it became clear that only I was being kicked out and that the rest of the group could stay. When I asked what the problem was he said that one of the bartenders told him that I was “stealing tips” from the bar. I explained that I took my change and deliberately decided not to leave a tip because of the slow service. I told him what I ordered, how much it cost, and showed him that I had the exact amount of change… nothing I said was going to convince him so I left and my evening ended earlier.

I am guessing the bartender was upset that I took my change back without leaving a tip. Mostly everyone else was leaving all of their change behind. As some form of petty retaliation I am guessing the bartender made up a story about me “stealing” my own money (the money I guess she thought she was entitled to), told the bouncer, and I was asked to leave.

So if you are thinking of visiting the Duke of Wellington I would recommend against it… be prepared to over tip for poor service if you are paying cash because apparently that is what one (or all) of their bartenders expects. I would recommend paying with debit or credit… better yet skip the Duke of Wellington altogether and go to the...

We were very excited to try this place out as we were recommended to come here a couple of times. However, our first time coming in was very disappointing. We were greeted by a happy blonde bartender, she talked well, gave us menus, and sent us to a table. So we sat down, ordered our food, and discussed the not very Black Russian that was ordered. Shrugged it off. Ordered shots. Which were also not what we expected. At this point we brought it up to our waitress that we had two drinks which were not made properly. Then the blonde bartender comes up to our table, and in the rudest manner we had ever seen tells us off that we are wrong and should google our drinks. Starts husking her finger into the table and walks off without an apology or even listening to us. What she didnt realize was that one of the women she was talking to was a long time bartender, and ignored it when she was told. Our night was completely ruined. We will never be back. No apology by anyone in the bar even when we brought up her attitude to paying customers. Again, we will never be back, even though the music was amazing and the food was okay. Spend your money where you will be treated right. It's not worth coming here with that level of...

The food here was pretty good, but I got the impression that the management staff did not care about the customers. All of the hosts and servers were very friendly and helpful, but a server accidentally gave me a large size salad when I had specified 3 times I wanted a starter size. This is fine, I believe they had recently hired new staff; we all make mistakes.

However, when the server went and checked with the manager about what to do, the manager apparently claimed that since I had already eaten the salad, there was nothing he could do about it, and I just had to pay for it. I didn't even know until the bill was handed to me that a mistake had been made! I didn't expect anything grand, only for the mistake to be fixed and for me to pay the price I expected. This refusal tells me that management does not care about customer satisfaction, and I was so flabbergasted I just paid for my meal...