Gabriel Pizza — Restaurant in West River

On Saturday, August 5, we decided, as a family of 6, to try your restaurant for the first time. It was extremely disappointing. We were advised it would be a 10-20mins wait and could wait at the wall stools, which we were happy to do. We were not offered menus, nor did a server come and greet us. I asked 3 separate people to order drinks, including going to the bar myself to get some. I was advised a server would come see us, by all 3 people, which took 20 minutes to happen. By the time our drinks arrived, after 30 minutes, the 3rd table (same number of guests as our group) which arrived after us, was being seated before us. At this point I advised my family to leave, which we did, but not before my wife still paid the bill. I have worked in restaurants for 28 years, ran numerous establishments, and owned my own. I understand the challenges of opening fresh, training, and working out the kinks. But this experience is not something which should ever happen, and could have been easily overcome. I would love to give the newest kid on the block a 2nd chance. Thanks for reading.

Update: I have received a reply from Head Office (+1 Star) and look forward to giving the Antigonish location another shot.

2nd update: Food has since been tried. Service during take-out experience was very good, the Supervisor and Front Line staff member were fantastic (+1 Star)...I won't knock the store for the poor attitude from the "Manager". Pizza was decent, I did enjoy the sauce. Slice I tried from the take out counter was extremely dry. To have fresh slices on offer they need more consistent walk-in traffic. I will give it an In House try at some point, but so far not extremely...

Don’t know what all the hype is about. Took my grandson last night for dinner after doc appt. Started with a 9$ Caesar drink. Was fine but not a garnish to be seen. Like where was the celery, olive, bean, lemon etc. bare drink with a short paper straw. Ugg GS had the lasagna. Well noodles and cheese and sauce. Pretty hard to mess up. But you can be cheap as heck with it. Lots and lots of noodles folded over covered in mozz with about 2 tbls of sauce on the bottom. 19$. Avoid. Not worth the money. Unless you want to eat cooked noodles and nothing else. Now for the good part. NOT DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT ORDER THE BAJA FISH CRUNCH SANDWICH I swear to you the fries and fish were microwaved. They both were dull slimy and tastless. Not to mention the bun was stuck to the plate and I cut the sandwich so as not to make a mess. Didn’t matter. The fish slid out and you could not eat it even if you wanted too. 18$. I had the waitress remove if from my bill. . The word crunch as in crispy crunchy etc that you would hope to find in your French fries and deep fried cod. Not happening here. Was truly awful. Having said all that we did not have the pizza which is what they advertise they do best. Prob won’t go back as it cost so much to eat out but maybe they make good pizza. W WJ my teenage GS said, Geez Nan. That looks nuked and awful....

We had a delicious meal there today. The service was excellent as well.

Fast forward....It's become hit or miss here. Service needs work. The last couple times I felt intimidated when I told the servers i had an allergy. 1st time excellent substitute referral. 2nd time I was charged full price for the recommended substitute. (which was only a side). Third time ... this was the charm .....the server was abrupt, the recommended substitute was actually a choice side & I was told I'd need to pay extra for it. Another server intervened and said there wasn't a charge for a substitute side. Our server now seemed miffed. I started to feel a lot uncomfortable. Terrible experience. I felt very unwelcome. This was the second time I had a server totally destroy my experience. Sorry for bringing my allergy to your establishment. It's really not a big deal just substitute it for another side. In other restaurants I only have to mention it and the server's are very quick to offer substitutes or check with the kitchen staff on what is available as a side. As did the server my first experience here. Very disappointed. I left a tip only because I know there is other people involved in my meal...