Butchie's — Restaurant in Whitby

I'm not one to normally write reviews online but thought I'd share my experience of actually dining in Butchie's for dinner. We have eaten the food at Butchie's and enjoyed it before as takeout so we knew what to expect with the quality of food.

As someone who is pregnant at the moment (37 weeks), I was really craving their ice cream sandwiches (which I've had before and loved) so I convinced my husband to go there. We decided that we would eat dinner there first, then order the ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

We got to Butchie's and were the first in line to order, as there was no lineup. There was only one table filled with a couple eating inside the restaurant when we entered. We arrived at the restaurant before 5 pm. Ordering our food at the counter was fine; however, the wait time and how our order was handled was NOT okay. Considering we ordered before the dinner rush (at 4:38 pm according to our receipt), we waited about 40 minutes for our food. What makes this even worse was that 3 tables of people who ordered AFTER us (I know because we saw all of these people waiting in line to order at the counter while we were sitting at our table) were served their food first before us. We were pretty patient and it was after the 3rd table, we asked about our order. Only after we asked, we got our food cooked and served right away because the server told the kitchen staff to make our order. The server apologized for this mistake. While we were close to finishing our meal, another staff member came to us and asked us how the food was. We complained about the long wait time for food, considering we were the first people to order. While this other staff member apologized again, he said that the restaurant was understaffed. I understand having to wait for food to be cooked and being patient with the staffing issue; however, I find it UNACCEPTABLE with the way the orders were handled, since they were NOT in the order as people came into the restaurant and placed their orders at the counter.

The food we ordered was okay this time - we have had better before from Butchie's. I ordered the buttermilk fried chicken wings and while tasty, were overcooked. My husband had the Butchie's burger and didn't think it was that great...and he is one not to usually complain about burgers and is happy to eat one.

Because of this experience, we didn't even stick around to eat the ice cream sandwiches that I was craving for. We immediately left, as both my husband and I didn't want to wait longer for ice cream.

The whole experience of dining in at Butchie's has left me very disappointed overall. IF I were to ever come back, I possibly, maybe would just do takeout only to avoid the wait and/or wait around less...

This restaurant has been hyped up in the Durham Region Eats group on Facebook. I decided to give them a try. The restaurant is run by well-known Food Network personality and chef Andrea Nicholson. We ordered a bunch entrées. Most of my family ordered the buttermilk chicken wings, buttermilk chicken tenders, pulled pork sandwich, and country fried chicken steak with white gravy, You have a choice of 1, 2, 3 sides. The pricing reflects the number of sides. Some of the sides require additional charge while the regular sides are fries, mashed potato, mac n cheese, hush puppies, coleslaw, cucumber salad, and green beans.

We arrived prior to the lunch rush, it seemed. Only a few customers inside. We were optimistic that our orders would come out pretty fast. We were unfortunately mistaken. We waited about 1 hour for our orders to come out. I understand the food was supposed to be made to order, but it took way too long. I also noticed many take out orders being prioritized and packed up. The kitchen needed a manager to ensure orders are getting prepared as fast as possible. Maybe the owner should have a kitchen manager to ensure dine in customers don't have to wait 1 hr for their food. I understand the house rules first come first served. However, the perception of takeout orders being prepared before dine in customers makes for a poor experience.

As for the food, I had the country fried steak with 2 sides, hush puppies, and mac n cheese, $19.50. The white gravy had some bits of bacon. The steak was underseasoned, and the breading was soggy. I think the gravy was a bit too thick, and it seemed like the gravy was sitting there for a while. The sides were decent. Mac n cheese was seasoned well, and a powdery cheese sprinkled on top. The hush puppies freshly fried and were my favourite side. The Remy dipping sauce complimented the hush puppies very well.

The buttermilk chicken wings were crispy and came with a buffalo hot dipping sauce. The wings were decent size and meaty. The cucumber salad with dill sauce was pretty good as well. The mashed potatoes were also under-seasoned and didn't come with gravy (extra $3)

For my first visit, the overall experience fell short of my expectations. The hype of a Food Network personality running a local restaurant in my neighborhood was the main attraction. I will give them another chance and try their smoked chicken or...

This was the second time I’m trying this establishment. The first time the food was quite disappointing, but we enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere so we decided to give it a go again today, and that was the biggest mistake. My family and I were disgusted with the blonde lady with the ponytail who appears to be the manager. She was speaking to her staff so rudely, one young boy in particular I witnessed her yell at him to clean the tables in a very rude and condescending tone. Then when it came to our order, it was taking unusually long given that we really hadn’t ordered very much. When we noticed a couple that came in after us who got their food before us, my boyfriend asked about our order. The lady was so rude and snarky telling us exactly how long it takes to make a burger (burger ended up being super dry so maybe she should reevaluate that cook time) despite it being longer than that. So he sits back down and we continue waiting for awhile and then my grandma approached to ask what was taking so long after waiting for awhile and again she was so rude and condescending. All she had to do was apologize for the wait but instead she was combative and argumentative.

I went through the reviews to see if others had experienced the same thing and to no one’s surprise there are many reviews describing the same things. Extreme delays in food, rude staff and reviews specifically describing this same blonde lady’s rude attitude. Extremely disappointing especially for how pricey it is and I haven’t even gotten started on the food. I’ve tried a bunch of different things on the menu and anything fried like the country fried steak, chicken wings, etc has zero taste besides fried batter. I don’t think they put any seasoning on it. The mashed potatoes are also bland. The fries are average and the burger was extremely dry. The salad and veggies are decent, and that’s about it. We will not be returning to this disappointing...