The Lake Grill — Restaurant in Whitby

The Food is Good ! I usually go there to have the Oysters since the place is closer to home. The Servers are Pleasant except for the Manager Norma by name who has quite an Attitude and needs to learn some Customer Service skills being in the Hospitality industry . Prior to going there the pleasant lady who took my reservation over the phone confirmed that the price of each Oyster was $5.50 (minimum 6 Oysters per serving) which Is what I have always paid each time I went there , (pretty stiff considering it just an appetizer ) However, on the onset upon being seated at the the restaurant , this person NORMA (whom I later learned was the manager of the restaurant ) upon taking our order & knowing very well I always order the same thing , yet tried to escalate the price to $7 per oyster (minimum 6 per serving) . When I questioned the price since I was confused about it, she had quite an attitude. We ended up paying a bill of $144 +tip for 2 of us. It is not so much a question of the price or the money but the principle of the matter !. Not to mention the rude attitude and manner of speaking to a frequent customer, Over and above she refused to serve us and before we knew it another server was sent by her to our table to take our order & serve us. Totally unprofessional behavior for a Manager of a restaurant! There are many good restaurants that serve this kind of food , that I have frequently visited and the customer service from the managers & staff leaves much to be admired ! which is how it should be in a fine...

I want to begin by saying that the last time I ate here was about 6 years ago, and the food was fantastic! Tonight's experience started with the server bringing us a glass of tepid water with a paper straw in it - no ice or lemon. Then she returned and wanted to take our appetizer order. I suggested we start with a drink order so she brought drinks and then returned to take our appetizer and entree orders. Then we received a bread basket wtih 3 tiny unimpressive rolls and frozen butter. I ordered salmon stuffed with shrimp in a dill pernod cream sauce. Sounds delicious right? When the plate arrived I could not even see the salmon because it was drowning in a sweet cream sauce that had neither dill or pernod. There was no seasoning on the salmon or the vegetables. The rice - well that's best left alone. We asked for our bills and waited ten minutes to get them. Then we waited another twenty minutes for her to return so we could pay, and we had to flag her down to get her attention. She rang in my meal and then disappeared again, leaving my dining companions to wait. One of them knew how to use the machine so she rang in the other dinners and we got up to leave. For a $50 meal I expected to experience the "fine dining" part of their motto. All I got was the "casual" part. The decor has become run down and uninteresting unlike when they first opened. Come on Jose - you are great chef. You can do better. ...

I don't usually write reviews. We were here a few days ago and found the food tasty and enjoyable, but there was room for improvement. We enjoyed the crab cakes, but unfortunately the calamari was not great. We didn't complain,we were just going to pay and move on, however the waitress came by and asked how we found the calamari?, note: she had an attitude the moment she came to introduce herself as our waitress. We answered "it was alright, we didn't really like it, we enjoyed the crab cakes, but not so much the Calamari. She looked confused at first, then looked toward the kitchen and said "she'll let them know in the kitchen" and then grabbed the plate and left. Someone else brought our mains out to us and she came by to offer pepper, never having mentioned anything about the calamari again. Had she not asked, we would have just moved on, however once you asked, one would think the restaurant would "fix" it, offer something else or comp that dish, because we literally ate a few bites and couldn't shake the oil taste so we left it. I've also read where the chef has gone out and greeted patrons and ensured they were satisfied. I'm sure time is a factor in that, but we definitely didn't feel our money or presence was appreciated or welcomed....