Fickle Pickle Restaurant — Restaurant in Whitchurch-Stouffville

Over an hour from when we sat down, still had not gotten the food. Took 10-15 mins even for a server to greet us and take our drink order. Backed up kitchen, slow service for mediocre diner food. Will not be visiting again.

EDIT: My wife and I both left a review, thus far the owner has replied to argue with her review but not yet on mine. If they do reply, I will edit again.

I can confirm everything she said in her review is true. An adjacent table to us was upset, I assume they were also not happy about waiting an hour for their food but I did not hear the conversation they had with the woman who came out to talk to them after they complained. Based on your comment I assume that was you who came out to talk to them. As to how nice or rude the table was to the server I can't say, as I did not hear their interactions. I am highly sympathetic to waitstaff who have to deal with unruly patrons, so I will give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they were rude. We however were not.

We politely asked for a manager. We were told they were "too busy" and instead were given a discount on our bill. While that is a nice gesture, it is not what we were asking for. Had we known it was going to take that long for food to come we would not have ordered in the first place, so I wanted to speak with the manager to explain that to them and to suggest that they should warn their patrons when being seated. You say now in your response to my wife that people were advised, but I can confirm that we were not. It's possible that was just an oversight by the girl who sat us. If you had came to speak with us then we would have told you the same as well.

I also wanted to find out why the restaurant was having such issues. Given we were told management was apparently unavailable I instead chatted with the server about it. It was then that she advised us of the sudden staff shortage. I explained to her that I understand they are doing the best they can, but management needs to do a better job of dealing with such an issue. I still left a normal 15% tip, as again we undersood it was not the server's fault. We were not upset with her at all.

To the owner: this is not a "story". This is an accurate account of what happened. Perhaps you would know if you had come to talk to us. And still, I do believe in constructive criticism and positive feedback so I would be very happy to come speak with you in person whenever you are available to tell you the following:

I notice "staff shortage" keeps appearing in prior reviews yet the response from the owner always indicates it was some kind of unforseen emergency that a person called in sick. Its not a sudden problem if it keeps happening. Competent management and ownership should anticipate that and have enough staff on each shift to be able to withstand a few people calling off. Then maybe service will slow down a bit but it wouldn't result in complete disaster.

Here's a suggestion for ownership/management: Rather than arguing with your customers on Google reviews, take the criticism and try hiring more staff. If you're having problems finding good people then you need to pay more. It's really that simple.

2nd EDIT: Owner took the time to speak with me on the phone and apologized. She seemed to understand the problem with staffing and said they are working on hiring more staff. She also had mistaken us with another couple which is why she had responded the way she did. She also offered us a gift card which I declined, but we will give them...

The worst place that I have ever been to. Servers were decant. Kitchen was beyond awful!! I would give it minus stars if I can. DO NOT GO THERE!!! I waited 50+mins for a eggs and toast breakfast in a half empty diner. FOUR people were working in the open kitchen. Servers were all waiting to get their orders. I was told that the kitchen was short one regular cook today so people seating down has a minimum 45 minutes or longer wait. Please have the courtesy to post a sign on the front door stating there is a minimum wait time of 45 minutes of food order. Or if it was so difficult to operate a half empty, not even big, diner with FOUR kitchen staff, then close the place down for the day. At least the servers would not be frustrated because many customers complained and were angry. I saw some tables leaving. The woman with a horse face working in the kitchen has terrible attitude. DO NOT LIE. WAIT TIME was not 20 minutes, it's at least 45 mins. I looked at my phone minutes after I ordered it was 12:17pm, my order of eggs and toast didn't arrive until 12:58pm!! Also, Nobody told us there was a 20 minutes food wait befor we were seated. 20 minutes and 45 minutes is a big difference. If someone told us, we would have gone somewhere else. I talked to you politely after you delivered a plate to the table behind mine. Then you told me that you have been there 25 years... ... you have more than enough experience to know it was silly to argue with a customer that delivery time was 35 minutes (but actually 45 minutes). That was when I told you how ridiculous it was to have five of your servers waiting in front of the warm table for the orders. That was the time when I said you have FOUR people standing in the kitchen and you still couldn't handle the situation, you should close the store down for the day because you have unsatisfied customers. The table behind me with children said they have been waiting for almost an hour, two tables beside mine left because they couldn't wait. I was not the only person passed by the kitchen to see why food took so long. I was the person who told you in your face that the wait time was ridiculous. ONCE, not three times. There was no one waiting by the door, don't say you told the hostess not to let people in, there was simply no one came in. Your store used to have people waiting outside the door 12 years ago to no lineup and only few tables now......you should have known what is happening. Bad management. This diner was good then became alright then bad to beyond worse now.

Don't blame things on customers because your kitchen were very slow. Don't put the drama on to make yourself appear innocent. Customers are not stupid. Leadership and management means taking ownership for your own actions. I will never go to this diner again. I told all my friends and families, neighbors and everyone to NOT to go...

The food is lovely and so are the prices, but I must warn potential visitors of my last experience there. My partner and I had visited for brunch and we were seated across from the kitchen. The food was absolutely divine and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience, until my partner noticed a long black strand of hair in his food. He put it aside and we shrugged it off; hair isn't gonna kill you, and we'd imagine it's difficult to keep every strand of hair in line. That was when I noticed a strand of hair in my food as well.

Absolutely shocked, we peered into the kitchen. None of the chefs were wearing hair or beard nets, and they were mostly men with long black hairy bears and heads. We mentioned it to a waitress who then got the manager, and when we (VERY CALMLY) explained to him what had happened, he accused us of planting it there, then sarcastically (and very rudely) asked if we wanted a comped meal or replacement.

We first stated that neither of us had black hair, and said we didn't want any comped meal or discount, because the food was still amazing. We told him that we wanted to give him a heads up, because we found it very alarming that somehow we both got hair in our food. We then clarified that we wanted no comps, and that our only wish was that their cooks wore hair nets. It was then that one of the chefs (might I add, one of the hairiest) looked up from the kitchen and started staring daggers at us. The manager ignored our simple request, stating that hair is hard to keep out of dishes, and that he could just comp one of our meals. As we continued to eat, he continued to stare us down. He was livid.

Once a waiter had come to our table to hand us the check, that same chef started shouting directly at our table. "LET ME SEE THE HAIR," he yelled. "COME, BRING IT."

The waiter, disgusted at his behaviour, briefly scolded him. He then apologized to us for the chef's hot headed outburst. Before we left I found the manager and shook his hand, apologizing for the whole thing because we had clearly upset him by reporting the hair in our food. He seemed a bit calmer, but was still very frazzled.

To the manager: if you're reading this, you may remember this happening months ago. The reason I'm reviewing your restaurant now is because this morning I desperately wanted to stop in for some breakfast, but I would feel too uncomfortable to return after how you treated me and my partner. Dozens of times since that encounter I've had to go somewhere else when I really wanted to visit the Fickle Pickle. All we asked was that your cooks wore hairnets, and we spoke so calmly and apologetically because we knew you had no part in the incident. The next time a hair is reported, I encourage you to refrain from...