The Laughing Loon — Restaurant in Williams Lake

I went to the laughing loon for dinner on New Year's Eve 2018 with my wife and son. The place looked really dead for nye maybe five or six people at the bar, the friendly server seated us in the lower section and seamed to forget about us it took about 20 minutes for our fist round of drinks and order appies. My wife ordered the callimari and beef dip, son had the bacon Mac and cheese and I ordered the mussels and elk burger. The Mac and cheese and the callimari were really good that's about it. When my mussels came to the table I kinda thought they smelled a little bit off after eating about half the mussels I got a couple that tasted rotten so I just stopped eating them, I didn't really make fuss being New Years I just thought I'd let it slide. Both the bread for the beef dip and the bun for my elk burger were stale and very hard, we dipped them in the jus from the beef dip just to get it down. About five or six hours later I started to get really sick (right around midnight on New Years) I started puking like crazy and was stuck in bed (not puking from drinking, I only had four drinks and didn't even open my champagne) so my night out was totally ruined at this point. I know it was the mussels that made me sick, while I was stuck to the toilet the next morning my diarrhea had the smell of rotting seafood, totally nasty. I was going to go back the next day and talk to the manager and chef. Myself being in the restaurant industry for over 30 years and my family owning a number of successful bars and restaurants in BC, Alberta and the NWT I know exactly what happened here and I will elaborate. The chef probably only wants good food for the clients so he orders fresh live mussels not frozen (understandable) the problem with fresh live mussels is that if they don't sell in the first few days they need to be thrown out, so the chef knew the mussels were on the verge, chef wasn't ordering in more because they're going to be closed the next day and they had only sold four tickets for the New Years party that night (I know this because the server had told me) so instead of tossing out the mussels like I'm sure the chef knew needed to be done but didn't want that $19.95 going in the garbage decided to just push them out on an unsuspecting table. I'm just thankful that I have really strong stomach and my sons macaroni came before my mussels. If I was the owner/manager (I know you are reading this) of the loon I would be in that kitchen right now going over everything with a fine tooth comb, scrubbing from top to bottom weekly if not daily, improve your food quality by implementing date stickers on everything and most importantly make sure bad food is being thrown out and not served to...

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!! We made a reservation, asking for a cozy table in the upper area of the restaurant and were told they would make it nice for us. When we arrived, there seemed to be some confusion. The “lovely” gal behind the bar shouted, they’re probably down there…( beside a long table of guys at their Christmas party) without making contact or showing any sing of graciousness that we were going to spend money in the restroom where she is employed. my partner said we asked for a table up top, is that possible? We were then told that only parties of 5 or more could were sat there even though, every other table up there were tables of two earring their meals. The sweet gal who was trying to help, (Not the snippy blond-ish behind the bar)talked to the owner who was sitting up top and after a couple glances and a bit of time agreed to move. We said to the gal at the front, we might have preferred a booth, as they are cozy and that’s why we made a reservation,very kindly kindly I might add when the “lovely” gal behind the bar who was not at all involved in our conversation yelled across the restaurant “we don’t reserve booths”. At that point we felt like spending our money and enjoying a dinner out might be better enjoyed somewhere where we felt welcomed. I’ve travelled all over the world and being met at the door as an inconvenience, even a burden is not meant for the hospitality industry…especially when an 18% tip for service is expected. didn’t try the food because we couldn’t be bothered, and I hope the young gal working reception realize she works in a toxic environment...

Not good tonight, server didn't seem like he's usually working out front and he was by himself, not too organized and it really was too busy for just one person serving. We didn't know there were specials till we heard him telling other customers after we'd ordered, no sign at the door. He forgot about our appetizer, ended up having wings for desert. Pasta portion was tiny, salmon was dry and overcooked (probly sitting under a heat lamp?), garlic bread was 2 tiny slivers, good for 2 bites each. We got 1 napkin each which was not enough with wings, the single hand wipe he gave the 2 of us was completely dried out, server was so busy he rarely came by. A woman sat down at the table next to us, sat there for 15-20 minutes and was forgotten about, she ended up walking out. Butter chicken was bland. First time out for dinner in 5 months cuz of this Covid thing, we shoulda gone to the casino for dinner. Have been to the Loon in the past and has always been good, this pandemic must be taking...