Swiss Chalet — Restaurant in Woodstock

What a rollercoaster ride I just had. The highlight is that I had comically poor service with my family. Read on for details.

We arrived at 5:30, and having made a reservation we were seated promptly. Great start. Waitress came by several minutes later to take drink orders. And then.. the waiting began. We eventually ordered mostly festive specials and a kids pizza. Took my son to the bathroom for a pre meal handwash and he slipped on the greasy floor by the kitchens. Nothing major but be careful by the kitchen as it's very slippery and it is the main path to the restrooms. Men's bathroom was out of soap. I got them to refill it. Sure, nothing too bad so far.

Our meals came after 30 mins or so. My wife got a festive special, but sans the festive. No cranberry sauce or stuffing. My daughter got a festive special with mashed potatoes and gravy. No gravy. She asked for some and received it including a sizeable gravy skin lump. She never got chalet sauce. My son and other daughter both had kids meals in dishes exactly the size of most of their food, leaving them no room to cut up the chicken, and my son's fries were underneath his pizza. Not the best choice of dishware Swiss chalet but perhaps not the fault of the restaurant. We mentioned to the next server that came by that nobody at a table of eight has any cutlery. Drinks ran low after waiting for so long, but our waitress was hard to find. Even when she did come by she'd visit only one end of the table in a very noisy restaurant, and so while they were attended the other end was not. I was the only one of four to get butter for the roll.

We gradually finished up and the waiting game kicked into high gear. My kids were eating snacks during a family visit earlier in the day, and so couldn't finish their meals. We waited long enough however that my son found room to eat almost everything he was too full to eat when it was served. Was it that the kids were picking at the food that kept the waitress from visiting? Who knows. She didn't come by and didnt ask if we were finished until much later. Around sometime near 7:00 (almost 90 mins in) we'd finally gotten the plates taken away. Takeaway containers came perhaps 10 mins earlier. The kids get dessert with their meals so those orders are placed, along with a request for the bills. The kids had their food another 10 mins later and we asked if we can use our caa membership for a discount. The waitress said the CAA bonus is either a free dessert of appetizer. As we'd finished our meals already, we elect for dessert. She takes our caa card and disappears. For ten minutes. Bills come, but not with our card. In the bill is a coupon for a free appetizer on a return visit. I paid cash because I feared for my credit card. My cash and my coupon were whisked away. Still no CAA card came back, no dessert, and no chocolates you get with the festive special. We track down all of those things and finally leave at 7:35, just over 2 hours after we arrived. I shudder to think how long we would have waited if we didn't have a reservation.

The food that we got out of what we ordered was good. The waitress was kind and constantly apologetic for the lapses, but there were so many it became a point of comedy for my family. Go to Swiss chalet, I'm not saying you shouldn't, but if the place is busy, be prepared to wait, be prepared not to get what you ordered, and be prepared for stunningly poor attention from what is likely overburdened wait staff. Also don't slip on the floor. I wasn't joking about that. It's really...

Friday May 9th arrived for an early dinner at 5pm. Restaurant not busy at this time as you might expect. Was sat right away. Our server came soon after to take our order. He was quick and efficient, things were looking good. Our food arrived after about 7 minutes so quick enough. Thats where things went bad. My food, 1/4 chicken white meat was not hot. Chicken and fries both warm but not hot. So within 3 or 4 minutes of eating mostly cooled off. My wife ordered the chicken wrap. Her fries like mine just warm not hot, and they forgot the sauce on the sandwich. Our server never returned. Im mean did not ever come back to our table. Not to check on our food, not to refill our drinks, not to clear our table or even give us our bill. So we finished our meals and waited and waited. Our server passed our table at least three times as we were seated right in front of the kitchen door. He never looked over or made any attempt to see how we were doing. After another 10 minutes I noticed a man walking around with another lady who looked like he worked there. I asked "are you the manager"? He said yes. I said we have been looking for our server and I started to explain. The lady said do you want your bill and I said yes. So manager leaves (he seemed uninterested in dealing with the situation) and the lady got our bill. She was very apologetic and expressed she was sorry we had not received good food or service. She took my name and phone number and I was told someone would contact me about this. No one has called me. And as sorry as they said they were we still paid full price for poor food so I wonder. I see other people really like this restaurant and perhaps our experience was not typical but I dont think the management handled it very well. And the man who said he was the manager also had walked past out table at least twice when we were obviously finished eating. If you had any experience at all as a restaurant manager, and you see a table full of dirty dishes, empty drink glasses, two people staring at the wall and a credit card sitting out and you dont bother to stop as ask if you can help then you need to get out of the...

My husband and I dined at the Woodstock location last Sunday evening and to say we were disappointed would be an understatement! We arrived at approximately 6:30 and waited in the lobby for several minutes before finally a hostess came to seat us. The restaurant had several available tables, and we watched several employees standing around chatting but ignoring us at the door. We ordered an appetizer and our entree in a pretty timely manner, however a couple that arrived about 10 minutes after us, were seated, and served their meals well before we were served our appetizer. I didn’t know Cheesy Garlic Bread took so long to make! When it arrived, it was nothing like it used to be. It had dried out ends of the loaf which were barely chewable, and toppings were very minimal. The kitchen staff, not our waitress “Terri Anne?” Brought the bread to our table, we had no side plates nor a bread knife to cut the bread. We asked the kitchen staff if she could get us some and she quickly did. Our waitress never asked if we wanted refills for our drinks or check in to see if we needed anything. One waitress that we’ve seen there for years, did however get us refills when we flagged her down, and brought them with a smile. We also got the lovely additional side show of listening to the group of waitresses bicker back in the corner, for most of our dining experience. The entres were okay, at least they were hot. The French fries were tiny 1 inch bits, no really “fries”. It has been several months since we had been to this restaurant and it will be a very long time, if ever, that we visit again. Sorry but I will travel to Paris for a much better Swiss Chalet experience...