Citizen Cider — Restaurant in Burlington

I realllllyyy wanted to like this place. But it fell short, unfortunately. My husband and I are big fans of the food network (thanks quarantine 2020) and saw this place on DDD, and we’ve had really good experiences with other Guy recommended places so we thought we’d give it a go. We made a reservation online through Citizen Cider’s website that uses the third party app RESY. We made a reservation for the deck because we were planning to bring our dog. I called the restaurant ahead of time (4 days in advance) to make sure that I could bring our doggie, and to make sure I was reserving a table correctly that would allow us to bring our pup. (Online it says deck, when I called they said patio- needed to make sure that meant the same thing). When we arrived they said they don’t guarantee outside seating on the deck and tried to give us a table inside (no biggie- things aren’t perfect). We waited a very reasonable amount of time and then we’re sat on the deck with our pup. The hostess and server had good recommendations for cider. (If you get a headache from sweet things go with the drier ciders because the sweet ciders are very sweet). When we ordered our first drink we also ordered some wings (Buffalo apple that Guy tried on DDD). The server didn’t put in our order. No big, I was a server for 8ish years- life happens! The server came back to ask us if we were good on drinks and was relatively attentive, so I don’t think he did a bad job, but awkwardly he never addressed his error that another server actually corrected when she came to fill our waters, and after 35 mins my husband and I politely mentioned that we ordered wings and asked if they were still on the way. (Again, nbd, that’s not a make or break for me- I like good food and good booze!!) Our food came out shortly after ordering it (and the server putting it through), but what we received was…underwhelming and unexpected, honestly. For starters, when they brought us our food, she brought us paper plates which felt weird because literally every other table was given glass (maybe My husband and I are ugly or intimidating?…no idea why that happened) But we ordered the apple Buffalo wings and a small standard poutine listed from the menu. The wings were…stringy(?) if that is something wings can be. My husband (eats everything) asked me if I thought they were microwaved. The poutine had a lot of sage or thyme(?) honestly not sure, but it was inedible. The pile came resembling more of a sage soup rather than a poutine. My 2 stars reflect the taste and...

We never got past the door. We walked in and it was busy, which is fine, however the guy who greeted us told us to seat ourselves. Which would be fine but there where only three tables, and people where spread out among all three. There was a corner spot on one table, we went to sit there, when a gentleman came out to wipe it off, another person walked in front of us, we thought he was a server, after the guy finished wiping off the table the guy just sat down. He appeared to be with the group at the table but was sitting two empty chairs down from them. It seemed at all the tables they where spreading out to prevent others from sitting at the tables. At the bar, people where setting their things on stools next to them taking up empty stools. The staff need to ask groups to sit together so others can sit down, as well as at the bar not taking up more stools to allow more room when they are busy. It was extremely frustrating and we ended up walking out being that we couldn't find two seats together so we could sit. I was really looking forward to eating there and trying their items, I was hoping to take my favorites home, but instead they lost out on my tab. Maybe they are one of those businesses that just feels that they don't need my business and will serve plenty of people. I have always enjoyed their unified press cider, however right now I find myself so frustrated I'd rather not give them any of my money for...

OK- first calling out the owners: Advertising a free tasting is disingenuous, at best, when you realize that you have agreed to a bill for $6 for an eponymous glass. But all's forgiven for a good tasting, right?

Well, you get 4 different ciders, maybe ~3oz each. skimp.

Two could have been tossed- nothing special. The unified press is their best, and the dirty mayor is a unique and fun cider. If I were to judge their cider alone- i'd give them maybe 4 stars.

But the customer experience was, well, 1.5 stars, unfortunately.

The young lady behind the bar pretty much just drops them in front of you, once it's gone, grabs it back, fills another and drops it down again- not telling you what you're getting or anything about the place- we could be drinking woodchuck for all we knew- she just didn't give a damn. All of us felt like she couldn't be bothered doing anything beyond pouring- definitely the terse, uncaring, type.

The tattooed, hipster type coupled with obvious apathy toward patrons- it wasn't just our group that got this coldness- Citizen Cider should rethink how they want to promote the face of their business- because it's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with some quality product they produce.

We all got back to the car, and had the same impression- interesting for sure. I'll buy their cider, but it's not worth going out of your way for a visit-...