Old Canal Smoke House — Restaurant in Chillicothe

Food and atmosphere was great! But..... Hostess wasn't cheerful and the process for seating was not smooth.

Apparently they only have one phone line. This is very unusual for a restaurant today. So...when you are waiting for the call to be seated they do not text or call you from their listed business number. (We were not told this. They probably assumed we knew.) Instead a Hostess called us from her personal number which looked like spam. She did not let the phone ring long enough for me to screen the call so she clearly could not leave a voicemail to let us know our table was ready. So we continued to wait...

After waiting 45 min. (As we had been told) I called the business number to inquire about our table... that's when I learned that the mystery number was the hostess. Unfortunately for us they had moved on. I was told they would find a spot for us but it would be another 20 min. We waited 30min. No call. This time we called the Hostess back to inquire. The hostess seemed frustrated we could hear her talking with someone about how she didn't realize we were still coming...then told us to come inside.

We were told we could sit at the bar. I asked if we could please have a table as we had been waiting a long time and had not been informed about someone calling from a personal number. She quickly told me no, that they needed their tables that hold 4 people for groups of 4 and since we were only a group of 2, sorry but no....the bar was our only option. She then preceded to explain she was actually doing us a favor because she was letting us skip in front of 4-5 other groups. (All while holding out her list for us to glance at.) Apparently she had put us back at a the very bottom of the wait list after the earlier mix up. I felt frustrated to say the least....Though I could tell she was frustrated as well and overwhelmed with the amount guests waiting so I didn't press it further and we sat at the bar.

I would recommend that the restaurant invests in a second line or a specific cell phone for wait-list calls to avoid confusion. That way they can easily text or call to inform their guests when their tables are ready. They could also have both numbers listed for their business so guest know what number to expect.

I would also recommend reviewing with staff how to greet guests. Even before the mix up occured the first impression wasn't great. The host was not cheerful at all. No smile. Reality is a hostess is the face of the company because they are the first employees to greet guests so a smile would be nice. I understand the pressure of the job as I have worked as a host and server for 10 years. Other food service before that. Smiling is just part of the job even on the crazy stressful nights.

It was my first time visiting this restaurant. Though it was far from flawless I am definitely willing to try this local spot again. I'm hoping the hostess just had an overwhelming fluke of a night. The food was genuinely delicious with large portions! The price was right. Also the gal at the bar was very kind and positive. She actual smiled when she greeted us and took our order! Lol But I couldn't give a higher review for the particular...

On Monday 9/20/21, my family and I were in Chillicothe for the burial of my Grandmother. Our day started very early in Columbus and then we all made the hour trip to Chillicothe to the cemetery. Services were over around 2 and we were all starving and wanted to eat as a family. We chose Old Canal Smoke House. Let me say, what a mistake. Upon our arrival, we told the host that we were in town for a funeral (probably obvious from our attire) and there were 10.5 of us all together. They took us to 2 separate tables. We asked to please be seated all at the same table. The server was not accommodating at all, giving no other options for seating. She basically told us this was it. We asked to please push two tables together in a larger area where there was plenty of room, but she could not find it with if herself to accommodate us. After explaining to the server how important it was to us that we were able to eat at the same table after our sad day, she said she would get the manager. The manager came out and was the same, not accommodating at all. Refused to push the two tables together so our family could eat together. She told us we would have to wait for another table to leave because we didn’t call for a reservation. We were not sure how long services for Grandma would take, so we weren’t able to make reservations. We also didn’t think that was necessary at 2:30 pm on a Monday in Chillicothe Ohio. Lastly, since none of us are from Chillicothe, we actually didn’t know where we were going to eat. We waited for a bit, and then decided to just pull up two chairs from the table we asked to push together and squeeze the 10.5 of us at the 8 top they had originally directed us to at the beginning. We had to get our own highchair for the baby. We all sat down and ordered drinks and appetizers. After the drinks and appetizers came out, the manager then came out and asked us to all stand up so they could push that extra table together with our table to give us more room. By this point, people were eating and we were comfortable and thankful to finally be sitting and relaxing (all together as a family). We declined her offer. The food was only mediocre, the sides were all cold. Our general impression of this restaurant was just “thank god we won’t have to worry about coming back here for a long time”. The food wasn’t terrible, nor was it outstanding, but had the service from both the server and the manager not been so non- accommodating, we would have went back at some point while visiting Chillicothe. We didn’t let it ruin our day, however, for a family that had just endured a funeral, they surely didn’t care at all to go the extra mile to make our experience at their facility a good one. Therefore, we will not...

Tonight myself and a friend visited this establishment in the hope that Chillicothe's #1 restaurant would not only offer excellent service but also an enjoyable culinary experience.

After being seated and given our drink orders I explained to our server, DAVIDA, that I was Gluten Intolerant and asked if the options that i liked the look of on the menu were suitable for me to eat as unfortunately the menu offered no allergen information. DAVIDA confirmed that my order would be fine and would be gluten free.

She brought out a side salad for me and presented this and walked away. I started eating it and then quickly spotted croutons (not mentioned on the menu). I called her over and asked her if these were gluten free to which she said NO and i'd have to leave them! Next 5 minutes carefully picking out croutons and their crumbs.

Then came the main (ribs and brisket) with a side of cornbread. Having been down this line before i thought let's double check. "Is this real cornbread or had it been made with wheatflour?" I asked. "It has been made with wheatflour" she replied "you best not eat that either" and then pushed the bread towards my friend!

Ok. This is carelessness in the kitchen and by the server. When an allergen is reported it is good practice to alert the kitchen. The plate gets labelled and the server double checks for obvious elements of the allergen before serving it. With DAVIDA, she was happy to serve it to me KNOWING it contained what I had told her I was allergic to!

The rest of the meal was gorgeous and this is the only reason this review hasn't been marked down to the lowest score.

But then, to the shock of both me and my friend, whilst I am still eating my main meal DAVIDA came back to the table and clears away my friends dishes and then returns seconds later with the bill.

We were not asked if we had finished (I was still visibly eating) or of we had wanted anything else to eat or drink. My friend looked at me in shock as we had planned to potentially have a dessert and we were effectively being shoed out the door.

The cardinal rule of seeking if we were finished before clearing plates was clearly ignored and it became very evident that we were not being treated as valued customers, probably because they could tell that as tourists passing through we were unlikely to come back in a hurry.

Would i recommend this place? Yes, if you don't mind being herded like cattle and as long as none of your party have any dietary requirements...