JP's Hideout — Restaurant in Cottleville

We really wanted to like this place - and I'll tell you, the food was good. But the charges, some of which were hidden, were just ridiculous and we were a bit dumbfounded when our bill came. A family of 4 at a pub type restaurant - $97. For that price, we could've gone to Massa's, Maggiano's, Pasta House, Sybergs, any number of restaurants I would expect to pay close to $100 for a party of 4.

We ordered two draft beers and two sodas. The beers were $5.50 and $6.00, nothing too crazy. The soda for our kids (17 and 3), were $3.50 each. I should have looked to see if a kids meal included a drink, which of course it didn't. Had I checked, we certainly wouldn't have spent $3.50 on a soda for a toddler. That I will chalk up to being our error.

We ordered one appetizer, the fried pickle chips. They were very good, but the portion was incredibly small for the $9.25 we spent on them. We all got to have 3-4 pickle chips, that was it. The pickles come with a spicy ranch. We asked for a side of regular ranch for the kids. When we got the bill we found out we were charged $0.75 for that. Considering we only had a few chips each, it hardly seemed worth it.

Our toddler got the chicken tender meal, with came with 2 good sized chicken tenders and fries, for $7.00. Definitely the best value of the meal. Our teenager ordered the chicken & waffles appetizer ($14.00) and a side of fries ($4.00). When it came out, it was 2 good sized chicken tenders in what I would describe as a fluffy waffle cone. When it came down to it, her appetizer and fries was $18, and it was the same exact thing our toddler got for $7, just without the weird waffle cone thing, which was certainly not worth the $11 difference in cost.

The two adults got a Reuben meal and a smashburger meal. The Reuben came with fries and was $16.50. It was good, nothing special. The smashburger meal also came with fries and was $12.50, plus $1.00 for cheese, which was stated on the menu. Of course I added the cheese, so it was $13.50. Then the fries - I asked if I could upgrade the fries to the poutine fries (which were offered as an appetizer only). I knew there would be a charge if they did it. The server wasn't sure so he had to ask. When he returned to the table, I was informed that the upgrade would be $6.00. The full appetizer serving of poutine was $13.50. SIX DOLLARS to add a little gravy, 4-5 cheese curds and a sprinkling of green onions. Keep in mind, my meal already came with fries, so it was just the toppings I was paying for. I found it to be quite ridiculous, but I didn't argue, and I went ahead and ordered them because poutine is hard to find. They were good, but not worth that price. And they had a very "powdered gravy" aftertaste to them. The burger was good. It came with lettuce, tomato and pickles. I asked for mayonnaise as well. Then when the bill came I found out we were charged $0.40 for it. I've never been charged for mayo when ordering a burger, since it is a pretty standard topping. I wonder if I asked for no pickles or no lettuce if they would have reduced the price of the burger for the ingredients I didn't want. I highly doubt it.

Then the final blow came. Once we got over the shock of the itemized bill, we saw the total of $97.06, and directly under that it said the price would be $94.23 if we opted to pay with cash. I wish we carried cash, that would have made up for one of the $3.50 drinks. But in the end, we literally got charged to pay.

At this point, I guess I should be happy we weren't assessed a table usage fee, or a surcharge for wear and tear on the chairs.

This place has potential if they modify the way they do business or create a better value for the money experience. But until then, I won't be paying $100 for their...

My wife and I love supporting local businesses and JPs was recommended to us by friends. We stopped in on 7/27 around 7PM, the place was fairly busy but we immediately sat down at the bar. It took a few minutes to get greeted but no big deal, we were taking in the atmosphere of the place and we were in no hurry. We were greeted with apologies for the wait, everyone we interacted with was quite nice and friendly. I ordered a beer for myself and a long island ice tea for my wife. When they dropped the drinks off we were not ready to order yet, in hindsight we wished were. Unfortunately my wife's drink was not made properly, tasted like a flat Coke. Again, no big deal, that happens so we waited to get a bartender's attention to have them remake it and order dinner. In that time of waiting(around 15 minutes or so) I had finished my beer, someone who was not a bartender came by and took my empty glass. They said they were running low on them, did not ask me if I wanted another one. In this time of waiting we saw what looked to be the owner and a manager at the bar yet no one noticed my wife and I trying to get taken care of. After this 15 minutes or so of waiting we decided it would be best to just leave. My wife and I the last five minutes were both staring down the bar just waiting for anyone to make eye contact with us. I had to stand up and walk down the bar to finally get someone to talk to me. Again, the bartender was very friendly and apologetic and seemed to genuinely feel bad. They removed the one drink and we left.

As someone who many moons ago was a server and a bartender I can tolerate a lot in a restaurant but slow service, feeling like you are being ignored as others are being taken care of just rubs me the wrong way. Anyone who has worked in this business can spot a customer wanting to be taken care of and getting impatient from across the room. I don't believe we were ignored on purpose but man it sure felt like it. Just an acknowledgement that we are seen would have been enough. We watched as others at the bar were not waiting at all for their service. Being talked to by the bartenders, by the owner and the manager. We thought maybe cause we aren't regulars we aren't getting the same service. Really is a shame, we were looking forward to checking out a new place and we are as easy as they come to wait on. You have to go out of your way for us to react...

This place has a 4.5 rating with a bunch of reviews. So what could possibly go wrong... The wife and I went to PJ's Hideout on the Saturday after Black Friday 2024. We were asked to seat ourselves We got the big pretzel as an appetizer and that was good. I ordered this fish tacos grilled with roasted veggies (All zucchini wtf) the wife got a smash burger and fries. My fish tacos were not seasoned so really bland. The wife reported the same with her burger. I ate the tacos because I'm a dude. And the wife got a togo box for the dogs (FYI they liked it) we got the food and then noticed that we had no silverware... So it took a bit to flag down a waitress. Didn't get any refills on sodas tipped 20+% So on the bill there is a cash price and a credit price... It seems we threw a wrench in the checkout process by paying with $20s and asking for change. So you sort of get punished by paying with cash... Whatever we probably won't be back.

I probably rated this place higher than I should have.

TL;DR Overrated high priced food. Atmosphere was good....