Toucan's Ale House — Restaurant in Brunswick

Went in for appetizers and drinks. It was 3:30 on a Wednesday (school just letting out).

There were 5 people at the bar, and 1 occupied table when we walked in.

The waitress was nice, professional, and sweet. However, I was the only person there having alcohol. Our party ordered 3 teas, a specialty shot and cocktail.

We received our teas and placed our order. She said, as she left from ordering, "Let me go get those drinks for you.

I watched her go past the bar and into the back. I walked up to the bar and asked the bartender if I could order (same drinks). She politely said, "Of course." She made my drinks and said she'd transfer it to my table - at which point I knew (and questioned) that the waitress never put in the order.

I sat my drinks down. I asked if there were no prior orders for them. The bartneder said no, she could see that particular waitress had one beer out of her 4 tables.

I politely asked the bartender not to transfer my drinks to my table and that I'd rather pay her (bartender) instead of the waitress.

I paid the bartender $26, leaving her $12 for doing her job properly.

The waitress, when bringing our appetizers, noticed my drinks. She looked nervous and said, "I'm so sorry, I've been slammed." (We were her only table for 30 minutes before the other 3 in her section arrived).

I told her I completely understood. To help her out, I just went and asked for the drinks at the bar. I told the waitress, "I was informed neither of those drinks had been ordered (at that point, twice). I also told her that I received my drinks within 8 minutes, as well as asked to be cashed out by the bartender (so the server's receipt would reflect and effect her tip.

She apologized. I told her it was ok, but, that it was better to be honest with a customer from the beginning - than just lie - because if the customer knows they're struggling, they (I) tend to work with my servers far better - because I understand.

That's the first time I've ever left a 15% gratuity (usually leave 25-40%) - and I felt terrible - but you can't lie to...

Rarely do I give less than a 5 star review.

Food was meh. We got the loaded chicken tenders. Tenders were cold. They didn't have the crab stew, which is the only reason I wanted to eat here.

So I got wings as well. Sauces were bland and tasted worse than store-bought.

My $24 meal ended up at over $30 due to

Credit card service charge (just bake it into the price)

AUTO GRATUITY for to-go orders?!?

I'm 38 and haven't EVER paid an auto grat on a to-go order in my life. And I've been all over the country.

Also, I double checked. It's not mentioned on their menu that's on their website. So it's a hidden gratuity.

And because the owners choose to keep this hidden and not post anywhere, they've created a culture where their servers have to get SUPER defensive about it. The server has to be kind of an assertive jerk because the customers are confused and angry, seeing their check with an extra 25% tacked on top of it.

Ridiculous hidden fees. And the owners get to hide behind their wait staff.

If I'm gonna pay 25% more, just charge me 25% more. If you're going to charge extra ridiculous fees, you need to let your customers know.

Your online menu 100% needs to include this charge. But it won't. Because then your to-go orders would drop significantly.

The quickest way to ensure a customer never returns is to put deceptive hidden fees in the cost of the food, then get defensive when someone dares to question it.

The worst part is that I already tip on to-go orders. But that's my decision to make. Not theirs.

Edit: Reading the responses from the owner can be a bit incriminating. They "offer a cash discount" for paying cash.

NO THEY DON'T!

You pay menu price if you pay cash. You are UPCHARGED if you pay credit card.

Also, charging an extra 50 cents for a side of dressing when someone orders a salad is just criminal.

I hope these owners were able to buy a new boat with all the nickel and dime-ing they've done to...

This was my first time coming here. It was with a party of 5 plus one child. The wait to be seated was fine. After all it was a Friday night (3/8) and people were kicking off their weekend. Our waitress, Jennifer C, immediately came and took our drink orders and they were out immediately as well. Where things started to go down hill was the 2 + hour wait for our orders to come out. This order was placed all on one ticket to make it easier on the server as well as to pay at the end. After the first hour of waiting and asking questions, we were made aware that the kitchen had gotten behind on order requests. That was fine......but then another hour passed and there was still no food at all. People that came in after us came and went. The drinks continued to come as we ordered, but the food was non exististant. Our waitress Jennifer, was very apologetic and even brought out some club crackers and a basket of fries to hold us over. I can't really blame the waitress, since her job is to take orders and serve. She is not the one in the kitchen cooking. At some point she came to our table and told us that there were about 7 tickets ahead of us and the count down began to see when we would get our food. As the count down continued to 3 tickets and then finally ours, I was just sick of the back and forth count down updates. The food finally came out and their was still an item missing from the order request. This was not a great first experience for me at all. There were others in my party that had been here before and had not had this experience. But either way.....I will not be going back myself. We tipped our waitress around 17% of a $135 check, because at the end of the day, I don't want to punish a hard working individual. However, this was not it AT ALL! THANKS, BUT NO THANKS! I'm...