Canal Port — Restaurant in North Utica

We have eaten here 3 times over the last 2 years. Once was a Friday afternoon for lunch when they were not busy. The other 2 times were Saturday evening dinners when they were busy. Before getting into my criticisms, let me first say that the food is “pretty good.” It’s not going to blow you away, but at the same time for a bar-grill type of place, it’s probably better than average. Also, they have a large beer and whiskey list and do have some craft cocktails as well. All of that stuff I would consider positive.

Now for the negatives though… On all 3 occasions the time it took to get the food was extremely slow. The dinners both took about an hour and 15 mins or so from the time of the order until when the food started to show up at the table (yes, you heard that right). On both of those occasions we had to specifically ask what was going on. The one time we had lunch there, that took 45 minutes or so as well and they were not at all busy at that time. So, if you go to Canal Port, prepare to wait. You might not want to go there with young kids who will get bored while waiting.

In addition to slow food though, the mistakes that get made at this place are like nothing I have ever seen before. On our first time eating there, one of the kids ordered the hot dog from the kid’s menu. After our group was already about AN HOUR into waiting for the food, the waitress came out and told us they were out of hot dogs and asked the little guy to order something else. Being out of something is fine, but why did it take an hour to realize that?

This most recent time we ate there we had 10 people in our party. After waiting well over an hour to receive our food, they then bring out 8 of the 10 dishes. The 9th dish comes out another 5-10 minutes later. The 9th dish was a pasta and when it came out it was missing it’s bread on the side. When we asked the waiter about the missing bread, he said they were still working on that. Huh? Still working on a piece of bread? That should be the easiest thing on the entire order. Even after receiving the 9th dish though, there was still nothing on the 10th dish. Still nothing! When we ask where the 10th dish is, you could see on the waiter’s face that we caught him off guard and after another 15-minute wait we finally received the 10th dish. It was clear as day they forgot put the order in for the 10th dish or the kitchen just flat-out forgot to make the 10th dish or something. The best part though? When they did eventually bring the 10th dish out, it was missing its side. So then we questioned where was the side and after another 5 minute wait, they finally brought the side out for dish #10. At this point, the waiter did apologize for all the insanity and said their cook was brand new. By the time person #10 was able to start eating, we were probably pushing an hour and 45 minutes since the order was placed!! An hour and 45 minutes?!?! All the kids were all done eating and wanting to go leave before dish #10 was even brought out! The people in our party who were courteous enough to wait for the 10th person to get their food were now dealing with cold food themselves. Just a total disaster.

Finally at the end of the night, the check shows up and none of the drinks that were ordered were listed on the check. No beers. No cocktails. No lemonade that the kids ordered. Literally no drinks were on the check. Some people in our party suggested that maybe they removed the drinks as a courtesy since our experience was such a disaster. I don’t buy that though. Normally when a business makes a courtesy adjustment on the bill, the manager comes out and offers apologies and explains that he/she made an adjustment to the bill as a courtesy. So, I don’t believe they did this as a courtesy since that never happened. My belief is this place is just soooooo incompetent from a service standpoint that this was yet another mistake that they made, but luckily that mistake worked...

My family and I (16 people altogether) stopped here today as a last minute decision. The hostess was sitting outside in front of the door and she asked us how large our party was and we told her. We understood this was a lot of people but she said they could serve us and that we could either sit outside or sit at the large table inside that could fit us all. We told her we would sit outside and we waited for approximately 15 minutes. When no one came to wait on us, my sister went inside to get menus. She came back out and said that everyone would have to pay on one check which was perfectly fine. A couple of minutes later (by this point 11 children have been patiently waiting for 20 minutes) we are told that we cannot be served. My Step-Dad went inside to try to understand what happened. I followed him in a couple of minutes later and saw that he was talking to the manager/owner. We were just trying to understand what was going on. He was ranting about how he had already told 3 people he can't serve us (mind you this was never relayed to us by the staff). I was trying to get two words in to explain that this was a little frustrating but he started yelling at me that I'm nasty and that I needed to get the hell out his restaurant. I have never been spoken to that way in my life and especially for having done nothing wrong but questioned why were told we could be seated and then just left outside. I would have understood if they had said initially our group was too large and they couldn't feed us. I totally get that. I also would have been understanding if he had apologized for the inconvenience. My Step-Dad and I went outside after he started yelling/being hostile for no reason and we gathered up our family. He then also came outside and attempted to give me a half/fake apology because I was visibly shaken/upset that he was being so rude to me for no reason. He then followed that by saying "but tell everyone I'm nice". AND THEN, this is the real topper. He told me that I need an education in the food service industry. Unbelievable. This review will stay here until the owner/manager can apologize and rectify this situation. It's not acceptable to treat customers that way. We just wanted an...

I can not stress this enough, but this restaurant has the worst service in the world. I've been into many restaurants in different states and in various countries; my family and I have never received this kind of treatment anywhere else. I can play the racist card, but there's no way for me to prove that. I also consider my family and I as very understanding and patient people so we look pass certain mistakes and mistreatment. What happened to us was simply deliberate in my opinion. Here's the series of unfortunate events: first, the place was not busy at all and there were a lot of empty seats but it took us 15 mins to be seated; second, we finally got our table and our server was no show for 20 mins.; third, when the server arrive we didn't even get an apology nor a simple greeting nor any kind of courtesy or friendliness; fourth, my father inquired if they served steaks since we saw a different table that had it but she said no, I wanted to show it to her but didn't want to be rude to the other customers so we let it go; fifth, our waters didn't come for another 20 mins.; sixth, which is probably what I am most annoyed about is that our appetizers didn't come for an hour (mind you that the place is not busy at all); seventh, our entrees didn't come for another 30 mins; eight, when it came the server messed up one order and at this time we didn't want to wait any longer so we said to cancel the order; ninth, the server took a very long time to check up on us in regards to how our food was or if we need more drinks; tenth, when the bill arrived the server "forgot" to take off the order we cancelled; eleventh, the server didn't come back to get the check, I had to go up the bar and give them the check; lastly, when I confronted the owner he had no remorse nor any apology and just walked away....... ahahah!!! .......... as they say..... OMG! Anyways, I warn you and urge you not to even look at this place. Places like this and people who runs them should not be allowed to be in business because it's a disgrace to what makes...