Highland Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Massena

This Review is long , long , long overdue !

WE MUST ADMIT , my wife and I had long anticipated the rollout opening of this VERY DESPERATELY NEEDED ADDITION TO OUR COMMUNITY . The edible opportunities for family outdoor dining in Our Massena Area Eating Out Desert make even hot , dry sand appear very appetizing !

Millie and I had stopped by a number of times over a two year period while the Very Gifted Contractors , the DEEP POCKETED Investors and the bare bones of a long ago neglected restaurant facility had longingly awaited its re-emergence as a DESIRED DESTINATION BY ALL OF OUR LOCALS !

I was truly taken back by the extent all involved invested into this Quaint , Smaller and partly out-of-the-way location . We feared the gamble wouldn't pay off and yet another " Hail Mary Pass " would become another fumble into the " Canyons of What Might Have Been " !

Rest assured , all there efforts to transform this empty shell into the sanctuary of a large beautiful Pearl ❤️ were a success ! SADLY , all that loving attention to the details of the structure must have become somewhat exhausted when the time to commence the most important step in this Transformation , the quest for a culinary staff equal to the task of completing this creative dream .

We anxiously awaited our turn and go try the anticipated go to destination for good home cooked in our collective back yard . UNFORTUNATELY the hopes were dashed by the incompetence in the kitchen and a totally green waitstaff . We were willing to accept some shortfalls in a new startup , it is normal and to expect perfection from the get-go is unrealistic !

The reality was beyond any acceptable level of unprepared action AND OVERALL COMPETENCES . The menu depictions of our lunch choices couldn't be more stark from what we both received after a long , long wait . The selections we made should have been easy requests BUT the " Turkey Club Triple Decker " my Millie had picked was very scant and absent of any of the delicious elements anyone should expect . My " French Dip Hoggie " was total trash and was thinly spread with leftover greasy burnt elements that more resembled Diarrhea on a bun . Needless to say , I definitely didn't eat my sandwich . Additionally , sides that were inferred as no additional cost options were irritating upcharges ! I should have taken photoshots of those two platters but instead we called over the Manager on duty that afternoon . He was very nervous and apparently not even one week into their opening he was already becoming Shellshocked by legitimate issues of complaints . He asked me if I wanted to have the " Chef " prepair a second effort and I declined , if he could consciously send that disgusting plate out the first time there was no reason to take any chances again . Millie and I shared her meager food , paid the bill for her plate ( although the Manager had offered to give us the disappointment for free , tipped the misinformed server and we left GREATLY SADDENED . We never returned after that October visit but I did reach out to the Restaurant last week out of our joint curiosity . Did they make the needed changes to give them a fresh try . While speaking to the Acting Manager about our experience she excused the bad experience as a poor startup , most of those original Staffers were replaced and things were much better . I asked if we could have a complementary and similarly valued meal again plus talk to the Owner about the prior disappointing visit . She CRUDELY just replied that the Owner doesn't take any calls from patrons / it had apparently been too long to convey our disappointment and it was too much for me to expect a full meal consideration ( about $20.00 ? ) . I still had offered her my name , phone number and our Email address to pass along to the Owner to try to mitigate the missed chance to regain our trust and undue the avoidable past circumstances . Guess what , no effort was extended to us and we definitely won't go back under that absence of contrite behavior . Here is your...

EDIT: Decided to give this place a second try, because everyone deserves a second chance and most everyone else didn't seem to have my issues...and somehow the second trip was even worse.

Walk in and we're immediately greeted with empty tables full of dirty dishes...already not a great start. Found probably the one clean table to sit at. Server took our order, brought us drinks.

This is when everything went south.

First, the salads were brought before the appetizer...which seems backwards. Salads were merely okay, nothing special, nowhere enough dressing. Mozzarella sticks were fine but the sauce had entirely too many large chunks of tomato, almost like someone hurriedly crushed them to get it done.

Ordered the chicken parm and spaghetti and meatballs. Server brought us one wrong entree. After setting it on the table, she then proceeded to take it back and bring the right one, which was about as hastily thrown together as a school cafeteria meal. Said replacement had a hair in it to add further insult to injury. The chicken parm was clearly made with the same frozen breaded chicken breasts you can find in the frozen aisle of Walmart, which was deep fried well beyond completion to where it was hard as a rock, and it was topped with a half-melted slice of cheese.

At that point we were done, we asked for the check (to which we ended up getting comped anyways, probably the one minor victory of the whole ordeal) and left.

We won't be back. I know some people seem to like the place, and I really wanted to because Massena certainly needs more options, but they lost me as a customer.

Original review follows.

The place looks nice... they clearly put some money into the place, and it shows. Food was fine, nothing overly spectacular, though the "poutine", despite being advertised as being made with cheese curds (the way it's supposed to be made), was made using shredded mozzarella cheese. Portion sizes are decent, and the food is fairly cheap, so...

Worst restaurant experience I can remember. We figure the waitress was off her meds, or maybe had taken double. The place was NOT busy when we came in and yet It took more than 15 minutes after taking our seat to get the waitress to stop by with menus, another 10 minutes for her to stop by to say “want something ta drink?” 10 minutes to get water and coffee…. It just went on and on, and we could see others were having issues. Finally got her to stop by and take our order, and then we settled in for another 20 minutes wait for food to come. I ordered chicken parm which the menu said came on a bed of linguini, with salad and garlic toast. The chicken came on a plate, with a thin coating of red sauce and some mozzarella on top. It was dry and so tough and overcooked it was inedible. There was a separate dish with spaghetti - not linguini - and a tablespoon or so of weak red sauce. When I asked the waitress where my salad was she told me it didn’t come with salad. When I told her the menu says salad, she said no, that’s not right, but she could get me a salad if I wanted. My wife pointed out that she didn’t have her coleslaw. What she did have was breaded haddock(?) filet that had been fried to dryness and a sloppy pile of Mac and cheese beside it. And this was happening to everyone - the elderly couple at the table beside ours ended up walking out after waiting way too long for their order which never came. It’s too bad. When this place first opened my wife and I went for lunch and had a great experience - food and waitstaff were great - and we went back a couple times soon after that. Something has happened since then and the owners clearly have no interest in building clientele or running even a good restaurant, let alone a very good restaurant. The quality of our dinners should be embarrassing but apparently that’s not the case. We won’t be back again and we’ll certainly spread the word that this place is not worth any...