The Howling Rooster Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Town of Tonawanda

First of all, let me just say that I worked in restaurants in NYC from when I was 12 years old and realize how incredibly hard it is, particularly on holidays. That being said, this was about as bad as it gets in terms of service on Mother’s Day, which should be the time when a quality establishment shines. After waiting a bit, despite having reservations (no problem at all, hostess was very nice and kept me updated), we were finally seated. There were 3 of us. We sat for 25 minutes as waitress after waitress walked by us, and no one even bothered to greet us. They did find a way to take drink orders and greet two larger groups who showed up after us. Finally, after 25 minutes a waitress shows up and we order 1 coffee, 1 OJ, and one mimosa. The OJ and coffee showed up, along with the waitress, feeling the need to explain how busy they were or “slammed” as she put it, for the second time. The mimosa showed up almost 40 minutes later and the 3rd installment of “we are so busy”. Along with that, she gives me a quarter cup more of coffee, from the last of the coffee pot, with a promise of “will bring you some more”. Of course that never happened. We did order when the mimosa came, and now after an hour and 25 minutes in total, the waitress showed up to let us know, for the 4th time, that they are “busy and backed up”. There was a twist this time: she then proceeded to tell us “ you are the fourth check in the kitchen so we are working on it”. 1 hour and 30 minutes in, that’s what we get. This entire experience up to this point was wrong on more levels than I can express, but I really don’t care how “slammed” you are or how “busy” kitchen is. I have lived in numerous cities and probably have eaten at a 1000 restaurants, and Buffalo is the only place I have ever heard this. News flash: my job, as most of ours are, are very busy, and I don’t complain to my customers or completely neglect them and tell them nothing. If you can’t handle the volume, don’t take people’s money. It’s pathetic and completely unprofessional. After almost an hour and 40 minutes, I had enough and went to speak to a hostess at front. She was not the one who sat us and finally got someone to acknowledge we were even there. As I am explaining to her what happened, the hostess who seated us came over and asked what’s wrong. The hostess who didn’t seat us turned to her and said “oh he’s mad about how long his mimosa took”. The hostess who sat us knew that wasn’t the issue as much as the astonishingly bad service was, because if she didn’t get us a waitress after 25 minutes of no one coming over, we would’ve been waiting an hour for an OJ. The blonde hostess who made that comment was fortunate it was Mother’s Day and I had no interest in causing a scene, or I would’ve embarrassed her as she should’ve been, for being that dismissive of a customer. I then proceeded to speak with hostess who seated us, who was very nice, and quite unhappy that we were treated that way, and I advised her we were leaving and she completely understood. I am sure this place is profitable and I am thrilled to see a business do well. However, these holidays are more than just meals, they are memories in a family’s history, when time is limited, and the least that can be expected is to be treated somewhat like this matters to the staff. I would be happy to have a constructive conversation with the owner of GM or whoever addresses these issues, and it is not my intention to hurt anyone’s business, but having been involved in restaurants for many years in my earlier life and through my 20’s, this was as bad as it gets. Absolutely awful performance by staff, kitchen and unfortunately, management. The only one who was even the slightest bit understanding and/or took any ownership was hostess who sat us. Clearly, there is a problem here, and I hope this was just an isolated bad day, and bad it was. Worst I...

I wish I could give this 1 star, but unfortunately you can’t give separate reviews for the service and the actual people who made the food.

Came here twice and the first time they have a strange method of where the host, usually a kid in the front will seat you in sections based on a waitress that isn’t on their “break”. This means you cannot request to sit where you want and if you insist, we were told that we would have to wait 45 minutes for the waitress to get off break to be served at a specific table.

The second time we came we requested a corner table and the host had to take our drinks. Then 5 minutes later an older woman with black hair came over, did not introduce herself and took our order with an attitude. We did not see her at all until we had to ask the host who was cleaning a table for the check. No check up and drink refills from this waitress.

I had asked for extra sour cream on the side with my taco omelette which was phenomenal, but ended up being charged $1.29 extra. When asking the waitress towards the end about this she insisted that she wanted the name of this waitress who didn’t charge me last time for the extra sour cream a month ago and wanted to contact “upper management”, when she did not even tend to us during our meal besides take our order. We noticed she had one other table as well and did not tend to them either.

At this point we just gave up on the expectations of good service, and had requested take out boxes for our leftovers from the host. We still had lots of food left and were given two 16 oz soup containers for breakfast food. When asked for more reasonable containers to fit our food so it actually fits and doesn’t get smushed together, we then got brown cardboard boxes. At this point this was pretty disgusting to us and wasn’t acceptable. We asked the host one last time and we were given aluminum foil with what looked ljke hotdog containers from a hotdog stand?? We just used those and kept in the cardboard boxes so it wouldn’t stick to the box. This was hard to believe as the first time we came we had an actual takeout container, and I doubt if they did delivery they would put food presented like this.

Overall from the other reviews i’ve read, it seemed like an uncomfortable atmosphere from the service to dine here even for brunch.

The food however, was great. They have an amazing Hollandaise Eggs Benedict and their Taco Omelette is uniquely put together really well. The real tips go...

I called the howling rooster at 1215 on a Sunday to ask if there was a wait time. I was asked how many people (3) and was told no wait time.

I arrived 10 minutes later with my family and was initially denied seating because the host was told that there was an hour wait by the kitchen staff. Mind you, the dining room only had 5 occupied tables max 6 ppl at one table the rest were less than that for a total of 15 people. The host stated that a group just came in and was seated in the private room in the back and that’s why he could not seat us.

I asked if I could give him my number or something so he could notify us of when they could seat us and he just stared off and said “I guess I could call you” so at that moment another girl walks up and he turns to me and said “I just got word from the kitchen, I can seat you”.

We were seated and our host came right over and asked for our drinks. After that we waited 25 minutes for her to take our order. At that time I asked for a coffee. It’s 125 and I still have not received the coffee and my daughter has not received a straw for her drink. I am watching customer service and all other tables, except for ours.

When the food arrived (provided by someone else) we asked her for the coffee and she brought it out. The last meal came out by someone else also and we asked for a sangria and the woman said “your waiter will have to get that for you”

And the waiter did - she apologized for missing my coffee and said it was because of the party in the back which I never saw her with but that’s okay.

We noticed when the food came out my fiance and my daughter had the wrong eggs on their plates so we switched them.

Now my chicken and waffles felt like they did not serve me what I believe is the chicken for chicken and waffles or chicken at all lol. It was like the sponge texture and maybe part of a kids meal, but not a kids meal I would give my child.

I will add a picture to my review so everyone can decide on their own. I have traveled all around state to state and out of the country and have never seen anything like this.

Finally, I needed to add sugar to my coffee and had nothing but a knife to mix it.

When we finally got the check she placed it between me and my daughter unlike she did the other couples.

I am extremely disappointed. I live in this area and I felt that my family was treated differently from...