On Friday night my wife and I headed over with a coupon to London Pub (9724 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario). We arrived to be shown to our table in the dining room by not one but two Hostesses. It wasn't until much later, as in going out the door, we learned that they were both trainees.
FULL STOP....first mistake...2 trainees working the door on a Friday night approaching the dinner hour? HELLO! Not a good thing. How about pairing up the trainees with someone who knows what their doing. No, not at London Pub! They put the two trainees together to figure things out on their own. Awesome...simply AWESOME THINKING.
The trainees promised our waitress would be right with us. We perused the menus and chose what we wanted. However, there was just one problem, where was the promised waitress? Hmmm....ten minutes later she arrives. She inquires if we would like to order drinks and if we need a few minutes with the menus. I confer with my wife and say we are ready to order.
The Order: Milano Panini, a Pound of Honey Garlic Chicken Wings and two Cokes.
The waitress disappeared off to the kitchen to place our order. How do we know she made it to the kitchen? Our food came twenty minutes later.
The food arrived being delivered by the two trainees. Again how do we know they are trainees? A clue included they brought the food out and then disappeared not noting the lack of cutlery and napkins on the table. Napkins would be an obvious need as there were chicken wings that anyone who has had chicken wings knows, napkins - and lots of them - are not an option, but REQUIRED. The cutlery should also be expected, heck this is English style eating establishment, the English are known for being prim and proper with their cutlery.
My wife whisked over to the waitress station and scored a handful of napkins and some cutlery to resolve that issue.
The food was nothing to write home about either. The wings came with a single carrot stick and celery each. The Milano Panini sandwich was different but then again nothing special that I would rave about. The sweet potato fries were also pretty basic as well.
While we were eating a waiter came by and decided to adjust the lighting levels in the dining room. The place turned into a disco for a couple of minutes as the dimmer switches on the lights were turned high then medium then low then back to medium again. Weird. What ever happened to having a nice quiet dinner in peace?
Then our waitress never checked on us. Half way through my Coke glass was empty. Thank goodness my wife doesn't drink that much Coke. I got to finish off half of hers too. Where did our waitress go? I still don't know where she went a day later. Perhaps the London Pub management should have sent a search party for her.
We finished our meal and yet a different person came by to clear our plates. By my count this is the fourth different person to serve us (cout'em: 1. Trainee, 2. Trainee, 3. Waitress 4. Waiter/Busboy).
He asked if there was anything else we would like? We requested the bill. A few minutes later he brought back the bill. At least the bill was correct. We had used a coupon from a local publication that gave us a free entree with the purchase of two beverages. London Pub didn't charge us for the Milano Panini sandwich but did for the wings. In total it came to $17.20.
On leaving we noticed the two Trainees were at the front door with another coworker. The coworker was explaining how to properly place the menus on the table when seating patrons of London Pub. I rolled my eyes and left. They let two Trainees with little to no training seat people on one of the busiest nights in the restaurant industry? What a fine establishement this is.
Overall, we give the London Pub a thumbs down. The first impression of the Trainees requiring both of them to seat us at a table was the first clue trouble might be at hand. Then allowing these two to serve the food was yet another mistake as they didn't inquire if anything was missing or if we needed anything. The Trainees simply dissappeared back to their perch at the front door. We will definately not be visiting anytime soon.
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