Look here for a followup visit & review.
We had tried to visit the pub on Sunday, the Website said they were open, but sadly, the door was locked.
So, we made it out last night, (a Wednesday night). Arriving by 8pm, we sat and waited for service a really really long time. Waitresses came to the table next to us, cruised past to the patio out back, table across from us, even cleared the glasses from the people who had been at the table prior to us - WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING AT US.
I believe multitasking just isn't within their abilities. After 15 minutes, one came by and said "Do you need something?" Seriously?! We ordered beverages and menus.
Another 10 minutes goes by. Drinks arrive, no menus. Menus finally arrive and we decide what to order, and wait. By now, I've pretty much decided it wasn't worth it, but my other half really wanted to try the exotic meats. So we try to order a Kangaroo burger, I ordered a Chicken Avocado sandwich - no bread after explaining to her "Celiac, no wheat" I'll tell you later what came about that.
She returns to the table - sorry, I can get you the chicken, but not the Kangaroo. "Ostrich?" he asks. No. She goes away to let him decide on something else.
On her return he asks for a beef burger. The menu clearly says "burgers made fresh daily" and they've only been open for 3 hours today so far. Let me check. No, there are NO burgers today. ARE WE KIDDING HERE?!
So we ordered the Gator bites, and a steak sandwich. "What's that marinated in? Oh, I'll Check" - she never gets back to us.
The meals arrive, and my dish has fries that are clearly coated in some kind of flour. Great. They have no idea what celiac, gluten free and no flour means here. Well, I'm not bothering to send it back - just feed it to my partner. The salad was wilted into the plate, and the avocado on my chicken (dry, well done), had brown spots of ugly. Ranch? The sandwich was supposed to have Ranch dressing. "You want Ranch?" It was pretty much a toss and run when she brought it.
She did check back to see how it was. I told her so-so and I meant it. Didn't matter really. They were short 2 waitresses, and speaking to the manager - I don't think that would have had any benefit. This pub is here for the drinkers - I'm surprised they got their drinks at all, but I suppose they did, and wings since it was Wing Wednesday.\
We should have checked the Urbanspoon reviews before we went, but the lure of exotic meats was too good to pass up - take our advice - PASS.
I discourage anyone with special food needs to do anything but order a beverage here - if you can get one without having to charge the bar yourself.
Walk on past Walkabout Pub. It's not the experience you think it will be.
I went last weekend and had no problem ordering, we got the kangaroo and ostrich burger and they were excellent. The best part was the fries, I guess if you can't have wheat it kind of ruins it for you, but I wouldn't write the place off if you don't have any allergies. I would also advise a weeknight, since weekends on Whyte ave are so busy, it might have a detrimental affect on the service and quality.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaitlyn. Thanks for reporting your better experience at Walkabout.
ReplyDeleteJust to clear a detail, we were there during the week - on a Wednesday.
I'm very glad your experience was better than ours, the service should be that good all the time, but truly, the service we received was remarkable, in the poor sense, hence the post.