| rev:text
| - Okay. I will tell you a few things.
First, I really wanted to like this place.
Second, I dropped by with 9 friends and acquaintances a few weeks after it opened... and perhaps they were still working out kinks. Still, not really an excuse for what happened.
We arrived on Tuesday, their AYCE day because come on: It is AYCE poutine! YOU HAVE to try THAT experience at least ONCE in your life.
We were hungry and excited as we waited for a few late comers to our party before ordering and here is where things starting going downhill.
First, we are given menus as we wait for our friends and we read through those dish descriptions like Oprah on a pie and I am telling you some of the poutines on that menu sounded delicious!
Except... the options offered for the AYCE are not those but obviously simpler, cheaper, counterparts not listed online. The truth is, you can't help feeling that you are being the victim of a Bait and Switch. For you see, on their site, there is only one poutine menu on display. Second, a little poster there advertises "All you can eat -- From 5 signature poutines!" However, no one takes the opportunity to define what "Signature poutines" are until you are there at the restaurant and about to order AYCE.
"Alright," we said, as our new options... still looked, uh, good, so we order them only to discover the portions are VERY SMALL.
Look, I get the venue does not want customers wasting food however here it seems more as a topping/money saving strategy as each serving is mostly French fries.
Also, they serve them in rounds so you can literally be there for 25 minutes and get three maybe four small servings. How do I know that?
Well, I am glad you let me put such question in your mind.
We began ordering at around 9:30pm and as we were going to order another round, the waitress announces the kitchen is closing and they would not be taking any more orders. I check my phone, it was 9:55pm! Soon thereafter she casually dropped the bill.
I find it silly that on their site they state the AYCE "starts" at 5:00pm but they never tell you when they close, and strategic choice it seems. Heck, even here on Yelp it states their closing time to be 11:00pm on Tuesdays.
If I had to guess, I think the reason they were closing was because the restaurant was somewhat empty and the person in charge did not want to pay the extra overhead.
I asked the server, "Why she did not tell us they were closing early for if they had we would not have gotten the AYCE." She had no answer.
That was annoying.
I requested to speak with the manager.
He comes out and he really does not seem to know what to do or seems a little bit baffled about our issue. Personally, I do not think he wanted to do anything but to have us pay and leave.
It is bad when you have to remind a venue that such practice is not appreciated and should not be done to 10 of their brand new customers.
He then asked, "What is that you want?" which I found a bit annoying since what I wanted was to go eat ACYE poutine with my friends and not manage his resolution skills. But since he asked, I suggested that at least he could reduce the bill. He then asked "By how much?" Although at Smoke's poutinerie, most dinner-sized servings --the Chili Cheese Bacon Poutine, for example, cash in at $8.99, I suggested at minimum of $10 per head. Which considering the limited selection, tiny servings of poutine, the fact they were closing without warning after just 25 minutes, the expectation for us to pay full price unless I had to bring it up to the manager and the manager's aloof attitude, I think monetarily speaking, the venue got more than a fair deal.
Then as we are paying the new bill and getting ready to leave the manager says something akin to "We are new to the neighborhood, remember to give us a good-word-of-mouth."
Sigh. Maybe he was jesting and trying to defuse a bit of tension? I am not sure, but his tone was not so much joking as it was mildly demanding. As if he had done us a solid by not charging us full price and was now cashing in on the favor.
Either way, he managed to rub the rest of my party the wrong way.
Now, I can't tell you what my companions said to their friends but I can tell you that I have not gone back.
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