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| - This past Saturday evening, my friend and I were looking for a place to eat downtown. We had planned to go to an old favourite, Jack Astor's (located in the same building), but were told there would be a 25 minute wait. We were hungry, so we decided to head downstairs and check out the Shark Club Sports Bar & Grill.
The first thing we noticed was a seemingly unhappy and, to be honest, unnecessary doorman. He told us there was no wait to be seated so we got a table. This proved to be misleading as we waited about 15 minutes for our server to come over. She seemed to be one of the only servers in the entire restaurant, which wasn't overly busy. She took our orders, I went for the chicken pesto quesadilla with poutine and my friend ordered the four cheese poutine appetizer. The food arrived in a timely fashion and resulted in differing opinions on quality. I honestly enjoyed my meal and was satisfied. My friend, on the other hand, found his fries to be overdone and his cheese to be poorly prepared. He was not satisfied and didn't finish.
The service itself was somewhat lacking. When our server did come to the table, she was polite enough. However, there were several small annoyances that arose. First, they were out of Rolling Rock for a pitcher. Then, it took several trips for her to come back with a diet coke refill I requested. These wouldn't be as significant if the restaurant offered consistently timely service. The long delays in-between compounded the issue.
The atmosphere was a bit hit or miss. As I said, the doorman seemed superfluous. As well, the amount of TVs they have going mixed with the loud music seemed more than a little overbearing. On the other hand, the bathrooms were surprisingly nice and clean. It really is a nice view as mentioned in a previous review.
In conclusion, were we happy with the experience - not really. While I did enjoy my food, it's nothing you couldn't find elsewhere in the same radius. In fact, many of the menu items are the same as Jack Astor's, to the point that if they were the same company, it wouldn't surprise me. I'd recommend waiting for Jacks or taking a walk somewhere else.
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