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| - I have had the pleasure of dining at EVOO multiple times with great food and great service from a wonderful female server (her name escapes me, but she is excellent). Because of those experiences and after raving to family and friends and bringing them to try the restaurant to try, I decided to have my birthday dinner there last night at 6 pm.
I made a reservation early in previous week and was promptly told we have a two-hour limit. OK..... cool. That evening, the express on the 401 had all lanes closed, requiring us to take local traffic from Peel. Many of us arrived late. I called the restaurant to let them know about the ETA and they said no problem. When half of the guests arrived at 6:30, the server was very curt and said, "I don't know who X is that made the reservation (not to me, but a guest), but you guys have to be out of here by 8:15. You were told that when the reservation was made, soooo". Ummm, happy birthday to me? Very unprofessional.
He gave us water and asked us if we wanted to order. He did not tell us the specials and kept glancing at other servers as if we were a nuisance. I then asked for the specials and he prattled them off quickly, but only to me and not the whole table and promptly left, so there was no time to ask questions or for recommendations. We kind of halfway heard what the specials were and stuck with the regular menu. Upon his return, some of my guests asked for meal suggestions and what was popular and the server looked super annoyed and any dish inquired about was "good", barely engaging or making eye contact and snatching the menus quickly. Every time he left the table, we noticed the chilliness and felt quite uncomfortable.
The food came super quickly, but tasted like it, and was definitely not what I was accustomed to in terms of flavour and quality. It was very disappointing (pool of water under my pasta, maybe not drained properly?). When the rest of my guests arrived, they were asked if they wanted drinks because there wasn't enough time for them to eat and we have to be out by 8:15 and so, they didn't. After hours in traffic....There was no happy birthday, warmth, patience, kindness, nothing. Just a hurry up and get out attitude throughout the evening. The entire night was characterized by nervous glances and a sense of "please leave quickly". I've never felt so uncomfortable and unwelcome in a restaurant. Ever. It was a terrible feeling.
Needless to say, my birthday was ruined, I couldn't order dessert and have my guests celebrate with me because I was rushed through my meal and reminded at least three times that I had to leave by 8:15 and in every way possible, to hurry up. My birthday was not acknowledged despite it being mentioned multiple times. I am gravely dissapointed and hurt by my experience. I was treated like a nuisance the entire time and it soured my birthday evening and made things awkward.
We were still hungry, insulted, and irritated, so we went to another restaurant and continued the evening there, with much better service. We were actually able to relax, makes jokes, chat, and enjoy each other's company because we weren't being reminded to get out ASAP almost every time the server came by! I take full responsibility for arriving late, but who could have forseen half of the highway shutting down? If they could no longer accommodate my party of 6, they should have let us know when I called to let them know I would be arriving late. Myself and my guests arrived with one hour and forty-five minutes left and were still treated like crap and an inconvenience.
I will not be returning or recommending this restaurant to anyone ever again. If I could give them zero stars, I would. They weren't accommodating, friendly, professional, or polite, and made us feel very unwelcome. Disappointed.
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