(UPDATE 2009: Return to the James Street Pub)
Two mentions out there for 2 places that didn't live up to standards.
This is not an official review exactly, because I didn't take photos. Normally, I would just move on and wait till I went back to do an 'official' review, but I was so turned off by this place that I have to just get it out there.
First, all the Internet literature I found on this place said it was called the "James Street Feed Company". I was confused when I reached the address and found the "James Street Pub". Feed Company sounded appealing to me, suggesting hearty portions and family friendly environment. Ha ha was I wrong. I arrived on what I had read was 'wing night', only to not get wings at any discount. The wings were TINY, some of the smallest I have ever seen. The flavour, poor hot sauce at best.
What topped this off was the service. Not only did I wait for 10 minutes for someone to even come to my seat, the waitress came and just looked at me. Confused whether perhaps English was not her first language (as I encountered many Francaphones in the city). Nope. So I asked for a coke and a menu. "Yes, sir" she said. I waited 5 minutes - she brought me a menu and no drink "Here you go, sir". I looked at the drink list on the menu; Pepsi. [I'm sure I've ranted about this before, but a message to servers out there: if someone asks for a Coke, and you don't serve Coke, always ask "is Pepsi (or other cola beverage) ok?" Coke and Pepsi are not the same thing. Although I will drink Pepsi, many others do not] After another 5 minutes, she brought me my Pepsi. "Here is your drink, sir." Then she was off again - not taking my order.
I feigned interest in the menu for something to do. She came back. "Can I take your order, sir?" So I order the wings, hot with a side of suicide, and without even giving me the option of a side dish, she was off. I waited more than half an hour for the wings to come out. They did, "here you go, sir" they were terrible and she was gone. Oh and no side suicide, and no drink refill. When she finally came back, "Just the bill, sir?" "Yes please" "Thank you, sir". Now you may be away of what is seemingly a respectful sir after everything she said to me. But this was not some young lady being polite, it was with a pungent air of rudeness. Especially when she went to the one other table occupied near me and spoke to them with such friendliness and joviality that one would have thought them to be friends.
So, terrible service, expensive/tiny wings, I would NOT recommend this place to anyone when there are much nicer pubs and tastier wings to be had.
The James Street Pub
390 Bank Street
Ottawa
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LOCAL HEROES
LJ and I were dying to get back to Local Heroes after having been here about a year ago. Accidentally went to the exact same one after wanting to change locations to see if there was any difference. They even sat us in the exact same booth we had the first time.
This time, I ordered half jumbo and half traditional. The waitress suggested just going with the jumbo, being the same price and all, but I said I wanted to try both. I figured I would get more wings because they were smaller. Nope, they were just small, and the same number as the jumbo. I should have gone with the jumbo. AND they removed the tips on the jumbo, even though I asked for them not to. And although it was wing night with 25% off, the wings had gone up $2 in a year. Our waitress was just like the one we had last time, fake friendly and not very service oriented. LJ's nachos' were not very good this time - skimping on cheese and guacamole.
So, Local Heroes was not as good as the first time, but still a decent wing place.
Local Heroes Bar and Grill
1400 Clyde Street Napean [Ottawa] (and other locations)
1400 Clyde Street Napean [Ottawa] (and other locations)
Definitely don't agree with your comments regarding the wings at the James Street Pub. And before getting all snarky about the name of the place, you should check the age of the information you're using. The James Street Feed Company *used* to be the name of the place. In April 2007, it was taken over by the Irish Village Group (the same people who own The Heart and Crown, etc...) and renamed to the James Street Pub. Rather than site there in abject confusion, you could have spoken to a manager to clarify. And if you're depending on information on the Internet to determine when wing nights are, especially if you don't know how current the information is, good luck to you. That's why telephones were invented.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThank you for informing me about the nature of the name change of the pub. I could have spoken to a manager about the reason for the name change, but if I was to go that far, I would have complained about the rude service I recieved. I didn't think my observation of the name change came across as the biggest problem I had concerning my complaints about the place.
I do rely on the Internet for information and you are right, it clearly is not the most reliable source. I wasn't upset at the pub for that bad info about the name change and wing night, rather the websites that had not updated themselves. But if it had not been for the internet, I wouldn't have even known about the place to begin with. I take the good, I take the bad, I take them both and there I have the facts of life about getting info about wings and pubs from the Internet.
My snarkyness came from the poor service, as well as dissapointing wings and prices. I may go back to do a proper review: perhaps the wings have improved (I did notice recently that they have banners advertising AYCE wings as well) and perhaps my waitress is gone. Maybe I'll even see you there and we can talk about wings (you will have to find me, as you have seen pictures of me, and your, well, anonymous).
So to sum things up:
-Bloggers: try to keep your web info up to date
-James Street Pub: improve your wings, get a better waitress
-Everyone else: chill and try and enjoy some wings