ottawa foodies

Entertaining thread at Reddit on worst Ottawa restaurants (www.reddit.com).

That thread is pure internet gold.

I like the Blue Cactus portion of the thread, never really understood how that place was always busy, I've had several bad meals there, and service is never that good.

Blue Cactus... Mediocre to meh in my experience, but i would not have put it at 'worse' in the city.

A certain chain of pubs referred to in the reddit thread takes that prize in my opinion.

Fun read, why can’t we be more like that? lol!

Well we have the Moxies thread! It seemed amusing at the time... ottawafoodies.com

Ah, yes, good times. In light of recent developments regarding sexual harassment in the industry, this old thread may take on new meaning.

Ooh that was fun. Was surprised/encouraged to see Flapjack's there. Went once, had a god awful experience in both service and food, but didn't leave a review as I thought maybe it was a one-off and didn't want to rip what seemed like a likeable enough operation. Haven't gone back and never will.. but good to know I'm not alone. Though still always seeing people in there anytime I walk by.

Pretty sure I also still see lineups at the Blue Cactus (and pretty sure they're not the ones for Zak's, which are almost equally confusing).. amazing how that place survives while having a universally awful rep. It is instantly bashed in any threads of this kind

Can anyone explain this Flapjacks ‘tip up front’ thing?

"Can anyone explain this Flapjacks ‘tip up front’ thing?"

Ah, herewego, courtesy of a Yelp review...

"You go in and are seated and handed a menu, you then need to get up and go to the cash to order your food... at this point you need to pay, as well as tip your non-service server.. There is even a sign about why you should tip the server.. ".

That's.... different.

Pretty much- you order your food, pay then take a number, and put a tip. If service and or food is bad like it usually is at Flapjacks they aren’t held accountable. Art-Is-In does the same thing. Only difference is food and service is reliably good at Art-Is-In.

Ooookay, that makes sense, tnx NatMan.
ArtIsIn has always been like that while Flapjacks used to be 'normal' table service so i didn't make the connection.

looooool at the reddit thread - but also tbh I feel like the service style change at Flapjacks has actually improved the service despite the fact they tend to mix up our orders a lot...