Since we never received feedback or an email back from Barley Mow in Almonte or from their headquarters we decided to post here.
On Saturday June 18th, my family and I (two teenaged girls, a four year old and my girlfriend went for our third visit to the Barley Mow in Almonte. This was to celebrate Father’s Day in advance of Sunday’s celebration.
The meal started off well enough with okay attention from our waitresses (none really seemed too focused on us but we understand it was a busy day with lots of people on the patio). If the rest of the meal had remained the same we would have been pleased enough but unfortunately things took a turn.
My girlfriend went to the washroom and noticed the washroom was not very clean, with paper on the floor, a wet mop and brush in plain view etc and jammed up toilets). This was bad enough in itself but when she went to wash her hands there was no soap. So my girlfriend who is very easy going asked the first waitress she met for some soap and was told there was none and that there had not been any for a few days. When she enquired if there could be some somewhere else in the restaurant she could use but was told there was none. My girlfriend then commented on the uncleanness of the woman’s toilet but the waitress again brushed off and was very openly rude to my girlfriend saying they did their best to clean the washrooms once a day.
When my girlfriend got the table she was visibly upset and this did not help my family have a nice Father’s day dinner. Later I went to the men’s washroom and guess what…we had soap. So why did the restaurant not have soap in the woman’s washroom? Why did the employee not go get some from somewhere else in the restaurant? If there was none why not go buy some at one of the many stores in Almonte until more soap arrived from distributors and if there was no soap how where the chefs cleaning their hands during food prep and after they went to the women’s washroom? And lastly why was the waitress (a thin woman with long black/brown hair) so rude to Pam? Why not just try and find soap?
These are very serious issues from not only a customer service point of view but from a health and safety perspective. We have gone to many many of the Barley Mow’s in Ottawa and have never had to fault them, always having an ok meal and or a nightcap. Our previous experiences in Almonte had also been okay but this experience was frightening and if I was the owner of the Barley Mow I would be very discouraged that this type of behavior is occurring at one of my restaurants. Who wants to eat at a restaurant with no soap…who wants to think about staff not washing their hands when you’re out paying for a meal? Not us…
Very disappointing experience on Father’s Day.
Sad a nice location gets such a poor restaurant.
selftaughtcook
First post for this user
On Saturday June 18th, my family and I (two teenaged girls, a four year old and my girlfriend went for our third visit to the Barley Mow in Almonte. This was to celebrate Father’s Day in advance of Sunday’s celebration.
The meal started off well enough with okay attention from our waitresses (none really seemed too focused on us but we understand it was a busy day with lots of people on the patio). If the rest of the meal had remained the same we would have been pleased enough but unfortunately things took a turn.
My girlfriend went to the washroom and noticed the washroom was not very clean, with paper on the floor, a wet mop and brush in plain view etc and jammed up toilets). This was bad enough in itself but when she went to wash her hands there was no soap. So my girlfriend who is very easy going asked the first waitress she met for some soap and was told there was none and that there had not been any for a few days. When she enquired if there could be some somewhere else in the restaurant she could use but was told there was none. My girlfriend then commented on the uncleanness of the woman’s toilet but the waitress again brushed off and was very openly rude to my girlfriend saying they did their best to clean the washrooms once a day.
When my girlfriend got the table she was visibly upset and this did not help my family have a nice Father’s day dinner. Later I went to the men’s washroom and guess what…we had soap. So why did the restaurant not have soap in the woman’s washroom? Why did the employee not go get some from somewhere else in the restaurant? If there was none why not go buy some at one of the many stores in Almonte until more soap arrived from distributors and if there was no soap how where the chefs cleaning their hands during food prep and after they went to the women’s washroom? And lastly why was the waitress (a thin woman with long black/brown hair) so rude to Pam? Why not just try and find soap?
These are very serious issues from not only a customer service point of view but from a health and safety perspective. We have gone to many many of the Barley Mow’s in Ottawa and have never had to fault them, always having an ok meal and or a nightcap. Our previous experiences in Almonte had also been okay but this experience was frightening and if I was the owner of the Barley Mow I would be very discouraged that this type of behavior is occurring at one of my restaurants. Who wants to eat at a restaurant with no soap…who wants to think about staff not washing their hands when you’re out paying for a meal? Not us…
Very disappointing experience on Father’s Day.
Sad a nice location gets such a poor restaurant.