Reading, Pennsylvania: Canal Street Pub & Restaurant

Posted December 28th, 2009 by Meg

Never going back.

Hello! It’s been such a long time since I’ve written anything. I didn’t plan on writing anything over break, but then this hot mess happened. I can’t NOT write about it.

For my brother’s 29th birthday we went to Canal Street Pub & Restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania. I’ve been there a few times and thought it was decent. However, we went this evening and it sucked. A lot.

Problems:

1. Upon entering the restaurant we waited 5 minutes for a hostess to finally come to the front to seat people. The place wasn’t busy. The bartender didn’t make an effort to help us. We just stood there at the empty tables waiting… and waiting…. and waiting.

2. After we were finally seated in the restaurant, the hostess only gave us dinner menus. With the word “Pub” in the name of the restaurant and it being notorious for a great beer selection, a reasonable person would think that at least one copy of the beer menu would be given to the table with the food menus.

3. We waited…and waited… and waited… almost 10 minutes for the ONLY waitress serving the 6 full tables in the dining room. Seriously. Understaffed.

4. When the waitress did appear, she asked if we wanted anything to drink. We told her we did not get the beer menu, so we didn’t really know. She came back and handed us a list of the draft beer and new  bottled beer. There were highlighted marks on the sheet, but she didn’t explain what that meant, if anything at all. Also, even though we asked for the beer menu, she did not give us the official complete beer list. Or a wine list for that matter. How do you expect to sell beer if you don’t give the patrons a complete beer menu? One can only it is because the bar does not actually have the beer that it lists.

5. The place was freezing. We asked if the heat could be turned on. Our waitress said that she would fix it. Nothing happened. She lied to us. She didn’t turn the heat up or on for that matter. In fact, it got colder as the night progressed. This is probably what bothered me the most. My whole table was uncomfortable. I had to put on my winter jacket. Eating dinner in a parka is not enjoyable.

6. The waitress didn’t tell us the specials for the day. We had to ask her after she had come to the table and asked us if we were ready to order.

7. There was a 20 minute gap between dinner salads and entrees. When the waitress has to apologize for slow service there is a problem.

8. My table tried to order beer, but the two different beers we selected from the menu were both unavailable.

9. The waitress improperly cleared a plate in which a knife fell to the floor, splashing food onto the table and almost onto my clothes. The waitress showed no concern about the consequences of this action and didn’t even clean up the mess she had made on the table.

I understand why people would like this restaurant and would try to defend it saying that my family went on the wrong night. But, there should NEVER be a wrong night. The owner needs to hire more staff and turn on the heat. In the end, I don’t care about it because I’m never going back.