Ye Olde Squire – Upper James

We have been to this restaurant in the past and we have never been disappointed.
Last night we arrived at prime time dinner hour and wondered how long it would take to be seated.
The hostess asked for my cell phone number so that they could text us when the table is ready. Pretty cool. We sat the bar and had a drink… ending up waiting just 15 minutes after being told it would be 30 minutes. Cool again.
We received a text message immediately welcoming us to the restaurant and telling us they would advise as soon as possible about our table. Great system.
The Yorkshire Pudding Bowl was awesome. Filled with steak and veggies and a very light gravy. Flavourful tender steak and the entire dish was piping hot.
Yorkshire pudding was light and obviously made at the restaurant. Awesome.
Our server was attentive and funny. He actually remembered us from a previous night.
Manager came by our table to ask us about the service and food.
We love this location. For a fun night out at a bar/​pub style restaurant this is the place to go. Great atmosphere.

I have really mixed feelings about THIS location. I came here with three other people on this Saturday night, around 9:30PM for a few drinks and food. I’ve been to the other squires on Hamilton, and have never been disappointed. First of all, when we got there, we were greeted by friendly hostesses. We were seated, and tended to about 15 minutes later, by one of the worst waitresses on earth. She did not apologize for the wait, nor did she even say hello. The first thing she said to us, was «does anybody want a drink here?». You know, it’s not like we’re at a bar at 9:30 on Saturday? Anyway, we ordered drinks and they came back about 10 minutes later with them. She never asked us what we wanted to eat, just left on that. I actually had to get out of my seat to flag down our waitress, to spend money and order food. When she came to order, she has zero recommendations for us. Here’s the sad part; two out of the four people at the table HATED their food. The first was a cheeseburger poutine, and it had to have been the worst looking poutine I’ve ever seen. Room temp gravy, pre cooked fried, and uncooked beef. My friend took three bites into it, and had to stop eating. The second was the French onion soup, which was cold when it came out; hard cheese curds inside. I ordered the honey garlic chicken sandwich, and it was a ³⁄₁₀. The 3 was for the taste, everything else was lame. The chicken was so small it was laughable. The strawberry daiquiri was tasty, and I can sadly say that was the best part of the meal. I was absolutely disgusted by the kind of service I received. Our bill was about $ 80 with tax, and I feel as if I threw the money out the window. I hate saying negative about any kind of local establishment, but this was one of the worst service experiences I’ve ever had. I really hope I’ll be able to go back some day.