David B.
Yelp
After a long, hot day of kayaking, my wife and I stopped by The Canary Grill, hoping to relax and enjoy a good meal. The hostess was welcoming and quickly seated us. From there, however, things took a turn, and the reason this review is only three stars can be summed up in one word: KAREN.
Karen was our server, though from the moment she arrived at our table, it was clear she didn't want to be. Her body language screamed disinterest, and she made minimal effort to hide her preference for socializing with a nearby table of bikers over doing her actual job.
When we inquired about a specialty lemonade advertised at the table, Karen said she'd check if they had it. Instead, she first visited the biker table, chatted for a while, wandered to the bar, and then circled back to the bikers again before finally letting us know it was available. We placed our drink orders and Karen returned to the biker party.
Our drinks arrived 15 minutes later, and we placed our meal orders: a ribeye with baked potato (sour cream and butter) and coleslaw for me, and a crab cake with broccoli and the same baked potato setup for my wife. Karen? Back at the biker table.
The food came out about 20 minutes later and I'll be honest; it was excellent. The chef grilled my ribeye to perfection. I'm not usually a fan of baked potatoes, but this one changed my mind. Even the coleslaw, though a bit too creamy for me, was fresh and flavorful. Presentation was spot on.
But as we ate, dehydrated from hours in 100-degree heat, we realized we needed water refills and extra sour cream. Unfortunately, by then, the biker party had left, and so had Karen. After another 10 minutes of searching, we flagged her down. She returned with a larger water glass but no lemon. We had to flag her down again, and another server eventually brought the lemon.
And just as we were halfway through our entrées, Karen dropped off the check and asked if we wanted dessert. The implication was clear: she'd already decided we wouldn't be needing it.
When we finally finished our meal, we waited. And waited. Karen had vanished. I approached the hostess to ask if we could check out, and she said she'd find Karen. This seemed to trigger an all-out search effort by the staff, as multiple servers began looking for her.
Eventually, another server processed our bill. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, we spotted Karen laughing with one biker outside. Maybe she's ready to trade in her apron for a leather jacket, but her lack of professionalism did a disservice to the kitchen and the rest of the staff.
To be clear: the food was fantastic. The kitchen deserves five stars. But Karen's service dragged the entire experience down. A server's job is to be present, attentive, and at the very least courteous -- none of which applied here.