The Watermark Irish Pub & Restaurant Ltd

Way overpriced fo...

Way overpriced for the quality of food and service. I don't think the servers actually want to be there. Yikes! There are better places on the strip. Try the Amsterdam Brewpub. Little better view and service.

We have visited Watermark several times, and unlike most of the posters have never had a problem. Except. they should ban smoking on the patio, although that might be a city bylaw. Our recent visit was a busy, sunny Sunday at around noon. We were told it would be about 10 minutes to be seated, actually it turn out to be around 5 minutes. After being seated our waitress showed up in good time and asked for our drink order, she showed up quickly with our drinks and took our food order. She said the kitchen was quite busy and our order might take a little longer than usual. We asked about appetizers that might hold us to the food arrived and she said they really don't serve them. Imagine our surprise when showed up a little while later with a plate of mini muffins for us, and then, refilled the plate. I know it's not much.....but it was something. And actually, it didn't seem like too long till our food arrived. The only complaint was from my daughter....kids.....who said, and this well be somewhat odd, her tacos had too much topping on them, and that the meat sauce made the tortilla chips "soggy". She may right on "soggy" bit, but she likes the chips most of all :-) . It was a good lunch, and everyone enjoyed their meal, although the accompanying salads with sandwiches were on the small side. Chicken club was made with a chicken breast, and lobster clubs had plenty of filling. If I have a different experience, I'll post it.

Forget the food

We weren't even going to enter until we saw the girl at the entrance. The 'hostess' was wearing an extremely cute and short mini skirt that told us we need to check it out. She was gorgeous. Loved it. Now you should never expect a place with such a strategic location in front of the lake to have good foodm, but the finger foods were really good. To bad the waitress wasnt rocking a mini like the hostess. We would have downed even more beers lol

I want to like this place...

The outdoor patio is right on the water and is very pleasant on a warm summer day. There is plenty of waitstaff, but waittimes feel unjustifiably long.

They RAN OUT OF FOOD but waited 45 mins after seating us to say so!

We were told it would take 20 minutes to be seated on the patio and about 45 minutes to receive entrees, but it was was a nice day so we waited by the lake even though we were really hungry. Restaurants usually give a "worst case scenario" anyway, so we figured it wouldn't be so bad. We were wrong. It was worse. It took just under 20 minutes to be seated (on their side patio, not the best spot) and we were disappointed by their menu. First of all, it was a new menu with very few items on it. We though it was a patio menu, but were told that this is all there is for the entire restaurant, all season. By the entrance, they had a different menu posted (their old menu, I guess) with quite a few tasty sounding items that didn't make it onto their new menu. It was all standard pub food and nothing really jumped out at any of the 4 of us. The menu was just kind of "meh"... Still, we waited 20 minutes to get seated and we were hungry so we weren't about to get us and leave. We all settled on what to order and tried to get the attention of our waitress, which took a while. She had a lot of tables to wait on so it took a while to get her over. We started ordering food but when asked about drinks, she couldn't answer some questions so she went off to get a drink menu. She brought it back and said she would give us a minute. We decided on drinks quickly but couldn't get her to come back for a long time. Finally when she came over, she asked for our drink order. When we told her we wanted to order food as well so it would come sooner, she told us that they "just closed the kitchen" because the kitchen staff was unable to keep up with orders. She said that people who ordered an hour ago were still waiting for their food, but she can serve us drinks. We were pretty upset after waiting so long already. My boyfriend asked to speak to a manager, and when he did, he was told that they ran out of food for the day and could not serve us even if we wanted to wait 60+ minutes for it. OK, I understand that restaurants get their food supplies in the mornings to last them through the day and that they only have a certain amount of pantry/fridge/freezer storage space and cannot make food once they run out, but... Any well-managed restaurant knows from experience when to note that they're running low on supplies and when to let their staff know BEFORE seating people that the kitchen is or may close for the night so that people don't have to wait over 40 minutes (after a 20 minute wait for seats) to find out that they ran out of food. Also, for a restaurant in downtown Toronto, right at the waterfront with a sizable patio, how do you run out of food at 8:30 pm on a Saturday on the last weekend of May? ....EIGHT THIRTY. That's crazy. This is totally unacceptable. We went to a nearby restaurant where a manager just happened to be near the entrance... he overheard our story and decided that we shouldn't wait to be seated at all. We were served quickly and had really great drinks and food overlooking the lake after all. This was at Wallymagoo's (at Pier 4). They have an extensive seafood menu (I recommend the lobster angliotti) but also a lighter fare menu with lots of gourmet salads, pizzas, burgers, etc. The manager and our waiter got a kick out of our story about Watermark. Watermark's loss was their gain, I suppose. The experience has completely tainted my impression of Watermark. I will not return there at all. Watermark was a complete waste of time for such a boring tiny menu. Even if the kitchen hadn't closed, I'm certain the food wouldn't have been worth the long wait. Consider yourself warned. There are plenty of other restaurants in the area with nice patios. Do NOT go to Watermark.

...here's hoping management takes the time to...

...here's hoping management takes the time to read reviews...everyone mentions bad service wherever this restaurant is reviewed. PLEASE GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!!! Went there on my second visit recently, as with the first experience both my friend and I very much enjoyed the food. The service, however, was absolutely appalling. We were seated inside on a nice day (our choice), and were left to wait for almost 20 minutes before anyone even offered to take our drink order. I had to go ask the hostess if anyone was serving us, and she said she'd send somebody. After another 5 minutes of waiting, I flagged down a passing waitress and made her take our order. She reluctlantly served us, and I had to go on a search of my own for condiments, since none were offered when the busboy delivered our meals. I would eat there again, but if the service is as bad as my last experience, it will be my last time eating there. Shame, as I live in the neighbourhood and would like to be able to recommend a restaurant at Harbourfront - there's nothing else there worth recommending! I hope they won't seal their fate with bad service, as their many predecessor waterfront restaurants have done (and consequently failed miserably).

Wanted to check out this new "Irish Pub" which...

Wanted to check out this new "Irish Pub" which has a patio on the waterfront. It is newly opened so could be the reason for the poor service and food. The patio was huge and busy, we were promptly taken to a spot on the patio which was nice and we were delighted with the view. Took a while for a server to come and take our drink order, within the time it took we had decided on our entree's and decided to order the food with the drinks to make it faster service. Server was quick with the drinks, but one of the drinks was wrong and when we complained server blamed bartender. Promptly brought the right drink and we waited for our food. And waited, and waited, and waited. almost 1-1/2 hrs. 3 of us order the lobster club which is lobster salad on bread and sweet potato fries, other ordered chicken club with regular fries. Not sure why it took this long, it wasn't steak we were ordering. When we did get the food the waiter told us the hood in the kitchen broke down. He waited 1-1/2 hrs to tell us. Other tables who came in after us were being served first. Being from the restaurant industry I know you do not need a hood to make sandwiches. We could have been offered bread or something. Once we were done our sandwiches. The waiter apoligized for the wait again while taking our plates. We asked to speak to a manager. 15 mins later the server came back (no manager) and told us the manager had taken our bottle of wine off the bill. At least we were compensated. The place does not feel like a typical irish pub it was large and sleek and contemporary. It is not cozy, quaint and rustic how you would expect a pub to be. There are only 2 stalls in the ladies washroom, there was always a lineup. This place is too big for its britches..maybe too new and hasnt worked out the kinks. But for 2 in our party who live in the neighbourhood, they will not be returning.