Heartland Cafe & Restaurant

**WARNING - Long Review** To start off, I, being a forgiving imperfect human myself, have eaten at many different establishments. Whether it be “high class” or “whole in the wall” types of places. I’ve worked in the foods & service industry for many years. Only reason why I gave this a two stars, is for the fact that I am showing compassion to our server, who seemed to be either inexperienced or very overwhelmed. I was not aware of where our dinner reservations were going to be (definitely was not dressed to impress, and don’t tend to really dress to show my status anyway. My skin colour tends to do that for me before I even have a chance to speak, to show those who make judgements/presumptions otherwise… ~ would dressing prettier or more put together made a difference to how everything transpired… highly unlikely!) When I walked up and saw the sign, I was excited to experience what all the hubbub was about. Our group walked in and we were in very happy spirits, very excited to be uniting to celebrate my sister-in-laws 70th spin around the sun. We were greeted by a person that didn’t seem too impressed with the volume of our joy and promptly asked us if we had a reservation. It took him a few seconds to find the name and then directed us to follow towards our table. Reservation was for ten people. Set very nicely, in the middle of the room. We were respectful with timing and were not late for our reservation either… we arrived at approximately 6:20pm, the reservation was for 6:30pm. As we all settled and found our seats, we all noticed that our server wasn’t present. (Which we all agreed was a fair bit odd, as we are all accustomed to have someone either offer to bring water for the entire table, promptly after being seated, or offer a moment to decide on drinks. After about 5 minutes the server finally took the order. Not sure why it took 10 to 15 minutes for the bartender to pour five or six glasses of wine into the mini carafes, along with preparing a couple of glasses of draft, and pouring ginger ale into a glass, but even the water hadn’t been brought to the table yet. At this point, it was not busy. There were about 8 tables with customers already seated, and possibly had given their order. Can’t say for sure… After there were a few mixups with which wine belonged to whom and a glass of wine, with what seemed like, to be missing for a good 20 minutes, we were finally able to put our meal orders in. At this point we’d been sitting for just over 30 minutes… At about 7:15pm (give or take, it may have been later) the server brings a few plates of a sliced baguette with a creamy cucumber butter. For those who could eat it, it went down fairly quick, all voracious by that point, thinking we would be close to finally seeing the light of our meals. Sadly, we were all sorely mistaken. (Personally, I have a severe gluten/dairy intolerance and was not able to enjoy the bread and butter). One good thing out of all that waiting, our server was able to replenish our water & beverages, when she wasn’t too busy. At about 7:48pm, still no meals. My husband, sadly, cannot eat after a certain time and he had to ask for his meal to be cancelled. The server seemed a little indignant as to why he was cancelling the order (as some of our group also wanted to do, including myself) and I found it quite ignorant that she would respond in such a way and make it sound like it was inconsiderate of HIM to even make such a request. It was after 8pm when we finally received our food! Over an hour wait! When the food finally arrived, the GF/DF seafood **Penne** (there is not a GF Tagliatelle option, and had we known that, we wouldn’t have ordered it), other plates arrived lukewarm also. My sister-in-law and I both sent our plates to get properly heated. It had three cherry tomatoes cut in half, shrimp was tough and the DF sauce was a watery/oily mess at the bottom of the plate. The dish had a kick to it, but no actual flavour. There was zero compensation for the long delay or poor quality of the meal. Would not recommend!!

Great service, Greg was amazing the entire evening and informed me about the gluten free options. They are great with gluten free (and dairy free by the looks of it). Food was delicious!

Quaint, cozy, and the service was polite and on pointe! Greg made the experience perfect and the bison ribeye was excellent. For the gluten and dairy free folks out there, they easily adjusted the menu and even had toasted gluten free bread with olive oil and vinegar to start. Total treat!