Skylon Revolting Restaurant
In Niagara Falls we decided to spend a special evening watching the fireworks, while enjoying a meal in the Skylon Revolving Restaurant. Unfortunately this was not going to be that special evening we had been expecting.
The Skylon Revolving Restaurant is one of the attractions built into the Skylon Tower. If you look at the menu on display at the base of the Tower, you would assume from the prices, that this restaurant is the flagship of the Tower. The prices are at a premium, when compared to those of other restaurants in Niagara Falls. So we assumed that the service, and the food would be of premium quality. Sadly, we were to find out that this was not the case.
We pre-booked our table the day before, to be sure that we would be able to get into the restaurant on, what we assumed, would be a busy night. We checked in at the ticket office at the base of the tower, only to find that our booking could not be found. We were assured that this would not be a problem, and were given some other party's booking slip to show at the elevator. When you arrive at the Tower you have use an elevator to ascend to the restaurant. Surly, we thought, there should be priority to people who have booked a table in the Tower's own restaurant, but no, there is only the one queue.
Once at the restaurant level the doors open and you are presented with another queue. No problem we thought, we have a booking, we will just be shown to our table. Not so fast! We had to wait in the queue for a table to become free. The restaurant must have been overbooked because our table was in the corridor used by the waiting staff to get to the other tables. I did not complain because we wanted to be back at our B&B, to pay, pack, and arrange a taxi and breakfast for the next morning, as we needed to leave very early.
When ordering our meals, the waiter, first removed our menus with a quick slight of hand, so we had to order from memory. He was in so much of a hurry that I had to stop him running away before I had explained my allergies to him. He came back later to explain that they couldn't grill my steak because the pan would have canola oil on it. I told him to use butter or olive oil. He told me the pan would already have canola oil on it. My reply was a curt "Wash it." He was a little surprised by my answer and dashed away, I presume to the kitchen. He returned again saying that it would be dealt with, but that there were no other vegetables available except broccoli. I told him I found it difficult to believe that a restaurant of this class did not have other vegetables in the kitchen, but was assured that they didn't. At this point I was reminded of Manuel and Basil at Fawlty Towers.
The meal finally arrived, and the the plate was smothered in broccoli, and hidden beneath was the steak, which was only lukewarm. Once again I did not return it because time was against us.
When the fireworks stated our table had rotated past the best vantage point, but we were just able to see them. The view of the Falls was, of course, magnificent, certainly making up for the poor service, and our disgusting meal.
We completed a Customer Satisfaction (I use that term loosely) Survey documenting our displeasure, and giving our email address for further communication. This we dropped in a mailbox in Dorval, Montreal. It would come as no surprise that we had no reply. So to ensure that our complaint was heard, we emailed again using an address form the Skylon website. Once again no reply.
I can only assume that there is an endless supply of tourists who are unaware of the quality, or rather the lack of quality, of service at this restaurant, and that the management are aware of this, and don't care that this attitude leaves a bad taste in your mouth.