Spencer's At The Waterfront

Not Worth It

Firstly the view and the building is awesome (it can get quite loud though so you have to shout if you want to hold a conversation), a great location for sure. However the food is not at all worth it, especially for the price. Basically you are (over) paying for the view so i would save some bucks and just go for a walk on the waterfront instead. The Roast beef sandwich was very bland and fatty, the pizza was decent but it is pretty hard to mess up pizza, the fries had way too much salt and pepper and even the dessert wasn't that good. Would be a nice place to go for a drink but i would eat somewhere else first.

Nice View.. Er did I mention Nice view?

I love the water and enjoy dining on a warm day outside by the water. For this purpose, Spencer's fits the bill nicely. My first visit was pretty good but I made the mistake of visiting Spencer's when I was very hungry. I was advised by my waiter that the slow cooked beef for two was very good and came highly recommended. The waiter advised me that it would take 45minutes to have the order come out but stated it was worth the wait. My date and I agreed to try the dish and my third party friend tried the stone baked pizza. 85 minutes later my slow cooked beef for two came out with the pizza. (Restaurant half empty) It definitely was very tasty, juicy and very tender. I don't think it was worth twice the estimated wait time for the order. The worst part was, the pizza was cool, and very dry. The GOOD: The food was alright but the view, atmosphere and a nice double of lagavulin neat saved the night. The BAD: Service was horrific, not only did the food take way to long to come out, but the staff seemed not to care and very disinterested. I did get two Wild Rocket & "MONFORTE" (don't want snipe to leave a nasty comments about my review! :p) Piacere salads for free. The UGLY: Although my third party Friend waited just as long as we did for his pizza, he was not offered any appetizers. Then when his pizza did arrive it was very dry and cool. It seems that it was prepared earlier and kept warm under a heating light until my entrée was ready. Management was non-existent and did not see me at all. If you like the water and want to enjoy a nice evening outside by the water then this is the place for you. The food is adequate a bit on the pricey side but the service is below standards at best. Psssstttt.. (The water view is really the view of a wadding pool the lake is a good 100 meters away)

What a horrible Sunday Brunch experience. Never have I witnessed rude and indifferent managers for a large( with reservations made months in advance group ),to find ourselves being seated one hour late and cramped into a space very obviously too small for us. The paying guest was helping to clean and clear the table so as to not waste any more time and get us seated. The food entries were meager. A Roast beef entree from the brunch was one thin piece sliced as thin as tracing paper with 3 pieces of carrots, Poor overall, would never recommend. Salmon portions were 2 x 2 inches. The waitresses did their best, but again, i was shocked at the managers or maitre'd attitude. Very Poor service.

Fabulous View

After reading the other reviews (fortunately after I had already eaten there) I must have been lucky. I went on a beautiful Saturday at about 5:45 got a table on the patio overlooking the lake with no reservation. The view is fabulous as was the weather. Bread came with some chickpea puree which I didn't care for. They brought butter later which was much better. The bread was nice 3/4. I had a salad my wife had soup which were both above average. For dinner Salmon and a strip steak which looked more like 4oz than the claimed 7oz. Never the less it was fine. Desert was disappointing too sweet and gooey. I thought the service was above average. The facility is beautiful and my primary reason for coming. I can't speak to the others service complaints since I had no problems and I would return.

Disappointing and Embarrassing

Having had 2 lovely experiences at Spencer's over the last number of months, I took my elderly parents there on a Wednesday night in early August. Both my husband and I had raved about Spencer's based on our previous experiences (one dinner, one lunch). However, this last experience was disappointing and embarrassing. I made a reservation over a week in advance and had asked for a table by the window so my visiting parents could enjoy the view. When we arrived (on time) for our 8 pm reservation, the hostess located our reservation in the computer (I could see the screen), yet we were told to wait at the bar until a table was ready. Meanwhile, the hostess proceeded to seat another party that had come in behind us, and she walked back and forth in front of us several times without acknowledging us. Finally, she stopped and said: "You wanted a table for 4 right?" and then took us to a table in the middle of the restaurant. Obviously, there was no point to me making a reservation if there was no table waiting and our request for a window wasn't accommodated. Further, we sat for quite some time before a server approached us, when she did she was curt and inattentive, and we waited an hour for our food. No apology, no reassurances that we hadn't been forgotten, no checking in on us to see if we needed anything. All the while, we watched in frustration as the party next to us was attended to by no less than 4 members of the wait staff, including a man in a suit who appeared to be the manager on duty that night. Our server ignored my husband on several occasions when he spoke to her, and to top it all off, she overcharged my credit card by $139.00 and I had to chase her down through the restaurant to get it corrected. We were made to feel as if we were bothering her. The food was excellent when it finally arrived but it did little to make up for the miserable service - I was embarrassed to have taken my parents there. We will no longer be recommending Spencer's to our friends and visitors as the place to go in Burlington and we will not be back.