Acclamation's Bar & Grill

My husband and I have eaten at Acclamation before and loved it. This visit started off no differently. We were greeted promptly and the restaurant was warm and comfortable…(love the new wine rack)! We tried to order the house Portuguese wine, but they were out. So we ordered a local shiraz instead. Okay, that’s fine. We ordered our lunch, gumbo’s to start (delicious) and a salad and pizza to share. After ordering, we heard the server telling another table a special that nobody had even mentioned to us. And naturally it sounded delicious. When our salad and Pizza arrived (felt like forever) we were told that the cheese for the salad was different than usual and ‘sorry I forgot to tell you". And the vegetarian pizza we had ordered had meat on it. Fortunately we don’t mind meat so we ate it anyways. Uncooked in the middle and overcooked on the edges. great. We mentioned to our server that it was the wrong pizza and got the reply ‘I can change it for you, but it might take a while because the bar is really busy and the kitchen is getting ready for a party tonight.’ We’ll pass, it already took a long time. She was actually really nice but if there is such a thing she was overly attentive and then not attentive enough! It seemed like every bite we took somebody was asking us how we were. And yet our water glasses stood empty. The whole time. Even when the manager checked on us…twice! We assumed it was a manager, even though we were more overdressed than he was and we weren’t exactly dressed up. We finished our meal and wanted some coffee, but we couldn’t see our server for 5 minutes because , as she told us after reappearing, she had been told to go downstairs and prepare for the party. When she finally came into the dining room again, she just gave us our bill with no offer of further beverage or dessert. They must have been saving it all for the party. We asked her for coffee when she dropped off the check and what we got was cold! She must have known because she didn’t add it to the bill. And then she was gone again! So we walked ourselves over to the bar where we were recognized from previous visits and helped to put our credit card through. The bar didn’t seem busy at all, we should have eaten in there to begin with! Guess we will next time, if we ever get desperate enough to try it there again, seems like we took a back burner to more important guests and priorities!

What else can I say but WOW? We thought we would give Acclamation another try because we had heard soooo many positive things about it. The last time we were there we vowed never to go back due to the terrible food and service we recieved. Apparently, they have hired a new Chef and the owner has taken over managing the restaurant and you can definately tell there is a huge difference in this place. The food was exquisite(some of the best I have ever had, anywhere in Toronto or elsewhere) The steaks are incredible, perfectly cooked, and the Tappas were better than the ones we had while visiting Spain! With friendly and competant waitstaff, and delicious food Acclamation will definately be the new “hotspot” in the city of Hamilton!!!