Service is absolutely HORRIBLE. We knew from experience service could be slow and spotty at Galway, but agreed to meet there because our favourite bar next door had burned down. Little did we know, service would reach a new incredible low.
My friend and I agreed to meet on the second floor of the pub after my dog had died to have a drink on a Saturday afternoon. (We had run in to a group of guys stoned out of their minds who had driven us out while there in the past, but figured at 4 p.m. we'd be safe.)
When I arrived, I headed towards the stairs leading up but was intercepted by the bartender, who was the only employee serving only a handful of customers in the entire bar. She told me the second floor was closed. I said I had agreed to meet a friend up there, and would check to see if he was there. She said "you can't stay up there" in a bitchy tone, and I said "okay."
I went up, saw there was no one there and went to pee while I was there seeing as the bathrooms are upstairs. (Incidentally, someone had ripped the stall door right off its hinges and shattered a tile and put a hole in the wall. I don't know what the guys were on who harassed us until we had to leave the last time, but it looked like the customer who did this was on PCP.) As I was coming out, my friend went in to the men's bathroom himself.
I waited at the top of the stairs with my coat and hat and gloves and bag in my arms, waiting for him to come back out, because I wasn't sure he knew we had to go back downstairs.
While he was in the bathroom for only a couple of minutes, the bartender came up the stairs and said, again in an angry, condescending voice like I was a wayward 8-year-old, "YOU CAN'T STAY UP THERE!" I said, "I know, it's just that the bathrooms are up here." She said, raising her voice at me "I TOLD YOU TO COME BACK DOWN, BUT YOU DIDN'T!" I replied, exasperated: "I went to the bathroom. If you don't want people to come up here at all, then don't put your only bathroom up here."
She promptly yelled back "IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, NO ONE'S KEEPING YOU FROM LEAVING!" to which I replied "We're leaving!"
Why was she so angry anyway? What did she think we would do, sit up there and not drink, seeing as there was no service on the second floor? What a horrible crime that would've been, to sit there and not do anything. In any case, it was obvious that was not our intention: my friend had left his coat and everything on a table downstairs and had asked her where the bathroom was before going up, and I had my coat and everything in my arms as I was standing and waiting at the top of the stairs for the two minutes it took him to come back out of the bathroom. I had only been up there for a total of about 5 minutes at that point, having only peed and washed my hands.
After our horrible reception at the Galway, my friend and I went across the street to another pub called the Turf, where we had excellent service. When I went downstairs to get some popcorn from the machine, where the bar wasn't open yet, not only did the waitress not treat me like a stupid rebellious seven-year-old who would try to stay there even though it was closed, she promptly came to meet me downstairs with a basket to put the popcorn in, seeing as the bowls hadn't been put out yet.
If you find yourself on Cartier street in Quebec City, go to the Turf instead of the Galway. You will be treated with respect, instead of being run out by aggressive stoners or bitchy bartenders. (And that bitchy bartender was worse than the stoners we have run into there in the past.)
Seriously, my beloved dog had just died, I was going through a really tough time, and my friend and I just wanted to have a beer to make me feel better. Instead, I ran into the bartender from Hell who just made me feel so much worse. read more
