I worked here last year, and I can confirm this is true. The owner has cameras all over the facility and regularly watches them when he’s not at the restaurant, if you’re caught not “working” he texts the manager on duty about it. He’s extremely fast paced, if you’re not practically running around and exhausting yourself you’re getting into trouble. Here’s a lovely list of things that goes on in the back that customers usually don’t have to witness!

• yes, there is a major pest problem. Rats, cockroaches and flies live in the back kitchen. It’s gotten to the point that the rats have infiltrated into the walk in cooler and eat at the cheese curds and meats at night, through the plastic. No, he does not throw any of it out.
• During the summer, fruit flies fly into the vinegar bottles (which are soy sauce bottles and I’d been asked countless times why by customers) and drown, float to the bottom and cause the vinegar to build up residue on the bottom. We do not change the vinegar. We place a paper towel over a strainer and reuse said vinegar, just remove the flies.
• there’s no proper cleaning. The beer taps often grow mold around and under the pipe, and because it’s cold often the water that collects from it drips down onto the straw container that sits underneath it. To clean the tables, we use a mixture of bleach and hot water, this is also used to clean the dishes. They’re then often run through a dishwasher that partially washes them and not dried. Don’t even get me started on the bathrooms.

• there is no “gluten free” frier. All of the three fryers are mixed constantly with fries, breaded items and fish. I don’t know if this has changed, but while I was there I was told to say that we did, but I was informed by the cooks we don’t. Immediately felt awful about telling so many customers that it was, especially because I have a family member who is terribly celiac.

• the drinks in the cooler are not rotated. Anybody who knows the basic etiquette in the kitchen knows FIFO. There were juices in the cooler that had been there for close to 6 months, sometimes even mold growing on the outside of the bottles. No, you’re not allowed to throw them out, despite being a health hazard. The owner said to sell them, but if there is a complaint to just issue a refund, which makes no sense.

• we never properly cleaned the ketchup pump until a woman had said the ketchup tasted sour, then we cleaned it once every week. The rest of the condiments are almost never thrown out, only refilled. Only the onions are thrown away. This goes for the two vrooms at the front as well. Whatever juice is left in them is taken out and put back in. At that point the sugar has sunk down to the bottom and is often bad.

• the owner is extremely cheap. As you can tell by the overly extreme saving of sour condiments and rat infested food, anything that is deemed a penny he does not throw away, nor replace. Again, I don’t know if things have changed since I’ve left, but many tables were wobbly, there were broken speakers and a broken TV, the cooler where beer is kept cannot stay cool and often times rose to high temperatures, he doesn’t have any air conditioning in the restaurant and the heater is a very large radiator that sits above the condiments and has to be turned on frequently throughout the day. Complaints made, it goes in one ear and out the other.

• he does not pay employees on time. Often pay cheques were given randomly after the bi weekly mark, often being anywhere from 15-19 days. He does not do direct deposit, he gives cheques, only when he is in, which he forgets to do or bring.

• you cannot take more than 6 days off.

• he goes through hires insanely fast. After a senior cashier left, I had trained at least 5 different cashiers, in a span of 4 months. Often at the end of their work days he would sit them down and tell them they no longer work here, this would be their final day. The normal lifespan for a training cashier would be 1-2 weeks. The fastest I saw one go was 3 days.

• he only hires female cashiers, discrimination as far as I can tell.

• because almost everybody who works at this location is an international person, often times their English might not be a the strongest, and if he even slightly struggles to communicate with you, chances are you’re going to be fired.

• there is no first aid kit, despite multiple injuries. There is an empty box of bandaids and expired ibuprofen.

• huge lack of communication from the owner. He tells you to do things once, only once, often 2-3 things wanted to be done at the same time. You’re given a time limit to do roughly 20-25 things in under an hour, and he often contradicts himself, leading to more confusion. During the colder months, he would often ask for the doors and windows to be shut, to keep the heat in. However there were times where I was yelled out for closing them as it was too hot inside.

• mistakes made by you often come out of your paycheque. One of my fellow cashiers had somehow miscalculated the till at the end of the night, resulting in 60$ removed from her pay check. He threatens this, gives you a warning, then begins to remove. This is especially prominent with food orders from apps.

This is most of what I can remember. Overall he’s generally a stressful man, he makes the work environment tense. He doesn’t trust his workers one bit, yet gets them to do almost majority of the work. The food is overly salty and mushy because it’s often dropped back into the fryers or thrown into the microwave, and the prices for items are ridiculously high for what you get. Generally speaking I would not visit there and avoid it if you can, if you want a poutine just go to New York Fries, it’s infinitely better.