That location has allot of ghosts.

Niners, Foodtellers, Tony Roma's, all were pretty decent, especially compared to most other eating establishments in this town.

I suggest they turn it into a law office or a stationary store, because that location just doesnt work as a restaurant.

Used to be the old Spruceland Chrysler repair shop as well...here you see the front door , used to be the grease rack....a little useless trivia...

Seems to be a curse on this building,or perhaps it is just because of the downtown location.
Must be tough slogging down there.
But damn...I have a gift certificate I haven't used yet...wonder if I can get a refund?

Andyfreeze, you better head out tonight.

I thought about the downtown location, but The Keg and Ric's Grill have been there for years and years.

Andyfreeze - come to Fort St. John - right next to the Casino - Tony Roma;s still going strong

Sorry to hear but not surprised. My wife and I went there twice and both time they served us heated up Costco frozen veggies.
I personally talked with the manager and he said it was head office that says no fresh veggies. We have never been back and told lots of people about the very low quality food.
Service was great but food broke them.

Olive Garden or Red Lobster?

One would think one of them would break the curse.

The sign is nothing new as every time we went for either lunch or dinner they were "out" of something,plus the service was minimal.
The economy had little to do with the closure,drop in at the Caribou,Keg,Ric's,Earls,Thanh Vu or Moxies-same economy and they're busy.
This is a non-forgiving town when it comes to sub par service and food.

I was at the Keg last night, and it was jam packed, so it seems people are still going out to eat. Just not at Tony Roma's. We heard bad reviews from all who dined there, unfortunately.

Their service was terrible, and moreover they were quite proud of it, including the "managers". They felt that customers were just a nuisance -- that the Tony Roma name was all they needed. Surprised they lasted that long, and maybe the 40 people who were employed there will learn the customers are important, and learn how to work!

We went to give it a try. It took ages until the meals arrived and the food was quite a bit below average, at best. It was also very expensive.

Since we had invited friends along from out of town it was actually somewhat of an embarrassment - too bad.

We used to give every establishment a couple of chances to prove that it could do better.

Not after that experience, though.

I'm curious if they are refunding people for the Super Bowl Party they were advertising on their walls. I saw it there during the Taste Of Downtown event.

It was the food, not the location.

Went there once. Never again.

Good to know goolie!
I will remember that as there is no expiry date on the gift certificate!
Maybe this is just a management issue with this particular Tony Roma's?
I do know we have practically stopped going out for dinner because we are just plain tired of being served sub-standard food in exchange for big bucks.
We have also found that good service just doesn't exist in many places anymore, and management doesn't seem to care.
Quality costs money, and food costs are your biggest expense in the restaurant business but,if you try to cut corners it will kill you over time.
We owned a pizza/pasta joint for 3 years as a retirement project and did very well.
We were more than happy with it and knowing what we know now,we could do it again if we wanted to and make a damn good living.
We had a good product, all made the old school way from scratch and we didn't skimp of quality ingredients.
It was a ton of work and had I been 10 years younger,I would still be there.
We made sure people were getting their money's worth and could taste it and see it.
And if it wasn't right...no questions asked...we made it right or you didn't pay for it.
Yes it was a smaller business, but the same basic principals still apply.
Everyone advertizes that, but in far too many places,it just isn't true.
Quality and top notch service does pay off, even though your overall costs are higher at the end of the month than a lot of other places.
In the time before we sold it,three others went broke and closed up but their product wasn't even in the same league with ours.
Now, far too many use pre-packaged food supplies rather than make their own and it shows.
I recently saw a pasta joint that used a sauce that came out of a frozen plastic bag.
And it tasted like it, but they didn't seem to care.
Bad idea.
I also think that with many places,their profit expectations are too high as well.
We found that taking a smaller profit but serving a better product paid off in the end because of the repeat customers.
Your product is your reputation and it is your reputation that keeps the doors open.
A customer that comes in once and goes away unimpressed is your worst enemy.
People know when they are not getting much for their money and the bad PR that comes from poor service and sub-standard food will break you.
Something like 85% of all new resturants go broke in their first year.
Go to a bank and try to borrow money for restaurant...they will laugh you right out the door and it is worse now than ever!
Still,it is unfortunate to see so many jobs lost whatever the reasons.
My condolences to all.

Stompin Tom...mmmm Red Lobster...always seems to be good.
Was in an Olive Garden down in Idaho last summer and was not impressed at all but maybe that's just me.

We never went. The stories I read on here is what we expected to find there.

Ric's is not doing a booming business in PG as they are in some other communities of similar size, but they are still going.

We used to stand in line ups at the Keg some 20+ years ago. Don't see any anymore. But still a viable restaurant, though I do not like the fare there too much anymore.

Everyone has different tastes and I think the taste of the general public changes over time.

Cimo's appears to be doing quite well downtown. North 54 must be hanging on by a string. Never full other than weekend nights on occasion.

Even East Side Marios has its problems.

Cactus Club, Montanas, Olive Garden, as was mentioned.

Tony Romas is leaving with a number of bills to pay I hear. The word was on the street two months ago at least about their financial problems and that they will be closing.

The location is interesting. We have several places to eat within about a block or two of each other. The single most concentration of restaurants in PG.

1. The Keg Steakhouse and Bar
2. Ric's Grill
3. Cariboo Steak and Seafood House

4. Tony Romas
5. Tandoori
6. Traders - Ramada
7. Coach's Corner Pub - Ramada
8. Sasafras (if not already closed, will be soon)
9. Twisted Cork

Park your car near one and you can walk to any of them.

The top three are doing reasonably well as far as I can tell. The others are struggling, and more so now most likely.

BTW, it will be interesting to see whether the new high tech look of the Ramada will bring more people into its restaurants. The Inn seems to have better business, especially at Shogun. Winston's is not all that busy anymore as it used to be.

With the PG Hotel being torn down, this may make the area more attractive. Hopefully some business venture will take over the building soon and fill the void.

What ever happened to the great salad bar the keg used to have?
Too expensive to keep around?...or a dumb health board issue like so many other places?
Salad bar and a couple of great appy's and you had dinner!
(great Ceasars too!)

yes I agree with many of the people here who have posted comments. I went there more than once with my wife and yes the veggies were bagged and reheated... YUCK! They seemed to be "watery"... ewwww...

I however did go there more than once to give them a few chances and WOW... it just got worse. One time we never saw our waitress the whole time we were eating. Not once. And eventually we had to ask another waiter (walking by) to bring us something we'd been waiting for.

My thoughts are... at Tony's you were paying for champange but they served you weiners.

I'm NOT surprised they're closing. If you do bad things then bad things happen to you.

So long Tony's... Red Lobster are you listening??? (Please be listening)...

That's too bad. I enjoyed their ribs. That location certainly seems to be a black hole for restaurants. But poor service will kill you every time.

Please, no Red Lobster. One of the reasons Cimo's is so popular is because it's food is fresh - it's not packaged, processed, prepared ahead of time in some giant corporate kitchen and then packaged for restaurants, like so many of the chain

I am not really surprised ... with a crappy location ... who goes downtown now ... ever???? UI have been there twice ...once when it first opened ... got shitty service ... wrote it up to growing pains ... went there again last october ... once again got shitty service and piss poor quality food (By Tonys standards anyway) Having lived in Calgary untill late 06 I frequented Tony Romas, at least 1x/week .... after eating at this one I was turned off Tonys ... I tried Tonys in Llyodminister again when i went to Sask acouple years ago and my faith was re-affirmed ...

Plain and simple ... Nobody in this town can cook as I have yet to find a restaurant in this city that I can call Great food ... there are a few good foods .. but nothing Great ...either that or Mill/Husky stink has ruined all of our taste buds and sense of smell

re: trueblue2

Yes please... I want red Lobster (did I just cancel out your request?)... lol..

Just teasing...

Tony Romas was awful, I'm surprised it didn't close earlier.

The Keg is good, I don't go as often as I once did with my family. It needs a facelift though.

Tony Romas was bland just like East Side Marios. Not to mention the service was horrid, and that will kill you quite fast.

And I can't see another franchise restaurant opening there after they failed so fast.

In my opinion we have too many places to eat in this town anyway. If you combine family restaurants, fast food joints, hotel eating establishments, fine dining and pubs, this town is flooded.

If they are going to make a go of it, the places need to be smaller. I think if the the Tony Romas place was split into two different businesses, at least one might survive.

Ric's Grill always has good quality food and excellent service, The Keg,although mostly yes, sometimes it's a bit of a miss. Tony Roma's was sub par at best. I gave it 4 chances and each and every time the food and service just got worse.

On the positive side, when we went out for dinner last weekend (Ric's, yum) we were almost discombobulated walking in to the restaurant and out of it as the street was bizarrely quiet,we didn't have to brace ourselves for an onslaught of bums, panhandlers, wide-eyed fiends,desperate ladies or the like on the street, it was almost disarming as we had never experienced such a thing in all our days of being born and raised here both, but man was it nice. The closing of the PG is a good thing to be sure, at least for that block or two.It still seems surreal thinking about it.

I've heard that a lot of the pan handlers and some of the street people are now down by Steamers Pub. Guess they like to hang out close to a liquor establishment.

That's pretty sad.

But yes... on the plus side George street seems to be reaping the benefits of their absense.

Don't forget that a lot of the essential services this group of people need on a daily basis are still all located right in the downtown core.

They may be down and out of sight for now but I don't think they'll be gone forever. They need a lot of those services to survive.

Time will tell!

I agree newtechie, as the services that support the street people are downtown they will not disappear. I would be seriously deluded if I thought that the street people would be gone forever. It was just nice to be out in downtown PG and not have to be on the defensive for a change. Probably just a fleeting moment or an absolute fluke but it was a beautiful thing while it lasted.

My wife and I were talking about this subject this morning. We almost never go out to eat anymore because value for money just isn't there. With tip breakfast costs $25.00. No certainty the waitress will be pleasant, no certainty the coffee will be hot or plentiful, no certainty the food won't be luke warm and cooked wrong. Whereas Tims or McD's, certain the food will be mediocore but only out about $8.00.

And when you talk about dinner, for a couple of steaks and a few drinks $75.00 with all the same issues about. I can buy a couple of ribeyes and barbecue them at home and for about $25.00 come up with the same meal.

Did not know there was a Tony Roma's in town. Based on the comments, it sounds like I didn't miss anything.

Wait 'til the HST kicks in. You might see more restaurants disappear. $12 tax on a $100 meal that might be so-so with a possibility of sub-par service? I don't think so, thanks, I will stay home and cook myself a great meal.

You are totally right trueblue2!

Cimo is ALWAYS busy when I go there, even on days/nights you'd think it would be slow. My theory? Because everything is fresh, often locally purchased at the farmers market or local growers/farmers, and the service is always great! A true success story especially since it is locally owned and operated. The big chain restaurants could learn a thing or two from them..

I've eaten at Tony Roma's many times and always had a great meal. The ribs are really good and the service was always good. I must have hit them on good days. I'm disappointed they are closing. Too bad.

I've been in the restaurant bizz for 20 year. I have worked all over the world as a Chef. A restaurant can survive if the food is great and service is substandard. Tony Roma's had bad food (too much crap coming premade)and crap service. This equals one closed restaurant.

Look for The Keg to close in June for a million plus reno to bring it in line with the rest of The Kegs. It will look great. Last two times I have been there the food and service where great and had an excellent time. Reminds me of The Keg culture which was pretty fun at the begining of the 90s.

I've never had a "great" meal at Ric's just O.K. but they are still busy. Service is always good.

Olive Garden/Red Lobster won't move into a market this small. They won't go any where unless they can do a minimum of 5 million in sales per year.

Hopefully with the PG Hotel gone and that whole block sold off we will see downtown turn around.

The multitude of comments regarding the poor quality of food and the sub-standard service mirror my own experience. The site does appear to be cursed, but with the proposed new development across the street, a new restaurant in the same location should fare well.

"Look for The Keg to close in June for a million plus reno to bring it in line with the rest of The Kegs."

Hopefully Ric's Grill will take a hint and close in order to make a similar reno to bring it in line with the other Ric's Grills.

The one in Kelowna should be taken as a model.

Hopefully they do not ever put another restaurant in that building. Bulldoze it and start over.

Although I do agree that it was not very well run. We wanted to make a reservation for 10 people one time, but they said they didn't do reservations. So we took our business elsewhere.

And I would not want an Olive Garden or Red Lobster at that location. If they ever do come to PG I hope they choose a new location that is not doomed to failure.

Someone had told me about the great burgers at the Husky out in the industrial area and now I see in the Citizen that they won an
award for being the cleanest in Canada. Might pop in next time I am in the area.
I love Wasabi restaurant for lunch. Small place and close quarters, so not for discussing business or for an intimate meal, but for everyday come as you are it's a great joint. Excellent food made fresh on site and a cooler full of take out if you are in a rush.

I found the service at Tony Romas sub par and the food not bad but not great [ribs all times] and def below the food i received eating at ones in Alberta a few times. I'm not sure what happened to the food industry but the service level is going downhill fast. I suspect maybe its the age bracket of servers possibly but who knows. I actually had a waitress at Boston Pizza stop taking our order to answer a text message then resume after she was done. Ricks grill is hit and miss quite often you cant even get a drink and that inlcudes two xmas parties where people gave up and left. Cimos is a great example of a well run establishment maybe more should take lessons from them. I miss Niners Diner as well i always found that to be a great restaurant. Oh well.

I miss Capers. That was a million years ago, but was the food ever awesome.

The town is actually flooded with restaurants. In order to have fresh food and reasonable choices a place needs to have enough customers to make sure that the food turns over and does not get dumped. That is where the fast food joints have it made. Limited choice, fast turnover.

I always find it amazing how inexpensive some of the Vancouver restaurants are, no matter at what level, whether relative fine dining por just going out to get something to eat. I look at that in the context of the rents they pay there versus downtown PG, for instance. Most of the resturants are filled for one and a half to two sittings for both lunch and dinner. Several have line-ups if you do not come early and even if you do have a reservation.

Service. If we are repeat customers, whether here or in Vancouver, we always get exellent service. We tend to frequent one Japanese/Korean restaurant in Vancouver. If either I or my wife are alone, we always get asked how the spouse is doing and why we are not also there.

Turnover for fresh food, topped with good service, especially for repeat customers, and you keep on getting that all important base group. Ric's Grill is like that. Never found the Keg to be like that when we went there once a month or so several decades ago in the days when you were greeted with "hi, I'm Tim and I will be your server tonight".

Capers .... right .... very nice place.

The White Goose location has also seen tons of restaurants.

The Greek place in the old bus station has also seen much better places. Those come and go as well.

Then you used to be able to eat till 2 or 3 in the mornings at greek/italian places (Pandora, Franco's and Lillian Chow's chinese restaurant). Even the Outrigger was opne toll much later than many resturants now. Now it is only the pub eateries that stay open till 11 or so.

One thing we never had here is a real delli restaurant. They often stay open late.

Times change.

The Diners, Drive-ins and Dives show sure makes me feel inadequate when faced with PG restaurant food options. Portion control, costs, banks, city halls, bylaws, Foodsafe, and lack of entrepreneurship adds up. I will still watch the show and if I get hungry enough, I might get a passport.

A million years ago, there was a Greek restaurant in an upstairs location on, I think, 3rd avenue below George Street.

I think it was called ARIANNAS.

Their food was absolutely toothsome and delicious. We'd go from the office. There was a buffet. But I always got their Spanikopita with a Greek salad and a Tadziki side dish. My mouth is watering, all these years later, just remembering.

We were told that the lady who owned the restaurant business cooked everything at home and those memorable dishes were brought, hot and fresh, to the restaurant.

Good memories.

Ah, Diners, Drive ins and Dives—if we had even one of those places here I would be as big as a house. Mac and cheese, barbecue, fried green tomatoes,corn dogs,deep fried whatever with Hollandaise sauce...I want it all and I want it right now.

If we had a place like one of the ones on the show you wouldn't be able to get near it for the crowds...good food excites everyone.

"Olive Garden/Red Lobster won't move into a market this small. They won't go any where unless they can do a minimum of 5 million in sales per year."

In 2005 there were 400,000 restaurants in the USA doing a total of $240 billion in gross sales. That averages to $600,000 per location. A few had revenues of $5+ million. Just a few. The typical restaurant had sales of $500 thousand/year.

Just work it out.
A popular, higher end 60 seat restaurant open 6 days a week in Vancouver, both lunch and dinner; two seatings on average both lunch and dinner going full out. Average lunch @ $20/person with average dinner @ $45/person = $2.5 million tops.

That does not account for slow week starts for dinner and slow Mondays and Saturdays for lunch nor slow seasons after New Years. Most certainly it does not account for changes in the economy rsulting in fewer seatings and lower priced orders.

I know that Starbucks on Central does around a million a year. There are a few restaurants and pubs in town that will be higher than that, pimarily because of their high ratio of liquor to food sales. The majority are considerably lower.

I just came back from Wasbi Sushi. A won ton soup bowl, a california roll and a tea = $15.59 with tax + $2 tip = $19. After July 1 it will be $20. That is the same price any day. The tea is $1.25. In Vancouver, in similar restaurants, the tea is free.

The place we frequent in Vancouver for Japanese and Korean food is $14 at lunch for all you can eat. That includes tuna and salmon sashimi. I typically order two servings of 6 pieces of tuna sashimi each. The are melt in your mouth and would cost more than the cost of the meal in most other places. The restaurant has an extremely high turnover with line ups most of the time they are open. Their business plan is volume, and they get it. In addition they have fast service. Sit down, a tea is poured, not in styrofoam cups as at Wasabi, fill out the order slip and it is picked up almost immediately and the miso soup is on your table within less than 5 minutes with the rest following shortly. All servers serve all tables. A great way to get quick service. I understand form a Japanese friend, that is common in Japan.

Oh, here is the web site about the restaurant stats in the USA in 2005

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/400,000+Restaurants+Operate+in+the+US+Market,+with+an+Annual+Combined...-a0144150410

Speaking about places upstairs.

When I came from Toronto in the early 1970's there was a chinese restaurant on third, north side, just west of George, and just west of the lane. It had a specialty restaurant upstairs where one could get more exotic foods.

I remember getting Sharks Fin soup there, the first time I had ever seen that on a menu anywhere. Of course that is a no-no these days.

Gus, you must have had the most expensive roll on the menu...are you sure you didn't have two orders? lol. HST is going to kill a lot of restaurants, no doubt about it.

The Twisted Cork gets my vote of the best place to eat downtown. Excellent Prime Rib.

Wasabi Sushi

$8.95 = Wor Won Ton soup bowl with 6 shirmp and about 8 of their home made won tons.

$4.65 for California roll. The one with real crab is more expensive.

$1.25 for tea.

$0.74 for tax

Total $15.59

$2 tip

Total is $17.59 ... my $19 was a mistake.

Off topic, but Junco mentioned "fried green tomatoes" and I wonder why nobody serves them here in Canada. that I know of?
Damn they are good!
Down in the U.S.they are a pretty common thing.
We do them several different ways at home.
And no waiting for the tomatoes to ripen!
They also make a great BLT.
Anyone who hasn't had them should give them a try.
Very simple to make too.
They are a nice change from the usual peas,carrots,and broccoli etc.

An excellent opportunity for the city to pick up on another empty building. Very close to the old Norgate Autobody building.

Gus,

$2.00 tip?

Your a cheap bugger arnt you.

I tried to make dinner reservations there in January. Was told they were closed that night for their staff Christmas party.
By the sounds of the comments here we would have wasted our money had we eaten there.

I also really like Wasbi Sushi. In my experience, it's very good food, they have excellent portions (plenty for one meal and leftovers the next day) and they provide great service.

I also enjoy the Mai Thai, Thanh Vu, Fortune Palace, Cimo, North 54 and Spicy Greens. My wife and I also loved Metora Taverna before it closed. I think there are actually quite a number of good restaurants in PG considering the size of the town and the demographics of the place. A good Italian and seafood restaurant would be nice though.

Gus, I think you are speaking of the Rainbow Restaurant, and yes they did have different food and it was very good.

We have amazing cuisine in PG - people just need to get out and experience it. NMG is on the money with the best. The Achillion is always excellent food and the wait staff is excellent- the owner could be a little friendlier but thankfully, for him the food brings people in.