Cameron Seafood Restaurant

Food is great but kinda greasy.
The service is not so great as others have stated... Waiters are not that polite and everything is rushed.
It's quite expensive too, you pay like double the prices for Dim Sum in Toronto.

the restaurant has terrible customer service, some ppl who work there were very rude and unwelcoming... will never come again. not much more to say

The service is horrible. I hate this place - cheap prices but horrible service. And when I told her how they make you feel bad for being there the owner replied no need to give nice service.

This is our favourite chinese restaurant in the region. We have been coming here as a family, and with friends for 20 years. The dim sum is fabulous, you have to try it - go with a large group, so you can try a little of everything. Then there is the snow pea leaves with garlic, nobody else makes it as good as they do. The phoenix birds nest (mix of seafood), the black cod, and the trio of vegetables stuffed with a very tasty filling are all great items off the menu The owner is a kind a caring man, he always has a kind word even though he is so busy. Every restaurant has its share of problems - ever wonder what they would say about some of their customers?? Camerons does an excellent job preparing food, and we should continue to support a restaurant that is head and shoulders above the competition.

while we visit once in awhile, and being chinese ourselves, we thought this place was decent. Until the one day one of the waiters, being very rude to us, refused to cooperate. there had been a mistake about a pre-ordered special plate that we reserved for our guests. They offered no apology, not even " sorry for this misunderstanding but I did not record your order". they were rude, and overwhelmingly disgraceful towards us, even though we are all Chinese. And to make things worse, the manager did not smooth things out at all. He accused us for making a mistake, and refused to cooperate as well. He even argued with someone much younger than him, and even when the customer (myself) apologized for arguing with him, he refused to say any apology towards acting so ridiculous. While the food is good and the atmosphere is usually well, that day made everything change. I have never met such incompetent people, and hope they learn how to treat people with respect.

Okay, so I have worked at this place for about a year and 4 months of my time and being young it was an interesting experience I have to say. When I started this job as a part time thing. I thought it was an okay job. The boss/little short man treated me OKAY cause I was new but then as time passed by I learned that this job/restaurant wasn't as good as I thought. ps. I got accused of giving away free food cause I gave a customer his food for no charge cause he found a piece of hair in it. Someone please tell me if I am wrong and why.

The food here is great to some extent. The chief really has mood swings. If he is in a good mode he will cook well if not he will not and the food will not taste as great. I don't mind the food there but then there are better places if I am willing to travel. The Dim Sum here. I have to say it is great but then it comes with the consequences of all the pork fat they use to make the dim sum shiney and soft and moist inside. And for the customers who don't eat pork!! ALLLLL the dim sum dumplings have PORK ... if not pork meat then PORK FAT.. cause that is what makes the dumplings so soft and moist. IE. SHRIMP DUMPLING. HAR GAW has PORK FAT!! . And don't tell me I didn't tell you cause. When customers ask I TELL THEM the truth of what is in the dumplings. But I was told not to tell them that. Sorry that I am honest!

Also, ontop of this whole Restuarant all they care about is the money. To me I was always taught that CUSTOMERS are ALWAYS RIGHT even in high school when I didn't work or have a part time job as a waitress. I knew that was the rule when you work in an environment of customers. But to them it is the opposite. They don't really care about their customers unless you are loyal to them and come back and keep ordering food from them. That's they only way they care. Other than that they don't care.

IE. When we have holidays I was usually the girl that picks up the phone and takes orders and answer issues if the packer forgot things in your order. I would always credit more then what the customer ordered if they were not willing to come back to pick up the food or I would pull out money from our tip and pay for the delivery service if the owner wasn't there. But I would tell the customer the whole story and the problem I have because I know I would if I was in their shoe.

I really did like working at that restaurant because the customers made my day when they loved my services when I worked Tuesdays Thursdays and Sundays. The customers who would come occasionally and saying hi but I always like answering the phones helping the ones who had stuff missing cause they would appreciate what I did even though I lost my job because of that I found it fair and miss the customers very much but that restaurant I have to say is horrible service and management.

I know that when I go out for a meal or order take out I love the service. If the food doesn't taste good but the service is still there then I would still come back but if the food is good and service is horrible there is no chance I would ever come back.

I wrote this review not to ruin their image but I believe that I also am looking at it from a customer's shoe and writing this. Especially with the pork in the dim sum for the pork non eaters.

The Chicken Ball Nazzi
by Nathan Grieve

Many details to a restaurant come into play when writing a review. Naturally, the taste of the food and restaurant cleanliness; but also important is the atmosphere and the customer service.

Cameron's Chinese Food, known for its great tasting food will never again be visited by this chubby, Chinese Food lover.

My daughter was celebrating her birthday dinner with my wife and I and our 3 other children. It was her choice as to what take out we would order to celebrate her birthday. She (being 6 years old) wanted the kids favourite order of Chicken Balls and Beef & Broccoli. The other children quickly agreed, so we placed the order.

Now when we lived in Guelph for 5 years we had 3 or 4 Chinese Food restaurants in close proximity and we frequented them loving all of them for their different dishes. Since returning to Kitchener we’ve tried 10+ restaurants and still can’t find one comparable to our Guelph faves. The best Chinese Food around comes from The China House in Cambridge, but it’s a bit more pricey and a lot farther away.

So we decided to order from a city landmark named Cameron’s Seafood Restaurant. My wife ordered and drove 20 minutes to Cameron's to pick up the food. It was all stapled shut in the 'as per usual" Chinese Food bags, with a receipt taped to the top. She returned home the 20 minute drive and I had set the table with the boys and was ready to enjoy the food with the family.

The food smelled great, but to our dismay ... the chicken balls were missing!!! What? Anything but the chicken balls!!! When my little guy (age 2) heard the horror story, he shed a few 2 year old type tears and my birthday girls was on the verge of tears looking at me with those birthday girl eyes that say “Daddy, please do something to get me some chicken balls” ... as her favourite part of the meal was missing. I told her not to worry I would call the restaurant and I'm sure they would fix the problem.

I called and a young girl answered. When I told her our predicament, she said "There's nothing we can really do for you sir." Oops... she didn't really mean that did she? I politely asked to speak to the manager and a younger Chinese boy came on the phone and told me he'd give me a $5.00 credit for the next visit. Of course my reply was "... a $5.00 credit for $10.00 chicken balls that I already paid for?" I don't think so. I asked if he could have them delivered to me. He answered "delivery charge is $3.50 as we use an outside delivery company, but it will be 2 hours before our next driver is available".

By now it was 6:30 pm... 2 hours would be 8:30 and the kids go to bed at 8:00??? Not to mention it was time change night, so that made it even worse.
Hmmm.... not very helpful. I asked what other options I have and he said I can drive back to the restaurant and he'll give me fresh chicken balls. That's 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back??? The kids would be done eating by then, what's this guy thinking!!!

Then out of the blue, a lady got on the phone and said " I remember your voice and I remember putting Chicken Balls into the bag". Excuse me… but it was my wife who ordered and my wife who picked up but she remembers my voice and remembers putting the chicken balls in the bag. I tried to mention that every item on the receipt was crossed off except the chicken balls. She interrupted and told me I was lying and I should get no chicken balls. (No Chicken Ball fo’ you!!!!!)

I said... if you can give me a credit for the amount I paid for the Chicken Balls then I'll just have to settle for that. He replied "I can't do that, we're busy here, if you dont' want the food you can just bring it back and we'll give you a full credit".

Well that comment from the Chicken Ball Nazzi made me see red. I packed all the food into the bags, scraped it from off my kids plates and dumped it back into the containers and off I went to return the food.

Thank goodness the drive was 20 minutes long, because I got time to cool off and listen to some sports talk radio, and call my big brother and get him to help me settle down, realizing hurting someone over Chicken Balls would be a dumb ways to end up in jail. (however he did mention that throwing the food all over the restaurant would probably suffice and keep me out of prison)

When I arrived, the place was packed which was to my advantage, because if I was going to freak out on these guys I wanted to make sure the entire restaurant heard. A 12 year old manager quickly approached and grabbed the bag from my hands and yanked the receipt from my other hand and went in the back. The customers in line were starring at me and wondering what I could have done to upset this little guy so badly. A few minutes later he came out and asked for my debit card and disappeared again into the back of the restaurant. Moments later he returned and told me "No Credit fo’ you" and attempted to explained that the card I gave him doesn't match the card I paid with.

"YAH BECAUSE MY WIFE PAID FOR THE FOOD AND I'M BRINGING IT BACK BECAUSE YOU RUINED OUR DAUGHTERS BIRTHDAY DINNER AND MY WIFE WOULD HAVE HURT YOU IF SHE HAD OF COME BACK TO RETURN THE FOOD … YOU FINE SIR!!!".

There was some talking back in forth in their native tongue with almost every employee in the restaurant…. while customers in line talked to me about what happened. Three (3) customers waiting for take-out left and said they'd go elsewhere and one (1) customer in line left and wouldn’t eat in the restaurant because of my little story. The manager gave me my refund in cash and said "You go now". I said "not so fast Mr. Chicken Ball"... now that I have my money back I want to tell you what I really think. " And I took a few moments to tell him how a $10.00 order of chicken balls turned into them losing my $50.00 food order, 3 customers in line for takeout, 1 customer in line for the restaurant and I would never order there again… and of course I threw in that I had many friends who worked with the newspaper and he’d see a nice front story page on the weekend about his poor customer service. (So I got carried away and exaggerated a little bit.)

He said "it's okay, we're always busy so we don't care about you". I smiled and exited the restaurant dusting off my shoes as I left, vowing never to return.

I drove home, stopped at Taco Bell for the kids to order some cheese fries and headed home wondering how a place like that can stay in business. To me customer service can be just as important as the taste of the food.

So readers beware … Please be careful to check your order before you leave … as you never know… there may be "NO CHICKEN BALL FO YOU"

I just returned from dinner at Cameron Seafood Restaurant, and have had a horrible experience. After being rushed to order our dinner, I was surprised to find a dirty old CLOTHESPIN in my dinner. I called the waitress, told her what I found, and without saying anything, she took my plate from me. She returned shortly with a new dish, minus the clothespin, but yet again, not a word. No apology or anything. Following the meal, we received our bill and found that I was still charged $8.25 for my meal. We asked politely to have it removed from the bill, and they rudely replied that this is "not a chain restaurant like McDonald's where we can just give away food". After some discussion, they agreed to take the item off the bill, but then instructed us to never return. We were not rude in any way, but felt that finding something like a clothespin in a meal is unacceptable. My husband is a chef at a high end restaurant, and where he works, if a meal is returned, it is automatically taken off the bill even though a new meal is served.
I am very disappointed by this experience, because when I tasted the food, it was actually not too bad. It's unfortunate that this place has such horrible customer service. I believe that customer service is very important no matter what type of business it is, and without good customer service, valuable business can be lost.

I completely agree with the reviews that have emphasized the poor service at this restaurant. The last time I was there with my friend, the staff were slow with our food and then almost ushered us out when the restaurant got busy. The staff was impolite, the food barely adequate, and the prices, affordable as the meal was, completely too high for this restaurant.

The dim sum here is excellent. As good as anything you will find in Toronto, or Vancouver. Service is good, though a tad slow at times. Parking isn't great, but that is only when they are busy. They had some cleanliness trouble, but they seem to have gotten past it. Best Chinese food in town.