A new Richmond Hill destination, Jokers Theatre and Comedy Club, provides a slew of entertainment options: comedy shows (we’re advised it is the only place for comedy in Richmond Hill), magic shows, and live band karaoke.

With its infancy comes growing pains, which stemmed from a malfunctioning printer, so the kitchen and bar weren’t aware they were receiving orders. Ultimately, this resulted in a 20-minute wait for drinks and over an hour wait for food, during a July visit.

At first, we didn’t mind waiting for food as their martinis ($15 each) were so satisfying. The French martini was dangerously smooth thanks to the sweet Chambord and pineapple juice mixed with the vodka, a lovely summery drink. The Lychee Loves Lips martini was a bit stronger with the addition of lychee liqueur to the vodka. Although, I was a little disappointed to a lemon slice garnishing the drink instead of lychee. Even a canned lychee would really add to the experience.

As much as we loved the drinks, after waiting 45 minutes, we finally asked someone to check on the food. It was then they discovered the kitchen hadn’t received our order and quick fired a complimentary bruschetta (not offered on their regular menu) to keep us satisfied while our meal was being prepared. We were thankful to have something to tie us over.    

I imagine they were rushing to send out food as the frito misto ($19) needed better draining to remove the excess oil and create a crispier flour coating. At least they were well seasoned, and the first bites super crispy and wonderfully hot. Being a frito misto, or a mixture of fried seafood, ideally the appetizer should contain more than a few shrimps. Alternatively, Jokers should consider dropping the scant crustacean and relabel this as fried calamari instead.

With two simple tweaks, the burger ($19) could shine as it was tasty and incorporated fresh ingredients. Firstly, cook the beef to medium so the thick patty isn’t so hard. Otherwise, if pink beef is not in the cards, chefs should form looser patties (so they are less dense) or switch it up and use two thinner patties instead. Secondly, nix the romaine (or at least the rib portion of the lettuce leaf) as the hard and uneven surface area causes the patty to slip and soft brioche bun to break. There’s a reason why ice burg is so widely used. At least the fries were hot and crispy.

My friend noted her steak was cooked to the requested medium rare but had a burnt taste. We figure it stems from two causes: either the pan/grill wasn’t properly cleaned between uses (in this case, make sure they are cleaned) or the black pepper sauce covering the steak was burnt. If it’s the later reason, to ensure the steak doesn’t cool off or overcook, present the steak at the table first and let the customer know the sauce is being prepared again and will be brought separately. I would much rather wait for the sauce than have burnt tasting steak.

Hopefully, as the restaurant matures, they will develop stronger front-of-the-house management or staff will become more cognizant of operations and communicate better. Indeed, businesses are reliant on technology, which causes havoc when there are issues, but seasoned personnel can mitigate or reduce the aftereffects.

For example, I’m surprised it took us checking on our food for Jokers to figure out the kitchen wasn’t getting orders. When they are approaching a busy dinner period and food isn’t being ordered or coming out of the kitchen, shouldn’t someone notice – either the kitchen, our server, or management?

With the drinks, even after technology issues were resolved, we noticed my friend’s second martini sitting at the bar for ~10 minutes before it was finally brought over. Our server was helping serve the Le Petit Chef dinner, but there were other people milling around the bar. Given Jokers operates two venues in one, management needs to be on the lookout for ready-to-serve drinks and food and/or servers need to communicate and ask others to cover when they are serving during Le Petit Chef periods.

It's a shame we didn’t have a better experience as I’m really rooting for Jokers to do well – everyone is so friendly and hospitable that I’d love to go more often. I love that there’s ample free parking and both comedy nights we attended left us in stiches. Plus, I’m a huge fan of magic shows and have been known to belt out songs, so I feel like there’s so much more of Jokers to experience. The only dilemma… to eat dinner or not?