Symposium Cafe Restaurant Brantford — Restaurant in Brantford

Summary: Excellent Food and Service!

The food:

The salmon, having been well seasoned and cooked with a delicious not overpowering Teriyaki glaze was additionally seasoned with fresh green online and sesame. The glaze was a good balance of sweet and left the diner to salt. Much prefer this approach rather than starting with too much salt, which is impossible to correct. The veggies side consisted of carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, the perfect grill trio when done right. All three of the veggies were cooked just the perfect point for a more mature palette, still with a good amount of crunch and bite but still distinct from raw. They, were well seasoned and with a hint of grill mark to add to presentation and flavor. The salad... Once completely tossed; nearly filled a large salad tossing bowl and came with a fresh and energizing double helping of mustard vinaigrette. I plated a portion of this with a small pinch of salt and pepper.

The service:

I was not feeling great this morning, and so I thought that I would order some lunch. My stomach was off so I thought I would order something on the more health-full side. I took a look on Uber and found symposium Brantford. We were long term patrons of the Guelph location, pre-covid. There menu is extensive so I knew I had a options to suit. I ordered the Teriyaki Salmon on Bed Of Salad with the Mustard Vinaigrette. Arriving right on time and on short order. The salad was packed separate and left undressed. The ample helping of the vinaigrette was provided in two bio degradable containers. I opened the salad and began to dress but saw a tomato that looked a bit past it's prime. Unfortunately, my stomach was already off so I completely lost my appetite. My fault completely. I thought I would call and ask if I could have an alternative side delivered. I was answered quickly by the manager and he took my contact info and said he would have the new sides delivered quickly. I was actually fully willing to pay for the other sides but he made no mention of additional payment. He was not aware that my uneasy stomach was the cause of not wanting the salad. I accepted his courteous service and withing 15 minutes had, hand delivered by the manager himself, the replacement side of cooked vegetables (as opposed to the raw salad I had originally ordered).

Realizing that the salad that had originally put my stomach at ease actually just needed to be tossed a bit more I then got my large salad tossing bowls. Ones that I would normally use to make a salad large enough to feed 4 or more people and poured the remaining dressing and tossed completely allowing better coverage than just dressing on the plate. This also has the desirable side effect of refreshing the raw veggies in the salad and brought the salad to life. I fully enjoyed that as well.

After finishing the additional peice of cake with my coffee (which i am eating while writing this). I call the manager with my credit card in hand as he was deserving payment for the additional delivery, and a tip, as I don't know how much Uber passes along...

He refused additional payment and said he was just glad that I enjoyed. He was genuine in...

The only reason this place is getting a star is because the manager rightfully covered our bill. This experience was the worst we've ever had from start to end. A family of 8(4 of them are men 6'+) plus a baby, we had a reservation well in advance and yet we were sat at a table for 4 with the intent to put 3 on each side and 1 at each end, not sure where the infant would go. They got us another table after we had to tell them there was no way we would comfortably fit at the one. The server was in a sour mood from the beginning and she wasn't making an effort to sugarcoat it. When we went to order, the server then told us that they were out of hollandaise sauce, 50% of the table were planning on getting eggs benedict so we needed to change our order. We waited an hour after ordering our food, all of it came cold, the bacon came microwaved, you could tell as half of it was burnt and the other half was uncooked fat, it looked disgusting. My husband and brother-in-law got a sandwich with pulled pork (it was the first item in the description) and when they asked the server where the pulled pork was she responded "we've never had pulled pork, do you want me to show you the menu?" She went to grab a menu, checked it first and realized she was wrong then came back, threw the menu on the table and walked away, no apology. My father-in-law got the chicken caesar wrap but the chicken was burnt and there was no caesar dressing, he couldn't take more than a couple bites. My food was completely wrong, I ordered the Brie, Mushroom, and Spinach omelette and instead I got a Ham, Mushroom, and Feta Omelette that came as a sandwich. My Omelette was supposed to include home fries but didn't because it was the entirely wrong order and to boot, the toast was burnt around the edges and yet, it was cold. In addition, we asked several times for a refill on coffee, the coffee is expensive here so you expect to drink more than one cup and yet we were ignored everytime we tried to flag down our waitress.

At first the manager offered a discount, but after another talk, he covered the bill as many of us did not finish our meals. In addition to just not wanting to go back based on this experience, if you or any of your party has a food allergy, I would not trust this kitchen staff to take the proper precautions.

I've included a picture of my Omelette after I removed it from my toast as I read not looking to eat a sandwich. Would have been nice if my brie, mushroom, and spinach Omelette had any of those ingredients. They offered to take it back but there was no way I was waiting again, and lord knows what would have been in the next one since there was already a black hair in mine,...

We've been here twice. First time was with family and we had just had dessert because we had finished lunch not too long ago ..few family members had problems with their meals which they refunded. Well we decided to go and try it for date night giving it a chance! What a fustrating experience, we arrived maybe 550pm, first we waited 20 mins to be seated, actually I went up and asked someone could seat us so we could order. 5 mins later someone came to seat us. At this point we missed half price apps until 630pm which the waitress told us it was too late now, so we placed a drink order and the waitress said she's give us a minute to look at the menu, she finally came back to take our order 10-15mins later (without a notebook, maybe thinking we still needed time!) Went to get her tablet or whatever, and then ordering took a solid 5 mins n some huffing n puffing due to us wanting some substitutions. Then we waited again for our food. (Sandwiches and salads...and the restaurant the whole time had maybe 5 or 6 tables of people, that's it!) Finally our food came out, what else could go wrong!!?? ....well my turkey bacon sandwich had 2 thin slices of turkey, and 2 prices of the bacon was pure fat, white see thru and gross .. and no dressing on my sandwich what so ever, so I had some spicy mayo brought out. My husband's crispy chicken ceaser wrap.. was nothing like a ceaser first off, and had 1 nice chuck of breaded chicken breast. Hardly stuffed and mostly just bread. At this point we are both frustrated but starving so we ate what we could .. when our table was cleared up the waitress asked if we enjoyed our meal, we said it was quite disappointing as u can see what's left on our plates and how we've been treated tonight , she answered "sorry u feel that way about our dishes,here's ur bill" our bill was $58 and change or so, for 2 simple sandwich meals 2 drinks, and we took home 2 desserts ... We are so disappointed with the whole experience of this place from the service to the end (minus the dessert) We are huge foodies and go out often , we've done reviews for restaurants and understand busy days, but you should never go anywhere and experience service the way we did and not have a positive result in the end. It seemed like they didn't need our business but yet in the end stabbed us with in consulting comment and still took our money. I would not recommend this location at all. I live in Kitchener and the locations near us have always been...