The Keg Steakhouse + Bar - Brantford — Restaurant in Brantford

Edited: We tried Keg again, going for a casual dinner, rather than a steak dinner, and it was a much better experience. I had the shrimp cocktail and it was fabulous, followed by a burger and fries. The burger was very good, nice texture and taste.

I won't be going for a steak or prime rib dinner unless some changes are made in the taste of the au jus, or at least until they have another rice offering on the menu. But we will be back for appetizers and a casual meal. The ambience and decor is lovely and the service is always top notch. We have been going to the Keg for years, and it used to be wonderful, but the quality of the food has really declined in the last several years. Unfortunately, last night will be our last visit, it just isn't a delicious enjoyable meal, certainly isn't worth the price anymore.

Some of it is personal preference, I know, and others may not agree. They have made changes that no longer suit my tastes. I used to love the French onion soup, but they changed the recipe and I no longer enjoy it. Same with the au jus for the prime rib, some new spice has been added, and it ruined a previous meal for me.

They even felt the need to change the whipped butter and to add tiny bits of what I am guessing may have been cheese, and something that added an unpleasant smokey flavour. What is wrong with just regular butter?

The only rice option now is a wet mushroom rice with hard chunks in it that lacks flavour. The bacon wrapped scallops were tiny. My half lobster had barely any meat in it.

The tuna tartare at a previous visit was mushy and the fish overhandled so that all texture was lost. I couldn't even eat that though they were apologetic and they did replace it with something else.

The worst thing though is the quality of the meat. I don't mind paying a fair price for the kinds of tender, delicious steaks they used to serve. Last night my baseball steak had gristle, was so chewy and had very little flavour. It was not even as good as cheaper cuts we barbecue at home. The vegetables that came with the steak were blah.

Nothing was inedible, I did eat my meal. There was just no real enjoyment of it. It was a huge disappointment, especially compared to the meals we used to get at the Keg.

The staff were great and the service was great. And a manager came around so there was an opportunity to have said something. I have done that in the past, but really there is not much they can do if I just don't enjoy their food anymore, or their scallops are tiny, or their lobsters have no meat on them.

So after 30 years, that will be the last meal we eat at the Keg and the last special occasion we celebrate there. I would rather go out of town to Cambridge or Kitchener where I can get a really great steak dinner that checks off all the boxes, for...

BEWARE! We went for happy hour, which was between 4:30 and 5:30. We ordered our last item at 5:20, still within the window. The waitress brought our bill a bit later and thankfully we double checked it and noticed that the drink prices were regular prices.

We mentioned this to her and she had some excuse that because she printed the bill after 5:30, it automatically charged regular prices.

She made some changes, not actually printing a proper receipt, and it was still incorrect. I asked for a proper receipt reflecting the actual menu prices for everything we had ordered during happy hour and she claimed that that was impossible. Really? The restaurant cannot print a receipt to reflect the prices on their menu?

She left and came back and said she gave us a couple of things 'free' as though she was doing us a favour. The bill was still higher than it should have been. At this point we were getting very frustrated and feeling deliberately ripped off.

Eventually she brought us an adjusted bill that was in line with what it should have been, but still not an accurate reflection of what we had ordered and not in line with the prices on the happy hour menu.

If you go for happy hour make sure to double check your bill! This is unacceptable from a restaurant like Keg. I wonder how many people have been overcharged and just did not happen to notice? And if it is happening at this location, how many customers are being ripped off chain wide?

It is interesting that the server claimed the pricing reverted to regular pricing after 5:30 (which is not the customer's issue and a terrible excuse for overcharging someone) . Yet some of the items on the bill reflected happy hour pricing while others did not. Interesting.

We will not be returning. The Keg has been going downhill for years and this is the final straw. It is bad enough that the food has become mediocre. But for the server to not even check the bill before presenting it, and then to pretend that it wasn't her fault and there was nothing she could do,...

We love the Keg! We've been regulars of the Keg restaurant in Toronto for a very long time. The Brantford one was really substandard to us. First of all, the waitress dropped someones leftover food beside our table. The eaten shrimp tails and vegetable leftovers were a slip hazard and ugly to see. It was right beside our table and that's all we could see. She didn't clean it up nor did anybody come to clean up. It was disgusting. We had to watch chewed food beside us the entire time. The table was wobbly. The server never offered to fix it even though my husband was on the ground trying to fix it himself. They never offered to change the table, but given it was a low table, and I can't sit at high tops, my husband persisted to fix that one. It was completely embarrassing- patrons should not be on the ground leveling tables! In addition to that, our food arrived luke warm. We ordered Two lobster tails and a steak, which we ate and didn't send back to warm up...we were hungry. It was very busy as well, so we decided not to make a fuss. Sadly details didn't matter to this staff. They have the bums in seats, so perhaps it just doesn't matter to this Keg. They really need to see the operation in Toronto. The one on Les Mill and Leslie. That is the standard. I just regretted the whole Brantford Keg visit. The restaurant floor was dirty. The service was sub average. The food was kind of cold. I was just bummed out. Really truly disappointed with my evening - it wasn't a cheap dinner. Not the quality experience we are used to. Grateful I had good company though, and we kept it...