The Keg Steakhouse + Bar - Burnaby — Restaurant in Burnaby

I love to eat steak and have been to many The Keg Steakhouse locations (Dunsmuir, Granville Island, Yaletown, Richmond, Coquitlam and other locations) and always love going back to this franchise, until now.

On Wednesday March 19, I took my husband, my sister and my mom to the Burnaby Keg on Still Creek Drive and this was the first time I had a very bad experience, particularly with my bone-in ribeye steak. After our lobster bisque, our entrees came out and my ribeye steak was cold (in my past experiences my ribeye steak was always piping hot and I always ordered 'medium'). Last Wednesday I ordered my steak 'medium' per normal but the meat was tough, dry and no marbling. It had no flavor. Now I don't expect them to brine the meat but it almost seemed like they didn't even bother to season or marinate it before cooking. I've had plenty of bone-in ribeye steaks from other Keg locations and my experience has always been that they were juicy, tender, lots of marbling, very flavorful and even the bone had a lot of smoky flavor that I always craved for more. Well not last Wednesday, so I was extremely disappointed that a restaurant of this caliber would put out such poor quality food like this.

Because Mom was with us and I wanted her to enjoy her dinner because she was going to have a medical procedure the following week, I didn't want to make a fuss, so I didn't inform our server about the poor quality of my steak. The server also forgot to top up our water even though we reminded her about it, and the restaurant wasn't busy at all when we were there at 3pm. So no excuse for bad service and definitely no excuse with our food being served cold because the kitchen wasn't even busy. I ate very little of my ribeye steak and took the rest home so I could heat it up. When I ate it at home it was still the same tough meat, dry and absolutely no flavor at all.

Very disappointing! It's been a week but unfortunately I cannot forget this very bad experience and so I decided to...

It was New Year’s Eve and I was craving a steak and didn’t want to dish out hundreds of dollars so I decided to take my parents to the keg, the ol’ reliable. We asked for the three cheese butter with our bread and the bread came out crispy and hot and soft on the inside, absolutely perfect. Totally sets the tone for the rest of the dinner. ELISA take notes!!! We started with the calamari and scallops wrapped in bacon. The calamari was well worth the money, a huge portion and my parents loved the fried jalapeño chips. The bacon wrapped scallops were unfortunately dry and small. Our server was Jennifer and she did an incredible job. She was attentive, provided us with extra bread when we asked and provided my mom with a new water when we found something floating in her glass. She checked in on us and didn’t hinder our dining experience. To make things even better, she offered us pickled jalapeños when she found out that my mom was trying to save the fried jalapeño chips for her steak later on. I ordered a New York strip Chicago style with a side of a twice baked potato. My parents got a New York strip and a filet mignon with a side of fries . The filet mignon was tender but lacked flavour. The fries were so good. Incredibly fresh, crispy, and salty, everything you’d want from a fry. My Chicago style New York strip was cooked perfectly with a nice burnt flavour from the outside crust. The twice baked potato was creamy and delicious. Our side veggies were green string beans which were alright and a grilled? Red beets which were so good and sweet. We finished off the dinner with the legendary Billy miner pie. I’ve forgotten how good the Billy miner is… it’s definitely my favourite cake in vancouver. We took one slice to go for my brother at home. The atmosphere here is lively and bustling. Service was to par with places like Elisa. Definitely coming...

We went to The Keg for dinner, expecting great service, but it was a letdown. I informed the server about our protein-focused diet with restrictions on butter, fat and carbs. He was friendly and assured us everything could be adjusted. I ordered filet mignon without the bacon wrap, and he suggested an alternative with mushrooms, which I happily accepted. I also asked for my veggies to be cooked in olive oil instead of butter.

When the food arrived, my husband’s steak was cooked medium-rare instead of medium, and my mushrooms were missing. The server took his plate, placed it back on the grill, and returned it to him. This raises serious concerns about food hygiene and contamination; reheating a customer’s plate is not acceptable in a restaurant of this caliber.

Meanwhile, our server told me mushroom would be on the table in one minute. Trying my veggies, I was disappointed to discover that it was prepared with butter despite my specific request for olive oil. At this point, I was too frustrated to even address it. As I finished my meal, the chef came out to inform me that the mushrooms would take an additional four minutes. By then, it was far too late, and I declined. The chef left, and the server never returned to apologize or offer any solutions. He only reappeared when it was time to pay the bill. There were no discounts or gestures to make up for the poor experience, nor did he acknowledge the mishaps. For a restaurant with The Keg’s reputation, this was incredibly disappointing. The service and kitchen team clearly lacked the training to handle special requests and address mistakes appropriately. I hope this location improves its customer service and ensures the kitchen staff can adapt to requests promptly. This experience has left me...