Elora Mill Restaurant — Restaurant in Centre Wellington

Who is impressed by this food? I went there for my anniversary dinner yesterday, and had the most disappointing meal of my life. Both menu items I ordered were inaccurately described, which is astonishing for such an expensive restaurant. The 'Whipped Woolwich Goat Cheese with Caramelized Honey' was an utter travesty. I was presented with a plate of carrots. The goat cheese was hiding, perhaps from shame at having its good name associated with this farce. It was underneath, used like glue to stick the carrots, rising up like so many middle fingers pointed at the diner, to the plate and into the air. Gotcha! - they seemed to be saying. I had wanted to eat some goat cheese, perhaps with the aid of a cracker of some kind, but I had to perform the work of a mini-excavator to obtain any. The carrots were - meh. Why were they even there in a supporting role, let alone standing in for the main attraction? The menu did not say 'Roast carrots with a small smear of goat cheese.' My mother could make tastier roast carrots, and present them honestly as a roast carrot dish. That's because my mother can cook, and she's an honest woman. It was the most ill-conceived dish anyone has ever dared to serve me - an orange falsehood that left a bad taste in my mouth. "Carrots, a la Trump" perhaps? But it was only a foreshadow of far greater disappointments! The lobster appetizer with fancy things was not fresh, and the portion stingy. No amount of 'sauce' from any chef can disguise a stingy approach, using second-rate ingredients. So you pickled a strawberry? Big deal. It was grey. Moving on from two disastrous appetizers, I had hoped the meal (which after all I was paying to 'enjoy') would turn the corner and I could tuck into some roasted lamb which was advertised with 'frites.' Nope. I think the world will agree with me that the word 'frites' means finely cut, french fried potatoes. One reads the word 'frites' and one's appetite perks up in anticipation. I was really looking forward to frites, being familiar with words, and with the objects which words describe. But no. What was served to me, what was dishonestly called 'fites' were in fact, glorified hash browns, made with grated potato and pressed (oh so cleverly, thought chef!) into the shape of 4 X 8s. Voila! I'm not sure if the waiter saw my eyes popping out of my head, or the steam coming out of my ears... he ran away very quickly after presenting this, likely from embarrassment. If I'd wanted 4 X 8's, I'd have gone to Rona, and I could have had 3 of them for the price of this dish, (I checked) and it would have been a far sounder investment. Pro tip - you're serving hash browns, not 'frites.' And they're not even good hash browns. These 'potato things' could be expected to fall frozen from a plastic bag. The word 'McCain' comes to mind... The salsa-verde 'jus' was also not tasty. After several bites, I avoided it. Which left me with... nothing... The lamb itself was not well seasoned. A salad of tossed fresh leaves and some grated cheese was the only nice thing on the table, aside from the wine. The halibut my partner ate smelled funny, and was also generally tasteless. But what would he know? He's only a chef with 20 years experience on two continents. He ate half of it. This horrible meal is what happens when a chef who is not my husband decides he's smarter than the classic dishes, than the ingredients and their integrity, than the dictionary, and all the rest of us put together, and so deluded, tries to have a go at our expense - in my case - more than $300 and two hours I can never get back. "Happy Anniversary Dear! Yes, I should have just let you cook, but I wanted to spare you the burden, as that's your day job!" Silly me. I would advise Elora Mill's chef to immediately sop abusing words like 'goat cheese' and 'frites,' the ingredients, and the sensibilities of diners with lifetimes of experience in far better restaurants. You're not smarter than...

Beautiful view overlooking the Elora Gorge as it literally is built atop of the damn which would have powered the mills waterwheel to mill flour when the mill was in operation. The sunny wall wall windowed atrium isca lovely dining setting contrasting the more dark, moody cavernous interior of the historic milll with an abundance of light given the weather and a panoramic view of the gorge and waterfall from the dam seating you atop the rolling ripping white waters churning below. You can see the rushing waters cascade over the dam aggressively churning up riptides and plumes of white water which was the most spectacular experience we shared while there likely in a year's time still remember about it. The Menu wasn't huge. Offering approximately 8-10 apps and about the same for entrees. None of the all's jumped out at us however given we hada GC of some $300 to spend we settled on trying the two vegan starters a hummus which was pretty ho hum fothe fact that the portion was approximately a tablespoons worth of actual hummus which for the price I'm glad we weren't spending our actual as it was a less than generous portion given the price point it felt more like a sample size in all honesty. With this we were served up our first bed of side lettuce to enjoy not knowing we would be treated to yet another helping of side lettuces that came with out burgers though this time it came naked, undressed and seemingly was either the saddest salad ever /or most garish garnish seen on a plate .. Dessert come with lettuce too? Our other app fared better than the hummus a salad with an ample array of textures, taste and crunches, cauliflower, parsley, quinoa dressed with a light vinaigrette and tahini. For mains we had two burgers which were delicious and very juicy still cooked MW, the bacon jam could not really be tasted and the real thing or a substitute pancetta would have been preferred given the burgers juices made the bottom of the bun become too saturated and didn't hold up for the amount it neede to a sorb fromc within. Nonetheless it was still a very good burger should have shoved of the given side lettuce which accompanied the burgeralongside frites to create a barrier to protect the bun better as ours was not dressed with a thing so we were left kcmfusexas to whether it was supposed to be should have been or whether it was just a garnish made garish andu I Inedible as it was which was the Only thing we weren't impressed by however we were pretty fu by that point anyways though hate to see gold food wasted as it was as we left it wholly untouched the garish garnish it presented itself as too much yet offered to little in taste to be eaten.

Hopefully they tossed it in compost or made basket up for the Easter bunny to have a snack later on with it to have a snack! The frites were well salted hot and crispy , accompanied with our leaf like lettuces and served with a ramican of mayo or ketchup (mayo for myself) my dad steak was cooked to perfection & came with a stacked Jenga like structure of four heavily deep-fried golden almost caramel in color very thick cut large fries (they may have been sweet potato I think as they were served with a substantial dollop of chipotle mayo and looked very interesting and tasty to my eye and elevated win comparison to my side of lettuces..his steak was definitely cooked to to his liking. Two desserts wrapped up our meal the cake was nice though no more than three bites however the standout was the cranberry cherry sorbet served with shards of a salted dark chocolate Wafer and mousse or pudding it was perfect way to wrap up a nice meal. The service was attentive and friendly and appeared to be well staffed and managed and we were taken care of well. We left full and had we opted to take the tossed salads we opted to co km compost rather than we could have fed the the...

Sorry Chef, but my guest and I were extremely underwhelmed. We have eaten at many fine restaurants in Italy, Paris, Vegas, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, New York, Etc. Etc. and there was not one thing on the three courses we ate where we stopped and had an oral orgasm and i can tell you, we have done so many, many times at some high end restaurants.

We were enjoying the view and the kayakers and then all of a sudden, the best part of the restaurant, the view was taken away "because glass shattered once at this time of night" so the sunset, which was glorious, was no longer in view.

The best part of the night were the cocktails at the start - innovative, delicious, and making me want more.

I ordered a bottle of wine because it was made in the region that my family lived in Italy, not because it was one of the cheaper ones. I think that's when things went south. The wine was fine, the service became disingenuous.

The waitress we had was so see-through - like she could care less about us - she was just doing her job. You could read it in her face. And no, i don't know her name, but i know she is a long term employee. If she doesn't want to deal with people trying to have a rich experience or deal with rich people, don't work here.

There were four anniversaries when we were in there. Do you know how people will absolutely splurge on their anniversary even when they can't afford it and I'm sure they were all walking away disappointed and a little poorer than when they came in.

Pickerel is the best fish in the world - so sweet and unassuming - but it was sitting on a small pile of tasteless veggies which were sitting in a small puddle of tasteless juice. The caneloni was unimpressive in flavour as well. The best part of the main was the short rib. We were both disappointed.

Also, in this day and age, i would think we could get beyond the junior servers with skirts so short they might just as well be in their underwear. That was kind of offensive from a professional business woman's point of view. If that's the uniform - what are you selling? Maybe it is because the Elora Mill is not all it is touted to be.

We hope she enjoyed her 20% tip. We never stray from that, in fact we have been known to give 50% tips if we are impressed with the...