The Badley — Restaurant in Centre Wellington

TLDR: Gave some stars because this place used to be really good, but brunch has seriously gone down hill and management does not give a crap - stay away!!

I have been to the Badley's brunch several times over the past 1.5 years. It has always been great - good service, yummy food, reasonable pricing, etc. This is where any positive rating comes from. I hadn't been in a few months, but went about 2 weeks ago for brunch with my friend (table of 2). This visit was not what I expected.

The first red flag should have been that we had our pick of the tables at prime brunch time (11AM), which was not the case in previous visits. Our server was quite lovely, but clearly overworked. In fact, he seemed to be the only one actually working and caring about the guests. We were brought the initial waters and warmed baked goods - we were excited for the usual scones, but were informed the usual baker had recently resigned and thus they were making do with what they had (which was apparently the cheapest bread you can get at food basics or similar).

The wait for food and drinks throughout our visit was quite long, though this wasn't the end of the world as my friend and I were happy to chat to fill the time. However, once food did arrive (at multiple timepoints), it was nearly inedible - undercooked hashbrowns, clumpy and cold gravy, a whole egg missing from the breakfast poutine dish?!, the hollandaise was also super off and very mayo-y (not like it usually is). The pancake was good (actually warm and tasty), and the fries as a side dish were also good, but honestly for a fraction of the price I could have had the same food at McDonald's. We ate what we could to sort of justify the fact that we drove an hour to get to Elora (specifically for the Badley) and to try to get at LEAST some of what we paid for. We were charged in full (and paid for) for our brunches. I even left a 20% tip because our server was quite good, it was clearly just the circumstances he was in - throughout brunch, he definitely noticed that we were not thrilled with the food, apologized many times, tried to make it right, even gave direction to the kitchen staff, and made us coffee when there was none left at the bar. Re the coffee - this was at about 1pm (brunch is still 'on'). When we asked the girls at the bar if there was more coffee, they seemed to have zero interest in helping us (their solution was actually to offer us a latte for an additional charge). Our server ended up making a fresh pot of coffee for us.

I am mad at myself for even paying in the first place, and not making this a bigger deal at the time we were there.. In hindsight, I absolutely should not have paid for it. However, I did try to call management the next day to discuss this, but they were unavailable, and so I was asked to leave a name and number for their return phone call. The manager ended up calling me back later that day. They apologized many times, said this isn't how they operate, etc, etc, and that he would "investigate it" so that I could be refunded or come back for another try at their food at their cost. He assured me he would call me back the next day... 2 weeks have gone by - not a peep. I have called back to check in several times, and management is conveniently never available. Similar to the first time I called, I have left contact info and a request for a call back over the past 2 weeks..... nothing. So, I'm sure at this point, I must suck it up.

Our server at brunch mentioned the place was possibly being changed hands/owners. I don't know why this justifies charging customers full prices for extremely crappy food, but hey, the server was just doing his job - it's not his responsibility to run the place.

Huge, huge disappointment. The lack of care from management to at least return a phone call (especially after assuring me they would???) speaks of volumes. Stay away and...

We were excited to try your place out to celebrate our 30th anniversary. The best part was waiting over 90 minutes with no main dishes. We had a lot of time to ourselves.

We will likely not return and will find it difficult to refer The Badely to our family and friends.

So here is what happened, and after reading the reviews and responses it is not a one-off thing.

Making reservations on-line was easy.

We arrived, and after figuring out what we wanted, we ordered our drinks and meals. Apps (Arancini) arrived quickly and were very good. Main course (Pasta and Bison Burger) took well over 1 hour after we were done our apps. Cost was $90 - 1 glass of wine, Arancini (shared), Bison Burger with special fries (shared). Pasta{was removed from the bill}. Gratuity.

During the wait time not one person came to check in on us. The bartender was in reach so we chatted a few times with him but he was busy serving (I am not sure if they were regulars or friends) I would think it was the latter just based on how they all talked and knew each other by name. At no time did anyone check in to see if we wanted any more drinks and we had to ask for more water.

The waitress seemed to be the only one working that night. This happens I know. But there were only about 5 tables (Including the patio) so it was not extremely busy and we had our orders in well before the other guests arrived.

Onto the main courses. We heard the bell ring 2 times. It was for our food as we saw the waitress finally get the dishes and bring it to our table. The food sat in the window for 7 minutes. We were hungry and kept track of this by now. The burger was ok but salty and was actually warm. The special fries were not very warm but tasted ok. We did not get the special sauce which we were told was the restaurant's version of the Big Mac sauce. The pasta was cold. So I let the waitress know and she took my plate back to see what can be done. It was returned back in 3 minutes and it was so hot I could not actually have it in my mouth. I was wondering how a main dish that took over an hour to prepare came back 3 minutes later, piping hot. I am no chef but I thought it had to have been microwaved. (The chef loudly said once the plate was returned, again, that "There is no microwave here, what do they know?")

An observation we made was that there were people sitting right in front of the kitchen and there was continuous conversation with the chef. We could tell because we could hear the chef's voice.

There was another table close by who seemed to have a similar experience. They returned their food.

The waitress was apologetic and informed us that the pasta was removed from the bill. (We did tip her but were hesitant as she did pay more attention to a few tables that seemed to have a closer relation to her than just a couple that had come into the restaurant - us).

My wife and I both agreed that this was the worst dining experience in our time together.

I sent messages to the company e-mail and social media. I did receive a response on Sunday saying that they were away and that they received my messages and said I would hear back from them Monday. I reached out again over the past 3 days with no response.

Sadly this was our experience and not what we were looking for to...

My husband and I have been excited for months to try brunch at this local spot, and finally had a kid-free Sunday morning to do so. The menu online looked incredible and we were looking forward to a nice morning out together.

Holy Nelly, don't waste your money. English Breakfast tea was featured on the menu, but not available. Coffee was available (though if it's the only hot beverage available you need more than one carafe going at a time), but no decaf. The juice included was all room temp, never cold. We were seated and it took half an hour JUST to get our "pastry board", which consisted of one slice of very dry toast, two teeny buns (which, tbh, was THE best part of our entire brunch), and two overbaked scones. Half an hour, just to get that - five pieces of bread and some jam, butter, and cream. Half an hour!

This style brunch allows you to order little plates off their menu, with a few items (pancakes, bread pudding - which wasn't available - and cereals) available as a buffet. I've been to a few brunches like this and service is generally quick; order a few little plates, get your food shortly after, order more when the plates arrive, etc. But it takes HALF AN HOUR just to get one or two little plates here. After being here for an hour and only having a few plates brought to us, we were frustrated and just wanted to leave. There was maybe 2-4 tables besides ours; it's not like the place was abundantly busy. I expect it to take up to half an hour to have a full meal brought to a table when at a restaurant, not half an hour for these teeny tiny plates - especially when it's expected each table will continue to order additional plates.

And when the food did arrive? An absolute disappointment. The "Spanish omelet" with market veggies? Ha, yeah, the vegetable in the omelet is potato. I wish I had a photo. It was literally a scrambled egg baked in a cute little cast iron skillet with potato chunks thrown in. My husband tried to make light of it and called it an Irish omlet. It was also burnt to a crisp, almost inedible (we are the half that was least burnt). In fact, almost everything we ordered was burnt or overcooked. The slider was a joke; it's not a slider, it's half a burger bun with pork fat on it (yes, fat - pure fat. I get that pulled pork is "fatty", but I was literally chewing on pure fat). The steak for the skillet was chewy, though had the best flavour of anything we ordered...for the chicken and corn bread, the chicken was VASTLY overcooked...the fruit compote by the pancakes was canned jam and the chocolate sauce was chocolate milk syrup...the "salsa" with the eggs benny was just some raw red onion thrown on the plate...like it seriously would have been laughable if it hadn't been SUCH a disappointment.

Honestly, I felt like we wasted our time and our money trying this out. Holy smokes,...