3 Guys And A Stove — Restaurant in District Municipality of Muskoka

After a few days on the road with deep fried fare, my family was looking forward to the prospect of home-style food, even at an inflated price tag. Reading some reviews led us to choose 3 guys and a stove. Here's a comprehensive review of our experience:

Atmosphere:

The atmosphere isn't bad. We had an 8-year old in our party of 4, so they seated us upstairs among other families with children. The upstairs isn't well designed for noise dispersal. A few full tables and it seems quite loud. This is by no means outlandish in our case, but if you are expecting a romantic dinner, this is not the place for you. The fire-place is cozy and the seating is otherwise fairly comfortable. For the prices you might expect something a little more upscale, but overall the atmosphere is somewhat suitable.

Service: The service bordered on terrible. While we were seated almost immediately, it took a little over 2 hours from being seated to getting out the door at the end of the meal. It was slow waiting to place our order (and we placed our food order immediately with our drinks). It was then slow for the food to come. It was slow waiting for them to take my daughter's kids-menu desert order and slow to bring it. It was slow bringing the bill. We had to ask twice for water refills as our first request went forgotten. This didn't seem to be an exception - all the families around us appeared to be waiting lengthy times as well. Thankfully, the food orders were filled correctly and the staff was friendly.

The menu: The menu promises to be excellent. There are 3 different types of stew, casseroles and many other home-style menu items. There's plenty of variety, and if I wasn't so disappointed with the delivery and prices, this type of menu would bring me back regularly. The kids menu was also impressive - it had much more variety than typical deep-fried restaurant menus, with healthy options in each category of appetizer, main, desert and drink. Kudos on the menu!

The Food: The proof is in the pudding. Well, unfortunately this food is almost inedible. My father and I each ordered the beef stew, my mother ordered the pasta casserole and my daughter the pasta. My daughter's pasta was stone cold and bland. Yet the two beef stews were so overpoweringly flavored (with oxo cubes?) and laden with salt that I had to stop eating before I was full or finished. My father was equally deterred by the overwhelming flavor. The portion sizes were good; they weren't stingy on the beef and fresh vegetables, but the sauce was far too rich to be able to finish it. My father attempted to drain the sauce off his vegetables so he could eat them, but he too was overwhelmed. We both knew a few bites in that the sauces were way to rich, but when you can't get through the meal because of it then all other factors concerning the restaurant become almost irrelevant. My mother's pasta casserole, on the other hand, she said was about as good a macaroni and cheese. So that was a failure too. This was an overwhelming disappointment.

The Prices:

For the atmosphere, the service and the food, this restaurant was not even close to being worth the price. Their menu, had it been done well, could have commanded the prices they were asking (although in all honesty, beef stew and pasta casseroles are not expensive meals to make). We didn't order alcohol and with taxes and tip the bill came to ~$120 for 3 adults and one child.

All in all I really wanted to like this place. The menu was so attractive after having eaten deep fried fare for a few days in a row. This was terribly disappointing. 3 guys and a Stove needs another stove and 3 more guys that know what they're doing.

Last, I've considered upping the restaurant's rating to 2-star, but keep reminding myself that I couldn't even...

Significantly disappointed. It's not often that my wife and I get to go out for fine dining when vacationing in Muskoka but from our last experience at this restaurant I was really looking forward to our 1:1 dinner together. There wasn't much to complement from tonight's meal including both the service as well as the drinks and dinner.

Starting out, we phoned in our reservation for 7:30pm. Upon arrival we were informed that there would be a 10% "Safety Tax" due to Covid (not certain what that means but we agreed). My biggest concern is that they didn't present this information to us when we booked our reservation but rather waited until our arrival to share the news -- I mean what are we supposed to do at that point in how late it is in the evening, not likely to go find another restaurant to eat at last minute. The host was good enough in sharing the house rules concerning wearing masks when getting up from our table. Seemed reasonable and consistent with other places we've visited.

Upon being seated, we were provided menus. Not a moment later a man appears at our table asking if we're ready to place drink orders (he didn't announce that he'd be our server - it was ours to guess his role). Too soon, we'd need a few minutes more to review their lengthy listing of drinks - he mentioned he'd stop by in a few minutes. That turned into upwards of 10 minutes. No wonder, he was the single server for all tables! Upon his return we were ready alright, enough to order our drinks and meal. I did request that he wipe down the table because there were still remnants from the previous meal that was served. He was prompt in wiping down the table but drink arrival took upwards of another 10 minutes as the Host was also serving a multi-purpose role in managing the patrons at the door, handling pickup orders, and serving as bartender.

I ordered the Cajun Caesar, not certain what distinguishes that from a regular Caesar but it was underwhelming. My wife's Bloody Mary didn't have much alcohol to detect. As we didn't order appetizers, the waiter mentioned he'd bring by some bread -- which never showed up.

Upon dinner arrival (I ordered the Summer BBQ, my wife the mushroom risotto), the was a further disappointment. Before I get to the bad news I'll share that the serving of food was pretty healthy (and I can eat) - no concerns there. My meal consisted of BBQ ribs and brisket, potato salad, coleslaw, and greek salad -- further, I ordered the shrimp for an additional $11. The greek salad reminded me of something I might pickup prepackaged from the supermarket. The coleslaw and potato salad were decent. The meat however was a disaster. Both the ribs and brisket were overcooked and dry. They were nicely sauced which helped to offset the dryness of the meat but very disappointing. No insult but my 25-year-old son can BBQ Costco ribs which are way more meatier and tastier than this dish provided. The 4 shrimp that appeared were nicely seasoned but were drenched in butter - they were much smaller than expected for the price point.

The waiter didn't drop in to ask how the meal was until we were halfway finished. When he did it was more of a passing by to the next table and not taking the time to pause to listen if we had any concerns. Needless to say I was steamed as I was so disappointed that the dinner I thought my wife and I were going to enjoy was so utterly disappointing. I didn't really let on to my wife during the meal so as not to spoil her experience, only to find out that her risotto was cold.

I'm not certain if it's the same owners as originally featured and won several accolades from years back, but this doesn't seem to be run by the same talent -- which is very disappointing. This was once a very credible restaurant - I just can't see...

My usual rule of thumb is if I like a place I'll write a review, if I don't, I'll tell the establishment but won't write a negative review.

The reason is that I also own a service business and understand we all have moments that are less than perfect and I don't want to negatively impact a business's livelihood. Plus, I really don't have much tolerance for the complaining some people do online for such insignificant things and don't want to be one of those people.

However, when things happen it's how you follow up that counts.

This is where I believe this restaurant needs improvement, based on some other reviews.

The other night I ordered the stuffed blackened shrimp. It's a $38 meal. It sounded unique which is what I like to try.

I know these guys are known for putting together unusually paired flavours and I have been here before, but to me this dish simply does not work. And I am not that picky.

The shrimp had a breading like coating on them, and although I'm sure they made them fresh, They had the texture of a reheated deep fried item.

Then they were covered with some type of sweet sauce over a bed of noodles in a pesto sauce, which there was way too much of. The flavor combination of this dish just doesn't work.

I tried a few bites hoping it would grow on me but it didn't.

I told the waitress and hoped to just eat it anyway as I hate wasting food. But after a couple more bites I was done. I just couldn't do it and ended up only eating a quarter of the dish.

I can count on two fingers the number of times I have sent back food, including this time.

The waitress did offer something else if I wanted but I declined and she said she would let the kitchen know about the dish.

When the bill came, there was no adjustment which I thought was kind of odd, but didn't say anything because it isn't about the money.

It isn't life changing and there are bigger problems in the world. However, I would have expected something like maybe half off. Just something to say we're sorry you didn't like your meal and hope you'll have a better experience next time.

Additionally, there was no attention from management as to why I thought the dish was as bad as it was. Someone could have come over to inquire considering it is the kind of place that has $38 entrees.

To me this is their biggest failure. Taste is taste. I read that someone else really liked this meal. Maybe it was done differently for them or maybe it just appealed to their taste. The bottom line is when you have a client with a negative experience you should not let them leave feeling that way, because guess what? The next thing you know is that person who never writes a negative review, writes a negative review!

Will I give them another try? Not sure.

I know some of their food is decent, but with management not showing much interest it makes it tough to want to support them.

Lastly, in the longest review in history of reviews, my friend decided to say something to the manager on the way out and she did offer a free meal for me next time. Nice gesture, but she should not have had to.

I just hope management will take this feedback constructively for their own benefit.

My advice if you try this place and order a dish with any kind of sauce would be to specify not...