Rooster Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Edmonton

There are so many great restaurants in Edmonton and I am always looking for a new place to try. On March 21, 2024, after reviewing the tremendous variety of amazing Brunch destinations, I decided to try somewhere I had not previously tried. Roosters had great reviews and the menu was reasonably priced with a good selection.

Upon arriving the restaurant was fairly quiet, with only 4 other people. I noticed a stage on the East side of the restaurant and a variety of seating styles, from tables to benches and communal high tops. We were seated at a table with bench seat and chair; the server was friendly and attentive.

Upon reviewing the Menu I knew I wanted the House-made Brisket Benny. Even though it was before noon, the server advised that there was no more Brisket as it was made in-house; another was currently being prepared, although not yet ready. I was disappointed, although decided to order the Rooster Benny, which came with back-bacon on a bagel, hollandaise, potatoes and fruit garnish. I chose an everything bagel and medium poached eggs, with a side of grilled mushrooms. My friend chose the Cowboys Hangover - 3 overeasy eggs, pork sausage, back-bacon, potatoes, fruit garnish, multi-grain toast and French toast.

The other guests in the restaurant had their food, so from our understanding ours was the only orders.

When the food arrived both plates looked good. The server asked if anything else was needed and I responded only the side of mushrooms I ordered. The server apologized and said she would get them right away...it became clear the mushrooms were not prepared at the time of the order as it took a few minutes for her to return. The mushroomd were steaming and served in a small cup...upon trying them they had the look and consistency of canned mushrooms, or perhaps mushrooms stored in water or blanched after being cut. There was no seasoning or combination with onion and no indication they were cooked in a pan or on a flat top...at least not to the point of where you could see tell-tale signs of being fried. I informed the server of my concern with the mushrooms and she assured me they were made from fresh mushrooms and were cooked on the grill; she offered to remove them from the invoice. The server assured they were not canned. I did not eat them and guessed they may be precooked and first heated in a microwave to expedite the process.

Upon sampling the rest of our meals we found most of the food items to be prepared without care and attention: The poached eggs were hard; the potatoes were thinly sluced, bland and mostly burnt; the hollandaise sauce did not have flavour; the overeasy eggs were bland; the back-bacon was dry and over cooked, multi-grain bread was heated, although not toasted; the French toast was thin as a crepe in the middle and undercooked, appeared to be prepared from commercially sliced bread and not a French loaf.

We shared our concerns with the server, although chose not to send any food back; in addition to removing the mushrooms from the invoice, the server reduced the Rooster Benny by $1.70. The total invoice was $39.69 and we included an $8.00 gratuity, which is more than 20%

I submit many restaurant reviews and am as balanced as possible. I would normally not repeat a review, although the response my friend received from the manager to theirs was not well received. There was no apology for the quality of food, other than to state that the mushrooms were examined and found to be over-cooked, so they were replaced for future customers. This tells me the mushrooms are cooked in advance and simply reheated...this makes sense while they would appear steamed and of poor consistency and quality...they are not grilled fresh. The manager also questioned why we did not ask to speak to the manager and why we felt the need to enter a review when "penance" had already occurred by receiving a $1.70 discount.

Reviews are provided for various reasons, although primarily to assist future diners and the owners. Perhaps we attended on an off day, although the poor response tells...

I want to say that, while I had a bad experience, the food was actually really good. However, they didn't honour my reservation, they gave me cold food, and didn't really do much to rectify the situation. I had made a reservation for 8 people for my birthday. When I got there, the lady that seated us had to put us at the high table in the middle because a table had not actually be reserved for us. I asked her what the point was to making a reservation, then, if it wasn't going to be honoured, and she shrugged and said she honestly didn't know. As we were all seated next to each other in a line, and not at a table as requested, the occasion was ruined as no one was able to chat with each other. Never mind the fact that we were sat with two very inebriated men, who proceeded to call my Vietnamese friend "Jackie Chan," and otherwise disturb our breakfast. For what it's worth, she was a really good server and made up for the lack of seating. But when the food finally came out-it did take forever-mine was stone cold. They did remake a new one and it was very delicious, however, the tasty food cannot make up for the lack of service and lack of attempt to fix things. Apparently, after the bill had been paid for and my husband and I had already left, the manager came to our table saying he wanted to get to the bill before we paid, (when, fun fact, he was standing nearby when the server brought us our bills. Plus, we all paid separately, so he had plenty of time to come in a stop us at some point), and instead gave us a few 20% off vouchers that they usually give to Paint Night attendees. All-in-all the food was quite good, and credits to our server for doing the best she could with a situation that wasn't of her making. However, management should really have cared more, or at least appeared to care more, over a situation that was 100%...

Brutal! Arrived at 11:00 am along with a friend of mine from the USA, who found the review on the restaurant to be “#20 in annual Top 100 Best Thing to Eat and Drink”. It was a slam dunk, let’s go!

We made our way over there; we sat down; and got our coffees that took 10 minutes. So we said at the same time, we’re ready to order and we asked for 2 - Beef Brisket Breakfast Skillets, only to be told by the waitress the fridge had broken down, and the brisket was spoiled.

Ok, fair enough, we didn’t think twice and I ordered bacon & eggs - poached, with sourdough bread. The waitress said they’re out of sourdough bread. Ok, I’ll take multigrain. DONE.

My friend orders chicken sausage and eggs, and again the waitress says they are out of chicken sausage. WOW, it gets better! Lol 😂

I remarked...just tell me what you have in the fridge that’s not spoiled and we can order now?

We’re both looking at each other and he said he’d take the same as myself - Bacon and eggs with multigrain.

We placed our order at around 11:15am ,and 30 minutes goes by and I asked the waitress is our breakfast on its way? She said it’ll be shortly, and b/c of the delay, here’s a small basket of crostini with butter to keep us over..its 11:45 am and 30 minutes and bacon and eggs not even a hint of bacon aroma waffling in the air.

I counted exactly 26 patrons in restaurant that can hold -+ 75 persons. A 1/3 full!

Anyhow... by 12:15 pm we said to the waitress cancel the breakfast as we’re going elsewhere. She remarked our order is next up! I’m done.

Can you imagine, it takes over an 1- hour for 2-people to have been served bacon & eggs? That’s Garbage and lame. What a junk place. Btw...i was being generous with a 1 out of 5 stars. This place...