Charred Rotisserie House — Restaurant in Hamilton

Absolute Travesty. Do not go here. 0 Stars if i could rate it so.

I finally managed to make my way to Charred, a chicken rotisserie house on James street. I always found it odd to go out for chicken, as it is not only a staple of my diet, but i found it hard to believe someone could make a better roasted chicken than me. And I was right!

ATMOSPHERE - I went here for Lunch, and was promptly seated. The aroma of the place was great, although the tables and chairs are so slippery, its like sitting on an Ice Rink, seriously. Its so odd. When walking in, i looked over to where the chickens are roasted over coals, and noticed there were none cooking, right at Noon, lunch time. I thought it odd, but figured they had just finished a batch.

SERVICE - Our server took a while to attend to us, and when he finally did, simply said "What do you want?" The menu is so small, but i figured i might as well go with the quarter chicken leg and salad. Over the coarse of the meal he never visited our table once, and simply showed up when we were done and asked us if we wanted separate cheques. Never once attended the meal to see how everything was, which in hindsight, maybe he knew how bad the food is?

FOOD - Quarter Chicken Leg? About the size of a tiny duck leg, it was barely passable. I took one bite and knew this wasn't going to go well. Dry, tasteless, and under seasoned, the chicken underneath the skin beared the hallmark of re heated chicken, or at least sitting around for hours. Worst of all it was cold. COLD.

If i hadn't been absolutely ravenous, i would have sent it back on the spot. I gave the water some time, and ate slowly, figuring he would visit the table, but he did not.

The salad was boring, although with nice lettuce, only a couple pieces of cucumber and shredded carrots. No effort. A boring half white bun was provided (Thank goodness considering how little food i was given). The "Famous Piri Piri Sauce" was uninspiring, and i ordered the extra spicy. It was decently hot i suppose, but undeniably NOT famous.

My colleague had the Chicken Sandwich which he said was OK, but he wouldn't get again, as it was overly rich.

As for Value, at $12 for the lunch, terrible considering the food amount. I'm hungry, and I just left.

I am astounded at the rating and reviews of this place, although i saw 90% of the people in the restaurant eating Poutine when i was there. I suppose that's good, though that's not really hard to do well.

Disappointed in every facet of this operation, i will avoid it...

First off, we were sitting beside some filolks who were complaining about the lack of selection and I've read similar complaints on reviews. Those of you complaining about the lack of selection on menu other than chicken, what did you expect? It's called a rotisserie house for a reason. Lol. You folks are probably vegetarians too I can't fault you for being socially awkward.

Love the location. Staff service was amazing. We were greeted immediately with a smile coming in and were seated right away. Brought my 9 year old son who is picky. He won't eat anything bone in so they catered to what he wanted and served a separated breast. Amanda did very well as a our server. My son commented after us placing the order that she was very nice. If you get that reaction from a nine year old you've never met before, you must be good dealing with people.

I only have a little constructive critisism:

1. I'm not sure if this comes down to a food cost issue but the choice of minute rice isn't a good one. Is doesn't compliment the quality of the chicken very well. Go whole grain. Basmati or some other type of long grain. Just not uncle bens.

2. Let them eat salad. I am very disappointed with this ongoing trend I've noticed of restaurants serving vegetarian gravy. Not sure if it's a stock cost issue but you have all that golden juice flowing off the rotisserie chickens. Use it for god sake. It's a sin your not and the amount of business your losing by not serving vegetarians is negligible. Natural selection will take those folks out sooner or later anyway.

3. Napkins. Your chicken is inherently juicy and one napkin doesn't cut it. Now the flow of actually eating a chicken involves a lot of wingspan so I get the reasoning by not having a napkin holder at the table with your choice of table size. They're also tacky looking. Either go with a larger napkin or double up.

So honestly, the napkin thing and rice choice doesn't deserve a docking of a star. I really wanted to give you five but I just can't get past the fundamentally wrong decision of catering to a lower class human being by serving vegetarian gravy. From a food efficiency point you wasting a ton of stock by not using the rotisserie juices and the customers your trying to cater too by doing that are fake anyway for...

Ordered Matzah Ball Soup, Caesar Salad, Chicken Breast and Wing with Fries, Brisket Sandwich and a Crème Brulee Cheesecake Slice We were doing a product pick up in Stoney Creek, and decided on Charred for a Friday night. We haven’t seen anyone post about it lately, so wanted to taste some of the chicken and see how it was. Ordering over the phone was simple and easy. The woman on the phone took our order, and added to our order once we called back to add in the cheesecake. Pick up was smooth, too. We don’t normally mention pick up, and the process, but when you walk in, you can see the chicken on the rotisserie spinning and all the juices dropping into the coals, making the place smell amazing. Our takeout was easy, and simple. When we brought it home, the food was still hot and cold! The salad was crispy and enough dressing with big parm slices and large croutons. The brisket sandwich was piping hot with onions and peppers, and the chicken was juicy and my mouth is watering as I type this. The fries were skinny (which is my preferred type of fry!) and fresh, too. The cheesecake was good – I always want a Crème Brulee to be crunchy on top, and it never travels well, but the taste was great regardless. If you want a great ¼ chicken from a non chain, Charred is a great place, better actually than what you grew...