Kelseys Original Roadhouse — Restaurant in Hamilton

I've seen so much discrimination in my time, especially living in Hamilton for most of my life but nothing tops my experience at Kelsey's with my family. Just us two guys taking the kids out for a meal. We were directed to a dirty table and with food under the table as well. With kids in mind, we were also seated at the busiest table in terms of foot traffic as well as it's in the coldest part of the restaurant while there were so many other available tables. We asked for a booth because we have done that before with 6 people. She denied us, and insisted we sit at the dirty table. I told my kids to not sit there and kindly asked to be relocated. When I did I was confronted with a why do you want to move. I said it's not ideal and we're simply paying customers who arrived at the quiet time just before happy hour. I directed at a quiet corner with a large table suitable for us, and she asked what was wrong with the table we were directed at and I said it was filthy. I insisted and finally she gave in. We sat and sat and waited for over 30 minutes for service. Then we ordered drinks finally thanks to Arsenal! ❤️ But we only got water and waited for the kids Pina coladas for over another 18minutes (I'm keeping track of time at this point) They said it was change of staff but that same waitress that insisted we sit at the dirty table by the front door looked our way many many times as she walked by. We and the kids were ignored and when we asked for management it took her over 14 minutes to come and tend to us. Arsenal took our order and we got our food in a fashionable time. So that was good. But... The nachos. The nachos as you see in the photos came out with what looked like a ton of jalapenos. Soon much for any of us to consume, especially the kids. We didn't eat the nachos at all, even after we removed most of it. We lost our appetite through the process of picking at the jalapenos. One of the kids burgers are with cheese and he explicitly asked for no cheese as he has an intolerance.

The level of discrimination and isolation we felt in this restaurant is totally uncalled for. I'm extremely offended and I can't help but take it personally to the core. This was extremely uncalled for. My kids didn't eat for a full hour or more of sitting around. We played games and colored and such to make sure with the time but the level of hunger hit hard for everyone. I'm very forgiving in the service industry and I rationalize where I need to but this one took the prize.

Thank you Arsenal for your service. The rest of the multiple wait staff that ignored us all need to be reminded that this kind of behaviour does not go unchecked and believe me I will make...

This Kelseys is not like the other Kelseys in the city. It's just as bad as it was prior to renovation. We have given it several chances but tonight was the final time. We run a large sports league and are trying to find a local bar for our players to go back to and for championship nights. We called a week ago to make reservations for last Thursday and tonight. We walked in with approx 20 people and we were met abruptly and rudely by the bar manager cassandra and we were told to leave and they wouldn't serve us even though we had a reservation. They denied having a reservation for us even though they admittedly knew we were there a few nights previously and both reservations were made during the same phone call. How difficult is it to write down a reservation request. However, there was no apology we were just told we weren't going to be served and to leave. They said they would only serve 5 of us. We were also told the kitchen didn't have enough food!!! What day and age do we live in where this is acceptable. There was only 2 tables and approx 12 people when we showed up and the rest of the place was empty at approx 9:15 at night. Keep in mind they are open till 11. You would think resturants would be happy to have people show up considering thats its only income?! At this point I have a league of players who we've told to come back there for a social and we were met with a rude bar manager and no solution and I had to find somewhere else to take a large group with no reservation and some of our people have now left to go home which is terrible. Thankfully Shoeless Joe's down the street took our group with open arms, food was out within 10min, our waitress was lovely and it felt like she wanted us there. I would suggest to go there!!

Also other Kelseys resturants i.e paramout location does free nachoes for 6 or more people and they offer a point system to get money back as an incentive to teams but this one refuses to. We have brought it up to the general manager in the past and it was denied. I just don't get how the same franchise restaurant can be so different and have different expectations. I believe the reviews will keep getting worse at this place. Admittedly after vocalizing my frustration the bar manager became a little bit more apologetic. It left us in a terrible spot with our league and I can't see how or why I would trust them. Plenty of resturants on upper james...pick a different one. I...

Edited June 1/25 After leaving my review I was contacted by the manager, Jennifer. She really took my concerns seriously and invited me to come back and give them another chance and sent me a voucher. My husband and I went to have a late lunch yesterday and I was very happy with the service provided. I did not mention the managers name or the voucher until after we finished our meal. The waitress was great, the kind of boisterous, friendly person that's great at making sure you're happy throughout the meal in a non-obtrusive way. I spoke to Jennifer just before we left and she reiterated how important it is to take customer concerns seriously. I'd definitely recommend this restaurant.

Went here for Mother's Day. It wasn't the worst experience, but it could have been better. We were seated by one person, then had another person that took our drink order but didn't introduce herself as our waitress, which it turned out she wasn't. We waited over 10 minutes for our actual waitress to show up and take our order. It was early in the afternoon and was not busy in the restaurant. Our waitress had spent the time we were waiting behind the bar talking to people, rather than taking our order. When we finally did order, we gave her the appetizers and entrees at the same time. What I didn't expect was our appetizers to be brought out at the exact same time as our entrees. I was missing half of my entree order and was not given a reason for the missing items. We had to flag down the manager to find out where the missing items were (they were apparently just sitting in the kitchen), and he brought them out. 5 minutes later (I'm not exaggerating), our waitress came over to let us know she was going to go check on the progress of the missing items (which would have been about 10 minutes after we were served the partial order). We had to tell her that someone else already took care of it. The food was good. Next time, I'll...