Kelseys Original Roadhouse — Restaurant in Kawartha Lakes

Inconsistent Food, Poor Service, and Management That Just Didn't Step Up

I don’t usually write reviews, but my experience at Kelsey’s in Lindsay for my birthday dinner recently was so disappointing, I feel compelled to share it.

I’ve been living in Lindsay for about 8 months. My best friend drove up from the city to celebrate with me, and I was really looking forward to this dinner. I had eaten at Kelsey’s two weeks earlier and loved the Mediterranean Salmon, so I ordered it again.

What arrived was unrecognizable: the salmon was charred black on one side, and all of the vegetables and sauce were missing. I called our server, Sabrina, over and explained this wasn’t what I had before. She left the incorrect dish in front of me and said she’d go check with the kitchen.

She came back and admitted there’d been a mix-up — someone else had ordered the same dish with all those components removed, and I got theirs by mistake. She apologized and said a new one would come out quickly — “no more than 10 minutes.” I was concerned because my friend had already started eating.

But by the time my replacement arrived, my friend had finished his meal (which was also overcooked and dry, despite being ordered medium rare). My second dish was only marginally better — still dry, still missing the flavor and presentation from my first visit. It was inconsistent and disappointing.

When I told Sabrina how unhappy I was — that this was supposed to be a birthday dinner — she said the only thing they could do was replace the dish, and that was all she was “authorized” to do. Only after I expressed that I’d likely be writing a review did she reveal she was actually one of the managers. That alone was frustrating — if you’re in a position to make things right, why lead with excuses?

To make matters worse, she came back over and began defending the situation and overexplaining while I was trying to eat my now-cooling meal. I actually had to stop her mid-sentence and say, “Can I finish my food?” The entire exchange was so uncomfortable that I eventually asked for a takeout container just to get out of there.

She later sent another manager over — though I had to ask who she was — and without much explanation, she began writing something at the table. It turned out to be a $25 voucher. Our bill was nearly $100. That offer, after a ruined birthday and a mishandled evening, felt dismissive.

Having spent over 25 years as an Art Director for a Foodservice & Hospitality magazine, I’m well aware of how strong service and leadership can transform even a kitchen mistake into a positive, memorable experience. This was the opposite. The way this was handled — from the incorrect food, to the lack of communication, to the defensiveness — was unacceptable.

The restaurant wasn’t busy. This wasn’t about a simple kitchen error. It was about how poorly the staff responded when things went wrong. I left feeling embarrassed, let down, and sad that a birthday I had looked forward to ended like this.

I didn’t leave a tip, and I won’t...

Rarely do we complain about food at restaurants expecting any compensation or discounts. Our reasons are we worked in many different restaurant jobs in our past and stuff happens, human beings are not perfect so we usually let most things slide. Tonight we couldn't for a few reasons. #1 we voiced our complaint and our waitress's response was to conduct herself as if we had never brought up a very cleary rotten chicken wing. She returned to our table with our bill put it down and said nothing about our complaint about the rotten wing. #2 - the excuses waitresses had many, lots of wings back there was one comment, so volume on discount wing night means we take our chances? Another was we can't discount already discounted items. That really reinforced that "1/2 price wing night" is a risky business. #3 - we requested a manager We, the already uncomfortable "complainers" were having to BEG. 2 lame excuses from waitress now we have to ask for a manager. It wasn't offered to us, as I said, just the bill given no mention of sorry about that wing, if you wish to speak to a manager....Yada. Nobody there wants to take responsibility that they served us a rotten wing and our dinner has been negatively affected but also we could get sick. Manager came and apologized. But the possible compensation is a negotiating act. Uncomfortable for the customer. First the manager offers more wings,or dessert. We had eaten our wings but we were fine to be done eating. The putting the bill down with no acknowledgement of the issue was not making us want to stay for more food. So we asked for 1 beer off the bill, no we can't do that. Couldn't take 1 order of wings off, either. couldn't do anything, lots of excuses regarding computers. Pfffttttt. Give me a break. When items go on wrong bills they figure it out. More like we WON'T take things off your bill. We reluctantly accepted a $10 gift certificate for our 'next' visit. This situation has to have happened before. There should be a consistent way servers and managers deal with kitchen errors, not making customers grovel to get...

Very disappointed. My family went out this evening for what was to be a wonderful family dinner. I am visiting from Calgary after a year and a half, my father and step mother and I were excited for a nice meal out (we normally do not go out, nor are we in anyway picky) my father and step mother ordered a steak dinner with potatoes etc and everything was cold and the mushrooms where uncooked. We notified the waitress who gladly took the meals after waiting another ten minutes while I was letting my meal get cold waiting for there's a new and wonderful looking meal appeared for both of them. But again it was cold.. My father couldn't even eat the potato. My step mother couldn't finish her veggies.

The manager did come out and try to make this better for us by removing the price of these steak dinners from the bill.. Which is wonderful and they did reconcile the issue properly. But it was sad having one night to go out with my father after not seeing him for a year and a half and he just wanted to take me out for a wonderful dinner.

I was disappointed that this was not enjoyable for the whole family

**update when we received the bill only one of the two dinners was removed... We paid and left. Gave up on saying...