The Bruce Kincardine — Restaurant in Kincardine

If I could give a negative review, I would.

The first time my wife and went to “the Bruce” was during the Stanley cup playoffs; Leafs - Florida and it was on the weekend. The place was packed and we didn’t have a reservation. But the hostess was able to get us a booth fairly quickly. Food was pretty good honestly. Our server was great. So, a month or so later, we wanted to treat a couple friends of ours to dinner. They had never been and we were there just the one time. We remembered to make reservation; Wednesday, 6:15 p.m. The four of us were on time for our reservation but we still had to wait about 5 minutes to be seated inside, not on the patio. Once seated, it was about 15 minutes before server even asked if we were ready to order drinks. We were and we did. 20 minutes later the drinks arrived. We were ready to order our food by then, so we did. There were two other large groups next to us (10-12 people) and our server had one of those tables. She seemed more interested in looking after the large table more than anything. And the restaurant was incredibly loud, like so noisy. And for a Wednesday too. It was challenging carrying on a conversation with our couple friends without shouting. It took 80 minutes for our food to arrive from the time we were seated. It felt like an eternity. My friend ordered the “Big John” brisket burger and fries, and so did I. It is supposedly a specialty at this establishment and quite a popular item. The brisket was incredibly dry and crunchy. Brisket should not be dry, or crunchy. It was likely sitting under the heat lamp in the kitchen for 20 minutes or more. My fries looked like they were scraped from the bottom of the fryer, lots of small crunchy slivers of potato, over-cooked. And they were barely warm. I didn’t finish them regardless. And my friend didn’t finish his brisket burger either. My friend’s wife ordered the chicken tacos. Her dish was pretty good actually, at least from what I could see. One out of four dishes were okay. My wife ordered the Chicken Brie sandwich with fries. She didn’t finish her meal either. Our server finally came around after the large group she was serving finally left, but only after we had finished our meal. To her credit, she did come around twice before our food arrived, to apologize for the delay in processing our order. But, she did NOT come around a few minutes after we finally got our food order to see if everything was okay. If she had, we would have said something at that time about the issue with our food. Since she didn’t do that, we tried to get through our meal. When she DID finally come around , we were pretty much done with our meal. It was only at that time that she asked us how was everything. I was thoroughly disappointed in our visit this time and it will be a long time before we ever return, if at all. I paid for our meal and even tipped the server (it was not the server’s fault the food was so poorly prepared!), but my wife and will not likely be back anytime soon. It too bad, too, because our first visit as tourists, and new to the area, was a pretty good one. Let’s hope you can do better...

I did hear from other patrons that the food was good but we did not get to try the food when we attempted to go - the staff the day we went did not make us feel very welcome. Actually the process to try to reserve didn't work for us at all, it just was really difficult. We had 7 people and because of that I couldn't reserve online (system limitation) the night before as it noted that parties of 6 had to call. So I did when it opened the next day to try to reserve for dinner but after telling them I had 7 people they told me I had to reserve online (so not sure if they knew their own process). After I advised I had tried to but their system wouldn't allow it, they then said basically they couldn't reserve for me but that they keep some tables for walk-ins. I did ask if I came early (like at 4 pm) if there should be seating - the answer was yes. So I did. But when I got there, they basically said well for your group of 7 - could we sit in a table for 6? Um okay sure - so not sure why I couldn't reserve earlier then. The table we were directed to was directly in the sun - with two seniors this was not ideal. Apparently there was no other table available, that the other tables were reserved, but only about 30% of the patio tables were full. To be honest, I'm not sure why we couldn't be seated in any other location on the patio but they were adamant about that. By then I was simply frustrated and ultimately super disappointed in the attitude and the feeling that we weren't welcome.

I typically hardly ever leave bad reviews but this was really terrible customer service - it was downright rude. Honestly if they had just said words like "sorry" or "unfortunately" it might have played out differently - but when I said "it's too sunny for my elderly parents" the comment from our server "well, it's summer, it's sunny" wasn't appreciated at all. So while they have every right to say whatever they want, we had every right to get up and leave. I am glad at the end of the day - we had an excellent meal elsewhere down the street...

I have been a cook for 40 plus years and my wife and I went to The Bruce on our way home, I had never eaten there before . We both were hungry as we hadn’t eaten since 1030am. When we arrived it was 7 pm ,I am a very observant person,coming into the restaurant the hostess and waitress seated us promptly, there was 3 people sitting at the bar . Outside was about 1/2 full . We sat inside as it was getting cooler outside. We sat for a good 15 minutes before a waitress (Lesley) ( she was not dressed in style of that of her other co-workers ,she never introduced herself to use ,asked what we would like to drink and if we were ready to order.My wife asked for water and the Rainbow humus platter with vegetables. I asked for lemon water and the Big Johns Brisket with Mac a Cheese for a side . We both were given lemon water ,we then waited over close to 50 minutes with out food,meanwhile other people came in(approximately 20 people ) that came in after us at 7 pm and had their food well before us . I actually had to call the restaurant from my seat to get the manager on duty (Im assuming it was the head waitress) she came over to our table ,I explained the situation and it was then that action took place ,5 minutes later we had our food. My wife looked at her order and asked the waitress (Lesley ) where was the vegetables,Lesley replied oh did you want the vegetables??? My wife felt surprised because I was sure when I looked at the menu that they were included. After she left I looked at the online menu and they were not included. When we left we looked at the menu again(the hard copy) and sure enough they were included The menu says for my order (BRISKET ) not shredded beef ends and the Mac and cheese was on the dry side no sauciness at all . The restaurant when we came in at 7pm was just under half full . We were not compensated with anything for the long wait or poor meal ,I’m at a loss of words as to how my experience was at The Bruce...