Bloomfield Public House — Restaurant in Ontario

Wildly overpriced for the quality of preparation and presentation you get. Also very pushy to order more food than you actually need.

We (a party of 6) opted to dine “family style” as recommended by the waitstaff. We ordered the oysters, the veal for 2, the tagliatelle, the olives, the burrata, the octopus, the char, and at the waitstaff’s firm recommendation the broccoli. We also ordered a bottle of wine. We were recommended to order 6 appetizers and 6 mains, but the 6(5 menu items) mains and 3 appetizers were a bit more than enough for us. They also pushed the more expensive items on food and wine lists exclusively, even with us already ordering some of the higher ticket items.

The taste and presentation of the food would have been excellent if the price was 1/2 of what it was. At ~$50-60/person I would have left the restaurant raving about the quality and praising the chef and staff up and down the block.

However, at $100+/person after tax/tip, there was a lot left to be desired.

The good: The olives were excellent, as was the char, oysters, and the tagliatelle. These were in the first half of what we were served and set our expectations high for what was to come, though at ~$40 a dish we should have expected a lot.

The meh: The broccoli was served as a complete head with a spoon and knife to handle it. The cooking and seasoning was quite good, but it was a bit of a pain to handle. As well, the way a lot of the starches and vegetables were served made it kind of hard to eat “family style” - too many large chunks of things.

The bad: The veal was wasted by the preparation. The restaurant quartered the calf, breaded it, and deep fried it, then dumped it on a platter with a handful of beans and halved potatoes. It was served with a knife and spoon, which given all of the bones involved made it difficult to portion out and serve.

As well, it was somewhat dry and a little overdone.

The coffee tasted like it had been burnt in a drip maker for an hour, which is impressive given that it cost $5/cup and was made in an espresso machine.

The desserts were all overly sweet and lacked contrast. The only dessert that is listed on the paper menu (the mousse) is sweet chocolate pudding texture (think jello), with melted marshmallows, and sweet peanut butter chunks. It was overwhelming in its flavour and would have done well to have one of those elements be salted or otherwise balance out the flavour.

All of this said, this would have been a 5-star review if the following was different: 1: It wasn’t so expensive OR it was better prepared. 2: The portions were better thought out for family style OR the waitstaff were not pushing family style 3: The waitstaff worked better with you to pick an interesting variety of dishes (apparently they wanted to highlight local produce, but constantly doused it in sauce and cheese), rather than pushing the highest...

I'm sure the food is great, but unfortunately I'll never know thanks to the unwelcoming, rude owner/manager Laura Borutski. I've actually never written a review like this, but that's because I've never been treated in such a manner, by a restaurant owner or any other business owner for that matter. I reached out trying to book for a group of 14. I was told they don't host groups of this size, but I really wanted to dine here with my family, and decided we'd be okay if we were split up...I was able to book online reservations for two groups of 6 and a table of 2, and she immediately TEXTED me to call her, and followed up with an email requesting I call her, and letting me know "she already told me she doesn't accept groups of this size"...I did call her right away, with the intention of explaining we were okay being separated, but she instantly had her back up, was rude and dismissive, and her bad attitude was quite frankly just really shocking and disappointing...she sounds bitter about the two bachelorette parties that have been in over the last couple of weekends and "took over her restaurant". I guess she thought we would do the same...How dare we book 3 of her 10 tables! If the reservations are available online, why am I not allowed to book them? Who's to say we're not 3 separate groups? Once I asked that, she asked what we were celebrating, but it was a little too far gone at that point to try to work something out...I don't want to support a business who treats their paying customers this way, so I said I was no longer interested to which she replied sarcastically, "Grrrrrreat, THANK you SO much Tara" and hung up the phone...how unprofessional!?!? Yuck. I'm not difficult by any means, in fact I'm very easy going and non-confrontational, but I've never had an encounter like this, ever. I'm in the area often, with groups small and large, but I won't be supporting this restaurant unfortunately. Restaurants are supposed to be warm & welcoming, and bring people together over great food...there are sooo many other great spots in the county that do this wonderfully, so I'll be going there instead. Really...

My partner and I come to PEC almost annually and love trying out all the different restaurants. On a recent trip, our dinner here was a highlight. The menu changes frequently based on what is in season and focuses on fresh, local ingredients. They have a nice selections of wines (of course!), cocktails, beers and non-alcoholic options.

For the food menu, it is written on big blackboards inside. It's mostly small plates for sharing plus a few more substantial options. Everything we had was outstanding. Burrata with artichokes (comes w/toasted bread) - rich, creamy, delicious Steak frites - nice cut of hanger streak done medium rare, fries tasted like they were fried in duck fat mmm Farfalle with rapini, staciatella, white anchovies, basil, walnuts (still dreaming of this pasta, it was SO GOOD)

The dining area inside is cozy and inviting. We opted for the patio since we were with our dog. They were very kind to our pup, offering a water dish etc. Service was knowledgable and kind. So many PEC restaurants seem to hire very young high school/university students as servers who (bless them) sometimes are a bit lacking in hospitality experience, so it is nice to actually be served by someone who can provide recommendations and make you feel taken care of. We had a wonderful, unhurried dinner in a casual environment but with excellent...