Kelseys Original Roadhouse — Restaurant in Ontario

Unfortunately sad. Apart from the outdated and dark decor, the service at this restaurant is far from great.

We were here for lunch a few months back and were sat at a booth to the right when you walk in. We sat for about 4-5 minutes before the waitress greeted us (albeit it was fairly busy, not all tables full, but looked like they could have used more staff (should not be my fault however)) , but anyways, after we were finally greeted we ordered waters, and I ordered a beer and also at the time ordered a four-cheese spinach dip to get it on order while we were looking at the menu. Figured it was for the best since it took so long just too see the waitress.

Finally got my beer and waters a few minutes later and that is when we ordered food. She took our menus and left. We sat and chatted and watched people leaving and I figured it was a good thing as it would free up some of the waitress' time for us to get our food quicker than the service was. We received our spinach dip and ate it.. and drank the beer/water, and finished the dip, then finished the beer/water and in the time frame noticed 2 tables come in and sit down after us, order food and get their food and pay and leave before we had even gotten anything.

We asked one of the girls (maybe the hostess) if she could grab the waitress, but that never happened. She never cam back to the table or anything to see how we were doing. We never got the chance to talk to find out what was going on. Like by this time I'm talking we were waiting at least 1 hour (no word of lie)! We also saw at one time a table of 4 come in and sit down for at least 10 minutes without being greeted by the waitress and they left.

Now know that I'm not one to make a scene, so to start asking for the manager seemed a little much, when really all I wanted was to see the waitress. She eventually came by the table about 5 minutes after the table of 4 left, and asked us how our meal was.. I was like are you kidding me? We haven't received it!! She apologized and said she would get on it ASAP.. we told her not to bother and would take the bill for the beer and dip and leave. She spoke with a manager and they took care of the bill and provided us with 7 $10 "coupons" for another visit (only good for this Kelsey's in Kingston).

We returned here to use the "coupons" that were collecting dust this past weekend, and ironically sat in the same booth. We ordered beer and water and dip again and received all 3. We then ordered our food and waited about 20-25 minutes for it and to our surprise it came out! But something was missing.. the fries from the order. The girl who brought it out says "Sorry we are making a new batch and it will be out in a few minutes" I was already getting ticked because how can you not have fries when it took them 20-25 minutes to make a caesar wrap? How can the manager/expediter let that die in the window and still deliver it to the table without fries? We did eventually get the fries after 8 minutes of the wrap getting colder on the table.

After all this fiasco was done, we got the bill ($55) and gave her the 7 coupons and said that we would use these to pay the bill and she can use the rest for the tip (same as you would if you had a gift card), then we were told it wouldn't cover beer on the bill so we still had to pay the beer, and they wont use partial coupons so the can only take $40 off (using 4 coupons) and the balance I would have to pay. I was already annoyed with that.. then she comes back with a new bill and gives us 2 of the coupons back and says you still have $20?! It doesn't take a mathematician to realize 40+20 equals 60.. so where did the 7th coupon go?

So all-in-all we had a terrible experience the first time.. they tried to make it better and then blew their second shot. We threw the other 2 coupons in the trash.. I wouldn't even give these to anyone unless I wanted to ruin their day by sending them to this restaurant.

Very very sad as I loved Kelsey's and now it is becoming a dying brand.. and the worst part is that this location is just...

On Saturday August 11, 2018 my wife and I, accompanied by our Son, Daughter in Law and 3-year-old granddaughter, went to your restaurant at the RioCan Center at 360 Gardiners Rd. Kingston, Ontario at around 5pm. (there were only 8 or 9 vehicles in the parking lot). We were greeted by a blond girl at the hostess desk, perhaps greeted is not accurate; we were asked how many in the party (with a very cool welcome) which gave us the distinct impression that we were an annoyance to her, interrupting whatever she was doing on the computer. We asked we could get a booth for the 5 of us at which point she turned and disappeared without a word. We stood there a little baffled until she returned a few minutes later and brought us to a table for 8. Again, we asked, would it be possible to get a booth? Her curt reply, “There are no booths available”. There were very few people in the Restaurant and it seemed a bit odd that no booths were available. We reluctantly took our seats at this table and were told a waitress would be over. Again, we waited until the waitress arrived and ordered a fruit drink for our granddaughter and water for the rest of us while we looked at the menu. After a few more minutes, we asked the blond female hostess if she could bring us a crayon so our Granddaughter could color on the coloring sheet in front of her. No crayons she said, I’ll see if I can find something". She came back with a couple of markers and that was fine. We then asked if we could please get a booster seat and again we got the distinct impression that we were being a royal pain in the butt. We were provided with the booster chair that was disgustingly filthy. My wife used the only napkin on the table with water out of a drinking glass to scrub some of the filth off of this booster chair. I looked at the table which was also not very clean, one set of silverware for 5 people and decided that enough was enough. I walked over to the blond hostess (wish we had gotten her name) and told her I wanted to pay for the Fruit Juice and leave. She asked me if anything was wrong and I told her we were not at all happy with the less than clean table and filthy booster chair. She acted as if she could care less and went with out any response to get the waitress. The waitress told us the bill was $2.20 and asked my wife if she wanted the change from the $3.00 she gave her for the juice and we were all floored by the request – we just left. A couple of things I would like to make perfectly clear. First, we do not want an apology from a manager; the manager was not the one that provided the disgustingly unpleasant and unprofessional reception we received at your Kingston, Ontario restaurant. Nor was the manager the one that asked if she could keep the change from the $3 we paid for a $2.20 child’s drink after receiving deplorable service. Secondly, we do not want a gift certificate or anything else to compensate us for our troubles. We have absolutely no intension of ever setting foot into a Kelsey’s restaurant ever again. Extremely...

The short and sweet of it was that my wife and I both ordered the 8oz steak, both cooked medium, same side of steamed broccoli 🥦 It wasn't fast, it wasn't slow, but the young waiter just dropped it and vanished. Upon inspection my steak was obviously smaller, small enough to question the 8oz claim, my wife's was much larger, probably 8oz. Then the broccoli, mine was approximately half of what she got, not a big deal breaker for me. First bites were where all went bad, my steak was cooked very well done, tough and dry, my wife's was almost blue it was so under cooked. And after trying to get some wait staff attention we decided to just swap hers for mine because I can eat rare meat and she doest mind more well done and we were now behind schedule. We ate, we finished and the whither showed up wondering how it was tasting and offered us another drink 🤦 We explained the problems and asked for the bill, he was so inexperienced he didn't know what to say, mumbled something about telling the kitchen staff and he was sorry. There is a Montana's next door to try but it's owner is the same corporation. We will be going all the way down town to Lone Star when in Kingston when we want a good steak. These big corporate owned restaurants are getting like the Hamburg chains, managed by kids with little to no experience and everything tastes the same from one to the other, and often...