Kenzington Burger Bar — Restaurant in Ontario

I helped plan a bachelorette party for my soon to be sister in law. A few months prior, I called to make a reservation at Kensingtons for roughly 18 people. A month after making this reservation, I called back to confirm and was told this reservation had never been made. Thankfully there was still two months until the bachelorette party and Kensingtons was still able to accommodate our party. To clarify, this was the second reservation I made there. Fast forward to the night of the bachelorette party and I received a text at 810pm to confirm my 10pm reservation. When we arrived at the restaurant we were turned away by a security guard they had working at the door, checking everyone’s IDs as we had one 18 year old with us. I have lived in Orillia for several years and have been to this establishment numerous times and have never seen a security guard. When I asked if this was a new policy, he could not provide me with a direct answer. I went and spoke with the bartender and asked him and he responded with “it depends who is working”. Unfortunately, I was never informed that you had to be 19 or older to get into their restaurant after 10pm during the two phone calls I had to book this reservation. To note, when we arrived there were no tables available therefore, it was evident that they did not set aside a table for 18 people. I understand their policy, what I don’t understand is their lack of accountability when I spoke with the bartender and the utter disregard for the effort that went into planning this night. I provided them feedback and asked that they inform people about their rule in the future. It is confusing as the website notes that this restaurant is friendly for all ages, but evidently this is not true. Although I would not bring a toddler here after 10pm it is not unusual to have teenagers, especially those almost of age, who want to go have a burger at this time. Overall, terrible experience. Do not recommend and will never be returning due to the disrespect that we experienced. Thankfully we were able to pull something else together for the end of our night but this was something the bride had been really excited for and the restaurant was not friendly. I do want to add the security guard was friendly and clearly felt terrible but he was doing his job. The bartender on the other hand was rude and not taking accountability for the restaurants mistake and made our 18 year old feel horrible and...

I was very excited to try the poutine, and it ended in disappointment.

We ordered a pound of wings with a glass of beer, and a large poutine.

The fries would have been amazing on their own, if they weren't saturated in salt.

The gravy was also extremely salty. Inedible.

I was disappointed because I went out of my way to visit this establishment for lunch because I heard they had the best poutine around... Unfortunately the salt ruined it for me.

Was it an off-day for the kitchen perhaps?

The honey garlic sauce for the wings was very vinegary and not sweet at all... so weird. Was vinegar mistaken for honey? Maybe the chef called in sick that day... I don't know.

The bartender was nice, however, she was distracted. I can't complain about the service because there's only one bartender/server that was serving the entire establishment at lunch time, so kudos to her.

We walked in at 11: 30 AM, and by 11:50 we finally had our drinks. We were the first table to sit down for lunch. We promptly ordered because we had already reviewed the menu online.

Two other tables walked in after us and got their food before we did, even though we ordered before them... There were only two of us at our table; we were not a large party.

We were never asked how the food was, we were never asked if we needed more drinks or refills... iur overworked server brought our bill 15 minutes after we had finished eating.

We probably won't return.

I don't think I would return mainly because of the food, not because of the service. The service was not good, but there was only one person running the entire establishment, customer facing.

We were the only table there at the beginning of the lunch hour (table of two) for 20 minutes- from 11:30 through 11:50,... maybe if they had more staff, the only person working wouldn't be stuck rolling cutlery instead of serving us.

Food...

Had dinner at Kenzington Burger Bar with a group of 6 before an event at Casino Rama. Overall the experience was positive and I left knowing I would return for the food again.

The menu was straight forward. There was a small selection of appetizers, entrees that weren't burgers and then, of course, burgers.

The multitude of options made ordering fun. There are an incredible amount of ways to customize your dinner.

I settled on the PB & J with chicken as the protein, a potato roll bun and onion rings.

When the food arrived I was pleased to see the onion rings weren't the same frozen then fried onion rings I encountered at 90% of other restaurants. They were great.

Next was my PB & J chicken burger. I am an adventurous eater and getting peanut butter & jelly on the burger was a first for me.

I was quite impressed with how well the flavours worked together! The chicken was cooked in a way that I like and the sweet peanut butter and jelly flavours complimented the other ingredients on the burger. I think I would order this again!

For dessert they had a deep fried cheesecake on the menu. I just had to indulge. What I got were two Twinkie sized treats covered in powdered sugar and served with jelly on the side. It's dessert so of course it was super delicious!

The restaurant itself is your typical sports pub and this isn't necessarily a good thing. There were numerous television sets every angle you look at and, of course, the music was blasting.

It just subtracted from the experience with is ultimately why I am only giving this place a four star review.

Overall, and as I said earlier, I would return. The meal was very enjoyable and I'm curious about some other menu items. Perhaps I'll get a chance in the future to...