Powerhouse Brewing Company — Restaurant in Ontario

I had to take 4 days to rethink this terrible experience before writing this review but what a terrible experience it was!!! Reservations this past Saturday for 6pm for 18 people for a 50th birthday. 6:18 the waiter comes over (this wasn’t the first time, as my friend that originally planned the party was already confronted and had anxiety from her confrontation), he informs us our entire group needed to be there by 6:15pm to not lose our reservation, at this point we had 14 and we’re waiting on 4 more, stuck in traffic, construction, life…they are on their way and I can’t believe you are saying this again within a 5 minute span of just confronting my friend with this and I am thoroughly annoyed and you are ruining my 5 minutes of experience of walking into this establishment and I asked him to please leave us alone I haven’t even been offered a drink menu as of yet. He continues that we will lose our third table if they don’t arrive by 630pm and the two that are sitting at the third table will be removed from it. We clearly have a huge party for our reservation of 18, a cake, a night booked VR room at Kelloggs and more after dinner, and he says oh well we have people waiting for tables. There was so many empty tables i couldn’t even count in our area and the area to the left of us through the door, that’s how many empty tables there were. He then has the audacity to say…also everyone is only drinking the water. I’m sorry isn’t that what you put the jugs on the table for. Also, I see a few with drinks. Possibly they are waiting to order for us all to get there, possibly they have just walked in and we are just catching up with our friends for a minute. I just can’t believe the rudeness of this waiter trying to push 14 of us out and being insulting as 4 of our reservation friends are running late and telling me only “we’ll all everyone wants to drink is the water. Like we are wasting their time…meanwhile 18 dishes and more than that in drinks later I wanted to have everyone walk out on them for the distaste of the atmosphere the workers caused. Not to mention your food menu pricing doesn’t at all match the prices on your website and not buy a dollar or two but some dishes $7 difference of what the website informs the meal dishes are. Literally 5 minutes later when the remainder of Our party showed up we all clapped And said omg can we stopped being harassed now. Never again, how embarrassing and disrespectful. Definitely when the group is out in the summer riding around on their motorcycles not ever a place we will be stopping in for a cold one or food again and will never recommend after the way we were treated and he knew it because I was so upset by this confrontation they had to have another waiter serve us the remainder of our dinner. Also, you couldn’t even handle as reservation of the 18 we had…you had to serve dinner to 3 tables of 6 people individually. The 2nd table didn’t get their food until the first table was completely finished their meal and the 3rd table didn’t get their food until the 2nd table was completely finished theirs and we all ordered together. Customer service has definitely not been part of the training package in this establishment and so I will continue to push my distaste and not recommend so much so that it will be a “please don’t attend this place”, before recommending other establishments. Drinks are pre mixed I couldn’t get the drink I wanted as it had cinnamon in it and I am allergic to cinnamon and they couldn’t make a sangria only serve the winter sangria they had premixed. The cob salad was good that’s all I have positive…once again couldn’t have the option to not have black beans in it. It came in a round card board box maybe from a local grocery store? At least it was decent though. Thoroughly disappointed in the treatment and service. No, disappointment is too gentle of a word. Disgusted!...

Tonight was our fourth and final visit to Powerhouse. First time 2 yrs ago was excellent- bbq platter and cobb salad exceeded our expectations. Our second visit was mediocre- BBQ platter was cold and the portions seemed smaller but that could have been a misperception on our part. 3rd visit...same...and we were sure we would not be back BUT we hoped the new menu would reward us with renewed faith on our fourth visit.. here is how our experience went: we were seated and soon after ordered our drinks. I always get the 9-5 , and it doesn't disappoint..  at 8 dollars a glass i should have got the 22 dollar pitcher but I digress.. after about 10 mins we noticed those around us were getting complimentary popcorn.. nice touch but our waitress didn't offer us any. I asked our waitress where we could get some and she then offered to bring it... another server brought some about 20 mins later... Ok so the burger is $15 and does NOT come with fries, they are an extra $7. but our server assured us the burgers are huge -you won't need fries. so that justified the inflated cost...OK when our food arrived - (I had the BBQ taco salad) and my fiance had the burger WITH fries...we were still without utensils and napkins... we didn't feel left out though, because the table beside us had ordered poutine but had to wait about 20 mins for their utensils as well. flagged down another server who brought us utensils- but missed the mark as she brought us ONE spoon and ONE knife. I have to chuckle here because thats what the table beside us also got lol. got our forks and were finally able to eat. My salad was quite good though small and I don't feel it was worth $22. oh well I suppose that's how things are now- portions decrease and cost increases right? Burger was burnt and if you were a teen in the 80s you'll remember the Wendy's commercial- "where's the beef?!"  Definitely not worth $15. as you'll see in the photos

ok to give Powerhouse good props, our server took the cost of the burger off our bill after we gave our feedback- so thanks for that.

still, I just can't understand why an establishment that totes itself as a London attraction would not try harder to convey the message "hey, I know you have a choice, so thanks so much for choosing powerhouse- we appreciate you!"... Definitely not the feeling we got the last 3 visits... and sorry, Powerhouse, but we won't be back...

Experience I went with a bunch of friends to celebrate another task done for an upcoming wedding. When we arrived we were seated quickly and the atmosphere was very cool as it's the old Kellogg building.

Food The time of waiting to order and get drinks took about 10 minutes per task. Food came quickly though. When the food came my friend pointed out that he did NOT order fries with his sandwich because it's an additional charge if you want a side. The person who delivered the food did not fix the issue and said "it's not the end of the world" I get it's not the end of the world but if we didn't order a menu item it should be resolved. Hence the fries were still added to his bill.

The bill (gratuity fee) Fast forward of waiting 25 minutes for the bill and ask two different greeters to find our server so that we can pay our bill. my friend group of 7 were charged a 20% gratuity fee. I understand why gratuity fees are put in place for Large groups but at least make it aware. They have a 20% gratuity fee for 5 or more ppl. A lot of restaurants typically do if it's 6 or more and 18% gratuity. It would have been nice to know about the gratuity fee. They also don't show you the receipt when getting ready to pay so you don't know if you're paying yours or your friends bill or if it was even rung up properly.

My order I ordered the warm pretzel which was yummy and the brisket sandwich. The brisket tasted like tim Horton rubbery style steak.

Drinks Overall not happy with drinks either as 7 ppl were given 1 pitcher of water. 1 pitcher does not work in that amount of ppl. It would also take 10minutes for the server to get the pitcher refilled only for half of us to have more water while we would have to ask for the pitcher to be refilled again so that the other half of us could refill our cup with water also. So basically I waited 20 minutes for water.

Overall My one friend likes this place because of the building and beer but this visit was very poor. It's small mistakes that can be easily fixed but they have to actively make changes in order for that to happen. I'm not the only person who has left a review about waiting, drinks, and gratuity fee so therefore it wasn't a bad fluke but a general issue that powerhouse has. I hope others have a better visit than my friend group and I did as the Kellogg building is a cool...