The Church Key Bistro-Pub — Restaurant in Ontario

I came here on the 9th of September 2018 we had a reservation for 5 people for lunch time (12h). Now from my experience here, I do not understand how on earth this place could have earned it's high rating. We ended up with food poisoning after paying over 100 dollars to be cramped up and treated horribly. First off, we were seated at a small table even though there were larger ones available and we had made a reservation days in advance. Secondly, this establishment tried far too hard to be high class or fancy. My father and I both ordered the Venison Curry while the remaining three individuals got your first option on the menue, your tacos.

I was not surprised by the small portions at all but at the horrible taste of your dishes. Not a single person at our table liked their dish. The venison in my curry was over cooked and the bamboo or what I assume was supposed to be bamboo in my dish tasted like it had been soaked in horse piss over night and myself owning horses personally I feel like I can say that with a little more validity than the next person. On top of this I had a half of one of the two tacos you served in an order and I had the awful surprise to find that none of the flavours matched but then again how could they when they were the flavours of a partially cooked egg not even fit for consumption, steak, sauerkraut and something else. Looking around the rest of the restaurant not a single person was enjoying their meals the table of about 12 older woman next to us left their plates almost untouched. When we were finished to the best of our ability I asked for a comment card or recomendation card and I was swiftly told they had none by the Bartender who's name I assume is Pedro or something along those lines as the drink board hinted that it was. He then went on to talk to the owner of this place, a middle aged, white woman with blond staight hair, and start looking at us and snickering like immature children. She, the owner, then proceeded to come up and ask my table about what the matter was even though she clearly had no interest what so ever as she quickly continued to talk down to the whole table and say that we were wrong which I find as a person also dealing in customer service to be hilarious because isn't it true that "the customer is always right". Anyways she ended up taking off the cost of one meal which by the way was 26 dollars but that doesn't help with the fact we all ended up with food posioning and kneeling over the toilets later in the day vomiting up the dishes you had the...

The Church Key has always been one of my favourite London restaurants, and until today, I'd have rated it 5 out of 5. But my experience for lunch today was not as enjoyable as it has been before. I should say the food was great, as always, and that's the main thing. All of The Church Key's menu items are delicious and well-prepared, and they offer a good range of vegetarian and gluten free options. Also, the restaurant's physical space and ambience are comfortable and pleasant. I said these positive things first because my problem with The Church Key today was not about any of the above, but about the service. For the first time, I found the staff unwelcoming and unfriendly. The restaurant had a number of empty tables, we were shown to one I wasn't crazy about. I asked for another, one by the window ( always my preference), and of course they accommodated us. But I think they were annoyed by my request, because from that point on the service was inattentive and unfriendly. My companion and I had to wait quite a while for service , even though the place was not at peak busy levels. The server seemed completely uninterested in us as customers. I kept wondering if we'd done anything wrong, as the same server seemed quite attentive to people at other tables nearby. The person I was with and I are always respectful and nice to restaurant staff, and we were today as well. In spite of this, both Church Key staff seemed quite cold and uninterested in attending to us. Long after we'd finished and the dishes had been cleared, I had to wait for the server to ask us if we wanted anything more. Finally I had to get their attention myself, just to ask for the bill. They never asked us if we wanted anything further, dessert or drinks, or coffee, etc. I like to think that for some reason this was just an off-experience for us, perhaps the server was having a bad day or something. But today, because of the noticeably inattentive and unfriendly service, I wouldn't give my lunch experience there more...

15 person Brunch went well. Small restaurant but comfortably fit all of us.

It's worth noting that this place is a paleo eater's dream as they really pile on the bacon!

The chefs change the brunch menu almost weekly and the staff was very friendly.

Endless cups of coffee here are great! They gave me honey as I don't like to use sugar.

Before our mains arrived, there was a surprise in store.

We didn't know, but included with brunch was a bounty of freshly baked warm pasteries. Best of all they catered to the celiacs and provided a salad and little gluten free coconut caramel cakes.

The plethora of pateries were picked clean by our party post haste, you'd think we were a caravan of famished pilgrims if you saw our table when the basket hit the wood - we were like a pack of piranhas pouncing on a plump flank of pork shank dropped in the pool. I barely had time to take a picture.

The scene quickly turned into a black market prison marketplace - people were buying blueberry muffins from each other with packs of cigarettes and trading custard donuts and scones for mackerel cans.

The fluffy dish of butter was put up for auction and purchased by one of the children for a year's allowance.

Then the meals arrived.

I ordered the Sushi salmon Steak as itl looked like the best the low carb option. It was delicious. Great healthy option.

Wife needed gluten free, she's celiac, they were able to modify her Steak & Eggs meal. That was also amazing. Really healthy with veggies and protein.

The only negative thing we had to say about this place was the toast. All the kids didn't eat their toast because it was more like a sweeter cornbread than regular sliced bread.

Some of the kids didn't eat their breakfast because they are used to dipping the eggs in the toast, and when the toast was not like it cascaded into 4 breakfasts going...