The King Eddy — Restaurant in Ottawa

WARNING! ESTABLISHMENT VIOLATING Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act! I was at the restaurant today for brunch. The owner of the restaurant had his two dogs there. They were not service dogs and they were sitting on top of chairs and tables that are meant for customers. Multiple servers and at least one cook were observed occasionally touching the dogs and even touching the dog’s mouth and then going back to the kitchen and presumably handling food! This violates city and provincial codes. One server was even taking a break with the dogs and sitting right next to it. This was brought up to our server and she said “Yea, it’s the owners dogs. They just hang out.”. Now concerning the food, I ordered a 2 egg breakfast with a pancake. I asked if the server could please make sure the over hard egg was very well done. She said “sure, I’ll make sure they break the yolk for you.”. The food came out and I was given French toast instead of the pancake. When I mentioned it, she said it would take 15 minutes to make a pancake because “that’s how long it takes to cook a pancake.” which made no sense so I told her it was ok and that I would just eat the 2 egg breakfast. I cut into the egg and it was runny. I mentioned it to the server and she said she’d ask them to make the eggs again but I said that it was ok because the rest of my food would get cold and the toast would become hard. In the end, I had half of a slice of toast, a few home fries and a coffee. She gave me $5 off when the only items I was able to eat were some home fries and toast. In the end, my bill came out to $19. The server was pleasant but she messed up my order pretty bad and she didn’t compensate me in a reasonable way or seem to care much that I essentially left the place without having breakfast. It could be because the manager didn’t approve of a further discount but I’m not sure that she even mentioned what happened to him at all. Also, her telling me it would take 15 minutes to “cook the pancake” was simply not true. I worked as a server in 3 restaurants over the course of 8 years and it doesn’t take that long to cook a pancake when you already have the grill on for breakfast service. It just seemed like she didn’t care. Very bad experience overall and I still tipped her as I always do regardless of my experience at a restaurant. I have my food handlers certificate and dogs should not be in restaurants unless they’re a service dog. Having dogs in a restaurant poses various health risks, including the potential transmission of diseases such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli, and parasites like Giardia. These pathogens can be present in the dog's fur, saliva, or feces, and can contaminate food or surfaces in the kitchen, leading to foodborne illnesses in humans.

If the owners dogs are there during the day in the dining room, while people are eating, one can only imagine what the dogs are doing when there are no customers there. It’s safe to assume that the dogs would likely be given free range to enter the kitchen which is unsafe, unethical, harmful, extremely unsanitary, and a major violation of the public’s trust.

Go to a place that respects their customers and values the health...

Following a prompt recommendation by my son, my party and I decided to dine at King Eddy in the bustling ByWard Market. Our initial impression was favorable as we were promptly seated upon arrival. However, our experience took a discouraging turn from thereon.

An appreciable 15 minutes elapsed before our waiter took our orders(mind you we where sitting at the bar), initiating an extended period of waiting. Regrettably, our wait extended to a substantial 37 minutes, during which we neither received any check-ins nor had our beverages been replenished. At this juncture, I took the initiative to inquire about the status of our meal, to which the waiter responded with a vague assurance that our food would be ready in approximately 5 minutes.

Expressing our time constraints, I informed him that we had another commitment to attend and requested that we settle our bill for the drinks and depart. Curiously, the waiter then altered his narrative, asserting that our meal was currently being plated and would be served momentarily. Despite our reservations about the delay, we acquiesced to this arrangement.

Subsequently, the waiter excused himself to investigate further, prompting me to seek out a manager. After a brief interlude, I had the opportunity to converse with the manager, during which I conveyed our protracted wait. To my surprise, she displayed a lack of concern and simply stated, "We are quite busy," before pledging to check on our order.

Upon her return, our waiter conveyed that our meal was being prepared for takeaway and would be ready within three minutes. However, even this modest promise was not upheld, leaving us with prolonged anticipation. The manager returned once more, and I reiterated our substantial wait, now exacerbated by the additional delay in boxing our food.

Ultimately, our food was provided for takeout, which further exacerbated our lateness for our subsequent commitment. I underscored to the manager that our grievance was not primarily about the extended preparation time but rather the conspicuous absence of communication regarding the delay, as well as the unsatisfactory aftermath of the ordeal.

Regrettably, our disheartening experience did not conclude on a positive note, as we discovered that not all components of our order had been included. In light of the exasperating wait and the less-than-satisfactory service, I find it difficult to justify the $68 expenditure for a meal comprising two pancakes, a grilled cheese sandwich, eggs, and chicken strips with fries. Adding to our dismay, two other couples, who arrived subsequent to our party, received their meals with remarkable expediency, with one couple completing their entire dining experience before...

So where should I start... I don't usually like to write negative feedback to restaurants but when I do it is because they are really bad. We looked up the restaurant online and saw good comments so we decided to go for breakfast there. We arrived at 11:03 am, sitting within 10 minutes on the patio with heaters (which my husband liked very much). We ordered food and received our drinks (coffee and tea). Here is where everything started to go to shit.. our server brought me the wrong tea bag, and I asked her for the correct one, however, she forgot after 10 min., and I had to remind her again! At this time my "hot" water was more like lukewarm. Finally she brought me the right tea bag and I was ok I would let it slide it looks busy. While drinking my almost cold tea, I tasted very odd my tea. The taste was very odd/strange and it made it hard to keep drinking my tea. I switched to water and it had the same taste as my tea. I asked my husband to try it so it wasn't only me and he told me that his coffee also had a weird taste too! Thinking and trying to drink out drinks I think I pinned what was the taste, or their dishwasher is broken because it tasted like soap/chlorine/bleach and it was transfering into the dishes and made it awful and upset on our stomachs. On top of this after 45 minutes waiting for food, our server said just a few more minutes. After 30 more minutes of waiting she comes back with "real soon guys". That's when we decided to leave and just paid for the awful tea and coffee.. she tried to stop us by saying: " I can box them for you to take" .. so I questioned, how are you going to box them if the food is not even ready?! We just wanted to go and leave as it was THE WORST EXPERIENCE WE EVER HAD. Finally we just left and the drinks we didn't pay. And I know it was just their establishment because the day before for dinner we went to a bar and the water didn't taste odd!

If you want to wait for more than an hour for food I guess this is your place to be. But as far as I know the standard is within 15 to 20 minutes you should already...