The Royal Oak - Barrhaven — Restaurant in Ottawa

I rarely if ever leave reviews. Maybe 1 or 2 ever. And I have noticed in general that restaurants have really struggled to meet service and quality standards since the pandemic, so I am willing to let quite a bit slide. But yesterday’s visit to the Royal Oak on Strandherd was just something else, here is summary.

Was taking my young daughter out for dinner and they had a kids eat free sign for Tuesdays so decided to give them another try despite mediocre food and service in the past at this restaurant….

-waited at front door and nobody came to seat us so we eventually went in and found a table (no big deal!) -table was dirty and clearly not cleaned and when bartender came over we had to ask her to clean it -to be fair to her it seemed like she was the only one working the entire restaurant (5:00 pm on Tuesday so place was not busy but still) -ordered a beer and it came to table warm -asked for some recommendations on food and she recommended a few items, I ordered one of them, buffalo chicken wrap, my 7 yr old daughter ordered fish n chips off the kids menu -buffalo wrap was not very good, did not taste fresh, luke warm at best, dry -my daughter’s portion size was very small even for a kids meal, just 2 small fish sticks and a small number of fries -daughter kept complaining to me that she could not bite into her fish or even break it with her hands since it was too crunchy lol…..I eventually looked closer and broke her fish stick in half and it was essentially hollow. They had either put little to no fish in the breading or overcooked it so bad that the fish had dried up and disappeared LOL -I pointed this out to waitress and she seemed receptive – said wow that is super weird, could you leave it for the cooks to see? And then said well at least it was free. To be fair I don’t think she meant to come across as dismissive but…..the fact that they were running a promo that day was really besides the point. Bad food is bad food. Yikes. -no cutlery was provided, no napkins, and no wipes I used some wipes in the car for my daughter and had to feed daughter again when we got home

My daughter appeared to take the whole thing somewhat in stride. The sign outside said “excellent food” and as we left she said “well I guess they have excellent people but not excellent food”. She also said that the place was not really Royal at all. Honesty from a child! All this to say, can’t really blame the bartender who appeared to be without help, but this was a truly awful experience, regardless of whether the kids meal was free! Also I would note that the prices are quite high at this place considering how poor the...

Like the earlier reviews here show, and I agree with - I also initially give it a 4 star (but down 1 star later — see review…). Went in for the half price wings. Wings were Ok, not bad - but there are also much better contenders out there for wings (eg. Jolly Taxpayer, Broadways, Kelsey’s For Sure). No complaints about the Wings though. But just not impressive. Why? — too saucy and too greasy, imho. That’s the food part…. No carrots / Celery / dips accompaniments…

Then we ordered up some Draught beers. The Mill Street Haze - a sure winner - was sold out and not available. So we went with the Bubble Stash — a great local IPA, and it was served on mark, and quickly! Loved it.

Back in the day, -late 1980s, Royal Oak was a cultish draw for O-Towners! But it has definitely lost its way, with the corporate facade presentation, over the last decade. —This is the Same thing as one will observe at the once legendary (now sad) Lone Star and the once also incredible (but now pathetic THE WORKS) restaurants — who eventually got bought out by large corporate interests that seemingly essentially sucked out the Soul of what made them legendary in the first place, in their impressive early successful days.

4 stars for Royal Oak! today. But what was once a great place, has been lost to time.

Restaurant seating and space is fine, outdoor car parking is cramped and very tight. Waitress was ok.

Corporate Management — Take note: It’s a slowly dying resto — there is a need to modernize it in so many ways… Other players are doing it much better in this space. This review is not on the restaurant management itself, which I found to be fairly ok. It’s on the corporate directors 100%

———- NOW DOWNGRADED TO 1 STAR:

—— WENT BACK a 2nd visit 1 month later; it was actually worse! Never got seated!! Lined up at the front desk - watched and waited — made eye contact with 2 servers, 2 bartenders and a bussing person. Resto was only half full. We were ignored. Then, 2 families lined up behind us. Same stuff. We were all ignored. Families behind us enquired how long we were waiting and what’s up given that the resto was only half full. We told them we’re leaving. They all joined us. We all went 1km down the road to Montana’s - exchanged hellos and good byes…. Everybody rolling their eyes at Royal Oak. It was fairly bad. Prediction: Bankruptcy or closure within 9 months of today Aug12. If I were the owner of Barrhaven Royal Oak, in my first 15 minutes, I would Fire all staff. GL, but not really....

Recently I went to the Royal Oak on Strandherd as part of a group with a reservation. This location is small indoors but they had tables set aside for us, no issue there. The inside was mostly empty when we arrived mid-afternoon. I did not see any sort of maître d' or senior leadership overseeing the wait staff and kitchen staff. Our server was polite but timid and very inexperienced. She never offered to top up our water. Empty glasses and plates had to be handed to her, she didn't clear the table on her own without prompting. She was not very familiar with their drink offerings. We had to prompt her to take our meal order, she never asked outright. The beer and mixed drinks were pretty well made, I heard no complaints from the table. The food was disappointing. Very bland with no personality. My meal seemed to have been prepared by a beginner chef. I ordered steak, rice and mixed vegetables. The new york strip was thin, had some gristle and had the purplish look of a previously frozen steak. The rice had a small amount of a single spice on it, no salt and no oil, unlike any other rice or rice pilaf I had had from a restaurant. The mixed vegetables looked like a third of a carrot and a half of a green pepper sliced and briefly seared on a grill. My girlfriend's fish and chips came with a tartar sauce that tasted like mayonnaise with sweet bread and butter pickle juice and pieces, not proper tartar sauce which is dill pickle based. The shared appetizer platter was over $45 and very underwhelming (potato chips, vegetable strips, pita pieces with cheese melt, a few overcooked dry wings). It seemed like either the kitchen staff were very inexperienced or the restaurant was low on supplies and making substitutions on the fly. Unfortunately, with the cost of visiting a restaurant these days, a generic and amateurish experience doesn't stand out to us as one we...