Kelseys Original Roadhouse — Restaurant in Petawawa

My friend and I sat at a booth and each placed our order with the waitress. We each ordered an alcoholic beverage. Mine was a mojito. The mint leaves in the drink were black. They weren’t fresh and should have been thrown out and not used. I showed the waitress and asked for a replacement drink. I didn’t want another mojito in case I got “old” black mint leaves again. So, I ordered a peach margarita. There were no issues with it. My friend ordered a piña colada, with no issues. For food, I ordered boneless mild chicken wings, which come with celery and carrot sticks and ranch dip. When I asked the waitress, she told me that it was white meat. However, many pieces had mushy dark meat. I didn’t get the veggie sticks and dip, so, I had to ask for them. At first, I only received the dip. I had to ask again for the veggie sticks. Then, I finally got them. I ordered the garlic cheese bread and there were no issues. My friend ordered Caesar salad and a poutine. There was no issue with the salad, but the poutine was very dry, with barely any gravy, and the cheese curds weren’t even melted. If you’re going to do a poutine, do it right. My friend only took a couple of bites, and couldn’t eat anymore. We received our food, but no cutlery. We asked the server who brought our food for some cutlery, then had to ask the waitress twice more for some cutlery. We finally got the cutlery, which we actually needed to eat our food. We both had water and there was no issue. I ordered a Pepsi and there was no issue. We each ordered a dessert. My friend ordered cheesecake, and I ordered the chocolate lava cake without ice-cream. There were no issues. My friend and I each paid for our bills separately, except I asked the waitress to add the cheesecake to my bill because I was treating my friend for her birthday. I was shocked when I received my bill and was charged for the mojito drink that I returned because of the old blackened mint leaves. I asked the waitress “You’re still charging me for that drink?” She replied “yes”. Well, I think that Kelsey’s has a lot of nerve to charge a customer for a drink they couldn’t drink! Would you drink a beverage with old blackened mint leaves floating around in it? Although the waitress was polite and friendly, the entire experience from the drink, to the food, to repeatedly having to ask for missing food items and cutlery was not a positive one at all. There was a lack of adequate customer service from the team: waitress, bartender, cook. Although my friend and I were left soured on this experience, I still left the waitress a 15% tip because they usually get minimum wage. The total of my receipt was $80.49! Not worth it!! This was my first time at this Kelsey’s and it will be my last. If Kelsey’s wants to make it right, then I’d appreciate a full refund...

Last night we went to celebrate my daughter’s elementary graduation. She chose this restaurant because we all love it there, but last night everything went wrong. First of all, it took the waitress about 20 minutes to take our drinks order, we also order nachos to start at the time we ordered the drinks. The kids’ drinks came very quick, but my husband’s and my water didn’t come because they didn’t have any glasses available. Then the nachos came with our waters, but they didn’t bring the guacamole that we ordered extra. Couple minutes later they brought the guacamole, it was black and sour, we couldn’t eat it. We proceeded to place our meal order: 1 kids chicken fingers and fries, 1 kid’s hamburger, 1 kids cheese pizza and 2 8oz steak, medium, with loaded potato, no bacon. They brought the kids meal in a timely manner, but they brought 2 hamburgers and 1 cheese pizza, we asked the to change 1 hamburger for the chicken fingers that my youngest ordered. My oldest hamburger was completely burn, I was going to ask to replace it, but my daughter was frustrated and decided to eat it just like that. Then the adults meal came. One of the potatoes had bacon, I didn’t want to complain about it, so I decided to take that one (my husband is allergic, so he got the one without it). My steak was completely burn, I tried to cut all the edges to be able to eat it, the potatoes were cold and hard. I mentioned to the waitress and she offered to change it for a new one, but at that point I decided I just didn’t want to eat it at all. The worst part is that we got home, the kids went to bed and then at midnight, my youngest (the one who ordered the chicken fingers) started puking. I’m sure she has no virus or anything, but she got food poisoning, because after she puked, she was able to fall asleep and woke up feeling better. I think the kitchen messed it...

Service (4/5): waitress was nice enough, asked her to just pick me $60 worth of food. She brought me the 8 oz steak with baked potato, chicken tenders with Sriracha mayo and sweet chili dips, and some sweet cheesy bread rolls. The place had less than 15 tables (around 25% capacity) and food was slow to come out. I was told that they had 3 steaks on the pass, and I was brought the wrong one. I received a medium-well instead of a medium-well instead of the ordered medium-rare. Waitress brought me the correct steak within a minute. My water was kept topped up.

Food (2/5): even with the properly cooked steak, the steak dinner was sad. The 8 Oz steak is obviously the uncooked weight, but shrank significantly after cooking which ended up being quite small. The vegetables were par boiled. I like bite to my vegetables, but carrots and bicolor should not still have the snapping crunch when served "cooked." The baked potato was okay, but with no sauce it was dry in the middle. As the waitress said, the chicken tenders were actually very good, but anything deep fried turns out pretty well. The bread desert things were not good.

Environment (4/5): Genuinely clean booth sizes were fair. It's a franchise sports bar and a fair example of what a typical Kelsies might look like.

Overall it's a 3/5 for me. I would not go back to any Kelsies based on the food. I don't frequent franchise restaurants, but my limited experiences at Pickel Barel YorkDale, the Keg Finch etc., were all significantly better. I would say that this establishment is acceptable for alcohol, but that's a pre packaged product which you could buy and...