The Opinicon — Restaurant in Rideau Lakes

It's been a number of years since my last review and some things have changed. The playground is no longer available to the public. That's ok for us, as our daughters have mostly outgrown it (nobody outgrows a zipline!), but I'm thankful for great memories, including pictures and video, we have of them enjoying it!

Last night we ate at the restaurant. There were four of us. The wait was very reasonable, I think less than 30 minutes for two steaks and two fish and chips - one steak was well done.

I had the fish and chips and I highly recommend it! The fish is haddock. There were two large fillets perfectly fried in their house-made batter which was excellent! The haddock was very moist and tasted sooo good! The fries were also excellent! They were perfectly done, large but not too large, and flavorful. These were better than fries I had with my poutine the other day (not from the Opinicon) and those were still very good.

Before this, my favorite fish and chips I had was from Bar Harbor, Maine. It's been a long time so it's hard to compare but this was right up there with it, possibly better!

Our server was excellent two. We had a young man who very attentive, helpful, and did a good job. He didn't appear as if he was just waiting for his next opportunity text his girlfriend or check snapchat. He was fully engaged and appeared to genuinely care about us and the whole meal experience we were getting.

There were a handful of desserts available. The Chocolate Peanut butter cake with Chocolate ganache was especially tempting, but we opted to go to the ice cream shop instead. We were not disappointed at all by our choice! The ice cream is so good! It's a smooth, dense, creamy ice cream. I had a scoop of Squirrel something and a scoop of the Oh Henry in a cake (regular) cone. The two scoop size was a very generous serving! Both flavors were excellent and I would get either one again. Next time I think I'll have the Maple Walnut because I've had that before and know it's excellent as well. They do offer splitting a "single scoop" if you want less but still would like to have two flavors.

----previous review from a number of years ago below---

We went there a number of times through our week in Canada for ice cream and for our kids to play at their playground. They have an incredible playground with lots of room and fun features like a water table (It allows kids to play with water in a way similar to how locks work. Locks act as an elevator for boats.), zip line, climbing walls, slack line, balance beams, and other balance and agility improving features. This is not a normal playground! Your kids will love it! The ice cream at the Opinicon is incredible and very well priced. A kiddy cone is as big as a small or medium at other places. The small size is huge and as big as a large at many places. It's only $1.50 for the kiddy and $3.00 for a large. This is the best deal for ice cream I've seen for a long time and again, the ice cream is excellent! If you're near Chaffey's Lock make sure you stop in! There's so much more I could say about how beautiful the grounds are or how helpful the staff are but you will need...

Unexpectedly stressful dining experience. I don’t have much experience posting negative reviews because I use and value Google Reviews before I decide where to go! But I wanted to warn other travellers before they choose the Opinicon for a night out or celebration. Our party of 8 waited 40 minutes to get drinks, then 45 minutes more before the appetizers arrived. We were too hungry to reject the burnt fritters and and soggy calamari but these dishes suggested staffing issues in the kitchen as well. And then there was the wait for dinner…. Another 45 minutes; without the drinks we had ordered for dinner. (Our table never did get the wine with dinner that we ordered, but 3 chose to have their glasses instead of desert). When dinner arrived, 75 % of our dinners arrived cold. The lobster roll, steak special and chicken piccata (on a bed of capers?)seemed OK but the fish specials were either burnt or undercooked and the Carbonara Pasta was more akin to noodle soup without cheese.

The Tap room seems like it could have nice atmosphere but at 6pm on a Wednesday was filled with the sound of breaking glassware and toddler tantrums as 3 families waited 45 minutes or so for their kid’s food to arrive. No exaggeration and incredibly hard to watch the kids at 2 tables meltdown and become unmanageable. It was clear to me the establishment was understaffed at the bar (1 bartender to make all cocktails, poor beers and wine for over 200 capacity). It was painful to observe the frantic efforts of the additional, well intentioned staffer who had jumped in to try to help the lone bartender while the used glassware built up around them. The manager should have done us all a favor by reducing the cocktail menu to 3 options to give her staff a fighting chance at keeping up with the pouring duties; better yet, let the servers pour the wines. I really disliked that no one with authority stepped in to help the staff learn and adapt to make this 3.5 hour dinner service more manageable. Our server apologized repeatedly but no manager checked in with us to assess and address the problems. Surely they must loose money by a table of 8 taking 3.5 hours to finish dinner? How are these very dedicated young people supposed to learn about hospitality and customer service? The facility is gorgeous, my Aunt had a decent Opinicon lunch a few weeks ago and our server was really pleasant but had no guidance on how to handle the problems and no support. We did enjoy being able to plug in our Hybrid car while we dined! Needless to say we never expected to be there long enough to get a full...

I want to be fair and kind because our family has an interest in seeing the Opinicon do well, so that is my disclosure to the reader. My wife and I had the rack of lamb (hers) and Cobb salad (mine). We did not have drinks, only water. We arrived at nearly the peak of evening rush on Friday without reservations, willing to wait or leave if we could not be accommodated. We waited several minutes at the desk to find out, and happily, we could be seated. It took us a while to review the menu, but our waitress remained attentive. The rack of lamb was the priciest item on the menu ($42) Cobb salad much less ($16). Presentation was good but portions modest. Only four ribs on the lamb plate, plus its various garnishings which included a beet hummus(!) which I loved but my wife did not. I tasted the lamb, and it was very good. There was a fair bit of fat too, which I adore. If you do not like fat, choose something else. My Cobb salad was also modest in portion. It included about two tbsp each of egg salad and tuna salad, with greens and tiny tomato halves, and some pickles an other vegetables I did not eat, and was served with Ranch dressing so strictly speaking, it was not a true Cobb salad. That aside, it was quite tasty and I did not go away hungry... neither did my wife. Now, the wait for our food was somewhat protracted so I would not advise visiting if you want to have time after to take in a movie or anything else. We were served some very sweet bread and very hard cold butter while we waited. My wife did ask for the raspberry rhubarb cake dessert which was made with fewer raspberries than you can count on one hand, and about as many pieces of recognizable rhubarb. She had expected moister and richer, not dry and bland. As other reviews have stated, the interior of the dining room is 100% hard surface. This is in keeping with the trend in the foodservice industry toward louder and noisier. In spite of this, and in spite of leaving my ear plugs home, it was not unpleasantly loud or noisy, but your experience could differ. In summary, the facility is excellently remodeled, (great restrooms without the trendy ear-splitting turbo-electric hand driers) the staff attentive in spite of a seemingly slow kitchen. The menu has nary an item on it which hasn't been reinterpreted by the chef. Maybe this is also slowing the back end of the establishment. Expect to spend over $100 on dinner and drinks with dessert for two. Like it or not, The Opinicon has gone upscale. It is really the only way for it transition as a resort into the...