5 Kings Restaurant & Picaroons Brewhouse — Restaurant in Saint Stephen

If Maps had point fives, I would have given them 4.5 stars. When I went around 545/6pm, there were a few tables already full. I was hoping they had a table of 1, but the tables had been reserved. Luckily 1 of the staff, I assume the manager or owner, checked and I was lucky that a table was leaving.

The design of the building is so unique and in a great location and my waiter was very pleasant and always had a smile. The food was mostly spectacular. It's one of the reasons why I would like to give it 4.5 stars. When I first saw the prices, I thought I could tell I'm in a border town next to the U.S. however, when the dishes came, they were huge. When eating at a restaurant for the first time, I like to try all 3 courses. It was very difficult this time finishing everything. While the lobster wontons didn't have an even doneness to them, the size and flavours were great. The sauce they give you has a little spice to it and it's great when you get a chunk of lobster. You should also love cream cheese if you get these as there's a lot.

The salmon with black rice and beets was spectacular. The dishes weren't plated as they are in your regular pub food spot. You could tell that a little bit of extra care went into the dish. Again, it was also massive and the salmon was one perfectly. The earthiness of the black rice coupled with the river flavours of the salmon went well together and the beets added a little sweetness.

I had their brownie for dessert. Decadent would be an understatement. The brownie itself filled the plate and overflowed with chocolate sauce while having Pal-o-Mine inside it. Topped with that yellow vanilla ice cream that always tastes better and a generous helping of whip cream and two strawberries were great accents to the dish. I really wish I had help eating it, but part of me was glad I didn't.

Finally, the maple beer. The hint of maple came through the bitterness of the beer almost perfectly. Very refreshing and well balanced.

Once my wife gets her visa and we begin travelling around the province, I'll certainly be...

Atmosphere is really cool, the beer is wonderful (I love Picaroons, and the cocktail ales!). However my partner and I ordered a snack board for $16. The menu said that it would have pretzel bread, mustard, pickles, cheese, cured meat etc. We thought wow for $16 it'll be big enough to almost fill us. It came on a tiny wooden board and contained no pickles or cheese. There were about 5 pieces of prosciutto & salami combined, a hard boiled egg, 3 pickled onions, 4 pieces of arugula, some pickled ginger, 4 tiny slices of hard crusty melba toast type things, and a small "swipe" of mustard, hard to dip anything into. I waited till our server walked by and asked if maybe we got the wrong order, as it was quite small and missing some key ingredients. The waitress said "no that's right" and started to walk away but I kept talking and said "It's missing cheese and pickles.." The waitress tried to say that the 3 tiny pickled onions counted as pickles... She did acknowledge that there was no cheese on the board. She took it back to the kitchen. It came back with a few more slices of melba toast things and 4 slices of brie. My fiance and I were planning on staying for more beers and food but decided to end it there because we wondered if the portions on everything else would be just as disappointing. Our bill was $40 and I have definitely gotten more food elsewhere for that price. The server also seemed she was annoyed that we even called her over. Disappointing, I probably won't go back. Which sucks because I love Picaroons especially when it's on tap! Oh well. Now to buy more food because I'm not even...

This place turned out to be a little gem. The service was a bit slack, but the food quality was more than compensated.

Let's clear up the service issue first. On arriving, we walked into the restaurant, and it was not evident that there were any employees paying attention to the door. We waited about 5 minutes before even being acknowledged. I was ready to walk out.

Regardless, we got our table outside, and the service from that point on was good, not great, but certainly not anything to complain about. I should mention that the inside was a bit dark and dingy. I was not very inviting at all.

Now, on to the good stuff... the food. We were very surprised. We were not expecting this quality based on the overall look of the facility.

My wife for the corn flake breaded fish. She does not typically order fish anywhere, but she tried it, and she said it was really good.

My daughter got the pulled pork Mac and cheese wrap. She devoured it in no time. She loved it, and it is now going to be on our menu at home for my next pulled pork on the Tregger.

I had the beef dip Yorkies. They were fantastic. They got everything right. They were so huicy and full of flavor our that the side dish of Jus was not needed. If I had fries, it would have been on them. The salad was a bit bland. They added the dressing prior to serving. My preference is dressing served on the side so that you can put as much or as little as you like. Apparently, I was supposed to stir the dressing into the salad, but that bowl was stuffed full. There was no stirring.

Over all, this is an excellent restaurant and I highly...