The Keg Steakhouse + Bar - Esplanade — Restaurant in Toronto

Placed an order to pick up, and followed the instructions according to the website. The instructions said to wait by the revolving doors and the food will be brought to us. We just had to simply call to let them know we were there and present valid ID. When we called, they were confused and said we had to come in. No problem! I walked in while my boyfriend waited in the car as we had to park on the side of a busy street.

There were three hostesses. The first one was visibly quite busy with the amount of guests waiting to get a table. I then saw one behind the counter, so I approached her. She was quite dismissive, and to be frank, very rude. I told her that I was just picking up an order that we had placed. She said she would help but to wait on the side. She did nothing. I then waited amongst the line of guests waiting to be seated, and let the first hostess know. She too was quite dismissive and rude as well. But, moments before talking to me was super nice to the guests who were in front of me. However, when I talked to her, she said she would check in the back to see what was happening. When she got back, she had not idea where my order was, and dismissed me again. At this point, I had been waiting for my order for over 10 minutes (it was scheduled to be picked up at a certain time and we had the car waiting on the side of the road). Finally, the third hostess was the one who had talked to me in somewhat decent manner and was able to retrieve my order. The place was not inviting at all, however, they treated most others who looked like them just fine. So I’m not sure if it was just blatant racism as they made me feel out of place or if it was because I’m taking out food that they decided to be super rude to me. I would never visit this place again.

FOR THE FOOD

Once we got the food, my boyfriend and I were super excited to try it, despite the customer service. We ordered the Mac and cheese, the blackened chicken, and the salmon. To say this was a huge let down is an understatement.

In particular, the salmon was not cooked properly, and ended up giving us food poisoning. Some parts of the fish was still quite cold and bright pink, and you could tell it wasn’t cooked enough. Unfortunately, we discovered this when we were half done the salmon.

The chicken was dry despite adding sauces that were provided. The Mac and cheese — for its price one would think it would be delicious— however, it was super dry and the macaroni tasted as if it was plastic and was not cooked properly again. The quality of food for the price in which you are paying is simply not up to par (at least at this location).

We paid nearly $100 for takeout, and I’d personally say, this was just a waste. It was not worth the time, pain...

The place was not busy at all, yet it felt like our waiter was trying to rush us away asap. We had calamari, salad, and bread to start and already our table barely fit those dishes. They could have given us a much bigger table as the place was empty.

Then the waiter starting counting down for us when our mains would arrive.. first 10 min, then 5 min. I thought he'd wait till our starters were almost done to bring out the mains (like other restaurants do), but no, he brought out both mains before our table was even cleared of the starters. Then when he was putting our mains on the table, he asked if we want to pack up our calamari. Um... No - we are still eating that.

We spilled a bit of water at the table and one of us used our cloth napkin to wipe it up. In the midst of cleaning that, I asked the waiter to bring us some paper napkins and he brought out 2 small paper napkins (the ones they give you with your drinks) and another cloth napkin, and then walked away. Didn't try to help us clean up the spill, and didn't take away the wet cloth napkin. He seemed clueless. I don't know. Maybe he was new.

He checked on us multiple times. Eventually he came up to us and asked if we wanted boxes even though we still had substantial amount of prime rib on our plates. We got the feeling we were being rushed out. At the end of our dinner, we sat and chatted. The host was walking around with his tablet and as he walked past our table, turned his head back to look at us and gave us the strangest look like "why are they still here?".

I don't know why they wanted to kick us out so quickly. The place was practically empty and we were only there for 2 hours. If they have a 2 hour seating limit, they should have mentioned it at the start of the meal. I've never experienced this at busier Kegs before.

The calamari was really oily, soaked in oil and the bottom of the plate you could see a pool of oil. We requested balsamic dressing for the salad, but the waiter gave a different vinegrette - we didn't bother to correct it. My medium prime rib was more like a well done. There was no pink center. The veggies were roasted to a crisp. Mushrooms and bread were good.

I will not come to this...

Had a reservation at 6:45PM on a Friday evening. Checked in with the hostess at that time and was asked to wait on a bench for about 10min or so before my table was ready which was a bit frustrating and not a good first impression.

The plate that my friend had on his table was dirty and the salt shaker had what looked like grainy mustard on the top of it. So from a cleanliness perspective, also not a good first impression.

It’s a fairly loud space when I went. A couple of the tables near us were speaking quite loudly. It had a family restaurant kind of vibe.

Had the caesar salad to start. The lettuce was a bit more wilted than I would’ve liked, not as crisp/ fresh. The dressing is tangy even without using the lemon wedge they served with it.

Had the tuna tartare as well as an appetizer. This is deceivingly quite filling with the avocado underneath. The taste was fairly straightforward for both the tuna and the avocado. The chips were okay, but some were a bit greasy.

Had the filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes. The steak was cooked rare as requested. The seasoning was good. It was wrapped in bacon which wasn’t really cooked well. The bacon was soft and flimsy so I just removed it from the steak, not really a pleasant texture to eat. Would have been nice if it was a lot crisper and more cooked through.

The beets were cooked well and flavourful. The broccoli was charred a bit but inconsistently on mine compared to my friend’s dish which had a lot more of the charring deliberately done (which I would prefer). I didn’t care much for the sauce and don’t really think it added much to the steak.

Service was fairly attentive over the course of the dinner. There were a few different staff that serviced our table and checked in on us throughout the evening.

The revolving door on the way out also was incredibly stiff and was very hard...