Pickle Barrel — Restaurant in Vaughan

Went in for a dinner with my family after a day out and was greeted and sat immediately by a nice young man, very pleasant and kind. Was served by a nice young woman who was the same, very personable and great with checking in on us (Jenna I believe was her name) everything was excellent right up until the food came out, we had starters that were tasty, fried pickles and nachos. Yum. Unfortunately it all turned around on me after the mains came out, I had ordered the fish and chips, and the fries were fine but you could build a house out of the fish, fried until the breading shattered, not flaky or tasty, just a luke warm brick of batter with a puddle of oil that would make Jed clampett tear up. I also indulged in a bowl of French onion soup which came out so different than the picture I was 99% I was being catfished. The picture advertised a nice oven baked bowl with cheese and croutons golden from toasting. This is not what I received. What was given to me was a side salad bowl filled with broth that was run under a hair dryer for 5 minutes to warm with croutons that were so soggy from being left in the bowl for what can only be assumed as a fortnight, that they disintegrated upon attempts to surgically get a bite of them. The cheese was very obviously shredded as it had not yet completely melted and basically snitched on itself as not being anywhere close to hot with limp strings floating in the bowl begging to be put out of their misery. I tried…and I failed as upon my first bite the salt content of the soup required it to be served with a saline drip. It actually parched my tongue it was so salty. The server was terrific having returned the soup back to the kitchen from whence it came and struck it from the bill. She apologized profusely even though she had no personal hand in the tepid bowl of liquid sadness that I was presented with. The kitchen really let down the front of house as it was gorgeous inside and the service was phenomenal but you can’t run an f1 car if the wheels keep falling off, it’s really too bad as before the mains arrived, the rating was much higher. So in consequence of that I want it reflected that you may get a great meal or you may become confused at the dysphoric plate of panic placed in front of you, either way the place was clean and the service was awesome…if only the kitchen took the customer experience as seriously as it...

Went there for their Valentine’s Day meal. This establishment meets expectations but I wouldn’t exactly say it had that wow factor. I will say though my review is for constructive criticism as I do believe our wait staff is fairly new so we weren’t upset or mad. They were genuinely friendly and engaging, however, there is room for improvement.

For drinks, we opted for water which didn’t come. As we opted to get our complimentary tea during our meal vs after, this came first to the table followed by the bubbly. Next, we received our mains and weirdly enough, our starters came last. I actually forgot we even had starters.

I was offered the choice of getting Caesar salad instead of the house salad. I was asked if I wanted bacon bits but when it came, there was no bacon bits.

I opted to upgrade my steak to the 10 oz which should have come with mashed potatoes and market vegetables. Instead it came with the fries. I wouldn’t have cared except there is an up charge for the 10oz so I wanted to make sure I did have 10 oz and not 7. The waitress was unsure and offered to ask, but perhaps it slipped her mind as she did seem rather busy. Another staff member saw us looking around and then explained it was indeed a 10oz. We left it at that and later on the same staff member kindly comped us with a mashed potato.

As for the food itself. I’m not much of a drinker so I wouldn’t know if it’s good quality or not. Nevertheless, I found the bubbly quite tasty and in retrospect, I should have asked for more. I can tell you 3oz isn’t enough.

My partner got the Lobster & Shrimp pasta. I sampled some and it was very tasty. I almost wish I had chosen that instead of steak. The steak was passable. I’ve had better, but at this price point, I’m not too concerned.

The Caesar salad wasn’t a hit for me. The Parmesan cheese was powdered and not freshly grated. The dressing felt off. On the whole, the salad didn’t feel fresh. I should have stayed with the house salad. To their credit, the portion side was pretty big.

The desserts were fantastic. The portions were big. Out of the two, the Classic cheesecake was the better tasting one. The strawberry topping was a joy. The chocolate fudge cake was very er…chocolatety. Good for folks who absolutely love chocolate.

This meal was a good price. I wouldn’t mind...

We walked in Sunday at 6pm, 2 adults and 2 kids, we got sat on the patio within 5mins!

For starters we got nachos to share! The nachos and ingredients were good, besides the tomatoes on the nachos. I think they might’ve been alittle old bc they did not taste good at all. But other than that, the nachos was a good starter! (Don’t get nachos if you are planning to get a big main, we got full from sharing nachos and we got our food to go!)

Then we got the Mac and cheese poppers. These are Mac n cheese balls, deep fried! This was actually really good! I am picky when it comes get Mac n cheese outside bc a lot of places use KD or they just don’t make it good but pickle barrel did really good on this plate.

I got the surf and turf 10oz; not gonna lie the steak flavour was pretty good, however the quality of steak does not seem to be worth 40$, it’s like Markham station steak. I got fries for the side which were fine, then Greek salad as the started for the steak. The Greek salad was very unique, full of flavour. I never had Greek salad like that so I really enjoyed it!

My kids got chicken fingers and fries, they both really enjoyed those ofcourse

My husband got the bacon cheese burger and a poutine. The burger was good but the poutine was not that good, gravy was cold when it came and there was way too much gravy as well.

Now for our service: the server we got (i unfortunate do not remember her name) she was super sweet and tried her best to give good service and she did just that!

Overall the pickle barrel experience was good, they give kids their own menu and they can color on the page as well with crayons, and there is also a word search too! I would definitely recommend for a family night, patio is super beautiful and the...