The Bauer Kitchen — Restaurant in Waterloo

Let me first say that I love the Charcoal Group. I am a regular guest at most of their restaurants mostly including The Charcoal Steak house/Martini’s and beer town. I have come to expect great things when attending any of their restaurants and if ever I have an issue it is dealt with grace and followed by excellent customer service. Unfortunately this was not the case at the Bauer Kitchen. Me and my girlfriend decided we wanted to do something new and special for our anniversary and we had both only been to this restaurant once many years ago when it opened just with friends. We wanted to create a new memory and were met with one mistake after another. First I was surprised to see a pub style menu at such a modern upscale restaurant but it’s was fine. We just decided to have faith and ordered. We ordered two apps and a main one of which being soup. First they brought out the wrong soup. They let us keep it and we are not to picky so we were happy about that. When we tried it it was cold. Not stone cold but not even close to any temp soup should be. Not even close to what holding temp has to be for food never mind cooking temp. We thanked them and just asked the the soup we ordered be hot upon arrival. The soup arrived and it was cold. We had to send it back. The manager came out and instead of apologizing said “I hear you had a didn’t like your soup. The manager seemed to shift the blame for the cold soup on us. Then brought new soup for the third time and put the cream on the side saying that that might be to blame. How many bowls of soup do you serve a day that you need to find a weird reason for the soup being cold twice other then that you served it that way. So fine moving on. I ordered what I think was the most expensive thing on the menu being the tenderloin and ordered it rare. If came out and when I cut into it it was medium at best. Not a trace of pink. Further more it kinda tasted like it was seasoned with BBQ sauce and soy sauce. Again the manager came out and used the same phrasing… “I hear you didn’t like your steak”. Again not only was my food not as ordered or good I had now been offended for a second time and our anniversary dinner had been ruined. I no longer wanted anymore food being brought out. Me and my partner split her salad and I asked for our bill. We got the full bill only minus the steak. I did not bother to argue, just paid it and left. This was the worst restaurant experience I have had since I don’t know when. If you are thinking about going here I would strongly advise against it. As I said before.. I still highly recommend every other Charcoal Group restaurant but this one just does not hold up. Pub food at high end dining prices and terrible management. I’m sorry to everyone I know over at TCG. Normally I would let this go but this was an important...

Visited The Bauer Kitchen to celebrate my husband's birthday. Was quick and easy to book a reservation online, two weeks in advance. Arrived at reservation time and were seated immediately. We opted for the bartender's choice of what was on tap, which was Three Ring Circus from Block 3 Brewing just down the road in St. Jacob's. Despite it being an 8.9% beer, it was very tasty and did not taste like a beer that strong. Excellent selection, bartender!

We started with the crispy fried brussels sprouts, which were the star of the meal. Perfectly crisped and seasoned, served with housemade fried chips and a garlic aioli, these were nothing short of delightful.

Our mains were the Szechuan seared tuna bowl and the plant-based fried chick'n sandwich (with a side of sweet potato wedges).

The tuna bowl was a great mix of ingredients. The sushi rice, veggies, and mango paired with the high quality piece of tuna, seared to perfection was "just awesome" in my husband's words.

The plant-based fried chick'n sandwich was tasty as well. The housemade bread&butter pickles were a nice touch. The only thing I didn't enjoy about it was the bun to filling ratio. It seemed like a lot of bun, but was still very good and I would order it again.

Our waitstaff was very friendly and knowledgeable of the menu. He double-checked that there were no allergies once I ordered off the plant-based menu. At the end of our meal, he brought out a lovely complimentary slice of carrot cake for us to enjoy for my husband's birthday, which was a nice and appreciated surprise.

Our food came out quickly despite how busy the restaurant became over the dinner rush.

Looking forward to returning to The Bauer Kitchen in the...

This is where my (now) wife took me for my birthday when we started dating 10 years ago. I liked it, but I am a man of simple tastes, and it would has never been my first choice because I always thought it was a bit too fancy. I've been here a couple times since, and remembering liking their brunch options, but nothing jumped out to me. Until yesterday, where we decided to start the long weekend with a nice meal. As I said, I am a man of simple tastes, and I often feel like nice restaurants like this have smaller portion sizes, with lots of complex flavouring I can't appreciate. My wife likes starting with a caesar salad and I said why not, but was expecting a bland bowl of too much dressing and artisanal croutons. I couldn't have been more wrong. More about me, I have been striving to perfect bacon cooking my whole life. I love bacon, but always overcook it. Bauer is the new standard. This was the best salad of my life, stuffed full of the most delicious bacon I have ever had. It was perfectly cooked, not too crispy but not raw, with quality that could be tasting. So that's what you are getting here. Somewhere that takes simple things and elevates them (pretentious sounding, I know). The quality can't be denied! The fries I got as a side were maybe the best fries I have ever had, and my wife finished them before she started her meal. There is tons to recommend here, and I am not trying to pigeonhole them, but let the caesar salad serve as example for all this place...