The Imperial Restaurant (formerly Imperial Market & Eatery) — Restaurant in Wilmot

Date of Visit: Sat, April 28th, 2024

We stopped into Imperial Market Eatery completely on a Whim. We were in the area, and decided to check out a different restaurant, but that restaurant was packed due to a sports game being on and they were showing it on all TVs. So, we looked around and came to Imperial. We had no idea what kind of restaurant it was – would it bbe too fancy? Was it too expensive for our merely simple needs? Would we fit in with our casual attire after a day out exploring Waterloo and Perth Counties?

We gave it a shot, and it turned out all of my worries were for not.

This is an upscale casual restaurant. It was alive with activity, the servers were buzzing back and forth between tables and kitchen, there were several tables of diners enjoying the cool, vibrant atmosphere, the lively kitchen, and the – what I would soon discover for myself – amazing food and cocktails. We were greeted by a very friendly lady – who looked a bit familiar – it turns out I recognized her from social media. This was just the beginning of a fantastic time at Imperial.

We began with an order of Chickles for an appetizer. Chickles are little breaded chicken nuggets, with deep-fried pickles served with a delicious sauce. Let it be said – this can satisfy you completely as a meal on its own. I ordered the Salmon burger because I saw it go by to another table at it looked amazing. Thick and juicy, well dressed, and presented. My husband ordered the Brisket Birria dinner with cheesy grits – once he saw brisket and cheesy grits – he didn’t need to look at other items. The food is prepared in an open-concept kitchen, where you can see the kitchen staff buzzing around, creating their perfectly crafted meals like a bunch of bees working together for the hive. Each one with a job to do and doing it well.

Rarely do we order dessert when we dine out. However, since everything we had so far was so scrumptious, we decided to order one dessert to share so that we could say we had ordered something from all categories.

This is such a delightful spot to eat out. The vibe is very cool, the atmosphere is alive and energetic. The food is gorgeous and delicious. The service Is impeccable. What a great place. We will be back, and make a...

We've only had take out from Imperial Market, so I can only review on the quality of the food rather than the actual restaurant.

The first time my fiance and I ordered, it was amazing. We ordered the fried chicken meal and the house poutine. Although they forgot to give us the cheese curds (so I had to go back and get them) the food was delicious.

We were impressed with the first time so we decided to order again. Second time we ordered the house poutine again and the "gourmet" mac and cheese. For the price they charge, we were expecting something great. That is not what we got. It was not cheesy at all. It literally tasted like it was just oil, salt and pepper mixed with the macaroni noodles, there was nothing gourmet about it.

We decided to give them another try when we had family visiting. We raved about the poutine so we got 4 orders of it. It was such a let down and made me feel bad about recommending the place to my family. Comparing the amount of food we got the first two times we ordered the poutine to this last time, everything was about halved. The amount of fries in each container was about half, the amount of the pulled chicken and gravy (which was not actually pulled, it was cut into chunks) was less than half in each container, and the amount of cheese curds on each order was laughable. There was anywhere from 6-10 little pieces of cheese on each order. The last two times they gave us cheese curds separately in a container and it was full.

I'm not sure if cooks/servers/whoever prepares the take out food was just being lazy or frugal last night, but we were not impressed and will likely not be ordering from the Imperial...

DO NOT DO THE HIGH TEA. We were very much looking forward to a high tea experience, but unfortunately it was extremely underwhelming and not worth even half of what we paid ($250 for 5 people). The tea came out cold, which was the first sign, however we went for our grandma's birthday and wanted a nice and new experience. The atmosphere was good, beautiful windows, but the experience was simply bad. The menu was misleading - there was the Verbena Blue tea my grandma and I ordered that said it would "change colour" once lemon was added and this was simply not true. The strainers they provided did not catch the tea leaves and we were stuck drinking loose tea in our cups which was very unpleasant. We asked for smaller strainers and the waitress said they did not have smaller ones and that was how it was supposed to be... The plain white bread for the sandwiches was not fresh, it seemed to have been made and cut hours before we sat down and was slightly stale. When my mother made the reservation, the woman on the phone said it was very important we came on time as the chefs had to specially make everything... it seems like that would be the case for any meal you order at a restaurant? And it was not fresh so I am not sure why this was mentioned. I can see why they want your credit card number to pay for this before you sit down and get the food. I would not recommend this to anyone. I am sure the regular food menu is fine and you should just stick with that. NOT WORTH IT FOR HIGH TEA and they should stop...