Ottawa Foodies

I usually love the Keg, but my mother and I went a few summers ago to the market location and we were pretty unimpressed. It was a hot summer week day, we got there early, and there were only three tables filled (including us). We were incredibly thirsty and asked if they could leave us a pitcher of water since we would likely be tossing back glass after glass (they gave us these fairly small ones), and the waitress said that no, they couldn't, because it "looked messy" on the table. We were the only people in our area, so messy to who? Very rude, and we ended up not being able to quench our thirst and as a result, didn't really enjoy our meal that much.

Most of my other experiences there have been reasonably good, but I definitely prefer the Keg Manor for atmosphere, service, and quality of food.

Upon my last visit to OTT I recently settled in for a nice steak, at least that was my intention. The Keg's market location is certainly prime and I figured that the meat would follow suit. The "scene" was rather stale...I have no idea if renos are on the horizon but they need to freshen up the joint. Their commercials paint a warm and inviting atmosphere and they certainly fell short on that impression...they have re-branded/departed from their traditional look/feel in TO with a high end trendy scenester approach...the cinq a sept culture is alive and well at this location. As for the market...well...I jumped into a keg caesar & a baseball sirloin w/frites. Done & done. Throughout my meal I found myself completely disappointed...the meat held no flavour, in fact the only taste that dominated was a powerful caesar. Back to the meat...there was no tenderness, there was no flavour, there was only meat (tier 2 at best) I love my steak (lived in Argentina), and I truly place such value on a night out. If you are going to compromise on ambience, settle the score on the meal. Too bad The Keg fell short.