charcoal steak house

we are huge fans of the charcoal group and visit their restaurants quite often both for celebrations or everyday dining. so it wasn't too surprising that my brother and sister-in-law choose one of their restaurants to hold my nephews' first communion luncheon. when we arrived, we were shown to a private room set up for the 16 guests invited to celebrate my nephews' special day. the room was cozy and perfectly decorated. the service was exceptional. there were 3 servers assigned to our table. they made sure that drink orders were taken care of and water glasses constantly filled. the menu consisted of three appetizer choices - daily soup, caesar salad or spinach salad.  i picked the daily soup which was a carrot ginger soup. this soup was thick...not baby food consistency thic

incredible service. i don't think i've ever been granted such great service in any other restaurant. it is obvious that the general manager has a genuine passion for satisfying his customers.

awesome steak...i took my wife there on her prebirthday dinner. the french onion soup was the best we ever had. we also ordered grilled mushroom and ice wine. the staffs were extremely friendly, and you will notice a personal touch by the away they serve you.
charcoal steak house is the best fine dining place in kitchener waterloo region!

went last night. i had the ceasar salad (excellent), what they pompously call cabbage rolls and the strawberry pie. the main dish, cabbage rolls was anything but... it was good tasting, though not outstanding by any means. but it did not look, smell or taste at all like cabbage rolls. the strawberries appeared to be fresh, though not ripe. they had no taste whatsoever, white on the inside and the crust appeared to be store bought. my wife had the trout which she did like. we had the "two can dine for $60" special. highly overpriced indeed. my brother-in-law had the curry bowl and was also very disappointed with it due to the quality and taste, or lack of same. furthermore, our experience was somewhat cooled by the dirty chairs. all needed a good cleaning. i'm not a steak fan, so i can't comment on those. i can only give them the benefit of the doubt since they call themselves a "steakhouse". cannot recommend this establishment especially since i know several better eating venues in the k-w cambridge area where then prices are lower and the food quality much higher.

fantastic steak lunch with great wine and pumpkin cheesecake was also really good. excellent atmosphere for our christmas lunch. would recommend to anyone.

we had high hopes for the charcoal steak house, but unfortunately it fell short; both on service and food. our server was very nice and kind.... when we saw him. we went on a sunday evening for my birthday dinner, only to be overshadowed by a birthday dinner for a 12 year old. it took over 30 minutes before our drinks came out, the bread without butter 15 minutes later, and finally after being there for over an hour we received our meals. i had the blackened ny striploin and my partner the double blue cheese steak. she liked hers a lot, and the twice baked potato was delicious. mine on the other hand, was not as impressive. my first bite, i almost choked on the blackening spice, having to scrape all of it off. shortly after that, i noticed there was no shrimp with my steak. when the waiter finally came over, he had to check and see if it was part of the dish. when he came back out, he brought out a whole skillet of shrimp; i guess hoping to make up for the fact it was missed in the first place. the vegetables were basic and the fries were over salted; or my pallet may have been saturated with all of the salt in the blackening spice. the only thing that was good, was after we had payed the bill and my
partner brought up my birthday, he went to the back and grabbed a small piece of cake; which was just okay. all in all, my review on the charcoal steak house is.... just go to the keg, please.

house red was solid, and paired well with the sirloin i got. liked the industrial decor they had going on, must have shopped at restoration hardware. attentive service. worth a visit.

wonderful elegant restaurant. tasty and house made dishes with local aaa beef cooked perfectly. it's a bit pricy but not out of range for a standard steakhouse. perfect to impress for a business lunch.

not so happy birthday. went to charcoal for my 25th birthday with a friend... we were coming on this day because i let myself have a treat with meat once a year, on my birthday! what a better way to treat myself than to get a steak from a so-called renowned steakhouse. now, right off the bat- i'm not a huge steak eater, nor do i know all that is to know about the intricacies of steak dining. that said, i've definitely had exceptional steaks in my life. i was hoping for the same, but my dining experience at charcoal came up a bit short.

first, the positives: great staff, great service and hospitality. the servers are very helpful in choosing meals and drinks etc. the restaurant itself is beautiful, great ambience and an amazing place to go for a date.

the negatives: the steak was very lacklustre. for a place that calls themselves a steakhouse, this was definitely not expected. the steak itself was bland, no good spicing or saucing happening. i ordered medium rare, which i'm pretty sure means somewhat cooked on the outside, but red on the inside. the steak that i received was bright red with blood spilling out, which is closer to rare than i had liked. when i asked the waitress about this, she notified me that i was wrong and that medium-rare is more bloody than i had hoped... which i'm pretty sure is not the case but i digress. so she nicely re-fired my steak.

my friend's meal wasn't any better. he ordered a chicken meal (chicken "supreme"), which touts as having a great piece of thigh and drumstick of chicken, some mashed potatoes and vegetables. what he received, was very poorly cut chicken with barely any meat on it, and a whole plate covered in mashed potatoes with a few vegetables. i really wish we took a picture of the proportions because it looked more like we ordered a plate of mashed potatoes, with a side of chicken and a dash of carrots.

needless to say, i left unsatisfied and he left hungry because theres no way you could eat a whole plate of mashed potatoes, and the meat portion was so small. all in all a terrible birthday meal and a waste of a treat-night.

disappointed on new year's eve. having had many enjoyable experiences a charcoal steakhouse in the past, my date and i chose to go there for their set menu on new year's eve 2014. we were both looking forward to the steaks for which charcoal has become famous.

unfortunately, we were very disappointed in our meals. one of the new york strip sirloins came well-done, when it had been ordered as medium rare. both steaks were covered in an excessive amount of some kind of rub, which we did not order, and which detracted from the natural flavour of the meat. we simply could not eat the meat as prepared.

the balance of the food was unremarkable. the french onion soup was good. the chocolate cake was dry. the crème brûlée was acceptable, but in an excessive amount.

overall the service was mediocre although the staff did suggest that they could provide another steak. by that time we had lost our appetites.

it will take some time before i am confident enough that charcoal has improved its service and food offerings to tempt me to return and try this restaurant again. it was an expensive and disappointing experience.

bland and very boring. food was not great, extremely over priced for the amount of food you receive, $15 for 4 scallops which had no flavour-ridiculous. also the food had absolutely no favor. not impressed and i would not recommend it.

doesn't live up to the hype!. where do i start? lets begin with the seating arrangements. our party of 3 were seated at the half round booths. these booths are not conducive to conversation as we're facing towards the party of 8 seating in front of us. difficult to hear each other and i felt as i was shouting.
food...the bruschetta looked like mini pizza. portion was huge and visually not appealing. not your traditional looking dish (which could always use a twist of some sort...but this was way off!). the huge dollop of sour cream on my coconut rice curry bowl was awful! besides the fact that the dish had an imbalance of curry to coconut ratio. baseball steak and the prime rib both cooked perfectly but lacked flavourful seasoning. we passed on dessert due to the lack of a small bite sample option. we'll pass on coming back or recommending.

great food. went there for my gf birthday and ordered 8 oz prime rib and baseball steak. food was great and so was service. price is comparable to the keg but i found i liked the atmosphere here better and they had more of a selection. will definitely go back.

wonderful place to eat. prime rib was fantastic. cheesecake was even better.

comfortable seating and great food. went solo on a march snowy monday night. the place was half full at 7pm. i was being seated at the back dinning room by the window. couldn`t be more perfect. the chair was very comfortable. lighting was dim enough to relax but bright enough to read a book. these are all very important to me because when i went solo to a restaurant, i want to relax and forget the rest of the world for a while.

the virgin ceaser (or virgin bloody mary as our american friends would call it) has a fresh grounded peppered and salted rim instead of just the salt. a nice touch. the two pieces of cucumbers i asked for on the rim were very thick and large. i like to the cucumber to soak the salt off the rim when i drink the ceaser and eat the salted cucumber. overall i think the bartender has done a very good job on my easy to make drink. hey, may be they are premixed, don`t know.

they offer a choice of three different fresh braked bread and i picked the pumpin seed. the other two were multi-grain plus one more which i dont remember. the bread warm but not cold either. it was ok. the butter is good but nothing special. a small charcoal salad to begin the meal. the salad was very good and i was glad that i ordered a small version. it was much bigger than a side salad. the large would have been too big for me to finish the main course and have dessert.

they had an 8oz bison on special so i ordered it. i asked not to kill the bison and they didn`t. center of the meat was blue and red. only a tiny bit warm and very tender. my only comment is they have put seasoning on the meal. it spoiled the tinkering taste of a almost raw meat that i like. next time i will ask not to put seasoning on the meat. mash potato and brussels sprouts with (i think) bacon mixed in came with the bison. the mash potato was plain but great. it was really great. i need to repeat this because it was a very plain mash potato but they have done it to perfection. brussels sprout has the taste of the brussels sprout but not the bitterness. people who usually doesn`t like brussels sprout may able to accept it. to me, this bison dish is very excellent. at $36, i would have ask to double the bison. i only know how much it cost when they show me the bill.

wrap up with a double espresso and flourless chocolate cake. since i had one of the best espresso at the capital grille in rosemont, illionis only less than 9 days ago, i am sad to say the espresso here isn`t up to par. it smell weak and has the bitterness of a so-so espresso. however, pair with the chocolate cake with fresh strawberry and strawberry sherbet has balance the bitterness. it actually made it a perfect blend.

last, i finished the glass of water. since they claim all coffee and tea were served with micro fiber filtered water, i assume their water is also micro fiber filtered. it does taste pretty good. i took my time to finish my glass of water and finish another chapter of my book. nobody has rush me during my stay. i enjoyed my entire stay of 2 hours plus.

additional comments, ok, it is my rant of the day. a 13 years old kid right across the table was spending more time talking to his friends on his smart phone than eating the meal. the kid has ate the steak and potato but never touch his vegetable. come on, learn some table manner especially at a nicer place like charcoal steakhouse. perhaps it will be useful in the future to learn the art of conversation. it wouldn`t hurt to stop talking on a smart phone for an hour or so. the world will still turn at the same rate without you being in contact. (feel free to cut this out urbanspoon is this is not a place to rant.)