Borealis Grille & Bar - Kitchener

Food was excellent, fair to slightly expensive but their food is local so it’s understandable. The service was alright, pretty typical but nothing special. Overall we were happy with our diner. If you like good/sustainable food that you can feel good about eating, and don’t have high expectations for service you will really like this place.

Great food and service. Always enjoy going to Borealis. Highly recommend this place for families, friends, and couples. Had the fish tacos and they were excellent, good portions and perfectly cooked. My husband had the duck confit and was very happy with it. The daily soup (Curried chickpea) was really good, glad we tried it.

Giovanni was such a nice pleasant server. He explained the special of the day and the cancer fundraiser going on at Borealis. This was my first time there. Nice environment. Historic setting. Good locally sourced foods. Seasonal specials. Lots of seating space. Will definitely go back.

Good was great and a fair sized portion. Server was a little less than friendly.

Service was fantastic, food was great as always and we really liked the fact that the manager helped my husband find a quiet spot when our daughter was crying uncontrollably instead of making him go outside with her.

My son took my there for my birthday back in March and it was amazing so we decided to go there for Father's Day dinner. We were quite disappointed. I'm not sure if it was because it was busier and the time of day but I'm not sure I will go back. The ribs my husband had were over-sauced, my son's steak came out cut up for him, he is 20 and can cut his own steak. They ordered dessert, the vanilla cheesecake and it was more like a custard. There was no substance to the cake in that you could have poured it out of the ramakin. For the price we paid it wasn't worth it this time. Sorry guys.

The food was very good but the service felt a bit rushed.

Best Fried Chicken ever - Do yourself a favour and go on a Thursday

Excellent service and food. Very accommodating of my children.

Was a great day!! Special occasion for our son's graduation. We all enjoyed it!!

We came for 2 for 1 appetizer night and enjoyed sharing a variety of tasty food from appetizers and entrees.

Restaurant was way too loud. Food was ok...nothing I would order again. "Seasonal veg" should be something better than potatoes and carrots in June. Absolutely nothing on dessert menu that was inspiring in the least. And that's unheard of for me! Good concept but a miss in my books.

There was a wedding downstairs and there was a lot of noise. Food was just ok, nothing spectacular.

Our go-to restaurant. There’s always something on the menu that fills my craving. We enjoy the dining room, dimly lighted and the historical photos lining the walls. It was a little chilly though.
We appreciate their efforts to use locally produced foods and their creativity using seasonal ingredients.
We enjoyed the elk pie, which included a nice sized bed of greens with a perfectly seasoned dressing. The accompanying duck confit potatoes did lack flavour and the bottom of the pie was a little undercooked unfortunately. (Likely due to a rush of visitors on a Saturday night.) I would however still order it again.
The dill in the tartar sauce for the fish is a really nice touch.
And we appreciate the beer sampler option to taste-test local breweries creations.
We were very pleased with the hazelnut and peach cake, frosted with buttermilk and cream cheese icing. So delicious that we even purchased another to bring home for the baby sitter.

I can't say enough good things about Kitchener Borealis...wonderful place. Been there many times. We got married in the room downstairs. Attentive staff who care about their customers. Great food and drinks!!

Our server was amazing. Service was quick. Fish and Chips were delicious! Can’t wait to come back.

Great ambiance! Loved the service, wine and food. We had a great ladies night here.

I don’t know if it was an off night but we arrived for our 6:15 reservation...was greeted and ordered appetizers and drinks. This is where the service went wrong...we received our appetizers before our drinks (we had to ask the waitress a second time for our drinks to add) then the appetizers sat at our table for a good 20 min before we had to ask if our food was coming out considering not everyone at the table ordered apts....we didn’t receive our meals until 7:20 a full hour after ordering (I also should ask we had to ask twice about our food). The manger on did apologize and gave us 30% off the total bill and a couple $10 off coupons for the service. I personally think our waitress couldn’t handle the amount of tables she had and her attitude wasn’t the greatest...she knew we needed to get to a show for 7:30 so when the food arrived we asked her to also bring the bill and machine...she did but proceeded to service other tables knowing we were on a time crunch. We literally had to rush to eat our meals as we only had 10 min to eat so we wouldn’t be late for the show. All in all the food and drink were very yummy just the service was off...I will try this restaurant again and hopefully have a better experience!!

It’s become a thing, Thursday nights for the buttermilk crispy fried chicken, their unbelievably delicious heavy served hot corn bread and cold charred corn potato salad. It would require side by side taste tests to confirm but this may be THE BEST fried chicken/corn bread/potato salad period, most certainly outside of Louisiana of the southern United States. My son and I have done this night out near consistently more than a dozen times over a few months and ordering the same again this time I felt like I should try something else (worrying about diminishing marginal utility). My son ordered the family basket special again and honestly it was just as stunningly delicious this time as every other. The platter of four (sometimes five) chicken chunks (they are big big breast like sections of fresh never frozen hundred mile free range organic chickens with bones magically removed) will stuff two big guys. The sides we order included within the $29 purchase price are two heavy bricks of corn bread, served hot, and two giant scoop mounds of the charred corn and potato salad served cold on a field mix of greens. Plus two pops. Total bill is forty even. Two adults, very full, from extremely good quality organic free range everything right chicken and produce, including the selection of fresh made daily dipping sauces can’t be beat. The interior of the venue is showing some wear which surprises me, but it’s crazy good food you shouldn’t miss. We have had most of the menu and are NEVER disappointed. NEVER. See what I wrote in capitals there? NEVER. Anything to improve? Maybe creation of homemade syrups that they could carbonate upon order. One of the few remaining “processed” items on menu. They offer pretty much anything distilled. This is a nicer but still casual dining experience. You can arrive in jeans, most people are dressed well but still casual. Patio is open and busy as well. Burgers and steaks are great. Always locally sourced before it was cool. Great staff.

My Caesar salad was drenched with too much dressing and the fish bites were hard. However,my dining companion enjoyed his fish tacos . The strawberry lemonade was delicious and refreshing.

Wish they would change their menu. They have taken away salad that were awesome to be replaced by very basic salads. I say bring the favourites back for those who come regularly and maybe add some new items to freshen things up! :)

Great ambiance. Ordered fish tacos - very greasy but delicious.

Going to play

This is our go to restaurant. Current lunch menu is uninspired and my wife’s chicken panini was quite forgettable. My daughter had the mussels which were fine. Service was a bit over extended due to having to cover the patio. Hope for and expect better next time.

Three course meal for the Special Price on Wednesdays.

Appetizer cheese dip with chips and flat bread Plentiful and tasty

Mains salmon tasty, vegetables pale beets were tasteless the ?????also tasteless, too large a serving, too much lettuce and difficult to eat

desserts very good

The staff was nice and the restaurant is set up quite comfortably.

I’ve been here on 3 separate occassions and every time it seems to disappoint. For the price there are so many better options out there. I would not recommend, or go back.

Great food, great place and awesome server. I believe his name was Ernesto. He was awesome!

Loved that is all local
Great service and food

Strange server, not very helpful with menu recommendations. Ordered the red pepper dip and the duck confit. Tasted ok, nothing spectacular.

Greeted warmly, seated right away, and enjoyed the warm and efficient service of Ashley, who has served us before as well. The food was excellent as always, and the team did everything to make our evening enjoyable.

Very Disappointed with Dessert menu.
Zero selection of any chocolate items.
If you’re a chocolate lover, don’t come here.

Excellent service and great food!

The BEST Caesar salad I’ve ever had while eating out. Bruschetta linguine was perfect and turkey burger SO FLAVOURFUL! Only thing that took away from the experience was the potato carrot soup which was not even lukewarm upon arrival at our table.

Absolutely love going here, such a warm and welcoming restaurant. One of my favorites! Food was amazing, so fresh! Service was really great as well. The waiter went beyond to ensure that we got everything we needed and more.

Great food, locally sourced and a nice vibe all around. We picked it because it was close to Landmark Cinemas but were pleasantly surprised with our dining experience. We will definitely be back, movie or not!

I was so excited I finally got to try the Brunch menu at Borealis and am I ever glad I did!!! It was so delicious! I especially loved the Apple Fritters, they were the best I've ever had. As usual, Borealis did not disappoint and you guys have the best staff ever. They're always on the balls, super friendly and really make you feel welcome. Thank you for the wonderful Mother's Day brunch!

The service was very good. Some dishes were good and some were very mediocre. The food can be tasty, but it is dependent on what dish you order. We tried a few dishes since there were 6 of us. I recommend the seafood bowl, the burger and the seasonal cobbler. People in our group liked the bison (market special) and the pie. The burger was juicy but nothing special. The creme brûlée was warm but it did have tea infused flavour.

Wonderful experience. Quiet and great food. Attentive server.

Food service was exceptionally slow. We were there over 2 hours and had only ordered 1 appetizer and main course each for a party of 4. This was at 3:00 pm on a Saturday when there were only 4 or 5 other tables occupied. The kitchen clearly couldn't work out timings. Most of the food came to the table cold or luke warm at best. Overall a very disappointing experience and certainly would expect much better quality and service given the pricing. Certainly won't return.