Our first night in Toronto and our hosts wanted to take us to a quintessential Canadian restaurant. I had no idea that The Keg qualified as such and I decided not to share with them that there was a Keg restaurant about 10 minutes from my office in Bellevue. Still, I hadn't actually eaten at a Keg in decades, so I was already thinking about writing my Yelp review, even as we waited for a table to become available.
I was surprised that on a Tuesday night it took nearly an hour to be seated. That's indicative of Toronto's vibrant night life as well as a sign that maybe The Keg was a better restaurant than I remembered it being so many years ago.
When we were finally seated, it was immediately clear that this was much more of an upscale restaurant than I remembered. We started with drinks and the restaurant had a nice selection of common bears and local offerings. I had a Rickards White, an unfiltered wheat beer, produced in Etobicoke, just outside of Toronto. It was quite good although I was disappointed to learn after the fact that it's owned by Molson. (I would much rather support smaller micro-breweries.)
The Keg menu was nicely diverse, but at its heart, The Keg is a steak restaurant so I thought long and hard before I opted for something other than steak, ultimately settling on the beef short ribs ($31.95). They were falling off the bone delicious. My table mates thoroughly enjoyed their meals as well, which included the Pecan Sirlion ($24.95), Teriyaki Chicken ($19.95), 8 oz Teriyaki Classic Steak ($27.95) and 8 oz Sirlion w/ Tiger Shrimp ($28.95). (All prices in CAD.) Most of us started off with a salad and many of us ended the evening with dessert. I went all in on the dessert; ordering the Sweet Minis sampler which included a fudge brownie, butter tart and crème brulee.
Total, including tip, the dinner was CAD $305.18, so about $60 a person, just about what I would expect.
The restaurant itself is huge, modern and bustling. The staff was attentive throughout the evening and I never once had to ask for my water glass to be refilled. All in all, our dinner at this "quintessential" Canadian restaurant was terrific and I would absolutely visit it again upon returning to Toronto.
Normally I wouldn't award a chain restaurant five stars, but I think The Keg exceeded the naturally high benchmark I have in place for a restaurant of this sort, so five it is!