Borealis Grille & Bar (Kitchener)

Delicious food and stellar service! We visited Borealis Grille & Bar in Kitchener today for a belated birthday celebration for our son. The restaurant had a great vibe and atmosphere. We sat inside, but the patio looked nice from the large wall of windows. All of the staff were warm and welcoming, and our server, Luigi, was exceptional! He was very friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable about the menu. He had a good sense of humour and seemed to enjoy interacting with guests, even as the restaurant became busier. The menu offered locally sourced options and a variety of selections, including gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan choices. We ordered Barrie’s Farm Nachos, Blackened Chicken Taco Salads, and Cheddar Burgers. The prices were reasonable with good portion sizes. The food was delicious, timely, and well-presented and the homemade iced tea was refreshing. Overall, we had a great experience and will visit again when in the area. Thanks again for birthday wishes Luigi! Cheers! Luana :)

We went to Borealis for the first time last night for my birthday dinner date night special the food, service and atmosphere on the patio were all amazing and the food blew us away! We started with antojitis that were the best we have both ever eaten anywhere! For mains we had the mushroom rigatoni and fish and chips the pasta was to die for and my boyfriend really liked the fish as well we were too full to enjoy our desserts there but took them home with us and ate them later on that night everything from the service to the atmosphere to the food was amazing! Totally recommend giving this place a try you will not be disappointed!!!! Thanks for a wonderful experience!!

We tried this place a few years ago and had a terrible experience with the food, but really wanted to try it again as I don’t believe that any place should be defined by a single experience. My wife and I want to lead this by saying that our waiter, Luigi, really played a major factor in our overall experience. He was attentive, helpful, fair, and full of energy. Luigi is worth the trip regardless of the rest of the review. That’s being said, there were issues with our dining experience. The over arching theme was the food was flat, mainly because it was all under seasoned. The quality of the ingredients are very good, but they need to be seasoned much better. The Spinach Ricotta dip didn’t come with any caramelized onions as it was advertised, which we didn’t realize until we got home looking at the menu for this review. Our dip was just ricotta and spinach. We ordered a Strawberry mojito, which was absolutely delicious, and my wife ordered from the blood orange margarita from the special menu. When it came to the table, the margarita was a canned drink, not made in house, which wasn’t disclosed on the menu and was $13. Thankfully, Luigi was incredibly understanding and brought out a strawberry mojito for my wife which we were very grateful for and she very much enjoyed. For Entrees, my wife ordered the fish and chips and I ordered the prime rib. The fish was battered well, but the coleslaw portion was incredibly skimpy and very flat. I believe it was an oil based slaw, but lacked the vinegar to balance it so it didn’t balance as nicely with the fish as we had hoped. The dill tartar sauce was delicious though. The prime rib was cooked to perfection. An absolutely perfect medium rare which was amazing. The horseradish was also fantastic, which sounds weird to say, but I found myself loading more and more on as it didn’t have the intense nostril sting I typically get from horseradish. Despite the perfect cook and delicious horseradish, I still found the prime rib was heavily under seasoned and so were the vegetables, but the mash potatoes were very good and fairly well seasoned. The ingredients they use for their food are top quality and it’s very obvious when you get your food, but they need to be more generous with seasoning. Dessert was delicious. We got the Apple crumble and it was exactly what we wanted from it. The apples were very well spiced, the texture from the oatmeal was great, and the vanilla ice cream was just right. We were very happy with our sweet treat. After coming back to try Borealis again, it’s hard to justify coming back after spending $150 on our bill and the food being underwhelming despite the potential. This place has all the right ingredients (pun intended) to be the real deal. High quality service, high quality ingredients, but falls short of its potential. I want to like this restaurant so badly but the food is the most important thing for me for that reason it’ll be a while before we decide to visit again.