Borealis Grille & Bar

We went this past Saturday night. My fiancé picked it out knowing what a sucker I am for locally sourced foods. I deducted 2 stars for the following reasons: They have 3 kinds of taco plates. Each taco plate is the same price, but for whatever reason you aren’t allowed to get a mixture. It would be no harder to do one of each than it would be to do 3. Our waiter didn’t seem very knowledgeable, or really likable for that matter. They were out of the red sangria and I wasn’t informed until a while after. I ended up loving the white, but it was still disappointing. They were also out of the brisket, which is what my fiancé ordered and it took the waiter a while to let us know about that as well, so that took off his top two choices of meals. He ended up with the chicken tacos, which were good, and I had the fish and chips, which was also really tasty.
So, overall a good experience in regards to the food, but better planning needs to be done and maybe some customer service training.

Oh, Borealis.
I really, really, really wanted to love this place. They’re committed to providing a local and sustainable dining experience to their customers, which is something I definitely respect. It has great décor and killer branding. The menu always looks amazing, and judging by the full patio in the summer months — it’s a popular spot to sit and sip some white wine with 20 – 30 of your closest girlfriends.
We live nearby, so we end up passing it 3 – 4 times a day. After much waiting, I was so excited to try Borealis that we ended up going for an anniversary. It fell on a Wednesday, which seemed pretty fantastic because they have «Wednesday Date Night» offers with a shared appetizer, choice of two mains, and a choice of two desserts for $ 49.
In retrospect, I’m not sure that it was a great idea to go on a Wednesday after all — and I’m kind of hoping that our experience had more to do with it being busy or the chefs «mailing it in» because the menu was a date-​night special.
We had bruschetta as an appetizer, and something just tasted… off. We’re both usually big fans, but neither of us could eat more than half a slice. For dinner, our mains were decent, but not great. I know that’s not an excellent description, but I think we were both expecting something with more of a taste to it. Instead, everything was kind of dry and disappointing. All in all, our experience was kind of «meh.» We were both thinking that we could have made the same dinner at home, which is a nice nod to simple cooking styles, I guess — but also not how you want to feel on date night. We were hoping the date night menu would give us a good idea of the kind of menu, ambiance, and experience we could expect from Borealis in the future, but instead we walked away talking about how glad we were we hadn’t paid full price for our dinner. We could have had like… 12 sad frozen pizzas for that $ 49. Or like, 4 decent pizzas from market fresh.
With that said, the wine list and dessert was pretty good. We had a bottle of Merlot and ended up ordering extra dessert (little jars of different seasonal cakes and a cobbler), so absolutely no complaints there.
I actually feel really guilty about not loving this place, but it just seems like it could do so much better. If we end up trying again I’ll come back and update this review, but it doesn’t seem likely. Sorry this review is kind of a downer! I know a lot of people do like it here, but maybe check out a night that isn’t Wednesday if you’re going to try Borealis for the first time.

I love the local aspect to this restaurant. The food I ordered tasted just OK, but I will be back because of how much I loved the vibe. The staff was great, and my girlfriends food was great too! I will just try something else next time. They change their menu depending on season given the local aspect.

My mom lives around the corner from this place and she wanted to check it out. Her colleagues at work told her it’s amazing and offers all local ingredients. Most memorable aspect wasn’t the food, but this moment:
Husband notices the menu emphasizes that the food is locally sourced.
Husband sees salmon on the menu.
Husband looks up at waitress and asks, «…from where is the salmon?»
Pretty funny! The food was okay, I think… I can’t even remember…

Very good food!!!
Prices are reasonable given the freshness and quality of ingredients. portion sizes were great.
We had no problems with parking but bit was a Wednesday night but on Thursday Friday and Saturday that may be an issue.
Its close enough to the clairfields movie theater that you could squeeze in the show after dinner
Casual (jeans and T-​shirt) or suit and tie… would both be appropriate

Food was excellent. The menu was a little sparse on selection, but not unexpected for a small local venue.

Great local food. From the veggies to the steak and pickerel, everything seemed to be from Ontario (I love that!). My steak was done just right, same with my wife’s pickerel. The venue was kinda noisy, but I’d go back, for sure. Dinner x2 with a drink each, we shared an app, and we shared a dessert all for $ 80 + tax & tip. Yum!

I was here with a couple of friends who had recently moved to Guelph. I’d describe it as an up-​scale family pub of sorts; if you can make sense of that. I like to support small business and local products, so I was happy to hear that this restaurant was known for using local products. What that meant, however, is that they run out of items on their «specials» list. I really wanted the Halibut special, but they didn’t have any left :(
I ended up ordering off the regular menu — a soup and salad. While I was happy with my meal, there was nothing that really stood out. My friends were happy with their meals too, but felt the same. That being said, it was good enough that we would come back.
The service was very friendly and the décor was very welcoming. In the bathroom they had this cute little hand spa exfoliant.

Excellent meal in a warm and relaxing environment! Great service, but the Duck and risotto were so good, I couldn’t stop eating. Highly recommend!

Enjoyed a nice steak dinner here with friends last Saturday night. I enjoy the comfortable atmosphere and that they are ‘obsessively local’. The service was friendly, and the wait for a table was less than 15 minutes.
Chose the 28 day aged striploin with roasted garlic butter, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and seasonal vegetables from the Winter menu. The Norfolk Country steak was of good quality. However I did ask for medium-​well and it was cooked to medium only. The roasted garlic butter was a bit of a miss, but the vegetables and mashed potatoes were tasty.
For desert had the $ 4 mini cheesecake served in a little mason jar. Cute presentation and a nice way to enjoy an indulgent treat in a small portion size.
Overall enjoyed my meal and the service here and will be back.

Very warm and friendly atmosphere. I goofed and placed a carry out order at the Guelph location, but when I showed up here, they apologized to me (how’s that for customer service?) and immediately set about getting my order ready. My steak was very good, sweet potatoes fries also were very good, the aioli sauce with them was quite tasty.

This place is known for being obsessively local, only trying to get their supplies from a limited area around them. I tried their lamb burger with fries. The meat was delicious with a nice white sauce and lettuce, not impressed by the bread. Also the fries were not really fresh. The lemonade was also watery with too much ice, but overall a tasty burger, worth a visit if you are in the Guelph area.

Always been a big fan of the idea of local-​sourced food. I’ve been here a number of times and the meat dishes are always fantastic. Really recommend the chicken salad sandwich.
The only downside are the salads, I’ve never had one that wasn’t drenched in vinegar or really underwhelming.

Excellent food. well prepared. Great to see all locally sourced ingredients and local beer. We really liked that the menu showed where all the ingredients are from. The pulled pork sandwich was awesome

Very disappointed after my last 2 visits. I remember Borealis as a nice place where I paid more for great services and delicious food. But lately, the services went downhill. Especially the food, which is overpriced for what is served.

had a bad experience with this place. It was a busy Friday evening. Our group of 10 was out for birthday celebration. took 15+ minutes for waiter to come around to our table, another 15+ min for drink to arrive. Waiter disappeared another 20+ min before taking our order. He didn’t really come around to wait our table at all. When he took our order, he disappeared for another twenty minutes just to come back to tell us that some of us had to order some’n else. All in all, one hour and a half later, we haven’t order food. We left bitterly, ’cause the waiter left us there forever. Haven’t been back there since. and yes the waiter was quite rude as well

I dined at Borealis a few years back and the most memorable part of my meal was a champagne cocktail. I chose to come back for drinks on my 25^th birthday, big mistake. There were three of us and we were warmly greeted and seated, and that was where the service turned sour. There was only space on the patio for a party of two so they let us bring over another chair and we were told that we could move as soon as another table became available. We ordered our drinks, which was their Northern lights lemonade, berry mojito, and white wine sangria. The sangria came with a raspberry atop that had lost all of its colour (see picture). You eat (or drink) with your eyes, and we were immediately turned off. My berry mojito had a few muddled berries but it tasted just like a basic mojito. There were definite quality issues. The mint was discolored, however it wasn’t bruised from the muddling, it just must have been old. The northern lights lemonade looked cool, and it was the best drink of the night.
After sitting at our tiny table for over an hour, we had come to the realization that were not being moved to a larger one. Having three large glasses and all of our personal belongs on the table, i was unaware that my sunglasses were set atop wrapped cutlery. Our server very rudely asked me if i could move my sunglasses so that she could use the cutlery on another guest. I am sorry but she knew that we were only ordering drinks, so the cutlery and plates should have been removed from the table at the beginning to give us more room.
Overall, the drinks were not good, the service or lack of was terrible, and i would rather walk downtown then drive 20 minutes to Borealis.

Borealis has the most amazing French Fries of all time! I highly suggest the fries!
The hamburgers don’t quite have the best meat to bun ratio (too thick of a patty), but are still good.
The Eggs Benedict on the brunch menu — The best I’ve ever had!

This place is just around the corner from our house. Perhaps it was just too convenient; I have no other explanation for why I hesitated so long before checking it out. I’m kicking myself for time wasted, now.
Much like Artisanale Bistro, Borealis is big into the local farm-​to-​table movement (their by-​line is «The Taste of Ontario»). And the freshness and flavor of the food are a fantastic argument for eating locally! The duck confit melts in the mouth; the greens are bright and crisp and flavorful; the ribs are fall-​off-​the-​bone tender, sweet and savory and succulent; the vegetables all taste like they were picked in the garden that morning (and they’re treated nicely in the kitchen, too).
Service has always been good to excellent (Sean — forgive me if I’m misspelling it – you’re a true ace and worthy of 5 stars all by yourself); best of all, everyone seems to be fanatic about the local food movement, and belief in what one does really shows.
Cocktails are well-​built, and there are a number of great local wines and beers. We got to try the Sunday brunch today, as well (10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.), which was superlative. We had a hard time deciding; the omelet of the day involved prosciutto, and sounded exquisite; the quiche of the day had gorgonzola, pear and walnut. Smoked trout benedict, double-​smoked bacon benedict, crisp fried seasoned potatoes, coffee and Caesars were all excellent — the Hollandaise sauce was creamy and emulsified and just lemony enough; the eggs were soft and perfectly poached; the English muffins weren’t tough or chewy, and were easy to cut; the meats were delectably rich. Everything was the right temperature, and it arrived before we could consume the Caesars (i.e. fast). The coffee even arrived on a little tray, with a beautiful presentation of sugar and cream (those little aesthetic touches make me happy, and the quality of the coffee kept the Pacific Northwest coffee snob in me silent). I couldn’t be happier that Borealis is just around the corner.