Absolutely amazing food with a very upscale feel and experience for a very reasonable price. Very personable staff with a genuine desire to establish good conversation (just like MJ at the bar!) Ambiance is classy and well worth the visit. Easily #1 in the area. I highly recommend the Chicken Karaage the Roast duck breast and Caesar salad. read more

Mercer Hall - Roast Duck Breast - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

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Delicious food. Excellent service. Cool, colorful decor. Fun ambiance. What more could you ask for? I really love the decor and vibe here. Everything is warm and welcoming. The staff is attentive and kind. I loved my Caesar salad! It already came with bacon and I added shrimp too. The Miso-Caesar dressing was delicious. I had a non alcoholic seltzer with cardamom and it was delicious. I enjoyed my side of fries with the homemade aioli too. My friends loved their falafel smash burger and fried chicken sandwich. Everything here is homemade and made from scratch. I would gladly come back. read more

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Mediocre bar food. It wasn't bad but wasn't fantastic. Unlikely to return. There are better places in town.

Decent food and lovely server. HOWEVER, busy, crowded, and noisy. We reserved a table for 2 at 6PM on a Saturday evening for dinner ahead of an 8PM curtain. We were seated without delay at a table along the wall opposite the kitchen. There seemed to be a lot of tables and all were full. It was a very hot day, 30C with humidity, and we were very glad to be indoors with AC. Our server was a lovely man and we enjoyed our conversations, these went beyond just our meals and included baseball and his sister's farm. Unsurprisingly we consider the service superb. We ordered the Buttermilk Chicken and the Classic Bento Box, our meals came quickly and portions were fine. Quibbles I had with the Bento box are as follows: I found the Miso soup a bit too salty and a bit thin on Miso. The Kimchi seemed a bit on the acidy side to me. Having steamed rice paired with dumplings and Karaage chicken seems pointless. Sort of like having bread served with your hot dog. I did enjoy the pork and shrimp dumplings and the chicken was also good. As mentioned the room was loud, the sound pressure level seemed high and required speaking louder than normal to have a conversation with my spouse. Once past the bar, there is a line of tables down one wall and opposite the kitchen. Every single table seemed to hold a party of two and the space used to maximize seating. This narrow space seemed to contain sound and made for a busy and noisy space. All told, it felt like the place was set up to maximize turnover while offering an interesting menu that is competently prepared and served. It would have been better if it was less busy. read more

Mercer Hall - Buttermilk chicken and Classic Bento box - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

We came here for a family celebration with 14 people on a Friday evening in December. The menu has a lot of Asian fusion dishes but there are other options and definitely something for everyone. The portion sizes are large (I couldn't finish mine and my 16 year old nephew said his dish had so much chicken), and everyone really liked their food. I had the Korean crispy chicken and rice bowl. It was filled with many different fresh flavours like ginger, cilantro, and aoili. The chicken was nicely fried and abundant. My husband initially ordered the kimchi stew and after we both tried it we decided it was extremely salty. They allowed him to send it back and order something else since it was a batch soup. He had the lamb udon which he was delighted with. All in all, we were happy with our experience and would return again if we're in town. read more

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We ate here last night. First time. Very memorable, delicious meal. I had the Tan tan men ramen with a Sauvignon Blanc New Zealand wine. So very very yummy. Great service from Saxon, too. read more

Mercer Hall - Tan tan men ramen - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

Gord and I had lunch today on the patio at Mercer Hall. He had Mijikai Maki (crispy hamachi tuna sushi roll, togarashi aioli, teriyaki sauce tobiko, pickled ginger, wasabi) for the first time ever and Apricot Glazed Japanese-style Cheescake with seasonal fruit compote, which he enjoyed. I had a Crispy Buttermilk Fried Chicken on a Bun and fries. It was good but I found the bun was a bit too much/too crusty so I ate it without the bun. read more

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My husband and I arrived on the spur of the moment and were seated right away on the patio. He had a chicken sandwich and fries. Both were good. I had a green salad also fine. Good place to stop for a quick bite read more

THE best restaurant in Stratford (and not as expensive as Bijou). A must try. Friendly, attentive, efficient service, delicious fusion dishes (not just pub food), enough choices on the menu to satisfy different tastes, nice decor. Simply amazing. I tried their Tokyo cioppino and am a fan. It's basically fish stew with Japanese inflection. The bowl is huge! read more

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Wow, where to begin? Scoping menus for our trip, Merced Hall was my number one draft pick. When my husband was paired with locals at the golf course who also recommended it, the trip was solidified! Service on a Thursday evening was lovely. We sat on the patio out front and knowingly ordered too much food so we could try it all. The rice bowls are 2 meals worth at least!! The Korean BBQ Bowl had an option to make it vegetarian by subbing tofu and extra broccoli, so that's what I did. Unfortunately, they chose not to include the Korean BBQ sauce at all so though tasty the flavor profile was quite reliant on mayo. I'd happily return and ask for bbq sauce as well. We didn't drink at this meal but everything that came out looked marvelous. read more

Mercer Hall - Interior - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

Good food, excellent location. Got us in before an evening performance at the Festival Theatre. Recalled that we stayed in their boutique hotel 11 years ago. Fond memories. read more

The vibe in here reminded me of an old beer hall, and I thought that fit perfectly. The menu probably isn't great for particularly picky eaters, but I got the bento box and found that it gave me a lot of options that I wasn't expecting. I actually wish I could've had more of the chicken given to me in the box-- it was the best part! It was pretty busy on a Friday night, but our food still came out pretty fast. read more

Mercer Hall - Bento Box - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

We didn't stay in the hotel but sat on the patio on a Friday night for dinner. I ordered the peanut crunch salad with tofu and my friend had the green salad with chicken and miso soup on the side. My salad was amazing. Fresh, flavourful, full of beautiful vegetables, crispy tofu, cilantro in a peanut dressing. One of the best salads I've ever had. Would highly recommend. Service was excellent and food came out quickly. read more

Two stars for nice ambiance and friendly, but marginal, service. The food is terrible - some was downright inedible. We started our meal with little tofu dumplings that were actually quite good - but that was to be the only good thing we had. In fact, the pictured bento box had the SAME dumplings but they were mushy and terrible. The miso soup, salty fried chicken with soggy greasy biscuit, and dry, dry, tasteless lentil burger - inedible. I had a better biscuit at the free breakfast at my hotel. Told the friendly but largely absent waitress about one dish that wasn't eaten because it was so bad and she gave a little tut tut and proceeded to deliver the bill in whole. No asking about making anything right. A huge disappointment. read more

Mercer Hall - Bento box - the only good thing was the salad. - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

Shout out to all at Mercer Hall. Had a great experience last night celebrating my wife's last cancer treatment. The food was great as usual and they gave us complimentary drinks and dessert. Many thanks to all involved. read more

Cool appies that I've not seen in other restaurants! Unexpected find here in Stratford, especially with the asian fusion type flavours. I also enjoyed their ambiance indoors and at the outdoor patio. I really enjoyed all the dishes we got: -GAZPACHO cold soup - the creama and crispy rice ball was a nice texture with the refreshing cold seasonal watermelon gazpacho -LETTUCE WRAPPED PORK MEATBALLS - I liked the leaner meat with the sauces & pickled veggies. We asked for more lettuce though, which the server was really nice about! -Hibiscus cocktail read more

Mercer Hall - Gazpacho (seasonal watermelon) cold soup (5/5), Lettuce wrapped pork meatballs (4.5/5) - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

Absolutely delicious! The BBQ Korean bowl was plenty of food. The bento was also quite good. The pumpkin old fashioned was a nice riff for a fall day on the patio. read more

Food was great, drinks were delicious. They had a drink called a new old fashion that my friend surprisingly loved. Service was great. Our server also helped guide us through the menu and gave us her favorites which was much appreciated read more

Mercer Hall - Bento box was delicious and had so much leftovers. It also came with a soup. I asked for kbbq sauce with it as well. - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

Sidewalk tables Bloody Mary's Interesting beverage choices. ( bacon infused vodka!) Tables inside were quite private. read more

I got the Bento Box and it was absolutely delicious with a lot of different flavours that I completely devoured. My girlfriend got the Chilled Crispy Chicken Salad (I think that was the name), and she claims it to be one of the top 3 best meals she's ever had and won't stop talking about it for our entire trip here. Do with that information what you will. The service was also fantastic! read more

Mercer Hall - Bento Box (Crispy Chicken Salad in background) - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

The beer list was good here. I just don't know the last time I have been to a place where they actively made me feel like they didn't want me there. We cane in after a show, you would think that's when they make money. The kitchen was closed. The guy said he wasn't going to mix any drinks. We ordered beer, the drinks were hardly on the coasters before they brought our bill. Would not recommend. read more

The mussels in coconut curry and the coconut curry soup are fantastic. My martini was excellent and my friend had a nitro black Russian which was unusual and great. Service is prompt, courteous, professional and knowledgeable. Ambience is wonderful. Do NOT order the seafood platter. It is NOT what the menu describes. At ALL. AVOID! But the servers took it away quickly and are endeavoring to make good on our meal. Kitchen should be scolded for trying to put that over on us!!!! What are we ? HIGH SCHOOL KIDS????? Shame!! Service staff and bartenders are definitely doing their jobs well! Lots of places to eat along Ontario street! Made up to us with a nice Korean chicken dish. Very yummy. Ginger brulee...small but very tasty. Service was excellent. Seafood platter is a joke. read more

Great food and huge selection of beverages. The chicken is excellent. Service is great read more

Partner and I did a weekend getaway and stayed at Mercer Hall and absolutely loved it. Did both a dinner and brunch there and loved the range of menu options, clever Asian-fusion takes on classic fare and the great beer menu. Service was fantastic, decor and ambiance inviting and unpretentious. Ate at Revival House one night which was supposed to be our "fine dining" evening and found the food at Mercer Hall not only superior but better value. Room was also great and service top notch, highly recommend if you are coming to Stratford to see a show make Mercer Hall your home base (especially if you are a beer lover). read more

Great Food! Great service! Recommended to try dipping the fresh bread in the dumpling sauce and it was incredible! Would definitely love to go back read more

A friendly, affordable, and delicious place in the heart of Stratford. A large variety of food from Southeast Asia as well as more traditional bistro fare (burgers, chicken, and more). Friendly and helpful staff. An amazing array of great beers! And a very comfortable and welcoming atmosphere for the solo customer! read more

The place is pretty famous and fully booked, yet we thought we're lucky enough that the bar was available for us. Turned out we have been waiting for almost an hour for our order to come out. We had to take our food to the box otherwise we'd miss our show at the theatre. The food is ok. We had Coconut Curry Soup, Korea Crispy Chicken Rice Bowl, Spicy Thai noodle and sushi. read more

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Mercer Hall has delicious food and a great beer selection. Their menu is Asian fusion combining traditional bar fare with an izakaya inspired menu and Japanese tavern gastro pub dining style. The menu is locally sourced and is rotating based on seasonal ingredients. The menu is very diverse and has something for everyone with items like steamed pork belly buns, miso ramen, coconut curry soup, salmon, soy BBQ glazed ribs, pulled pork nachos, buttermilk fried chicken, spicy taco burger, and Korean rice bowl. I started with a steamed pork belly bun which was much larger than I expected. The pork belly was melt-in-your-mouth tender and I loved the flavors of the spicy aioli and pickled onions and carrots, it was super delicious! For my entree, I had the Korean BBQ crispy chicken rice bowl with broccoli, pickled ginger, sesame omelet, kimchee, and aioli. It was to-die-for delicious! I would highly recommend ordering this! The flavors were amazing! I loved the spicy sweet tangy sauce and the tender crispy chicken. The portion was huge and I could only eat half of it and ate my other half for lunch the next day. My friends ordered the coconut curry soup, buffalo panko crusted fish sandwich, veggie burger, and buttermilk fried chicken with buttered biscuits. Everyone really liked their food. The coconut curry soup in particular got rave reviews. My friend also really liked the veggie burger. Mercer Hall also offers desserts and my friend had the apple tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream and it looked good. Food was excellent and everything was tasty but prices are expensive. For example my rice bowl was $25 CAD. They also have a nice beer selection with 15 Canadian craft beers on tap and a large selection of bottle beers as well. Their beer list was mainly IPAs and sours and not as many dark beers. My friend and I had flights which comes with your choice of four beers. My favorites were the Flying Monkeys Milkshake IPA with flavors of coconut and orange and the Tales from the Patch pumpkin porter which was a dark robust pumkiny beer. Service was good and our server was friendly and attentive throughout our visit. Atmosphere is nice with a long corridor with metal paneling in the wall and hanging lights. There's also seating near the bar in the first room when you walk in. We were seated in a high top near the bar which was my only complaint. I made a reservation and called the restaurant a week in advance for our party of six. I was hoping to be seated in the more atmospheric long corridor area with more comfortable booth. The high top wasn't very comfortable and it would have been nicer to be seated in a booth. Still had a great meal here. The food was very delicious and I'm still dreaming about the Korea crispy chicken rice bowl. If you are in Stratford for theatre, as we were, I'd highly recommend making a reservation in advance as restaurants book up very quickly. read more

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The food was ok but expensive. Nice atmosphere but $11 for a beer! I had the Buttermilk Chicken with Biscuit and fries. The biscuit had soaked up a lot of the grease from the chicken, so it was a heavy meal. Good selection of food and drinks and several plates looked very tasty. read more

Pretty tasty food, and an interesting menu. I came here with friends this week when were were in Stratford to see a play at the Avon Theater nearby. I wasn't feeling well that day so opted to just order a few appetizers - I had the steamed pork bun, which is $10 CAD but HUGE (just one bun, but huge, more like a sandwich), as well as the potstickers. The potstickers were okay, nothing special, but I really enjoyed the steamed pork bun, and probably could have just ordered that for my meal. One friend ordered the fried chicken platter, which was just okay, she said; another ordered the portabello sandwich, and she said it was great. A friend's boyfriend ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich, which was a huge portion, and his girlfriend ordered the coconut curry soup, which looked very good. I didn't get our waitress's name but she was super friendly, and good with refills. Definitely make sure you get a reservation, especially if it's a theater date; we had a 5:30pm reservation and were there until 7:30pm, and when we left the place was booked solid. Unique concept (Asian fusion) here and I'd come back when in the area. read more

We had stopped going because in past years we felt it had lost its luster. We stopped by for a light pre-theater dinner. No problem getting a reservation the same day on a Tuesday night. We were seated quickly and the server asked if we were going to theater. Extensive beer menu! I had a sazerac and companion had amaretto sour. Both were well done. The menu is very Asian-themed but with burgers, fried chicken, and other items. Restaurants with large menus always worry me a bit. This did not disappoint. We enjoyed the halloumi salad, the pork bun, the duck bowl, and fried rice ball side dish. The cheesecake (blueberry) was wonderful. Service was very prompt and friendly. Mercer is back on our Stratford list! read more

We had dinner here upon getting a recommendation from a local man. This is a nice little establishment in the heart of downtown with a beautiful patio set up in front of the restaurant. We started our meal off with the Thai soup as an appetizer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then We got recommendations to try the buffalo fish, which was a fish fillet that was tossed in buffalo sauce. The fish was wedged between these delicious buns that tastes like the bun/croissant, it was steamed and topped with carrot slaw, which was a nice compliment to this fish. I had a side of fries, with some red wine and some local beer. Thought the sandwich was decent, my fillet had several bones inside, which made it challenging to get through the sandwich and thoroughly enjoy it, but I was given a discount of I think $3 for this meal on my $80 bill, which was nice. They also had a very nice pickled cucumber, well flavoured, but a little soggy. The wine was good, and the local beer was a nice treat on a hot summer afternoon. read more

Mercer Hall - Thai coconut curry - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

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Great ambience and food was interesting and prepared with care. The service was quick and friendly. We will come back.

I've been to Stratford in the past but never stayed for the night. I am so glad we decided on Mercer Hall, which has great rooms and a classy restaurant as a lobby. It doesn't look like anything fancy from the street, but once you step inside, there is a lovely area with warm lights, copper walls, and comfortable seats. The menu was a fusion of many different cuisines, but there were a lot of Asian elements, which I definitely didn't expect. I ordered the house smoked salmon board, while my parents opted for pig tails and udon soup. I was pretty impressed with my food, although I would've loved fresh salmon as an option. The pig tails were delicious, but the udon was underwhelming. The noodles weren't the typical udon that we were used to, and it was the only dish that didn't have as large of a portion. Mercer Hall has a great central location and fits well with the vibe of Stratford as a whole. I would definitely come back for both the food and lodging. read more

Mercer Hall - Salmon board - Bars Near Me - Stratford, Ontario

My elderly mother had a slip and fall. None of the staff helped her, just the customers. The staff didn't follow up to see if she was okay. We had celebrated our family Christmas dinner at the restaurant. I wrote a previous review on google. It was deleted somehow and again no acknowledgement on this incident. A lot of elderly people come to Stratford for dinner either before or after a show. I would definitely not recommend this establishment or ever return again. We were weekly customers, even through the pandemic ordering take out. Will not return ever again. read more

Delicious spot for a pre-theatre lunch/brunch in Stratford! The menu is small but varied with a daily soup, beet salad, sandwiches, burger, or their famous chicken and waffles. I had their Mercer Burger which is cooked sous-vide and slightly pink in the centre (the waitress warns you in case you are expecting more of a classic burger). It came with delicious toppings on a nice bun -- delicious!! The burger comes alone but you can add sides. I got the apple slaw which was light and crisp -- refreshing and without too much creamy sauce. My DC had the chicken and waffles. The fried chicken has lots of spices and is perfectly juicy, while the waffles were fluffy and sweet -- a perfect combo. They have a good selection of craft beers and cocktails, although I opted for a nice almond rooibos tea. It's a bit pricey (there's the cost of needing to pay extra for a side, compared to other places where a side salad or fries would be included), but the quality of the food is great. The service is also quite attentive and thoughtful, while the dining room is spacious and inviting. I've tried a few restaurants in Stratford and this is one of my favourites. Would definitely be back and it looks like they have some fun events too (e.g. industry nights with $5 drink specials). There is a hotel above the restaurant too. read more

I wish this restaurant was in my neighbourhood of Toronto. The menu is exciting, the food is excellent and the beer selection is fantastic. There are over 100 brews available from Craft Breweries from across Ontario. And many of them are special editions or low runs. I had the burger and it was delicious. My wife had the Halumi Salad and added crispy tofu. Both of us really enjoyed our lunch. read more

Always a great meal! Great location, cool vibe! Great service! The fried chicken is fantastic!

Everything was had was delicious! The wings had a nice crispy batter, the jerk pulled pork steam buns were great, and the Caesar salad had large chunks of bacon. I also enjoyed a really good virgin mojito. read more

We arrived at 5:30 and had PLENTY of time before an 8pm show at the Tom Patterson (we walked). All very serviceable pub food; the salads were particularly good. Very polite, responsive service. read more