I've been to this Royal Oak several times now, most recently for a friend's birthday party. Although I'm generally not a huge fan of "chain pubs" I can attest that not all Royal Oaks are created equal and this one is one of the better ones. I'd give this location 3.5 stars (Yelp doesn't allow half stars, so I'm feeling generous and will up it to 4). Other locations I'd give 2 to 2.5 stars. On my most recent visit I had the Warm Goat Cheese and Walnut Salad and added a grilled chicken breast to it. I had this exact same dish at the Royal Oak on Centrepointe, and this location on Kent did it so much better. Firstly, the location on Kent used real mixed greens (and not just mixed greens on top of a huge pile of iceberg lettuce, like at Centrepointe). The panko-crusted goat cheese ball at the Kent location was also much bigger than at the Centrepointe location. The Kent location also had lots of bacon in the salad, whereas I didn't get any bacon in my salad at the Centrepointe location. The salad was bigger and much tastier at the Kent location. My husband had the liver and onions with fries. I had a few fries and they were great. Nice and crispy and tasted great with the gravy on the liver. I had a taste of some shared appetizers. There were some fish fingers and those tasted good. Crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside. The chicken wings were a bit on the small side, but good. The nachos were generously topped with toppings. Service was excellent. I think our server's name was Josh and he was really attentive. I ordered a strawberry daiquiri and they really filled the glass, and as I was clinking glasses with others at the table, some of my drink spilled down the side of the glass. Without me having to ask, Josh brought over some extra napkins for me. And then when he noticed I was really having trouble getting the glass to be unsticky, he offered to pour my drink into a new glass. So he gave me a new glass, he even rimmed it with sugar and gave me new garnishes. How nice was that? This Kent Street location has a huge patio. The only drawback is that since it's in Centretown, there's no free parking, you have to park on the street. read more

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Nice place to get together and hang out. Great neighbourhood feel. Lobsterfest was a hit for some in the group but wings are best!

The Royal Oak is a good restaurant. I suppose that's why it has so many branches spread out in Ottawa, even only blocks away from each other. People seem to enjoy their food, as do I. A bit pricey for a pub that serves nothing out of the ordinary, but nevertheless, serves good food. I've been here for brunch once, lunch twice, and drinks a couple of times. Had brunch here one Sunday morning after church, it was fairly good! Got the ordinary over easy eggs, sausage, toast and home fries. They cooked my over easy eggs perfectly. It wasn't completely runny, but it wasn't overdone either. The toast was supposed to already be "buttered" but it barely was, so I had to order butter on the side. The sausage is really good, and their home fries are cripsy! Service was a bit slow, even with only three tables inside, but the server kindly approached us and apologized for the delay. Lunch is a different story. I believe every branch of the Royal Oak is PACKED between 11:30am-2pm, especially the downtown branch. Also, you will be waiting a long time for your food. I suggest if you're coming here for lunch, make it a day where you have at least an hour to spare, or you will be late. Don't say I didn't warn you! The main reason I gave this place 4 stars is because I LOVE to come here for drinks. Love the booth seats. They are comfortable and big. At night the lights are dimmed, so it's the perfect place to pre-drink and have a pitcher of beer, or even to drink the night away. read more

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Probably the worst service I have ever had.after being seated took almost 1/2 hour to order drink. Another 45 minutes to be brought a late night menu ( arrived@ 6:40 ). Told the kitchen was backed up and would be an hour to get my dinner. Could understandif they were busy but less then a 1/4 full.. read more

tl;dr: expensive food for its portions, quality and taste. It was not worth it. Wouldn't particularly recommend. I went with my coworkers for drinks and food after work. Wednesdays have a Stellas and Coronas for $6/bottle special. We shared 'battered onion rings' ($9). I ordered a shrimp po boy sandwich ($15), upgraded my fries to sweet potato fries (+$2) which came with chipotle ranch sauce. The meal also came with half a full sized pickle on the side. The burger had ~5 small-medium sized battered shrimp, onions, lettuce, and tomato topped with aioli sauce between a brioche bun. In my opinion, the burger wasn't assembled very well as the onion was very concentrated (one bite took all the onions). The burger wasn't particularly flavorful between the sauce, shrimp, and brioche bun. Nothing stood out. Portions were on the smaller side, especially at this price point. The food was mediocre at best. We sat out on the patio facing Kent Street and the pub seemed popular among older men. It's in the convenient location of downtown Ottawa, but I'm confident you can find cheaper and/or better food with the same atmosphere nearby. read more

I'm working in the Minto building and we are going often for birthday and retirement parties. Pretty nice place to take a drunk et the food is also really good. The wrap is an excellent choice and my favorite over there. The service is excellent. The personnel is always awesome and they are coming often at your table to make sure everything is fine. Keep in mind that it's really really busy during office hours. Highly recommended it if you are looking for a nice place to hang out. read more

A good place for a few alcohol pops after work. The food is really ordinary and over priced for what you get. Nachos are not that great. The best thing might be their buffalo chicken wrap. Also, they have cell phone chargers that you can get if your phone battery is close to dead and dont want to miss that call. I know, I know, its pretty bad when your review comes down to this. read more

I have been unimpressed with the Royal Oak before, but hadn't been to this location, so I tried it out in March when my mother came to visit. It was a terrible experience. I got a chicken club sandwich on focaccia bread - usually I love those sorts of sandwiches! But the bread was dry and CRAZY thick, so it felt like a mouthful of dry bread with some chicken in there. The sandwich was dry, too - they really skimped on the guacamole. I ended up eating the chicken without the bread, and I'm not usually this picky. Service was terrible too. It was maybe 2pm on a weekday and most tables were empty. When we got our waters, I noticed my glass was dirty (with sticky pop residue on the outside and inside the rim) so I gave it back to my server and asked for a replacement. The server took at least 15 minutes to get me another glass of water. Didn't really help with the dry sandwich issue... Only upside? The fries at this location were much better than I've had at other ROs, they were great! Downside to that? I had ordered onion rings as a substitution that my server must have forgotten... yikes. read more

I work in Minto Place so I have passed by this location hundreds of times. I figured, you've been to one Royal Oak, you've been to them all. On the contrary! This one, in my opinion, is the best. We had a team birthday lunch this week, so as we were on work time (as most patrons are, no doubt), everyone's food came out in a very timely manner. All except for mine, of course - I had ordered the Black & Blue salad, as did two of my colleagues, but I guess they hadn't made enough steak, so my plate was late. I was still cool with it because the waitress acknowledged it and was very apologetic. The waitress was very friendly and personable overall. I had to leave early for a meeting so she brought me a box and the debit machine when I asked. Aside from the great service, the food was so good. I highly recommend the Black & Blue salad. My steak was cooked perfectly, and the combination of ingredients (garden salad, blue cheese, bacon crumble) was awesome. I had some of my buddy's nachos - also really, really good. Way to go, Royal Oak. My last experience was bad, but this location turned it around. read more

This chicken sandwich on ciabatta bread is delicious and best sangria here. All the food here is excellent and friendly, fast service. Highly recommend spacious patio. read more

Good for them for updating the menu! Everything is still just so over-priced for what you get! me just wants to open up my own chain of bars across Ottawa just to do what the Royal Oak should be doing but then I remember I have a job I really like.... This last time I had to settle on the chicken fingers, which has a new fancy batter (panko breadcrumbs maybe?) while my friends got a burger, salad, chicken tikka - more or less the classic old menu items. The general settiment was why do we eat here to play trvia! read more

This place was meh. My wife and I went here for dinner. For some reason, I seem to recall that the Royal Oak chain of bars used to deliver pretty good food and drinks for a reasonable price. It's been awhile since we were last in one of these places, but things seem to have gone downhill. There was a good selection of beer. The nachos were mediocre at best. You know they aren't good when you see tri-colour chips. Cheese barely melted and no other ingredients worth mentioning. Wings tasted like they were from the freezer. Very small. Portions are adequate, not generous. The waitress was mostly interested in up-selling the items on the menu. For the price, this place can do better. The place seemed busy. Weird. read more

Good little neighbourhood bar. Watched playoff hockey there and it was fun, loud and exciting. Food is pretty good, hit wing night for sure to get your money's worth. Buffalo chicken wrap was great. Definitely return when I'm back. read more

Wait staff okay, not overly friendly. My friends meet there frequently so we popped in to wait. Onion rings greasy and fairly tasteless. No rush to head back. read more

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The food is solid for the price point; under $30 for a sandwich and a burger. I found it to be on the bland side, but you can tell ingredients are fresh. My Turkey Melt with Swiss and Alfalfa needed an extra flavor in there like a pesto or roasted red pepper aioli to give it a kick, but the turkey breast is nicely juicy and tender. The chicken noodle soup was a pass; soggy vegetables with even soggier bits of macaroni noodles in it. The chorizo burger was done well, though it would've been nice to see the sweet potato fries come with a chipotle dip. The wait time is on the long side, our table of 4 arrived at 1:30pm on a quiet Monday and it took about 30mins for us to get our burgers and sandwiches. This would be a good place to come for beers and a leisurely lunch/dinner, not if you've got a planned schedule. read more

The Royal Oak - Turkey Melt with Swiss and Alfalfa Sprouts on Baguette with Chicken Noodle Soup, Chorizo Burger with Sweet Potato Fries - Pubs Near Me - Ottawa, Ontario

We are there often for filmmakers meet ups. They have also supported us, by offering their restaurant as a place to film. Very supportive of the community. Love the atmosphere and the staff is quite friendly. The food is wonderful and beer is great. Wish the parking was better. But that's downtown for ya. Check it out! read more

Mike is a fantastic server and does a great job at making sure everyone is safe! Food and drink are great too!

If you wanna go where loud drunks get served until they drop to the floor then this is where you want to be. We had to leave as we couldn't hear each other, even when we almost yelled to try to top the gang of drunks a few tables away. Isn't that against LCBO policies? I wonder how many were driving home? Hopefully none but serving drunks is extremely dangerous and unbecoming. I filed a complaint with LCBO so I'm sure they got a nice visit. Next time it will cost them their license. So much for "Smart Serve" - better known as "Useless Serve"... not to mention extremely poor management for letting this get to that point... either the manager is asleep at the switch or simply doesn't care - either way - pathetic! read more

One of the only places open near the hotel we were staying at on a Friday night. Crazy right, everything else closes around 11 or 12. After arriving in Ottawa close to midnight, we were in dire need of a drink. They have 2 ciders on the menu, and a small menu of munchies. It hit the spot, and the server was lovely. read more

I enjoy coming to the Oak and it has become my go-to spot to unwind with colleagues after work. This location is great because it has a large inside and comfortable seating and they occasionally have live music and regular events going on. In the summer time they have a huge outdoor patio which is awesome as well. Service is also good. I always seem to get the same server who is great. He knows my order by heart and he has done an excellent job at building a rapport with customers. Drinks are fairly cheap which I appreciate and they offer a large variety. They also have specials on specific beers each day of the week which is awesome. Food is pretty good considering it is pub food. The portions are a good size and the prices are decent. I recommend the veggie wrap, the spinach dip, the sweet potato fries or the nachos. All of these options are tasty. This place gets four stars instead of five because there is no parking available on-site and the bathrooms are absolutely filthy every time I come here. If they stepped up their food game a little more then I would consider overlooking these minor annoyances, but for now, they get four stars. read more

Restaurant is close to the minto suite hotel, casual atmosphere great for catching the game on TV with friends. We had their burgers & onion rings. Burgers were large & delicious. Service & selection was good. Open late read more

This place is pretty basic but a good place to hang out with your friends over a few beers. I've ordered the veggie burger here. I've easily had over a thousand veggie burgers at a thousand different pubs and this one was pretty damn alright, which is saying something. It's not exactly the most vegan-friendly pub on the planet, but they did a good job of accommodating me and the staff were very sweet. The atmosphere, especially out on the patio, is really nice. I usually get nice and drunk and people-watch with my Ottawa friends, which is a lot more entertaining than it would seem. My verdict? Pretty alright place. Saw the Royal Oak, liked the Royal Oak, and I would say, SEE the Royal Oak. read more

Very average. My family got a smokehouse burger, a chicken quesadilla, and a fish and chips. The burger was very average, and expensive too, quesadillas was good, but size was too small for price, but fish was really tender. Staff was friendly too, got my sweet potato fries wrong, sent them and waved the extra 1.99 fee. Sometimes they take too long to come though read more

Just wanted to say that Saturday July 29th was crazy busy today because of La Machine. Streets were packed and so was this Royal Oak. Thanks for keeping me entertained and feeling always welcomed despite the crowds! Josh Bercier you are awesome! Sam, Jody and Chandra, Nick...I You rock! read more

My order was wrong; I advised the waitress, and she brought it back, but it was still wrong. If she had checked on us throughout our meal, I would have been able to tell her. But she never 'checked in'. The service wasn't great, but it may have just been our server. read more

Went for a late supper while driving through. My California Club was passable, though made worse by the stale bun. My spouse had the Citrus Peppersorn Talapia. She wasn't impressed. Oh, and they charge a buck extra if you want 1/2 & 1/2 salad & fries. Looks like an OK place to have a drink with friends, but you may want to eat elsewhere first. read more

How could I start off for this?.When I approached the restaurant we were not greeted by nice smiling helpful waiters,but people smoking away.included several employees. Absouloutly unacceptable.Now when I entered the building,there were some waiters who looked like they had come right from the strip club.Who wants there children exposed to that?.(Im not a parent,but Im just saying that).They were unhelpful to us and everybody else,thinking chatting is more important then serving us. Enough about the beginning,onto the food.I ordered the cheese burger,which when I asked the waiter he said that everything on the burger was fresh off the market.When my burger arrived the first thing I did was to see if he was lying or not.Hair was on my burger and the "Vegetables" on my burger were absolutely drenched in grease and had been in the freezer for well over a month.When I "Ate" my burger I asked day waiter if he could fix this.He took well over 30 mins and returned with no answer completely forgetting about me.I picked up my stuff,and after paying my bill,left the waiter no tip for being such a asshole.I left the restaurant quickly and will never return.Stay away from this place at all costs. read more