Shakespeare’s Steak & Seafood

«Always Excellent, Year after Year!»
I have eaten at Shakespeare’s once a year for a business Christmas lunch for the last several years. And year after year, the food service and ambiance are all excellent. Chef Franco who has been at the helm for 42 years, knows a thing or two about steaks.
For anyone who thinks the prices are too high, you must be still longing for the Ponderosa restaurants to come back. A great 12 ounce NY will cost $ 28-​$ 40 in most good steak restaurants and a filet can be as high as $ 40-​$ 45. What’s most important however is that you are happy you spent that kind of money when you’re eating your steak. And at Shakespeare, you will feel that it was money well spent. The steaks are always cooked exactly as you order them and very flavorful.
They also has a nice selection of seafood and the waiter brings out a sample tray of the various kinds of fish they have. Although I have never had the seafood, it always looks amazing.
The service is also excellent. The waiters are passionate about their work and are very attentive and always within a glance away. The ambiance is warm and «pub-​like» and unlike most modern restaurants, they still use crisp white table cloths. While there may be other restaurants around, I doubt any of them have been at it for 42 years.

I love steak and when i saw this on Unilocal,i told myself i needed to try this place. First impression this place looks fancy. The customer service was awesome. The bad news was the food. I ordered calamari and prime rib. First off the calamari was soaked with oil, i know it was fried calamari but the plate was filled with oil which doesn’t look appealing. For the prime rib, i asked for medium rare, but it was cooked medium well. The meat wasn’t as tender as i thought it would be and it didn’t have much flavor to it.

Our waiter was great! The server was extremely short on manners matching his stature! The thick black hair on my food was horrific. I excepted their excuses and I wasn’t charged for my fillet mignon though my nephew’s spoiled dinner was worth $ 160. I paid being the only one left that could show some class. If you believe this is classy dining than you’ve been fooled! Shamespeares was shameless to say the least!

The Rib Eye cut was phenomenal and the restaurant ambiance paired perfectly. A classic to say the least. The décor is a throwback to the good ol days of dining that compels you and your guests to actually engage in a thriving conversation without the need to constantly check your phone. The wait staff are personable, friendly, efficient and very knowledgeable on the finer things in life.
We booked a large table for a bachelor party and the restaurant closing time was 10oclock. To my surprise without rushing the meal in any way, Shakespeare’s allowed us to stay, drink, laugh and enjoy ourselves an additional 2 hours til midnight! Leo thank you for your hospitality. I can’t wait to return.
Take the drive out to Hamilton fellow Unilocalers you will not regret it.

The one Hamilton restaurant I crave when traveling out of country. Reliably excellent.

I’ll cut to the chase, this restaurant is great! Noticing it isn’t 5 star? I try to compare each genre of restaurant with others that I consider to be in the same genre.
We showed up at the restaurant without reservations, which is typical (I’m not the reservation type), and we were greeted with open arms.
We were immediately seated in at a nice table by the window. I found the servers to be all very attentive, although I would have enjoyed another round of the garlic bread… had it been offered (even though I don’t need it). The décor is a bit retro bordering out of date.
The food: My dining companion and I both ordered the filet mignon… very unusual, most of the time we order different entrees so that we can try different things. We really enjoyed the filet, it was very tender. In addition to the filet, we were served mixed vegetables (steamed baby carrots, broccoli, and asparagus) along with our choice of starch (baked potato, home fries, or rice). My dinner companion chose the baked potato and I chose the home fries. We were both served the baked potato. I pointed out the error in serving and was quickly served the home fries. The filet was very tender, served as ordered, and quite remarkable for its taste. The vegetables were good but a bit over steamed for my taste, they were; however, perfect for my dinner companion’s taste. The baked potato was… well, a baked potato, you can’t really do much with a baked potato… other than screw it up. Then there were the home fries. The home fries were a bit unusual, they were a bit saucy and had a dose of red and green peppers. On the whole, I enjoyed them, not so for my companion. Finally there was desert! We chose to share the cold chocolate moose and i found it to be a delightful capstone to a wonderful dinner.
As for wine, after looking at the wine list we decided that the best course of action would be to share a half carafe of Santa Carolina Merlot.
As an aside, why is it that Canadian restaurants insist on populating their wine lists with wines that are both pedestrian and over priced? I am remarking upon this because, I have really not found an interesting wine list in a Canadian restaurant to date.
Oh, and what’s with all the one way streets in Hamilton… yikes!!!

I consider my parents to be complete steak-​snobs and one day we decided to venture to Shakespeare’s in Hamilton to try it out. It’s a halfway point between me and them and the ONLY way that you could possibly convince me to set foot in Hamilton. Normally for steak we head to Zorro’s by the airport or Ruth Chris’s downtown, both are great, mind you, but they lack in certain things (I will review those later :-)). We’re greeted promptly when we walk in and we’re seated by our extremely personable server. We order drinks, chocolate martinis (me and mom) and the black russian (dad). No scrimping with the alcohol here. Our pickle tray and garlic bread arrive next. How I love garlic bread!!! Fantastic!!! Oodles of garlic and not so overtoasted that it shreds the top of your mouth to bits. Here’s the next big test, how will the Caesar salad taste? Personally, for me, a good Caesar contains so much garlic it burns your mouth and you taste it for a week and it should have lots of creamy dressing. I gave this salad a 10 out of 10 and even my hard-​to-​impress parents were in awe. Mom and I order filet mignon and dad orders the prime rib (of course) and all are done perfectly, you could probably have cut your meat with a butter knife. At this point we’re feel like we would have to roll out and I am secretly wishing I had a pair of drawstring pants. We still couldn’t resist a glance at the dessert menu. Twist our arm will you? Mom and I split the chocolate mousse and dad, he goes for the apple beignets. Can you spell h-​e-​a-​v-​e-​n?
We were thrilled with out experience and have been several times and I am happy that this place has managed to stay around considering the whole downtown is a ghost town. One thing that I don’t quite understand about steak and seafood restaurants? Why always male servers only?

Very good fine dining in Hamilton. The garlic bread is fantastic. Got the caprese salad, which was great. The buffalo filet was very decent. It tasted very similar to steak. I loved the apple beignets for dessert. Wow!