The Bauer Kitchen

I like the whiskey menu. Decent prices at 9.99 for cocktails. I got an old fashioned which was perfect. The bar needs some improving however. We went on a Friday night and there was noone at the bar, as its kind of smallish and not very lively.
As for food, only got some appetizers which were decent and not too bad of a price.

Weekend brunch here is really good, and their coffee is delicious. My friend and I shared the eggs benedict and french toast. The eggs benedict was good, but the french toast was even better. The french toast was warm, and crispy on the outside but soft in the middle. Would definitely order again!

The ambience and food here are defo worth five stars but the service is slow, so I’m giving it four. I often come here for the breakfast — it’s pretty phenomenal. Pricey, but worth it if you can afford to splurge a little sometimes. The dinner menu is always varied but, for some reason I can’t quite pinpoint, it doesn’t really speak to me. I can usually find an item or two that I am okay with though, and it’s always at least satisfactory.
The venue itself is classy and warm. Art for sale on the walls, so there’s always a bit of freshness there. Alcohol doubles as decorative, which is something I quite like doing in my own spaces. There is a nice long bar with two TVs and craft ales, so you can actually come here for pubbish purposes, and enjoy food that isn’t breaded and deep-​fried.
Despite slow service, everyone is very friendly and accommodating.

I went here with my boyfriend for his birthday, and made the reservation early in advance. They asked me what the occasion was, and I told them about the birthday, and they said that they would make a special memo. I was very psyched to go, we’ve both heard really great things about this place, and wasn’t disappointed by the rustic décor and pleasant atmosphere when we first entered. When I told the hostess about our reservation, she asked if it was still the two of us, which I didn’t really understand (because there were only two of us standing…), but she lead us to our table, which was very nice, as it was located by the window.
We both ordered steak and frites, which was okay; we wished that we had ordered a salad at the side, since this order was very dry; but overall the steak was very good. I didn’t think I needed to mention my boyfriend’s birthday, since I thought it was already noted when I made the reservation. In the end, I got my bill, and there were no special birthday treats, and I was very disappointed, as it would’ve been really nice to surprise him. I’m not sure whether I was supposed to remind our waitress about his birthday, which would’ve been difficult to do (with my boyfriend seated right there). Overall, I was disappointed with the service, but liked the food and the ambiance to this place!

The Bauer Kitchen is unfortunately one of the poorer of the Charcoal group’s offerings.
While the food sounds fancy on the menu, the execution is pretty standard of a casey’s or similar restaurant. They also tend to skimp on the ingredients that make the dishes appealing — for example the pulled pork nachos have very little pulled pork on them.
Not worth the price.

I had the eggs benedict and a mimosa. Delicious, really good a little pricey though ended up being $ 30 with a coffee. Would go again.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Bauer Kitchen for their brunch menu but going for dinner was definitely a new experience. The restaurant is a beautiful venue with a very rustic feel to it. Unfortunately with all the traffic around the city, it is a bit of a challenge getting there. Went here for a family dinner with 9 of us and there was plenty space. The place is great for large groups and they’re really accommodating of the one baby we had in the group.
The dinner menu is quite more expensive than their brunch menu with almost every entrée priced above $ 20 with exception of the fish & chips and the burger. Our table ended ordering a few different entrees such as the fish & chips, steak and frites, braised short rib, the Bauer burger and the special which was steak on gnocchi. After tasting each one of them, the cheapest items on the menu seemed to taste the best, that is the Bauer burger and the fish & chips. The burger was well cooked. For the fish and chips, the chips were specially made from whole potatoes and fish was huge with a perfect amount of fish and crust around. Definitely felt like the other items we ordered way too over priced especially the special for the night that had real good gnocchi but the steak was just mediocre. The steak and frites was underwhelming as well with the steak rub not standing out in anyway. The braised rib was mediocre, with stew sauce flavor being a little too strong.
Service was great! Our server was really helpful and when people wanted sub something out from the dish, she had no problem doing it. I definitely will go back to Bauer but not for dinner. Their brunch menu is amazing and I’ll definitely update this review when I try out the brunch again.

I’ve been here a bunch of times, for dinner, lunch, dessert/​drinks and now for brunch. Once or twice I’ve had some issues but majority of the time food is great and so is the service.
My favourite thing here is the TBK salad. I love everything about it. I regularly grab it to go from the café that’s attached. I love the fresh baked breads. I love the aesthetic of the restaurant as well.
Last weekend I went for brunch and I liked the make your own Caesar bar– and it was a bargain at $ 6.95.

My boyfriend took me here for my birthday dinner and we both loved it! We ordered the charcuterie, duck wings, a pizza and dessert to split and somehow went home with left over pizza. Our server was very nice and paid great attention to us. Would definitely recommend!

The décor of this restaurant is very modern, using the original infrastructure to its advantage. I can only imagine what a wonderful dining out experience this is on date night!
I went there for lunch and was disappointed there is no lunch menu. I ordered the short rib gnocchi and my friend ordered the sopressata pizza. Holy smokes, both were delicious!
The service was so friendly and very, very attentive. She complimented the coffee to my friend!
If you are in the Waterloo area, I highly recommend stopping here for a delicious meal served by friendly staff.

Service was okay. drink was never refilled during the entire dinner. Food was pretty average/​mediocre, nothing special.

Love the atmosphere of The Bauer Kitchen! I think its a really good date spot. I ordered the TBK salad with salmon and loved it! Highly recommend :) My friend got the short rib gnocci and said it was good, but he said that he quickly got tired of the taste while eating it. I really want to come back here to try their brunch (eggs benedict looks so good!).

For a restaurant business that is suppose to be local you’d expect it to be better than your typical Keg or other Steakhouse chains, but it isn’t any better and might even be worse. It didn’t live up to my expectations. When I was there it felt like a more expensive Beer Town (and matter of fact Beer Town is owned by the same people) with more fancy and meals that fit into the more fine dining experience, but the quality was only incrementally better.
I had a medium rare angus steak with green peas and mashed potatoes, your standard side dishes. It wasn’t anything special, and for the price it should’ve been better.
I have to say the ambience was definitely there, like you feel you’re in an upscale, fine dining restaurant and the service was quite good, I give it that. The food just wasn’t there for me.

Decent food, pretty well done and a fair variety. Pretty good staff overall. «Trying a bit too hard» in terms of trying to be trendy, and a bit expensive compared to others in the region serving almost the same fare. Unfortunately, noisy as hell at times, almost unbearable between the crowd noise and the pumped up music, not a place to go expecting a nice quiet evening and conversation during dinner.

Used to love this place but the food quality has gone down so much. It’s a real shame, and I go there almost once every 2 weeks.
Ordered a soup, it was cold and the waiter didn’t tell us there was only about half a bowl left in the pot… He then proceeded to do nothing about it.
Dishes aren’t as flavorful or even close to being what they used to be.

Consistently great food and service. One of my favourite restaurants in Waterloo. This visit we tried the duck confit wings after hearing someone rave about them. Holy crap they are good. I will probably order them every single time I go now.

I’ve been here several times since moving to Waterloo recently, which speaks to how much I like it. The service is always friendly and helpful, and the food is consistently good. From paninis to salads to omelettes to unbelievable chocolate brownies, I’ve never been disappointed. And their short rib gnocchi deserves its own separate shout out for making me legitimately consider going back to the restaurant the very next day just so that I could have it again.

I got the wagyu burger and the calamari for dinner that night. Both were delicious! I got some sweet potato fries with my burger and well. sweet potato fries are always awesome. I also couldn’t be more impressed with the service. The server was at the table frequently and was super friendly. The food came pretty quick as well. Conveniently they also have free parking right outside.

Went with wife and kids on March Break, I was curious to see how the Old Bauer factory was transformed.
Kids ordered off the kids menu, wife had the special which was a Salmon pasta dish and I ordered the Short Rib. We also ordered a Calamari to start. What impressed me was the thought the preparation and the freshness in everything, even with the dinner rolls. Our server Ryan was great… he made sure we were taken care of. Overall worth the trip

There is a lot to like about Bauer Kitchen. The beautiful industrial interior with touches of a barn/​country motif. Menu items with slight twists like banh mi burgers and duck wings. But when it comes down to it, the food is good, but not great. It’s missing the wow factor that brings me back to a place.
We started with the hoison glazed chicken tacos with carrot, cilantro, daikon, etc. Pretty much all the things you would find on a banh mi. It had the tastes of a banh mi, but maybe could have packed more punch. It was solid, but not a must try.
I tried to order the lamb special, but they were already soldout at 8pm. Too bad. So I opted to try the short rib instead. This was definitely a big piece of meat. It was very tender. I enjoyed the play on steak frites. The short rib was prepared like a roast beef with jus, horseradish and mushrooms. Problem with the dish is that it lacks balance. Not much sweetness or acidity in that piece of meat. Could have used a wine or more wine in the braising to bring that. Or perhaps a beet or fruit element. Maybe even the side could be sweet, but the fries were just salty as well like the meat. I loved that the piece of meat was big, but there wasn’t enough sauce to accompany such a big piece.
Had the white chocolate brulee for dessert. Definitely no complaints. I liked it, but I don’t think I’ll be talking about it after this review.
I think the issue with the restaurant is they are more worried with appearing trendy than actually being trendy. They spent a lot of time on the modern space and they really pump the music up. Though if the food is great, you really don’t need that. If I went back, I would probably try at lunch when it might be quieter. The evening is defintely for a younger crowd, like mid twenties.

gestern Abend waren wir mal wieder im Bauer’s Kitchen. Das Restaurant ist noch ziemlich neu (wurde im letzten Jahr eröffnet) und bei den lokalen Leuten recht beliebt. Die Aufmachung des Lokals ist ziemlich modern. Backsteinwände, coole Deko, insgesamt sehr ansprechend.
Leider ist es aber auch, sehr laut, so dass eine Unterhaltung nur schwer möglich ist. Was mir gefällt, ist die offene Küche, das schafft Vertrauen :-)
Die Speisekarte fällt eher kurz aus ist aber ansprechend und die Gerichte sind modern. Von daher passt es zum Ambiente.
Nun zum Essen. Ich hatte gestern ein Sirloin Steak. Es war nicht schlecht, aber auch nicht umwerfend. Meiner Meinung nach sind die Steaks im KEG’s nach wie vor die besten, die man in Waterloo bekommen kann. Irgendwie sind die dort zarter, saftiger und besser vom Geschmack.
Zum Nachtisch gab’s dann eine Crème Brulee. Die war schon extrem lecker, wenn auch die karamelisierte Kruste ziemlich verbrannt war, aber unter der Kruste einfach nur ein Traum :-)
Fazit: nette Atmosphäre, gutes Essen, hohe Preise, schlechte Akustik