Charcoal Steak House

The prime rib at Charcoal Steak House is aged twenty-eight days, slow-roasted, and carved to order at the table — au jus, horseradish cream, and a pace the kitchen sets rather than the clock. It is the plate the whole menu is built around. But the dish people tend to mention first is rarely a steak at all: it's the Pig Tails, pork tails slow-braised and then flash-fried in a sticky sweet-and-spicy glaze, an appetizer that tells you this Kitchener steakhouse takes the cooking seriously without taking itself too seriously. Charcoal takes its name from the Wideman family's original Charcoal Pit, and the family still owns the restaurant that grew out of it.

Beyond the prime rib, the menu reaches wider than the name suggests. Petite Beef Wellingtons arrive as a duo, tenderloin medallions in puff pastry with mushroom duxelles and demi-glace. There is Steak Frites and a Seafood Risotto, Cedar Plank Salmon, and a Lobster and Crab Dip built for the middle of the table, alongside a Steak and Blue salad for anyone who wants the flavour without the full plate. The Charcoal Burger holds the casual end of the lineup. And the Spring 2026 menu pushes further still, with gluten-friendly routes and plant-based bowls that give a vegetarian at the table somewhere real to land rather than an afterthought.