JW Steakhouse Reviews

The new JW Marriott is lovely — modern, bright with beautiful clean lines. The nice valet and a door greeter welcomed us as we arrived. I called ahead and the hotel said to not self park. She said the valet fee would be taken care if we ate at the restaurant. The main hotel restaurant is Margaret’s. It looks high end but the patrons, maybe hotel guests — some dressed in T-shirts/polo shirts and shorts —- made it feel like a casual cafe. The menu prices, however, want you to think of a very upscale experience. The waitstaff, though lovely and very friendly, lack polish and training. They were new and I felt were new to this line of work. Lots of slip ups. Like serving warm Taittinger champagne. (I wanted a sparkling rosé and the schramberg one was $27 a glass!) The complimentary scone-like bread was good. But as it sat 5-10 minutes, became crumbly, dry and not worth eating. Appetisers were good. My honey pecan burrata was delicious. My main entrée was the halibut and done nicely. My husband had the sous vide chicken. He said it was moist but the skin was not crisped and that for him made it quite disappointing. I had a bite of his and the chicken meat felt squishy, meal-y and undercooked. The sauce that accompanied was sour. We were full but decided to order some ice cream. They said it was made in house. I ordered honey but got lavender which I don’t like at all. The second flavour we ordered was the baileys coffee one. That was better. Both weren’t very rich or too sweet so an ok experience. Dinner came to about $100+ pp. I’m not sure at this point if we’d be repeat customers. In comparison, another downtown hotel restaurant, Ellie’s, feels comparable. Beautiful space with a mix of nicely dressed patrons, business travellers and then the super casual set. However, we felt their prices were a little more reasonable. However, the food overall at Margaret’s was a little better.

We visited The Montage restaurant on the 11th floor of the JW Marriott on a quiet Sunday night. The space is beautifully decorated, but the restaurant—and the hotel overall—felt empty and lacked energy or ambiance. We opted to sit at the bar, where we could choose from either the restaurant or bar menu. The restaurant menu was quite pricey, and nothing really stood out to me, so we went with the bar menu instead, which offered more appealing appetizer options. We ordered the Brussels sprouts and the crab dip—both were lovely. For our main, we shared a burger with truffle fries. The fries were pretty average, but the burger was rich and decadent. Overall, the experience was just okay—the atmosphere was lacking, but the company made the evening enjoyable.

I ate here when I was staying at the JW Marriott with my family. The food was delicious as well as the service. This restaurant definitely lived up to the luxury and service of the JW Marriott.