Kettle Drums Restaurant & Bar

Loved loved loved this place! Excellent service, food was generous and scrumptious. The server/​kitchen was flexible with a simple pizza order for my 4 year old and they were kid friendly, yet the atmosphere was a little more sophisticated than a typical ‘family’ restaurant. The patio is shaded and set back from the road. We ordered a piedmont and plain cheese pizza, chicken fingers and a wild salmon sandwich. My favorite Spanish beer (Estrella Dam) was on tap. Fries are OUT OF THIS WORLD! (Skinny, skin on). We live in a restaurant laden neighborhood in Toronto and this might be our cottage drive home staple. Service is fast, accurate and impeccable.

As seniors we tend to eat out around 3 p.m. Thus looking after 2 meals.
We would really like to apologize to to staff and management for disrupting and interrupting their quiet time.
Arrived at 3 and stood at the please wait to be seated sign for 3 minutes only to be told to sit any where, anywhere was appropriate as we were the only ones there.
Our menus were dropped off within 2 minutes and 12 minutes later the server asked if we were having any problems reading the menu (maybe she felt we didn’t graduate grade school)
I suggested she take our drink order — upon delivering our drinks she wanted our food order? She was told to come back why the hurry?
Wife ordered fish and chips fish was perch and very bony fries left a lot to be desired, I ordered steak and it was well aged, cooked to my satisfaction and quite tasty.
However the fries sucked I tried them in gravy that had some kind of funny taste like javex finally I soaked them in vinegar and that made them passible.
All in all we won’t go back!

Great staff and good food. The maple bacon wrapped pork tenderloins were amazing. The roast beef with yorkshire pudding was OK. We started with the bruchetta was great and is highly recommended.

This place was great! My mom and I went out to eat here after my move to Ontario, and both of us left satisfied. They have a good range of pasta, burgers, pizza and a daily special, plus steaks and beer. The staff was very polite and attentive as well. My mom and I split a pizza and had a pint apiece, which was filling and not expensive. We’re taking my dad there next week when they visit.

Great traditional pub on a strip of bars and restaurants. Sort of small inside but a nice deck outside.

Great service, great lamb burger. If I lived here it would be one of my go to‘s. Moderate prices, but the value is right on the mark.

Good food, good beer, nice atmosphere, large patio. A great place to enjoy a good meal and time.

The service was good. The specials were tasty. The menu was pretty average. It is solid dining.

After a couple of attempts to get into Kettle Drums this last summer, we finally made it on Monday, and had a terrific lunch. The patios are closed for the season but the one on alongside the creek opposite The Only patio looks like it would be a great spot in the summer.
Kettle Drums’ opening in the Hunter St. Café District in downtown Peterborough this was much anticipated, partly because the owners, Reggie & Cam, are well-​liked local restauranteurs, and also because this is their first upscale establishment. Early word-​of-​mouth reviews were mixed, especially focusing on poor service, which may have been due to the restaurant being at maximum capacity from the start.
We arrived a little later than the daily lunch crowd, so it was pretty quiet. We were greeted immediately upon walking in. Our server was very friendly. My husband grilled him (in a nice way) about menu items. He said he’d been working there from Day 1 and clearly had tried most of the menu items so he could make good suggestions. The other server was obviously new, but she seemed to have a good rapport with customers.
On our server’s suggestion, we split the Vecchio pizza, and also tried one of the daily sandwich specials. Everything was delicious! The tender beef sandwich had house made garlic aioli. The egg bread was nice and fresh, as was the salad with cute little carrot curls and balsamic vinaigrette.
The pizza is definitely enough on its own for two people or a good sharing size for three or four. The thin crust was light and crisp on the edges with a little chew in the centre. The Vecchio has gorgonzola cream sauce, house made sausage (not greasy at all), thin sliced red onion, and sliced potatoes. The potato was great, adding nice texture (if it sounds strange, just think of a French Alsatian tart with potato, onion, bacon & cheese).
As a tip-​out to Reggie & Cam’s first endeavour, Reggie’s Hot Grill chip truck, there is a Reggie’s Burger on the menu. Some have scoffed, but I saw one go by our table. It’s not rolled up in wax paper and handed over in a brown paper bag, like the original. It was laid out nicely on a plate with fresh toppings and salad on the side. There is also a selection of house made pasta on the menu, among other things. The draught beer selection is fine and the atmosphere is casual, contemporary gastro-​pub. Hard to believe it was once an automotive repair shop!
The prices are at the top end for the upscale pub category, so folks will expect food and service to be consistently top notch.
As a side note, they have really nice napkins. Big, soft, absorbent paper napkins. It’s a small detail that I personally really appreciate.