Dining Experience at Chartwell
We know the food you eat and the people you enjoy a meal with make for a personal experience. Food gives us a sense of comfort and familiarity, nourishing our bodies while nurturing our spirits too. There’s nothing quite like the anticipation of a hot meal served tableside, the shared conversation that ensues and the satisfaction that follows.
At Chartwell, our vision is to offer you great food and great service so every meal you enjoy with us is delicious, wholesome, and appealing to your palate. You’ll find our food and beverage teams get to know you well so they can anticipate your preferences, allowing you to relax and savour an appetizing meal in good company.
Our senior dining experience isn’t just about the fresh, flavourful food or the friendly service, but the social atmosphere where it all takes place. They say, “A shared table is a shared life,” and we couldn’t agree more; dining at Chartwell gives us a reason to gather, laugh and celebrate—what most of us would consider time well spent.
Menu choice
Did you know that Chartwell has over 750 recipes that serve as the foundation of our menus? In fact, over 110 of those recipes are for homemade soups alone! Our menus are Registered Dietitian Approved and tried-and-tested in our very own Chartwell Culinary Centre, where we design menus that are delicious, as well as nutritionally balanced.
Our menus centre on daily fresh features that strive to incorporate seasonal flavours and local fare, including from-scratch soups, fresh crisp salads, piping-hot entrées, and in-house desserts. You’ll find everything from traditional favourites like roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, baked salmon with hollandaise and chicken parmesan, to more novel offerings like sesame ginger chicken with shanghai noodles, caprese salad, s’mores sundaes and strawberry rhubarb flip cake! It’s what we like to call straightforward, honest food—fresh ingredients cooked right that engage your senses and leave you wanting more.
And if you don’t desire the day’s features? Not to worry, as we offer a robust à la carte menu of alternative soups, salads, and entrées—including staple meals we know are crowd pleasers—so there’s always something appetizing that will leave you feeling very satisfied with your senior dining experience.Learn some fun facts about Chartwell’s dining experience in our infographic!
Quality food
Farm-fresh fruits, field vegetables, milk, eggs, fish, and poultry—we know the foundation for every good meal is its staple ingredients. At Chartwell, our food and beverage teams strive to create from-scratch meals using fresh, in-season foods. We work closely with our suppliers to source local, quality ingredients where possible. You’ll find regional ingredients and signature dishes are also built-into our menus—from Alberta beef and wild-caught salmon from British Columbia to Quebec cheese and Ontario corn ripe from the harvest.
Dining in retirement communities
At Chartwell, our dining experience is all about choice. We want you to enjoy every meal you sit down to with us, which is why our dining room servers learn your preferences and offer alternative choices so we can deliver an experience that leaves you very satisfied.
Our menus incorporate fresh ingredients that make for appetizing and nourishing meals. We serve foods that we know are not only favourites among residents, but also explore new flavour combinations that create a sense of anticipation.
Chartwell uniquely crafts menus for every season—spring, summer, fall and winter—that highlight ingredients often available locally from our produce suppliers. In fact, there’s such an abundance of seasonal selection that you’ll never see a lunch or dinner feature repeated within a 4-week period! Our food and beverage teams also love to partner with our lifestyle teams to celebrate hallmark holidays with themed meals and events. That’s when you’ll see the classics you look forward to every year—and perhaps dishes you grew up preparing for your own family—on the pages of our menus.
Importantly, if something on our daily menu doesn’t appeal to you, you can always choose from our à la carte menu, featuring alternative entrées, soups, salads, showcase sandwiches, fruit, and desserts.
Explore our menu look book to discover typical Chartwell dishes you’ll see served per season in our retirement homes!
Chartwell's Culinary Centre
The first of its kind in the Canadian senior living industry, Chartwell has its very own in-house Culinary Centre at our head office in Mississauga, Ontario. The Culinary Centre is where we train new food and beverage employees, giving us the opportunity to grow their talent and provide the chance to learn in an industry kitchen. This also helps to ensure the high quality of the food we serve you, with new cooks undergoing hands-on training regarding quality assurance, food safety and handling, plate presentation, and much more for your senior dining experience.
Our Culinary Centre is also where we test new recipes that we regularly add to our collection of over 750 from-scratch dishes.
Here to serve
As Julia Child once said, “People who love to eat are always the best people,” but so too are the people who choose cooking as their profession. Our Food Service Managers and their teams put their hearts into their cooking, presenting menus that feature familiar meals you know and love, as well as new dishes you’ve always wanted to try but never have.
You’ll find our servers are friendly, engaging, and attentive. We’re here to learn your preferences so we can anticipate your needs and elevate your experience—whether it be specific dietary requirements, your favourite meal or even how you take your coffee. Our servers become friends who you look forward to seeing each day in the dining room, where you’ll find an atmosphere of conversation and laughter. You’ll see our food and beverage teams enjoying birthday celebrations and holiday parties alongside you too, as they also look forward to the fun of your communal dining experience.
Your feedback matters to us. That’s why our Food Service Managers want to hear from you and how you’re enjoying your dining experience. We’re here to serve, but we’re also here to listen so we can help you enjoy a great meal every time you visit the dining room.
The benefits of dining in retirement communities
Did you know there are tangible health benefits associated with dining in a retirement home? Studies show that seniors who choose to dine with others enjoy these health and nutritional benefits:
They are more likely to consume more fruits and vegetables per serving while with others
They are more likely to eat a more varied and nutritionally rich diet
Eating with others promotes better overall social and mental health
Additional benefits of the senior dining experience in a retirement community include:
More time and energy to spend on the people and pursuits you most enjoy, rather than on meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and dish clean-up
Access to delicious and well-balanced meals using fresh ingredients to help you maintain or improve your nutrition
A more varied diet thanks to changing daily menus, with new dishes or flavours to look forward to that you may have never tried before, in addition to your homestyle favourites
The joy of food
Food is a multisensory experience. A meal is made enjoyable not just by the taste and texture on the end of your fork, but by the alluring aroma as it cooks and the way food is presented on your plate, begging you to dig in.
As they say, “We eat first with our eyes.” Here are just some of the enticing meals you can expect to enjoy in a Chartwell retirement residence—from savoury soups and fresh salads to mouthwatering entrées and delectable desserts.
