Gene's Restaurant

08/26/2026

Getting a few comments that our upright “Restaurant” sign at the front has marked downtown for the last 50 years and that would change Ontario street downtown forever if it came down. It’s the old school backlit box sign with fluorescent tubes inside. We haven’t replaced those bulbs in years since we stopped doing the late night business hours. They may not be allowed for the new owners, when it happens, because of the downtown being a Heritage area.

Back in the 90’s there would be these electricians / sign guys who would drive into town on a Friday or Saturday night looking signs to service that had blown out bulbs. Wouldn’t have to pay them until you saw that the sign was fully lit up. There were 2 different groups that might show up once per year and I think they both spoke Arabic. Kind hard to negotiate with and they always added something to the repair like new ballast which I knew nothing about. Couldn’t say “no” since the sign was half taken apart.

These guys were amazing as they would ladder up to the bottom of the sign and free climb the sign to top (around 25 feet up) to unlatch the front face of the sign. A guy from the bottom would catch the old tubes and throw up the new tubes to the guy at the top! These guys could have been in Cirque du Soliel!

08/25/2026

Overwhelmed by the support from the community and our customers since I posted about the restaurant being listed for sale! A bunch customers came in to get in their “last time meals at Gene’s”. People panicking and very emotional on some of the phone calls! More orders for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve! Lots of stories being shared! It’s like the Eagles music group farewell tour! Lol

Need to restock and catch up on our inventory. We ran out on the weekend - egg rolls, Korean Shrimp, down to the last 4 order of chicken balls and a bunch of other stuff that is really low!

Taking an extra day off and closed today and tomorrow to catch up and reopening at Thursday Aug 27 at 4:30pm.

08/18/2026

How do you wrap up the legacy of the 56 year old family business? We're not gone yet but Gene's Restaurant is listed for sale. Hard to say when the Closed sign will be turned over for the last time or at least on my watch.

My parents Larry and Rae Gene started the restaurant back in 1970 at 38 Erie Street. They were hard working Chinese immigrants who came to Canada looking for a better life. My work ethic was instilled from them at an early age. I was there on opening day - June 6, 1970. I was 8 years old. I grew up at the restaurant business. I was always there. Would go there for lunch during school and would be there after school. I had chores including washing dishes by hand and prepping vegetables. I made $7 a week! I would go home after supper with my mother as my father stayed back at the restaurant to keep working.

We would relocate to our present location at 81 Ontario Street in 1975 and add the 2nd buffet restaurant House of Gene in 1980 that operated until 2000. I took over the family business in 2004. The Gene name has been a part of Stratford since 1970 or 56 years. My goal was to get the family business to the 50 year mark which was 2020. It was the start of Covid and we limped into that year. The dining room would be closed in March until 2024 and we adapted to the take out only model with reduced hours of 5 days per week and evenings only. We survived and kept this format when the dining room re-opened in 2024. We could potentially continue doing this for the a few more years and we would be okay. But it feels like we are 1 foot in and 1 foot out. We're quite away from the heyday of opening 6 days a week, 11am to midnight (2:30 am Friday and Saturday).

Seeing the customers coming in to dine-in again has been great. We have been seeing people who have been coming in for years. A lot of stories shared - the Donna stories, the stories when they first came into the restaurant with their family, the late night meals on Friday and Saturdays after the bars closed, etc. The stories and memories are endless. Every dining room table I walk by could have about 20 stories I could tell about a customer, a particular staff or also my own family.

We've definitely played the long game in this business. Just slow and steady basically under the radar. Not the superstar restaurant that gets all the attention and we're happy to have served Stratford. Food is what we do. I recall at the at the start of Covid having a conversation with Derek at Chocolate Barrs and trying to figure out if our businesses were "Essential". In my mind "people don't NEED to eat Chinese food" and I thought for him no way he was essential as "people don't NEED to eat chocolate"! lol I figured both of our businesses would screwed on this deal. Luckily the government determined we were part of the food chain and Chinese food and Chocolate are essential!

The power of food - Food brings happiness. It brings people together. It creates memories. I talk to so many people and they will have a story related to our restaurant. Might be a family gathering like having our food for Christmas Eve or they used to come in with their grandparents. There a lot of memories created in 56 years! If we have ever created happiness because of our food then I'm content that we've done our job and I'm satisfied that I've served this community well. I was born and raised in Stratford. The Gene Family thanks you for your support throughout the years.

Don't know when we will actually close. Could take a while. Don't know with these things. Anyway our first Christmas Eve pre-order already came in July! So it's business as usual for now.

And that's the way the Egg Rolls!

08/17/2026

I was asked once what is my favorite dish on the Gene's menu. I replied that if I had a choice for my last meal it would be Korean Shrimp! Not sure of the origins of this dish and even one of our Korean staffer was not familiar with it. I believe this dish was something my father picked up when he worked as chef at the Golden Bamboo. It's seasoned minced pork stuffed on to shrimp that is butterflied and bread crumbed before grilling. It's served on a bed of fried unions and topped with fried green peppers and sliced mushroom with a mild spicy sauce.

It's not listed anymore on the dining room menu as it takes 30 minutes on the grill and most customers don't want to wait that long. There are however a few regular dine-in customers that are willing to wait for it and order regularly.

And as far as Korean Shrimp being my last meal? Probably won't happen as I would have to be the one to makes it! lol

06/11/2026

Here’s your chance to get in a dragon boat. Genes Restaurant has been supportive of dragon boat through the years. A sport I helped to bring to Stratford 30 years ago with the help of the Rotary Club of Stratford in 1996.

06/06/2026

Hmm….don’t feel a day over 40 but Gene’s Restaurant is 56 years old today!

05/30/2026

This is really exciting
to announce that Iris Ng won for Best Cinematography for Exclusion - Beyond the Silence. I had small role in this documentary.

05/19/2026

This is the Rotary club documentary about Stratford Dragon Boat Festival which I helped start in 1996 and how the community and beyond has benefitted from the million dollars that the event has raised. Great Opportunity see it tonight 7pm at the former Central High School which is now the Stratford Intermediate School.

Stratford, Ontario friends and followers: Please join the Rotary Club of Stratford for a community screening of “The Ripple Effect”, a short documentary (30 minutes) that illuminates the extraordinary fundraising power of the long-running Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival and its impact on local and global causes. The film features music from The Bookends with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra and Paul Shilton. Catch “The Ripple Effect” and support this year’s dragon boat festival. Details below. The film will have its international premiere in Taiwan next month at the Rotary International Global Convention. Ken Gene Robert Ritz Gary Wreford Rotary Hospice Stratford Perth Stratford General Hospital Foundation Stratford and Perth County Community Foundation

05/07/2026

I grew up in Stratford and back then we were known as “Orientals”. Around the mid 90’s we became Asians? The term Orientals was considered offensive! We used to have a dish called Oriental Chicken. No one seemed to care or be offended by the name. We weren’t going to change it to Asian Chicken. Eventually there were some ingredients we could no obtain and that item did get eliminated from the menu.

05/06/2026

Open Mother’s Day 4:30-8pm

Pre-order your takeouts or reserve a table for dine in!