Local Restaurant Thread

[troutman]

Avenue - top 10 Calgary

http://globalnews.ca/news/3275690/av...ants-for-2017/

Alloy
Anju
Blink
Model Milk
Native Tongues
Pigeonhole
River Café
Rouge
Ten Foot Henry
Whitehall

[Flaming Choy]

Originally Posted by troutman

Avenue - top 10 Calgary

http://globalnews.ca/news/3275690/av...ants-for-2017/

Alloy
Anju
Blink
Model Milk
Native Tongues
Pigeonhole
River Café
Rouge
Ten Foot Henry
Whitehall

Of note, the restaurants are not ranked this year. Just listed in alphabetical order.

[Hack&Lube]

Has anybody been to Buttermilk? Any thoughts on it? Is it popular/busy? Food any good?

[OMG!WTF!]

Just saw a new restaurant sign go up in my 'hood....

http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...ste-of-halifax

King of Donair!!!!

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Tried a little Uzbekistan restaurant off of 17th ave SE called Begim.

Something different for sure, but I really enjoyed it. Pretty "rich" food though. If you feel like going outside of the box, this place falls into that category.

[J pold]

Blink is perpetually overrated.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Leeman4Gilmour

Tried a little Uzbekistan restaurant off of 17th ave SE called Begim.

Something different for sure, but I really enjoyed it. Pretty "rich" food though. If you feel like going outside of the box, this place falls into that category.

Thanks. I had to look up the menu:

http://www.begim.ca/

[curves2000]

I love some of these list's and "Best restaurant" winners that we see all the time.

The irony is that a lot of these places are generally so over hyped and such trends. I read either a Globe and Mail piece or a National Post piece recently on the struggling dining scene in Calgary due to the economy. They interviewed several places who had been a part of these lists. They all talked about the issues at play which include the economy, expense accounts, $15 minimum wage, NDP, staff turnover, taxes, city regulation etc. All of these reasons are valid concerns without a doubt but the irony is that a lot of these places just aren't that good when it comes down to it and customers vote with their wallets.

The truth is that there are MANY establishments who are dealing with the exact same items and even worse and have thrived in Calgary for 30 or 40 years and dealt with MANY downturns over their course of their lifetime.

Having been in the business myself and my family for many years I can assure you that it comes down to ownership, customer service, consistency, value and staying true to you and your customers. It's a tough business in a lot of ways but the ones that survive are the ones who actually know what they are doing and not just the latest trend.

I am not saying anything bad about any of the places listed in the thread above but with a lot of other lists I have seen, a lot of the places that were on them, are no longer in business.

[darockwilder]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I love some of these list's and "Best restaurant" winners that we see all the time.

The irony is that a lot of these places are generally so over hyped and such trends. I read either a Globe and Mail piece or a National Post piece recently on the struggling dining scene in Calgary due to the economy. They interviewed several places who had been a part of these lists. They all talked about the issues at play which include the economy, expense accounts, $15 minimum wage, NDP, staff turnover, taxes, city regulation etc. All of these reasons are valid concerns without a doubt but the irony is that a lot of these places just aren't that good when it comes down to it and customers vote with their wallets.

The truth is that there are MANY establishments who are dealing with the exact same items and even worse and have thrived in Calgary for 30 or 40 years and dealt with MANY downturns over their course of their lifetime.

Having been in the business myself and my family for many years I can assure you that it comes down to ownership, customer service, consistency, value and staying true to you and your customers. It's a tough business in a lot of ways but the ones that survive are the ones who actually know what they are doing and not just the latest trend.

I am not saying anything bad about any of the places listed in the thread above but with a lot of other lists I have seen, a lot of the places that were on them, are no longer in business.

Pretty sure people that work for minimum wage wish this was true now and not in late 2018 as is the actual plan.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by darockwilder

Pretty sure people that work for minimum wage wish this was true now and not in late 2018 as is the actual plan.

Ohh I fully agree with you and the fact that the $15 min wage isn't coming for a while.

On of the things I have noticed is that when the economy was booming, everybody had money and expense accounts downtown, a lot of the resto's around town were busy.

Now a lot of the places who aren't busy, are doing the Groupon's, have closed down are all looking at excuses and external factors as reasons for their situation. Very few places are actually looking at their own issues.

Perfect example was a pub I frequent down in the SW in a nice area. The place does decent business but their quality has gone down and the prices keep increasing. I was there the other day for the Flames game and it happened to be wing night. It was busy but the idiot "Manager" had zero clue how to seat tables. He loaded up all the 6 top tables/booths with deuces and 3's when it was't busy. Well as soon as 5 pm hits and everybody shows up after work, there isn't a lot of room left for the larger tables of 4-8's and the line grew longer and longer. He kept telling everybody it would be 5 minutes and after 25 minutes a few waiting tables left he proceeded to say to a waitress "fuc*** people have zero patience, don't they know its wing night??"

Garbage experiences like that are why some people don't repeat establishments. This isn't the only joint in town offering Flames hockey, $.35 wings and Bud Light on special.

Also this guy could have done the tables waiting and his waitresses a massive favor of clearing some tables as soon as people left instead of trashing waiting customers and looking at the waitresses's ass.

[Calgary14]

Has anyone checked out The Still? I noticed they are in the same spot Loungeburger used to be near the dome, hope they can make a go of it

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

Has anyone checked out The Still? I noticed they are in the same spot Loungeburger used to be near the dome, hope they can make a go of it

Yah I have been.

The beef dip I had was terrible. Meat wasn't tasty or warm and the dip was cold too. Also I ordered a ceaser salad with it, and it was Kale. Disgusting. If you are going to make your ceaser salad Kale, at least put it on the menu that way so I won't order it.

Took a long time to get our food and it still came out 1 at a time to our 6 top..

We won't be going back.

[Bunk]

One place that's perpetually underrated is Brasserie in Kensington. Always fantastic.

Also in Kensington, Vero Bistro is consistently excellent.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Bunk

One place that's perpetually underrated is Brasserie in Kensington. Always fantastic.

Also in Kensington, Vero Bistro is consistently excellent.

We were just at Brasserie last night for dinner, really enjoyed our meals. Got to love those fried chicken skins, great way to start off.

Vero is still our #1 in the neighbourhood, fantastic meals every time we've been. Love the atmosphere of the small location and the wait staff are always excellent.

[Amethyst]

Hmm...this is making me think it's time for another visit to Vero.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Bunk

One place that's perpetually underrated is Brasserie in Kensington. Always fantastic.

Brasserie is only underrated by people who haven't been there.

The worst thing about that place is that I don't try anywhere else in Kensington because of how good they treat us. One of the best, if not the best chef tables in Calgary.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Leeman4Gilmour

Tried a little Uzbekistan restaurant off of 17th ave SE called Begim.

Something different for sure, but I really enjoyed it. Pretty "rich" food though. If you feel like going outside of the box, this place falls into that category.

I've noticed that place and always got a chuckle out of it. Uzbek restaurant and the only times I have seen it is at night and there always seem to be black Mercedes' parked outside and nothing else. Brings to mind Russian mob images. the menus does look pretty good however!

[troutman]

Ox and Angela has a good feature - $35 each for 10 tapas. Great chocolate cake for only $6.

[TSXCman]

I'm waiting to hear about The Big Taste reviews from you guys! Anyone been out?

[snootchiebootchies]

Originally Posted by troutman

Ox and Angela has a good feature - $35 each for 10 tapas. Great chocolate cake for only $6.

I don't see this on their website. Is this only for a particular night or a happy hour special?