Elita Restaurant — Restaurant in Alberta

We had such a great experience here! If you enjoy travelling and dishes from different cultures, this restaurant will be great for you!

The menu offers a variety of dishes from different parts of the world, so for someone like me who loves trying different types of food this was a nice little piece of Heaven! 😜 The food was absolutely amazing! Soooo much flavour in every single bite of every dish and such great presentation and portion size too!

We started with an appetizer, the Riviera Mussels in white wine sauce, then my boyfriend chose for his dinner the (Italian) Milano Mediterranean Fantasy Chicken dish, so I chose a different style of cuisine, Asian, and had the Magic Wok of Tibet (vegan). I tried all 3 dishes, and they all tasted delicious! Then for dessert we enjoyed a most flavourful cup of chocolate ice cream with fresh raspberries - as you may see from the pictures, this simple ice cream dessert was taking ice cream to the next level! Even my boyfriend who can be quite a picky eater said this was the best meal he has had in a long time 😲😊 For drinks we ordered a chai and a grasshopper beer, and we also had Bailey’s shots for after dinner, nothing fancy but always good 😋. We were soooo full by the end, we probably should have packed some of it for later, but it all tasted so good we couldn’t stop eating it 😅😝

The service was warm, prompt and very respectful and thoughtful in regards to our preferences with covid even if restrictions had been lifted. The owner Victor served us as we went for dinner pretty late just before close time and he was the only one left there. We asked him more about himself and his story and we enjoyed some of his stories from his many travels cooking in some great places, you can tell he has a passion for different cultures and their cuisines which shows in his creative and diverse menu selection as well.

I found the interior design to be quaint and unique as well, which I personally liked, made me feel as if I were travelling back to South East Asia and Europe 😊 You can notice little components from different cultures in the interior design, which I appreciated. And I love a good fireplace with books and a bit of jewelry as decor! I think more restaurants should display local artists’ art, be it paintings, jewelry, pottery etc. Easy way to experience a bit of (window) shopping and have your eyes be entertained by the art around you while waiting for your food 😉

Overall we found Elita to be a pleasant surprise of a restaurant with delicious food and friendly service and great value for your buck! We will definitely go back again lots and tell all of our friends about this hidden treasure in the cute...

TLDR: There are much better restaurants to go to in the area. Highly doubt that they read the Alberta guidelines for restaurants during this covid pandemic. Food was meh and overpriced. Service was lacking.

I am honestly bewildered how this restaurant has a 4.4 average review on google. We must be the outlier... A lot of the reviews praise the service and that it's a family business but we did not get even decent service. One good thing was that the staff was genuinely nice and seemed accommodating.

The food: My dish was bland, I ordered the vegetarian thai stir-fry, and nothing special. I also got the mango drink which was posted with other alcoholic drinks, so one woukd assume there would be alcohol in it but I could not taste any. My gf got the vegan thai fresh salad which advertised house thai sesame dressing but it turned out to be a house salad with balsamic dressing. She also asked for no peppers due to her dietary restrictions but was gifted a slice of pepper anyways. Odd that they would put 1 slice in... This "meal" was 19 dollars. My gf's mom ordered a dish that supposedly included some kind of Irish cream base but was actually some kind of olive oil base. All food was grossly over-priced.

The service: Took 30 min to get water. The welcoming spiel was drawn out and hardly caught a word besides that Victor (owner) was around Ukraine during the Chernobyl disaster. My gf's dad went to pay the bill, waitor put the price in the machine and walked away, gf's dad paid and walked out. Understandably, this restaurant is understaffed.

The atmosphere: The interior design was confused as one other reviewer said. Zodiac gems, dollarama decorations, odd floral table cloth, and no set theme. Good view of the mountains from the window.

The pandemic. Alberta guidance for restaurants state that the max number of people seated together must not exceed 6 people. This was disregarded as there was a group of 9 people that were seated in the restaurant when we were there. They looked as impressed as we were... No hand sanitizer available upon walking in. Alberta guidlines also state that the "use rolled silverware and do not pre-set tables". Cutlery was served to us by a staff member, not rolled. No staff members wore masks. Every other shop and restaurant we went to wore masks. Tables were set 2m apart so that's where the 1 star comes from.

I contemplated leaving after the 20 min mark without water and I wish I had. I would not recommend...

My partner and I stopped in canmore after camping all weekend and searched up restaurants with home-style cooking near us. As soon as we got there the owner greeted us and was very welcoming. We chose to sit on the patio and he told us if it got too chilly to let him know and that we could move inside which was nice to have the option. He immediately asked if we had dietary restrictions and I told him I don’t eat pork and beef and he asked if it was a religious dietary restriction (presumably to suggest halal options or something along the line). I do it for preference but I see that being a big green flag for those with religious dietary restrictions. He recommended us some house day specials that had chicken which both my partner and I got. He and I completely forgot to ask about pricing of the house specials and sometimes worry canmore spots may up-charge due to the large amount of tourists but when we got our bill we were happy to see the specials were priced fairly and similarly to other menu items. :) I have seen some reviews for the restaurant say their meals were bland, but we were happy with how our food tasted and the meal portions. Again, we wanted something that tasted like homestyle cooking from a family business, so we didn’t want anything overly salted. In a place like canmore it’s hard to find a spot that is going to be under $30 a person other than fast food, so we were quite happy getting a bite to eat here paying around $22 each. Only thing I would change is clearer pricing disclosure on the daytime specials but I don’t blame the owner as those things may...