The Roaring Rolls – Indian Fusion Restaurant in Canmore — Restaurant in Alberta

This review is a difficult one. On one hand, SO many things about this restaurant were amazing! Yet, I felt unsatisfied and disappointed. My issues don’t pertain to usual stuff such as quality, taste, and presentation all this was spot on. The cleanliness, atmosphere, and service were all spectacular too! What threw me, and why I’m ultimately knocking off a star was the amount of food for your money and the odd menu.

My friend and I chose to fuel up here on the eve before a long night of hunting the Northern Lights. The girl who seated us was super friendly and bubbly. She gave us a rundown of the whole menu and offered pointers on what was best. The restaurant itself was super cool. Stepping from a serene, wild, snow kissed, cabin riddled Canadian town into a clean, modern, hip, and stylish restaurant was super cool! I felt like I was sitting in a buzzing city bar. Very impressive that all this could fit into such a tiny, little street restaurant!

We ended up ordering the avocado chaat, butter chicken bao buns, pineapple tikka, and bakra. The food came out relatively quick. First thing up for tasting was the avocado chaat. It was delicious! Super refreshing with a perfect balance of sweet and spicy. I even really enjoyed the shaved beets on top, despite my discontent with beets. 😃 Then out came our buns. They were delicious too! I’ve never had an Indian bao bun. I’m happy I now possess the bragging rights to say that I’ve had an Indian bao bun: super cool and imaginative. The bread was soft and moist and perfectly complemented the spicy, moist chicken. It was awesome!

Up to this point, it seemed that all the great reviews were true. Then our bigger plates arrived and we both looked at each other and said: "that’s it?"

The pineapple tikka was really really good! The pineapple was juicy and flavorful, 100% better than the pineapple at Tucanoes. But that’s it. It was just pineapple and rice. I couldn’t believe that such a plain, meager dish was $14! We both felt very underwhelmed. Where was the rest of the food? We were confused because it was also under the "tandoor delight" section, and not the "small plate" section. I imagine the pineapple tikka being a wonderful appetizer. It’d be a hit for a table to share as a tease for the rest of the food. But as a whole meal it fell short. I honestly found the bao buns to be more of a meal than pineapple and rice.

The same could be said for my goat stew. Damn was it delicious. But a "meal for one” was just some goat in sauce. There were no carbs whatsoever, not even vegetables or anything with substance to fill your stomach. I was also only provided with a fork. Thankfully, my friend lent me some of her rice, and then my goat was delicious! I understand that it’s supposed to be a soup, but for $26 it’s not hard to throw in a side of some rice, a few potatoes, or even a salad. The last nail in my disappointment was the bones in the goat. I eat a lot of lamb and cook it quite a bit at home. I’m no stranger to the bones. This typically wouldn’t have been an issue, but because everything else was such a let down the bones really bothered me.

It’s very likely that our disappointment was our own fault. For one, there’s is rice and naan up for purchase. I also admit that the manager, or whoever he was, kept asking if we were ok; I greatly appreciated this. But I hate asking for things, and for starters the menu shouldn’t be so misleading or odd in the first place. It’s not set up in a way that lets you know you need to order a side of rice. A meal for one should be a meal for one, and an appetizer should be an appetizer. Hell, I would have welcomed an upsell on some naan! It would have been nice to know the food didn’t come with much bang for your buck. I’ve never had this issue at any establishment before. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I’d eat here again if I got the chance. Just be careful...

It's hard to describe what my family and I just experienced. Sometimes, us mere mortals have to leave it to the great philosophers and scientists of our time to answer the tough questions. How does gravity work? Is there a God? Are we alone in the universe?

I would like to add a question to the fray for our great thinkers to grapple with - What secret ingredient goes into the food at The Roaring Rolls?

As we walked in, we were met with the wonderful Modern + Indian ambience, setting the stage for a fusion carte du jour. Awesome playlist, well designed booths and fantastic lighting with a bar sweeping through the front of the room. We were very happy with the setup, but little did we know what awaited us. We were seated and served by a wonderful lady (didn't catch her name), and helped us choose what to order when she was prompted to give us advice. She also gave us advice regarding portions with pinpoint accuracy, leaving us all 100% satisfied with no room for regret and made sure we didn't order too much.

Now, for the food - where on Earth do I start? Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) that we ordered was literally the best version of them we have ever eaten. From the Butter Chicken, to the Biriyani, and from the Chaat to the Pav Bhaji, everything tasted incredible, had great portion size and was very fresh. As a family, we hold Indian food to a high standard as it is a culture that has fostered the most explosive palette known to mankind and our lofty expectations were somehow exceeded. The only problem with this restaurant is that they have too much amazing food - I can't fit it all in my stomach.

If you are heading to this restaurant I highly recommend you not only come with an empty stomach, but a sharp mind, for otherwise you will find yourself intellectually unmatched for questions that arise in one's mind after such an experience. What is life? Prepare to have your mind blown and your gut brimming....

I really liked the food at this place. I ordered the vegan kadhai aubergine and it was incredible. Even my boyfriend who doesn’t like eggplant really liked it. It had an excellent combination of flavours and perfect crunch. We had the cauliflower bites to start, they had a great kick to them, be prepared with water if spiciness isn’t your thing. The side rice was good. Unfortunately my boyfriend didn’t enjoy his butter chicken bowl, perhaps he would have liked the the non bowl option more, he felt it was too soupy . The vegan dal makhni was also excellent, had a strong flavour of possibly clove? So if that’s agreeable spice for you. The one thing I’d recommend to the a restaurant as an interior designer is the issue of the central seating in the restaurant. Unfortunately the place’s seating arrangements look like more of a to-go place than a sit down restaurant and that happens without experience with design and spacial visualization. I would put in a half wall about 4.5-5’ in height when you first enter where your hostess sits in front of it, then partition down the centre with another half wall as well add some half walls that are perpendicular to that centre wall that come out about 5 feet. Sit your table arrangements in those nooks. That will partition off seating areas so that the space no longer has that immediate awkwardness in the centre. It will make a huge shift in the feel of the restaurant being more of a sit down restaurant. I think you guys did great in material selection. Don’t worry about blocking off the centre view of the bar, you’ll still see it at that height of half wall. I’d highly recommend making this addition so the restaurant succeeds in...