1888 CHOP HOUSE — Restaurant in Banff

Undersized. Overpriced. Overrated! If for some reason you are compelled to eat at 1888 Chop House, I suggest you find a McDonalds and eat a Big Mac before you come!

I booked this place for my GF’s birthday, and had high expectations after having an amazing lunch at the Fairmont in Lake Louise the same day and an absolute 5 star dining experience at The Vermillion Room the night before.

This was the only restaurant I could find that served a whole lobster which is the GFs favorite. Sadly, what we got was a cooked tail and what we’re told was a cold lobster salad. My guess is that it was leftovers from Lobster rolls in the neighboring restaurant.

The mains were undersized and well below our expectations as compared to the other two Fairmont restaurants. I looked over at some other tables and their mains such as the Halibut seemed to be small in portion and in that case a bit on the water undercooked side. Although the lobster dish was good, we found ourselves still hungry and order the Dry Aged Duck, which ended up being tough, chewy a bit on the under cooked side and disgusting. Neither of us finished half of our piece and I ended up spitting out half of what I ate.

So disappointing on the size, and overall taste and quality of food compared to the Vermillion room which is literally 50ft away in the Fairmont.

We noticed at the end of our dinner that people were ordering bread or additional sides. It seems like these are people who have been here before and know how to fill themselves because the mains lack any “meat” or good sized portion based on the price of the dish.

Please don’t waste your time with requesting a table with a good view… there is none! The restaurant resembles an old stuffy Boys Club you would find in a 1960s Golf Country Club. If you want view that makes you say wow dining at the Fairmont is a must go next door to the Vermillion Room.

Our servers personality was that of a piece of paper. He was not personable, was very pushy with the drinks, we weren’t even a few sips in and he was pushing us for more drinks. He did make a joke after we ordered the duck because the lobster main was tiny, and said or great you had the Lobster as your appetizer… I was not amused.

The last piece was the cost… now you don’t come to a restaurant like this for value, but you should get dishes proportionate to what you pay. I was surprised that on our bill they charged $6 for still water, I don’t recall any restaurant during our trip to BC or AB charging us for water. Overall cost $150 per person, not a big deal but I expected a better overall dining experience. It would have been nice to see some transparency here at least make mention of this in advance. Also, Fairmont not sure if we are to be impressed that a the guy who hands us the bill in suit jacket (not our server) who we’ve never even talked to is our final part of our dining experience - talk about awkward!

Anyways long story short, if you really want to dine at the Fairmont go next door to the Vermillion Room. If you want to dine a second or third time, go back to the Vermillion room or find another place to eat. It seems like some of the reviews of this place are polar opposites. I typically don’t post food reviews, but felt compelled to give my honest impression of 1888 Chop House so that others don’t feel like the got an underwhelming experience on what is most likely a special occasion.

For anyone who reads this and says dude is being petty, trust me I’ve been to many fine dining and steakhouses… average steakhouse are way better than this.

We have dinner booked at the Orsa Trattoria in Jasper tonight, but we are now having second thoughts after checking reviews after our 1888 experience and noticed the reviews at Orsa were like 3 years old. Probably a bad...

I would like to start by saying that the service was fantastic. However, this should have been amazing wedding meal, but was not… unfortunately. Compared to our experience in the Rundle Bar. Upon arriving we were greeted warmly and congratulated on our wedding that had happened earlier that day. Corey was our main server and sommelier for the evening and we decided to go for some British Columbia Sparkling Wine along with a Grey Goose Vodka Martini each. Corey was great throughout, he was very friendly but professional at the same time… the BC Sparkling was delicious… so far so good. Then the vodka martinis arrived - far too potent, with a harsh alcohol taste with no smooth finish and no real flavour, thank goodness the olives could help cut through this. Next it is was time to order food and we were served by Corey along with along with an older gentleman and two ladies, all of whom were great, very attentive. My husband went for the Seasonal soup; Onion with Goats cheese cream (although the goats cheese cream was not mentioned), but he enjoyed it and thought it was very tasty. I went for the Beet salad, delicious apart from the feta mousse, which was a goats cheese feta, the menu did not stipulate the type of milk used for the feta and I do not like goats cheese or milk at all. On to the mains… Icelandic Cod for my husband - lovely crust on the fish and a decent portion size, but dry. I decided to go for the 14oz New York Striploin which had a lovely char and crust but was not cooked rare as I had requested, it was more on the medium side, however we do not appreciate food waste so neither of us wished to return food to the kitchen and have it wasted, the fish was tasty enough and medium cooked meat is just about acceptable for my preference. For some ‘Enhancements’ we chose the Mashed potatoes which were rich, creamy and silky smooth, along with Creamed spinach which was incredibly delicious - the ‘enhancements’ were actually the best part of the meal, great news for the spinach and mash but not so much regarding the rest of food! Finally time for dessert, we both went for the Chocolate Roche, very rich and tasty but far too large for the end of the meal. Additional notes on the experience… the glasses had a lot of water marks and scratches on the base of them, as if they had just been sat it puddles of water to dry and cutlery was not polished, again with water staining and scratches on them. Overall this was a VERY disappointing wedding meal, which should have been something special. For the price paid this was not worthy of a high-class restaurant, other than the service but certainly not the food or cocktails, which was such a shame after having a number of great experiences in...

The food was not good. The portions were very small. The bill was astronomically high. We ended up going to The Keg the next night, which I would highly recommend. I don't mind paying for the experience if the food is at least DECENT, but the food here wasn't even that!! I would never waste my time or money again coming to this restaurant. I've attached photos to this review (although i find you can't even tell in the photos how small the portions truly were), I didn't even bother taking a picture of the very sad appetizer (what they called a Shrimp cocktail), it was essentially 5 tiny, flavorless little $0.10 (10 CENT) shrimps, naked, on a tiny plate with some very thinly sliced radish (maybe? That's what it looked like, I didn't eat the 'garnish' though.) The lobster tail, (which was about a 1/3 of the size smaller than the one I ordered at The Keg) was priced as "market value", it was not. I was definitely charged more than what the current market value of lobster was. So the sad, bland, little 'shrimp cocktail' (if i can even call it that) was around $40! Oh, and every little thing costs extra. If you want potatoes or a veg on the side with that steak, it doesn't come with it. You pay for it separately. So when you order a steak, it's literally just the steak... which I thought was kind of funny. Usually, you order a 'steak' dinner. It comes as a 'DINNER'. Which generally includes a side of some kind ... salad, a starch, etc. Not in this place, though. It was an absolute disappointment. Although they did give me a complimentary drink/ cocktail to go in a little glass bottle, as they were told it was my birthday. At first, I thought it was a mini bottle of whiskey, which I thought was pretty neat. But upon reading the labels, I realized it was actually a mixed drink/cocktail. The tables are all really close together. It felt very claustrophobic. As well as the tables not being very big/there wasn't a lot of space for the drinks and food ordered. Don't let the 'award plaque' fool you when you walk in. If you look closely enough, it was from 2018 (or somewhere within a year or so of that). Maybe they were having a good year that year; or maybe they have since replaced the chef ... Actually, if I remember correctly, I believe the award MIGHT have been for customer service or something like that? It most certainly wasn't for the quality, taste, or fair price of the food. I would honestly just put on your best outfit and travel the 10 minutes into town. They have quite a few really nice, yummy, and fairly priced restaurants in town. Expensive doesn't always...