Banff Social — Restaurant in Banff

To the restaurant manager & owner you may want to start reading the negative reviews & start responding to customers.

Firstly, your women’s washroom is absolutely disgusting. Dust in every corner, looks like a dungeon. The downstairs inside area of the restaurant is outdated with the black leather. It needs to be renovated. Banff Social inside was not so social, the atmosphere was off putting.

Before arriving to Banff Social I looked at the negative reviews, perhaps that manifested our NOT so great experience.

The hostesses are friendly and lovely, keep them happy as they were welcoming and organized.

We sat in the patio area that is attached to the inside of the restaurant. We were greeted by a male waiter but he didn’t say his name. He provided water and took our drink order, came back with the drinks and then took our food order. After he took our food order that’s when everything went wrong and we barely saw our waiter for the remainder of our dining experience.

Appetizer: my husband ordered the burrata salad, I ordered the tomato soup. My husband’s salad arrived but my soup did not arrive at the same time. We had to ask the busser where my soup was and he brought it 10 min later as my husband was nearly done with his appetizer. Soup was good though.

Entree: husband ordered bison burger and I ordered the Salmon but asked to substitute the polenta with mash potatoes. My husbands burger arrived it was good, my salmon arrives overcooked (salmon was well done or must have been sitting under a heat lamp for ages) and with the polenta instead of the mash potatoes that I ordered. Again our waiter was NO WHERE to be found and the busser had to take the plate back to the kitchen. The waiter nor the manager came to apologize or offer anything. Busser brought a new plate of salmon it was better (properly cooked) and this time with mash potatoes :). In short I didn’t get to eat my app or my entree at the same time as my husband.

Whoever organizes the waiters stations you need to figure out a better solution. Have one waiter manage the patio tables that are attached to the inside and the nearby tables in front of the bar. Have a separate waiter that manages the tables on the sidewalk pavement area. Our waiter, he was nice enough, but he spent more time with the tables on the other side of the pavement area than the area near our table. He only came to check on our table after the busser took my overcooked salmon away, never topped up our waters or asked if we wanted anything else to drink.

Unfortunately I don’t recommend Banff Social. There are better...

We arrived for dinner with our rather hungry eight-year-old and were shown upstairs to a table. It took about ten minutes before a server first approached us, and another ten minutes after asking for menus before they actually materialised. By this time, our child—understandably famished—was becoming rather restless and fretful. Then, rather impressively, another ten minutes passed before our order was finally taken. One might almost have thought we were being purposefully overlooked.

Curiously, the same server who greeted us was bustling about quite cheerfully with other tables—carrying dishes, clearing plates, sharing jokes—yet somehow seemed to treat our presence as a minor inconvenience. One does begin to wonder whether it might have been something more than mere forgetfulness.

Ironically, once the order was placed, the food appeared within ten minutes—swift as you like. The quality, alas, was only fair, though not at the price charged. The lettuce in the children’s burger, for instance, had long since lost its crispness.

When it came time to pay, the minimum gratuity was set at 18%. Having received service that could best be described as non-existent, I would not have chosen to tip at all, yet felt obliged to select the lowest option—if only to avoid any unpleasantness. A truly enchanting dining experience, wouldn’t you agree?

I should have liked to award half a star, but as that is not permitted, I regretfully...

Disappointing Service Despite Tasty Food

We went to Banff Social for dinner and were immediately turned off by the hostess, who insisted on seating us on the upstairs patio—even after my wife mentioned it was cold outside. There were plenty of tables available inside, and when we asked to sit indoors instead, we were met with a nasty look.

Although the restaurant wasn’t busy, the service was painfully slow. Our server, who mentioned she was from Australia, seemed inexperienced and inattentive—missing basic service cues and forgetting things throughout the evening.

The food itself was delicious, but the poor service cast a shadow over the whole experience. After dinner, we ordered dessert and coffees. It took forever for them to arrive, and when we asked for milk for our coffee, it didn’t show up until we had nearly finished drinking them black.

To top it off, the prices were astronomically high—clearly targeting tourists without offering a matching level of service or value.

Banff Social might look inviting, but if you value your time and a decent dining experience, I’d recommend going elsewhere. Expect long waits and a...