LUPO Italian Ristorante — Restaurant in Banff

First off, I want to say how beautiful this restaurant is inside. My friend and I were both gobsmacked as this was our first visit here. You can tell that the owner invested a significant amount of time and money to make the restaurant what it is. We were excited for the meal that was to come!

We were seated at a table that had a view of the mountains to one side and given our menus. We ordered a Caesar salad and Foccacia bread as our appetizers. We made sure to ask our server, Dean, if there was any meat on the salad and he informed us that the salad came with an anchovy. We requested that they did not put an anchovy on our salad as my friend has an allergy.

The salad was brought to our table with the anchovy. We waited for Dean to come by and asked him if we could have a new salad as this one had an anchovy on it when we specifically requested it not to. Dean told us that he could bring it to the back, remove the anchovy from it, and bring it back or we could just do it ourselves at the table. My friend and I felt that this was quite insensitive given the fact that he has an allergy and that we specificallt requested the salad to be sans anchovy when we ordered it.

The salad itself was kind of dissappointing. It was just ~4 full sized romaine lettuce leaves with a bit of dressing and parmesean on top (see photos). Call me pretentious, but I like my lettuce to be cut down to bite size in my salads.

The "Focaccia bread" constituted a white oval dinner roll that was cut into pieces along with a little bowl of olive oil for dipping (see photos). I have visited Italy 4 times in my life thus far so, I can say with full confidence that this was in no way, shape, or form actually Foccacia bread. I've included a picture of real Foccacia bread for reference. I understand this is Alberta and that it may be difficult to source out Focaccia bread, but the menu advertized it as such when it was clearly not, which is unacceptable.

Next up came the main courses. I had the Proscuitto and arugala pizza while my friend had the spicy rigatoni. The dough of my pizza didn't taste very good and the edges of my pizza were burnt pretty badly in some areas. The Prouscuitto and arugala were good, though! My friend's spicy rigatoni was quite good, however, it was fairly cold by the time it was brought out to our table.

Dean had taken away our utensils when he cleaned up the appetizers. He brought my friend a set of utensils for his spicy rigatoni but didn't bring any out with my pizza. My pizza was cut into pieces, howerver, this was an upscale restaurant and I felt that eating it with my hands would have been frowned upon so I asked Dean to bring a set of utensils for me. He seemed very annoyed that I had asked this of him and slammed another set of utensils down on the table so loudly that the table beside us looked over.

Overall, this restaurant sported an amazing atmosphere, extremely poor service, and sub-par food. My friend nor I plan to return in the future.

Atmosphere: 5/5 Service:...

We were recommended this restaurant from a local, said “if you’re wanting great Italian go to Lupo”. So we went. First impression was fantastic, we were created by the Host and felt very welcomed. The ambiance is great beautiful restaurant !! We sat on the patio, perfect Mountain View, not too windy, it was a great table. Our Server was pleasant and the main meal was average, plating lacked luster. It was boring. We have spent a lot of time in the US and consider ourselves “True Foodies” and as business owners we also always want to be fair in any review we leave. Feedback is essential for improvement. Our pasta main course was substandard and needed more flavor/creativity. We were really looking forward to an authentic homemade pasta because that’s what is promoted. It didn’t taste like home made more like purchased from an Italian Shop. The focaccia and oil was missing the balsamic, which for us is more of a preference and when we asked if we could have balsamic vinegar we were told, “we aren’t an authentic Italian restaurant so we don’t have that”. The wine selection was good. For desert we ordered Cannoli which was “made in-house” and so we were really looking forward to it! Nothing special honestly, it tasted a bit like it was frozen then thawed. The portions were not small but less than the standard serving. Which is probably a good thing, so you don’t leave feeling overwhelmed. Our Server didn’t clear our appetizer plates and we found ourselves stacking the plates up so we’d have more room and less dirty dishes. We ordered a Cesar Drink and got a Cesar salad and still we were charged for the salad. Which is fine at the end of the day because the salad was really good! Had the mistake not happened we wouldn’t have been able to experience that. We received our bill and were shocked…. 2 appetizers, 2 main pastas dishes, 1 dessert and a wine and a cocktail over $200. Pricey and not the value you would expect for the average food and service. We...

Wow what’s the place! Such a cool atmosphere there! It’s giving a feel of sitting in downtown of a cool town, being around all restaurants and places, I loved this street aesthetic inside of the building!

First of all, it’s hard to find a table, and definitely you should call and make a reservation and it will not be the perfect time unless you’re calling week ahead. They’re busy and it’s nice to see!

Service. Very friendly! I felt very welcome at first , but kinda bothersome, by the end. We came for dinner after work, and I mentioned that, we’re all coworkers coming to eat good food, and waitress was talking about family values and that they have family options for meals to share for couples and families. I found it appropriate, because I mentioned 2 times that we’re coworkers and it wouldn’t be comfortable to share food from one plate for us. Anyways After that, it was felt that she tried to up-sale us on everything. What will you recommend? The most expensive options. She asked 3 times if we want to add bread to the meal, and answer was “no” 3 times. Pizza with pasta and with bread, it’s not for us, but she still trying to add more bread to our meal. I felt annoyed.

Food was pretty good, but it’s very flavory and rich tastes. All meals were very full and quite fatty. I didn’t finish my pasta because it was very filling, but she still was keep asking us if we want to add bread to our meal even after we got our food.. anyways! I have a weird impression, food was fine, but I guess if you’re a fan of Italian food, so it’s definitely for you. For me it felt like too much bread and heaviness. Pizza crust was raw inside so it was really disappointing, and pizza was quite small for sizes that was described. I don’t think I would come one more time. I don’t know why this restaurant so popular. Prices was decent, but 13$ for 2 pieces of...