Tooloulous — Restaurant in Banff

Date of Visit: Feb 9,2023 While in downtown Banff, there were many great looking dining options in town. After scouting a few restaurants, we narrowed our choices down to 2 options. We chose TooLouLou’s because we are huge fans of Cajun and New Orleans cuisine having been to New Orleans Many times. The restaurant was empty – and we thought it might actually be closed – but it was not. The server was very happy to have us dine here. The Atmosphere is very classic New Orleans style décor – including a crawfish & gator sculptures, and mardis gras itesm, and jazz instruments.

We Started with a platter of hushpuppies and cornbread which came with a delightful honey butter and tomato jam. For main course I had the Taste of N’awlins Sampler – consisting of Jambalaya, Gumbo, and crawfish etouffee. We also had the Blackened Snapper, served with fresh mango salsa & seasonal vegetable. AS fans of authentic New Orleans cuisine, we can tell you – the food here is on point. The flavours are perfect, the plates are beautifully presented, and they give you the strong feeling of being back in the Big Easy. The chefs know exactly what they are doing when they are preparing these tastes of the crescent city. The food was amazing – and exactly what we needed and wanted.

The service here was fantastic. While, yes, we were the only customers in the restaurant, the waiter was very attentive, friendly, engaging, and pleasant. He check on us regularly to ensure we were doing well. The Chef even came to our table to ask us how we were enjoying our meals.

The prices – while it is no surprise that BANFF is a pricier town – the menu at TooLouLOu’s was very reasonable, and worth every penny. The portions were huge – in fact – I couldn’t finish the Sample platter because it was so much food, and the Jalapeno hushpuppies and cornbread were so good – I couldn’t stop eating them. I “filled up on bread”.

The Dinner menu had a good number of items on it, providing a good number of options to choose from. However, the breakfast and brunch menus were huge. Apparently they are super popular and very busy for their breakfast. We didn’t have the option to come back for breakfast, but we wish we could.

While this restaurant was not busy when we visited – this is a place that needs your attention when you visit Banff. The food is fantastic, the service is great. And the location is very convenient.

I wish I had saved...

My brunch experience at this restaurant was nothing short of a disappointment, potentially the worst I've ever had. The initial wait of approximately an hour was tolerable, but the management's approach to queuing was frustrating. They provided buzzers with an extremely limited range, effectively trapping us on the one street in Banff and preventing us from exploring while waiting.

After finally being seated, we endured another significant wait before a server approached to take our order. The beverage selection was okay, the tea and Hot Apple Cider were both quite enjoyable.

The Sizzling Rivalry Benedict was acceptable. The eggs were adequate, and the biscuits were passable. The menu's said it would be spicy but it was mild and didn't overwhelm the dish. However, my Canadian Hash was an unmitigated disaster.

The dish was flawed from the start. Cold, excessively buttered bread set a disappointing tone. The pancakes were okay. The hash itself was bad composed of approximately 50% potatoes, with the remaining portion consisting of peppers, onions, and overcooked sausage. The result was a dish so spicy it was nearly inedible, causing us to leave the peppers and onions untouched.

The potato preparation was equally problematic. The potatoes were inconsistently cooked, with some pieces so hard they were practically inedible, while others were completely overdone.

Furthermore, we discovered what appeared to be a long red piece of plastic in our meal. Upon bringing this to the waiter's attention, the owner's explanation was equally unappetizing. They said that the item was a crawfish antenna, casually mentioning that they use the same pan for multiple dishes. While they generously comped the dish, this revelation raised serious questions about the kitchen's cleanliness and food preparation standards. The suggestion that they don't scrape the pan before a cooking a new dish was deeply unappetizing.

The combination of long wait times, inconsistent food quality, potential cross-contamination, and a cavalier attitude towards food preparation makes this a restaurant I would...

I took my out of town family here a couple weekends ago because I read on a foodie group that this place has excellent seafood. However, we were disappointed on our first visit here and probably will not consider going back.

Food quality - We ordered a big seafood platter, and burgers for the kids and a couple more items on the menu. The prawns in the platter were not fresh. The texture of the meat was mushy and they just were not good fresh quality. The snow crab and the rest of the seafood platter was excellent. The big selection of spicy sauces were great and my son loved his burger.

Service - Our waitress was very friendly and attentive. However, it took around 50 minutes from the time we ordered to the time we got our food . Our drinks came around 20 minutes after we ordered. We had a toddler with us, and the owner (I presume) was nice enough in the beginning and even gave her a little plastic anImal from the bar to keep her calm. However, he made comments like "we will sit you in the corner" right when we walked in, and "you have to sit down in your chair" when she started fussing after waiting so long for the food . As a result of her starting to act out due to hunger, we carried her to the back where the bathrooms were and the owner made the sit down comment. I am not sure if it was a harmless joke but that made us really uncomfortable.

Ambiance - it was a pretty laid back place, well decorated for the kind of restaurant it is.

Price- it was on a higher scale considering the quality of the seafood.

I hope the owner can address the quality of the seafood as well as the speed of the delivery of the food. When we arrived it was not busy , so we should not have to wait close to an hour...