Alvin’s Jazz Club — Restaurant in Calgary

This place is gorgeous, the music, the people, the food, the ambiance - my girlfriend and I loved all of it! We were in awe right upon walking in. The music was soft and buttery not too loud like some places have where you cannot even have a conversation - this was the perfect volume to enjoy but still talk easily and hear the people around you. The decor is so classy and unique: very high attention to small details and bigger details too of course. The staff was lovely, even though my girlfriend and I were dressed a bit casual and we had only come to sample a little bit by sharing an appetizer, a main course shared, two cocktails, and a shared dessert, they still treated us with a very welcoming and attentive manner. My receipt says we had Michelle D as our waitress, both myself and my girlfriend thought she was so friendly and helpful to us, she was attentive and smiled a lot to us, didn't judge us at all for being a bit more casual in a dressy setting. When I get to go again with my boyfriend I'll be dressing up a lot, but it is nice to know that you can also go there in a bit of casual wear (I had business casual work clothes on and she was also just in a little t shirt and black pants) - We stayed a long time, laughed and chatted together and had a wonderful night - the food was so delicious - we chose the seared scallops for starter - there were only two scallops on the plate so one each but they were absolutely delicious - there were chorizos crumbled with kale and a hollandaise sauce with this too - we had small side plates and both had a fair amount of this delicious appetizer, then came the main course we chose the tortellini - it came out with 5 big tortellini set in such a beautiful artistic way - there was a delicious tomato and cream type sauce around them. Very tasty we were not sure if it would be enough as we were sharing but it was perfect and so flavorful. The cocktails we had were so tasty too - I love sweet stuff so mine included egg whites with maple syrup and had a cherry in it I don't remember the alcohol that was in it but I could taste it in the perfect amount for my liking and I did not remember the name of the drink exactly but it was three digits and started with 4 - I am not sure if the menu is available online to take a look before going. I would love that drink again but also love to try something new too. The most expensive bottle they had on the menu from what I could see looked to be $1500 and I'm sorry but I didn't even look to see what it was called 😅🤷‍♀️ my friend had a cocktail that had blueberries and ginger beer in it, it was served in a "mule" kind of copper cup and it tasted delicious and very refreshing like a nice summer drink. Finally we had a toffee pudding type croissant treat for dessert it had dulce de leche on it and cute tasty seared mini marshmallows around it - those were delicious for sure and the whole combo tasted incredible! We had an amazing time and already decided we will love to go there again. For sure ! It was not cheap but for both of us to get this little fun experience and delicious evening it came out to around $145 with a 20% tip included and we stayed for quite a long time. I would say for anyone who doesn't have money as a hindrance to going to a place like this and who would have a few drinks and not be splitting meals that they should know it will likely be a night that costs over $250-300 for a couple to really indulge but it is a fantastic treat to enjoy for a special occasion or if you can afford it without worry (lucky you!! 😂😏 come watch CrappyGamerMom1979 on Twitch and give me some tips on finding wealth like this 🤭😉) All in all I am so glad to have discovered this place with my friend - she always does my nails for me and does an amazing job and I told her we are good friends not just a client beautician relationship so that is why I wanted to show her a very special night for her to know that I am so grateful to have her as my dear friend 🥹🫶 this place was just perfect for us please like my review and see...

Let me preface this with the following. Pre-covid we use to visit Alvin's on a weekly basis, every Sunday for brunch. So much so that we actually had a standing reservation for each week. The food was extremely good, the staff was on point and the entertainment was incredible (Justine & T). Unfortunately during the shut down we couldn't enjoy our favorite Sunday brunch establishment.

Move forward to this year when things opened up we decided to return for birthday celebration of 2 friends and mine as well. Looking forward to great food, good service, wonderful entertainment and celebratory drinks.

Wow were we disappointed. First right after sitting down and ordering drink (mimosas and coffee) we had a complete mimosas dumped on one of the guests. All down his shirt, new pants and in his shoes. So much so that he actually was able to pour it out of his shoe in the washroom. Yes accidents happen but how you deal with it plays a big part. There wasn't a "I'm sory" or even a manager to come over to check and apologize instead it was I'll get you another one. We proceeded to order the usual staple Eggs, Bacon, hashbrowns etc. Well another shock, out of all the 3 egg dishes all were done improperly. One was supoose to be basted medium yet came out fried well, second was suppose to be over easy and came out poached and the last was suppose to an stuffed omelet but came out overdone on the egg and the stuff portion wasn't stuffed or even cooked but raw.. i honestly dont know a chef that is t able to cook eggs but i have now officially found one. The request for all 4 meals on bacon was suppose to be crispy but instead we literally got black charred bacon completely burnt. The toast was the same that no one got the type they asked for and all of it wasn't even toasted it was slightly warm bread. The hashbrowns... now this still amazes me. How do you get a serving of hashbrowns that are not cooked, some over cooked to the point of burnt, some that are complete mush and few that are actually done properly. Seriously how can you get 4 different levels of cooking on a single item. This was the same for all servings. It is like the chef had some burnt left overs, some that had turned to mus, mush, some that were actually ready and then added raw ones in and served it. It to this day amazes me that the chef even found this acceptable and felt that it was servable. No quality chef that I k kw would have ever let these poor meals even leave the line. I would never serve this to people. It showed either a complete lack of experience, lack of care or a lack of pride... maybe all 3. As we struggled through the meal (which most of us didn't finish) not once did the serve come by to check on the meal, refill coffees or ask if we wanted more beverage. We basically sat there with poor food and nothing to drink. (No coffee, no water, no mimosas). It wasn't busy so this was not an excuse. At the end of the meal they didn't even bother to co.e and clear the table so we sat there catching up with a table of half finished meals and empty glasses. It was definitely some of the worse service and food I have ever had.

The entertainment was average at best with very little interaction with the guest and actually overly loud compared to when Justine and T were the weekly staple.

Needless to say after being a loyal weekly customer for over a year we will not be returning and definitely not recommending Alvin's to anyone anymore.

Thank goodness Diner Deluxe is down the street where we went afterwards and had a good brunch.

This isn't the first time one of the Westman Village Restaurants dropped the ball. Chairman's wasn't much better in regards to their food quality either. At least there though we know just to order appies and drinks instead and skip the poor quality mains.

It is such a great compound and idea but it is sad that the ancillary facilities are will to put out such substandard food and products.

Side note Arnies is great and a fantastic ambience. Throughly enjoy...

I brought my Partner here for his birthday. I had booked it through OpenTable and was made aware when booking that it would be a set menu; which I was absolutely fine with. I requested in my booking for a specific bottle of bubbly to be brought to the table upon our arrival as well and that It was his Birthday. We arrived there and were seated behind the big pillar....the worst seat in the house really to see the live music with the dining room only having 2 other tables at the time in there. We asked to move and were told we couldn't. No explanation why, just we couldn't even though no one else came while we were in there. Our server was chatting with another table and we waited over 10 minutes just to get menus from him. There ended up not being the set menu because he gave us regular menu's. We ordered the 3 course meal with wine pairings; but first I requested the bottle of bubbles to be brought over to start, which never came. I would have brought this up with our server but we didn't see him until we were halfway through our main course. Our starters were good. Our mains were undercooked. My partner didn't want to say anything about his and said he'd just eat it but for me undercooked beef is a texture thing I can't get over. So I showed it out to our server when he did come over that mine was rare instead of medium since it was fleshy pink throughout. He picked up my plate and looked at it and said that's what Medium is and that next time I should ask for Medium-Well to Well-Done...he was very condescending. I'm very well versed in what the difference is in how beef is cooked and literally had my mouth open while he was speaking to me like that. He then put my plate down and said he could either get him to re-fire it to cook it more or I could just eat it as is, then added in, that if he did re-fire it, I'd be waiting 10 minutes for it, then looking at my partner's empty plate. It was so awkward, I obviously didn't want my partner to then have to wait for me to finish so I just ate my sides and not the meat. We ended up passing on having the desserts and I just got the bill. Which then included the "entertainment" fee. While we were there the singer (who was amazing by the way) had literally sung one song and then was on break for the rest of the time we were there.

In saying this, I've been to Alvin's literally 8/9 plus times and brought so many friends and family there. I loved it! This was a one off but it was enough that I have not been back since. I've never had a server show such little care, be so belittling and offer such poor service. I will instead continue to pay the higher price to have the better quality of service and food at their sister...