Annabelle’s Kitchen Marda Loop — Restaurant in Calgary

To be fair upfront most of the the food and experience was really great (probably would have given them 4 or 5 stars) however a few things ruined the experience:

1. I found the place by googling "family friendly restaurants" and a Calgary Herald article from Nov 2019 came up. I realize now this must've been paid for. While Annabelle's is a lovely venue it's not aimed at kids in any way shape or form. Check the images in your google search (which I should've done) it's not targeted at kids.
2. Then, what ruined the evening for me: My wife is celiac (she has the autoimmune markers - it's not a preference) and I am allergic to wheat (confirmed by blood test. So, gluten-free is a preference for me but I have not eaten wheat in about 10 years). I ordered their gluten free base pizza and, at the end of the evening (with 75% of the pizza eaten), when I asked why the bill didn't have the gluten-free surcharge, I was told the pizza wasn't gluten free. The manager then came over and asked me what the problem was (he seemed a little rude but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt). After explaining things they left me standing there (while my family waited outside) for 5 full minutes (they'd taken back my table for other customers) and then finally brought me the bill so I could pay. I hadn't asked for them to take the pizza off the bill but the waitress came and said she was going to pay for it out of her pocket. I said that wasn't necessary but now I felt bad for her so I ended up splitting the difference with her as an additional tip (yes, I realize I didn't have to do that). I don't really think the management handled things very well. Obviously I didn't want to have eaten wheat (my stomach as in knots all night) but, on top of that, to leave me standing in the middle of the restaurant for 5 minutes and then guilt-tripping me felt very unprofessional. Last thing I'll say is that the other food I did eat was very tasty (the pizza was not, though - and I'm not saying that just because of the...

Pasta portion and flavour is mediocre for how much they charge. Spilt an arancini, had 2 pastas, a wine, and a beer was $90 which even in the current state of affairs is insane. Figured at least they must have a good percentage of that go to staff if they are charging that much.

Ultimately for that price the food was not very good. Pasta was bland and portions were small.

Then after the bill was paid the waiter comes out to scold us for not tipping. So incredibly rude and uncouth.

Buddy, you spent a grand total of 5 minutes interacting with us. The wage you are paid more than covered the minimal service you gave us for the ridiculously over-priced food. If you have a problem with how much you get paid take it up with your manager, not the customers that just got raked for a flavourless half-serving of pasta.

I literally only use this review system to shout out places that are awesome and I want to boost so more people can enjoy. This is the first bad review I've ever written but days later the condescension, arrogance, and entitlement of your service still left a bad taste in my mouth.

There are so many amazing italian pasta shops in this city that will give you a million times better pasta for a fraction of the price and service that deserves a tip. Don't waste your time and money on this sorry excuse for...

Unfortunately, there are not that many restaurants in Marda Loop, so my girlfriends and I were excited to try Annabelle's for our annual Christmas dinner. Naturally, we wanted to enjoy each other's company, delicious food and drinks. We ordered a few things to share and settled nicely with our cocktails. I don't think we even had two sips of our first drink when the food started to arrive. Our reservation was for 7:30pm, we were done by 8pm. Our bill came right away as well, while we were still thinking whether we should get anything else. I have never been to a restaurant that is as fast as takeout. Our server was visibly unhappy being there, which trickled down to how she approached her job. I would have given this place no stars, but the food wasn't bad. Most of it was way too salty, and I do not recommend getting the clam pasta (overcooked, too salty and lacks flavour), but we did enjoy pizza, arancini and arugula salad. Our drinks were delicious. It is too bad that our dinner was so short and forced us to go to a local pub instead where we had a lot of fun and enjoyed the night as long as we wanted to. Not a welcoming atmosphere, mediocre service and unprofessional staff. We...