Barbarella Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

Was very disappointed with our visit on Sunday! When we got there shortly after 2pm we were informed by our server that it was happy hour and that their drinks and pizza were on for half price. As I had been thinking about something to bring home for dinner for my father in-law I asked our server if we could get them to go at the price as they don’t have their happy hour special written anywhere. She said of course and told us to order them just before we are ready to go! The first problem happened as we were sitting outside and there were so many wasps flying around. One had landed in my drink. Totally not their fault, but when the server came over to check on us I was going to ask for something to fish it out with as I had only had like one sip out of it. She grabbed my glass and was like let me get you a new one. Which I was like oh wow that is totally awesome. Sadly it took for ever for my drink to come, even the drink my hubby ordered like 10 mins after she took my drink came before my new drink did. We stayed for over two hours having drinks and enjoying the nice weather. It was about 2:45pm when we asked our server if it was ok to ordered those pizzas now. She was like no problem. We waited for another 20 mins and asked for our bill once the pizzas were dropped off at our table. To my surprise on our bill was the drink that she ad offered me a new one after the wasp had gotten into. I just let that one go as it must have been a miss understanding when she offered me a new one (I only had one sip out of the first one) Then go see that both pizzas were at full price. I called over our server and I asked her why both pizzas were at full price? She said she must have punched this in just after happy hour had ended. She then said she would get that fixed for us. When she came back she said that she was sorry and that it was only her second day and that the manager said it can’t be for to go orders. I did respond I had asked her about the price and that it would be at the happy hour price as NOTHING is written anywhere. She did say yes it was her fault and that she would go get us a gift card to make up for the full prices. She came back and said that her manager said there was nothing they would do for us. It was disappointing that one you have someone giving us misinformation and the fact as a manager you would not come out and explain anything to us. It was not like we were trying to take advantage of anything as in the time we were at the restaurant we ordered 9 drinks between the two of us.

Sadly it’s going to be a long time before we return or recommend this...

Barbarella is an old, campy science fiction movie starring Jane Fonda and unfortunately this restaurant shares many similarities. When you peel away the glitzy atmosphere, the customer experience is hollow as the plot of the movie that shares its namesake.

My partner and I decided to splurge and tried several items on the menu, as well as have some cocktails to do a full exploration of what Barbarella had to offer. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype.

The host stand is the first thing a customer encounters when entering an establishment. It can set the tone for the rest of the evening. Our experience with the host staff chaotic and it was clear that they weren't communicating. This miscommunication led to problems getting us our table for the reservation.

Our pre-dinner cocktails were decent, even though my partner's was a little unbalanced.

The meal then moved to the ricotta and a beef carpaccio, with the ricotta being one of our favorite dishes of the evening. Beef carpaccio typically has some sort of texture element, but Barbarella's really lacks this important aspect of the dish. They do serve some very thin cracker sticks, but they seemed disjointed and not related to the plate as a whole.

We then shared a Ceasar salad that was completely forgettable. The dressing wasn't terribly flavorful and there was nothing about that salad that would make me want to order it again.

For the mains, we shared the tortellini with prawns on top and the steelhead trout with gnocchi. The tortellini was by far the best food we had. Who would have thought pistachios would be paired well with tortellini? Not only does the flavor work, but the crunch element was very satisfying. The prawns were slightly overcooked yet it didn't detract too much because the flavor was there.

The biggest disappointment of the evening was gnocchi. It really wasn't good at all. The texture was not what you would expect from a gnocchi and the "browning" of the pasta wasn't really there. The steelhead was slightly undercooked, but again, it wasn't a huge deal. I ate it anyway.

Dessert was also a bit forgettable. The tiramisu was fine. It just wouldn't be anything I would order again if I came back.

Overall, there isn't much else I can really say about Barbarella. I really wanted to enjoy it because I like Italian fusion. But, just like the movie, the atmosphere cannot save a flawed restaurant that doesn't have the benefit of having the enigmatic Jane Fonda being the...

I took my husband here for his birthday yesterday and it was our first time at the restaurant. The space is decorated beautifully, it is loud but as is the nature of the large room, especially when it's full of customers. We ordered the warm cauliflower and calamari to start. The cauliflower was delicious, but the calamari was unenjoyably thick and quite chewy although the included vegetables were good. We ordered Negronis to start, which were awesome followed by a bottle of wine. My biggest complaint was that it took upwards of 50+ minutes to receive the ravioli and our server either didn't care or assumed we wouldn't notice, averting eye contact with us for almost the entire time we waited. (PS - the ravioli was incredible and the pizza crust was good but the sauce and flavor wasn't anything to write home about). When we did finally manage to get her attention and mention it to her, she quietly said to my husband (who I think she assumed was paying) that there was a large party upstairs and that was why the food was delayed. She was very nonchalant and continued to be unconcerned despite our questions. That being said, both tables seated next to us (and seated after we ordered) received their pizzas long before we did and their servers were doing table touches mentioning when their food will come out, etc. I used to work in restaurants, I get that stuff happens in the kitchen, food gets burnt, gets sent to the wrong table - whatever! Just be honest and let us know, but for our server to not even mention the wait let alone apologize for it was quite annoying. I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't come back or recommend due to the excessive wait and the lack of care. I'm sure other people have had great experiences but I will say this server ruined...