Big Fish & Open Range - Marda Loop — Restaurant in Calgary

Arrived Saturday night for an early valentines dinner with the husband. We had a reservation. We were greeted by a nice girl who said our table wasn’t quite ready but gave us a place to sit. 10 minutes later we were shown to our table in this sad cold off shoot outside the main dining room with 1 other table and no atmosphere. I felt like I was being punished. It was so cold in there I couldn’t take my jacket off the whole meal.

Our server was very nice although super frazzled. Mentioned there might not be forks for our dinner but we would get tiny oyster forks if needed (it was fine. We got normal cutlery). We ordered drinks and the lobster poutine. The poutine was more like cheese fries. The sauce was incredible but there was 2 tiny pieces of lobster - if even. It was still tasty. The oysters were good and the anchovy sauce for them is a winner.

We went to order entrees and we asked our server some questions about the menu. He did not know the menu. He stated the lobster was stuffed into the lamb burger but the menu clearly says it’s on top. He told my husband the ribs he ordered would come with 6 - it came with 3. But my husband got the short ribs abyway and I ordered the lobster butter chicken. Food was presented nicely. The vegetables on my husbands plate and in my butter chicken were raw - fully raw. You couldn’t even cut the carrots. The butter chicken sauce was delicious BUT the pieces of chicken breast in the dish were so dry and were not edible. I got through about half of them because I was starving. It might be the worst dried out chicken I have ever eaten.

We let our server know and he sent a manager over. She apologized and said it’s our most popular dish so she was surprised it wasn’t awesome. We complimented our server but asked if he was new due to lack of menu knowledge and she snarled back at us “what do you mean - we are all new. We just opened!” I asked when because if they opened last week I feel like a jerk. They opened December 2. 2 months ago. She bussed the table next to us and made us feel disregarded.

Our server came back with our bill about 10 minutes later and the NA beer I had and my husbands house lager were taken off. For the record. The drinks were great. I might have even felt better if she took that $16 off my meal that I could only eat half off.

We won’t be back. But I hope they can improve because it’s a cool concept and with a few minor changes and better management representation it could have...

I hate leaving negative reviews, but I feel like I need to warn people about this experience. We visited this restaurant for the YYC Expo and ordered from the special brunch and lunch menus. I had the ricotta appetizer, the omurice as my main (which I was really excited about), and the tiramisu pancakes for dessert. My husband had the seafood chowder to start, followed by the lobster roll, and finished with the pecan pie.

We've been to this restaurant before and always had great food, so I’m hoping this was just an issue with the YYC Expo menu.

Unfortunately, the meal was a major disappointment. The "seafood chowder" was more like seafood water—completely lacking the creamy, rich texture you'd expect. It was thin, flavorless, and the shrimp looked like tiny frozen canned shrimp. My ricotta appetizer was incredibly small.

Now, let’s talk about the omurice. Stay far, far away from it. The egg was just a dry omelet placed on top of chicken fried rice that was absolutely drowning in soy sauce. I don’t think the chef understands what omurice is supposed to be—the egg should be fluffy and split open when cut, not dry and overcooked. This was hands-down the worst dish I’ve had in years.

My husband's lobster roll was tiny, and I’m almost certain it was made with canned lobster. The bun was good, but it came with barely a handful of fries. The tiramisu pancakes were a joke—thin, dry, and way too small (you can see in the picture and use the fork for reference on the size). The pecan pie was decent, but again, a very small portion. The only saving grace was the ice cream served with it, which was excellent.

The service was great—no complaints there—but I strongly recommend that the restaurant reconsider the omurice and lobster roll before they hurt its reputation. The regular menu is solid, but this experience actually made me angry.

To make matters worse, I saw another table order the omurice, and they were laughing at how bad it was.

Again, I really don’t like writing reviews like this, but the food was genuinely awful, and I don’t want others wasting their money. If you visit, stick to the regular menu—this special menu is...

I reached out to the restaurant before making this review. Their response was unsatisfactory and confusing. I don't even know what their phone call meant; it was awkward and I wasn't offered anything, only to ask for a specific person if I were to return. What is that? I am not sure at all.

My partner and I are longtime patrons of both locations. On Labour Day, we booked a late lunch at the Marda Loop location. We ordered the two-for-one oyster special (we ordered 5 pacific and 5 PEI), and our usual favourite, the mussels in green curry sauce with bread.

The oysters were horrendously shucked, ugly and flipped over, with the valves left intact, and grit in some of the shells. We were spitting things out and finally gave up. The restaurant took the last two that we didn't eat off the bill. Super disappointing experience.

We dream about the green Thai curry mussels. This was not it. Normally, the sauce is thicker, with more depth, creamy, redolent with lemongrass, lime, coconut milk, none of which were apparent. We usually order more bread to soak up the amazing sauce. This was like green-coloured dishwater, and the mussels were overcooked.

The service was also poor. We were in at an odd time between lunch and dinner, and there were only two tables seated; ours and another. Even so, water glasses were ignored and sat empty, and an empty wine glass went unnoticed for far too long.

This is not the level of food or service we are used to for this restaurant, and at the prices for dining out these days, it needs to be called out and pressed to management for doing better. I don't know what my phone call was even supposed to be for, but much of it was the fellow telling me everything was as it should have been. (So the hidden message is "it's you, not us."). No. It wasn't...