Bistro On the Bow — Restaurant in Calgary

A very poor representation of service from the two ladies behind the bar this evening. Beyond disappointing as someone who regularly stops here to tide over the rush hour back into Calgary after a long travel day.

I typically experience nothing but outstanding service from this location.

Tonight was a completely different story.

While I was paying for my meal on Apple Pay, my phone unfortunately died, and I was without a charger. I went to the lady behind the bar, who was not busy at all, to ask if they had another charger I could quickly charge my phone with - I was told in a cold tone that they didn’t have any and that I could purchase one at 711….

This would have been a completely acceptable answer to me if these ladies didn’t have a VISIBLE phone charger behind the bar, with the bartender charging her phone on this right at the cash till, and actively checking it….

So I went back a second time to explain what had happened and that I needed a phone charger for all of two minutes to be able to order an Uber.

It was -33 degrees out tonight in Calgary so trying to flag a cab during rush hour wasn’t on the top of my list… Unfortunately iPhones can be unreliable and your battery can die when it shows you have 30%, this was not something I expected to happen.

I can appreciate that at the end of a shift everyone might be annoying to you at that point. So I was of the mind that perhaps providing some context would lead to some understanding. I went back and explained a bit more.

I was told,” sorry, that’s in use so you’ll have to walk down to 711 and they have some there.”

Wow.

By no means do I consider a restaurant/bar to be a replacement to a charging outlet for me. It was simply an unfortunate thing that happened to a regular customer who was in need of some brief assistance.

To whoever owns or runs this place, I would strongly evaluate the people you have representing your brand. There was 0 concept of...

The food looks great, unfortunately I did not get to try it. After landing late from a flight it was one of the only places in the airport open and said open till 12am, I walk by and someone is eating in the restaurant and the kiosk says is open and I can place an order, after waiting about 15 minutes an employee tells me the kitchen is closed and I cannot get my order, no worries a little bit of an inconvenience but trying to get my refund for the food I didn’t not receive has been beyond ridiculous. I have been contacting the restaurant every few days for the past 2 weeks and every time I call it’s the same ordeal “there is no manager or supervisor on duty can I take your name and number and a manager will contact you” after 5 or 6 calls and the original employee taking down my information as well why have I not been contacted. Really sad the lack of care from management to resolve this issue, once again food looks good but I don’t think I’ll ever try it after dealing with this level of incompetency...

Earlier in the afternoon, my sister and I had to come to the airport to pick up our cousins from the states. We arrived early and their flight was delayed, so we decided to grab a bite and kill some time. Came to Bistro On the Bow, and we were served by Steph. She was phenomenal, was super attentive, friendly, and really funny. Service was incredibly quick, and she actually took the time and chatted us up, and always made sure we were well taken care of. It definitely made sitting through the delay much quicker. I had the bistro cheese burger, while my sister got the guinness poutine. The food was delicious, we both absolutely loved our meals, and would definitely come back for the food and service alone. For sure going to try the cookie skillet next time, and will for sure try to get Steph to serve us again. Fantastic service by Steph, spectacular food (hats off to the kitchen), we honestly could not ask for more. Highly recommend grabbing a bite here if you're waiting for...