Bonterra Trattoria — Restaurant in Calgary

I had booked this restaurant for a birthday dinner - a group of 10. This reservation was made approximately 2 weeks ago. When the majority of my group arrived at 7:30, we were told they were preparing the table & waiting for the previous group to finish dessert/pay their bills. We were not seated until an hour later, at 8:30pm.

To make up for this, the manager had given each guest a glass of prosecco while we had waited at a table outside and a couple appetizers once we were seated - free of charge. While these were greatly appreciated and made the overall experience better, it was still disappointing that we had to wait an hour to be seated at a table that was booked in advance for a reservation, and if anything my group would have preferred to have been seated on time rather than wait and been given additional appetizers. As a result of this the following plans we had for this birthday after dinner had to be adjusted (reservations that occurred after the dinner were shifted to accommodate the additional hour that we had to wait for our table, which lucky was possible on such short notice).

If Bonterra wanted to book two birthdays back to back, it is their responsibility to honour the reservation time that a guest books, otherwise what is the purpose of booking a reservation? If they are unable to meet the timing restraints, they should not accept reservations of that size, or within close time periods. Alternatively they should have warned the previous party that they had an incoming reservation coming at 7:30 and would need to clear the table, things that could have been easily communicated.

Beyond this experience with our reservation, once we were seated things were much more smooth. Bonterra's food is always amazing, I won't disregard the chefs or waiters that helped us as that would be unfair. Highly recommend any of their pastas - I don't think you can go wrong with any of them!

My last comment would be the cake that I had brought in was cut largely uneven, to a very noticeable degree. I get that cutting a cake into 10 is difficult, but it was to the point where someone would get a slice of cake that was double in size compared to someone seated beside them. This did make for some silly laughs across the table, but I would have hoped for equal portioning for a...

I am so beyond impressed with the experience I had at Bonterra Trattoria. I've lived in Calgary for a year and a half and haven't had the opportunity to try any Italian restaurants in the city yet. Yesterday was my 25th birthday and I had booked reservations here for dinner.

Originally, I had my reservation booked from 6-8pm. I had called them the day of to ask if I could push my reso back to 6:30 or 7 - unfortunately, the lady on the phone told me that I could but I would still need to give up the table by 8pm. About half an hour later, I received a call from the restaurant telling me that they spoke to the manager and that I could change my reso to 7pm, if I wanted to, and that there would be no time limit on the table. I so appreciated this fantastic customer service! I was already impressed and hadn't even stepped foot in the restaurant yet.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we loved how rustic/authentic it felt! It's a smaller restaurant with lots of character on the inside. We were seated and given bubbly rose for my birthday, which was so kind! We ordered the caprese salad, the grilled calamari, the carbonara pasta and the tagliatelle bolognese. Everything was spectacular - literally probably the best food I've had at a restaurant in ages. The calamari was so full of flavour! We also had a few cocktails before the wine and those were amazing as well. Our server (I wish I knew his name) was also awesome! He was friendly, helpful, extremely efficient and had the perfect balance between not hovering but not ignoring us. Everything we ordered came to our quite fast. Finally, we were given a caramelized chocolate after our dinner as a complimentary dessert.

Overall, our experience was absolutely amazing and I am so glad I chose to spend my 25th birthday here. We will definitely be back/we will recommend this restaurant to all of our friends.

Thank you so much, Bonterra Trattoria! Absolutely amazing. You all were above and beyond!

Edit: We were served by Curtis, as I just learned via their instagram....

There is a reason for all of the 1 star reviews:

The worst dinning experience I have ever had in YEARS.

Me and my boyfriend came to this special Valentines dinner. We were so excited for this dinner as it was our first Valentine and to spend the time in Bonterra. The food, the service, everything you can expect from a ZERO STAR restaurant.

You cannot taste anything from the venison carpaccio except salt. It was just like eating pure salt! There was no flavor of the meat at all.

Fine, then comes to the gnocchi. Worst gnocchi I have ever had. It was so oily that you really do not want to have a second bite.

Then it took them 40 minutes to bring the main dish, at the time it was already 21:40. While we were waiting for the main dish, we have to call the waiter, who is only serving 3 tables, to ask for the main dish. We told the waiter that we were so hungry and we have already waited for a long time. Another 20 minutes passed, the waiter told us they still need 15 minutes. At the time, I can see there were at least 5 people in the kitchen and was cleaning up, then I realized, they were waiting to go home!

The waiter has only us and another 2 groups in the restaurant. For the entire dinner, he only came to check on us maximum 2 times, the other times we had to call him.

Lastly it came to the dessert, for a Valentines dinner, it was really disappointing that it was castagnole, the easiest dessert you can do from a restaurant. But I was not expecting anything more at that point.

When we asked for the bill, the server did not even ask us about our experience! All he said was that the gratuity is included. SERIOUSLY? We were not told that the gratuity was going to be included before we booked the dinner. At that moment, everything was so clear. The server did not need to try any harder to get the tips as he knew it will be included.

It’s normal to tip after you dine in but NEVER under such a bad...