Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

Oh boy - where to start. We went to the Mad Hatter High Tea today. Price was $80 per person and included 2 scones, 5 savouries, 4 sweets and 4 tea options. There were a number of alcoholic and non-alcoholic options for extra cost. Venue - it’s a pretty area - Fish Creek Park. This event was held outside in a tent. There were 4 very long tables cafeteria style with folding chairs. The table scapes were inspired by the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland. Seating was assigned. It was very pretty, but the functionality was challenging. The tables were long, but also extremely wide. We were seated opposite each other, which made conversation very difficult. It was extremely loud as well. There was a live cellist playing instrumental versions of modern songs - it fit the atmosphere. The chairs were not comfortable, and unfortunately I was seated at the table leg, so there was no way to get comfortable. Out of 10 the venue gets a 6. Service - we were greeted at the tent and provided with a “Drink Me” potion of mango-cranberry juice in a tiny bottle with cork top - the kind you would see at the dollar store. (Not food safe bottles but my kids and partner drank it anyway and didn’t die.) There was a bar, but servers came around to provide tea and drinks. Servers were clumsy, dropping cocktails and spilling water. My kids got splashed by spilled mimosa off a tray. Another server hit my hat and knocked it slightly askew on my head without apology. The table set up didn’t make it easy for them. But, they made sure our teacups were always filled. Service gets a 6/10. Savouries Waldorf Forest Double Decker - roast chicken, rosemary mayo, spring onion, Brie cheese. This was a bit sad. The bread was nothing to speak of. The chicken was deli meat - not roast chicken. I could taste the rosemary which is more than I can say for all of the sweets (we’ll get there). My slice of Brie was great - my partner’s slice was the rind. Had that been my sandwich I would have been very disappointed - not a fan of the rind. 7/10. Mad Hatter - French toast bite, truffle and Parmesan custard, chives and flowers. This was ok. The texture of the custard on the bread reminded me of polenta. I got no truffle flavour at all. The chives and flowers on top were pretty but did nothing for the taste. It was very Parmesan forward. I like Parmesan so that worked for me but I have to take points off for the lack of truffle. 6/10 Tea Party - mini vol au vent (puff pastry cup) smoked salmon, onion cream cheese, dill fronds. The puff pastry was rock hard and chalky. The salmon and cream cheese is a classic combo we eat all the time at home so we enjoyed the flavour. But again I have to dock points for a disappointing pastry. 6/10 The Cheshire Cat - prawn tart, horseradish, lettuce, lime and roasted tomato. This one was another pastry cup - more like a store bought crispy tart shell. The shell itself tasted store bought. Inside was the roasted tomato and lime filling. If there was horseradish, you couldn’t taste it. There was no lettuce. The prawn was cooked, maybe steamed, and sliced in half - clean presentation. This was very tasty - reminded me of shrimp cocktail but without the horseradish bite, and the tomato was sweeter & richer. If the cup hadn’t been store bought I would rate this higher. 8/10 White Rabbit - sous vide egg (boiled egg) cornichons (teeny sweet pickles) capers, green onion, mayo. This was the most disappointing. First - there were no pickles or capers. I could see a tiny piece of green onion but it couldn’t flavour the rest. The bread was stale. It was a very basic egg sandwich, and not a good one. 2/10 Total average 6/10 Running out of character space. Sweets were not good - 5/10 biggest deficiency is no flavour - all sugar. Best bit was the meringue kiss, most disappointing was the cookies that did not have earl grey and lavender flavour. Tea was weak - we all got earl grey. Not good. 3/10 Scones were flat, flavour was good. Clotted cream was runny. Saskatoon preserves good. 6/10 Not worth it....

The setting of this restaurant the antique furnishings in a building that has a lot of history was beautiful the area that it's located in is equally beautiful.

I have to being greeted by the host we were set at a table in a restaurant that was not busy at all. After ordering a few appetizers it took a while for the server to come to take our order, perhaps she thought we weren't ready even after waiting for 20 minutes for her to come and check.

We received the food that we ordered, a horrible mistake was made and that they provided bacon with the steak and eggs my wife and I ordered. My son-in-law and daughter their food came and it was okay. Why two strips of bacon were added between the eggs and the steak, I have no idea considering bacon was not on the description of this meal. They took the two steak and eggs meals and said they would replace them and assured us that the bacon would have not touched either the eggs or the steaks. This took almost 10 minutes for them to replate, our food when it came to us by now was lukewarm at the least. Usually at restaurants, even those that aren't at the caliber of this one, the server usually returns to the table to ask how everything was. This did not happen, sadly after trying to see if somebody would notice us so I could call him to come to have these two orders replaced, nobody seemed to care to look our way. I almost got up with our food to take to somebody to ask them to correct it but then I felt in this type of a restaurant I shouldn't have to do that. So we sat there waiting with two eggs and steak meals.

When the waitress finally came she apologized by saying she was busy with another table. Busy for more than 20 minutes?! This is very very sad service. Could this be classified as a color thing we were the only visible minorities in the restaurant.

To so as to express their apology they asked us if we would care to have dessert on them, in addition to the drinks being complimentary. We had decided to accept the desserts two of us had, the three coffees and the virgin pina colada were considered to be a token of their apology. Very disappointed in this restaurant, I'm really not sure if we will attend again.

I've added photographs of the restaurant because it's the great example of classic architecture combined with a restaurant experience, albeit a very sad one. The photos are not designed to advertise in...

We had a highly disappointing experience while trying to book Bow Valley Ranche as our wedding venue, specifically due to the lack of communication from the coordinator, Rosa. Responses were painfully slow, often delayed to the point that we had to send multiple follow-ups, and even then, she frequently missed essential details from previous emails. Eventually, she just stopped responding altogether.

After asking four separate times, we finally received the venue's availability. Knowing the venue availability was crucial for us, as it would help determine if this location was even a possibility for our wedding. It should have been one of the first things communicated, but instead, it became a frustrating back-and-forth process.

Nearly three weeks later, we managed to schedule a visit, taking time off work to fit her restricted hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. When we arrived, the host staff was unfriendly, and we had to sit and wait for Rosa to come meet us. Despite asking in advance about the length of the visit (an email question that went unanswered again), the meeting itself was only about 15 minutes. The entire experience felt like a waste of our time.

Rosa assured us that she’d send a quote right after the visit, but it’s now been over two weeks, and we still haven’t received any communication from her. After everything, we even thought about calling or emailing once again to follow up, but we knew that it would just be a waste of our time. Wedding planning requires timely responses and clear communication, especially when couples are juggling multiple vendors and deadlines. We felt our time was undervalued throughout this process, and it was frustrating to feel we were the only ones following up.

This experience also left us doubting whether important details would be properly managed or even communicated if we chose this venue. For a wedding, having a coordinator who is both attentive and reliable is crucial, and unfortunately, we felt neither of those qualities were demonstrated here.

Given our experience, we would not recommend Bow Valley Ranche as a venue at all. We ultimately decided to go with another location, and we encourage other couples to consider their options carefully before...