CattleBaron — Restaurant in Calgary

Dear Chef,

We were invited to dinner at your fine establishment on Sunday. We have eaten there several times in the past, considered it to be an above average restaurant and have always enjoyed the fare. Everything started out good, we were seated quickly even though they lost our reservation which had been made the evening prior. We were greeted quickly by our server who did a great job btw. We ordered, our appetizers came out quickly and were well prepared and tasty. Then came the main course. We ordered a variety of main courses, steak, pasta and ribs. The proteins were all cooked to perfection, which is what we have come to expect and appreciate about this establishment, however, what was a huge disappointment were the twice baked potatoes. I mean it's hard to imagine that a restaurant of this caliber could plate something so completely tasteless with the texture of a kitchen sponge. Firstly, they were made of instant potatoes but that wasn't the worst thing about them. I mean I can understand the cost-cutting advantage of using boxed potatoes, but even the smallest attempt to make them marginally edible would have been appreciated. I don't even think they bothered to add salt let alone anything that could actually enhance the flavour like some chives, some onion powder or some garlic powder. It did look like some cheddar cheese had been mixed in but that did nothing to allay the flavour of boxed potatoes. But it wasn't just the flavour, or rather the lack of it that made this side such a disappointment, it was the texture ... they were dry, even adding extra butter did nothing to improve either the flavour or the texture. Did I mention how disappointing this side was for such a high caliber restaurant?? Potatoes taste good, you need to do very little to enhance the flavour. You failed .. you just failed. This item should just be taken off your menu entirely, stick to offering baked potatoes, fries or rice. This item is so inferior to rest of the menu, it shouldn't even be offered .. I've had infinitely better tasting twice baked potatoes off a food truck. We will continue to go to this restaurant in the future, but have learned not to order this item, it just...

I always hear about this place on 660 news (AM), but I have been coming here even before I have heard these advertisements. The food here is excellent, there is no doubt about it, and the staff seem to be relatively friendly too. Unfortunately, this may be a combination that is becoming more and more rare today. Moving on, I should mention my experience with the food. I have tried several dishes from this restaurant, ranging from the lobster mac and cheese, prime rib, and the dry ribs.

Starting off with the lobster mac and cheese, I have to say I was quite happy with the dish. It came out piping hot and had a good amount of flavor, especially considering the lobster incorporated into the dish. Usually when I try a mac and cheese dish at other restaurants, it comes out bland and is just a bowl of tasteless cheese and macaroni. I can confidently say that this is not the case at this restaurant and that the mac and cheese on its own is quite flavorful.

Moving onto the main event: THE PRIME RIB. I ordered the largest portion and despite me being able to eat a lot, there was definitely enough meat on my plate to share with at least one other hungry person. The prime rib was melt in your mouth delicious, certainly a reason to make a trip here.

Lastly, the Dry Ribs. They are not your typical Dry Ribs, in fact, they are quite opposite of what the name implies. An order lands you just over a dozen pieces, with a good amount of meat on each. They are juicy and tender, which is definitely opposite to what you usually get at other restaurants.

Overall, this restraurant is a must try if you are looking for a good mac and cheese, a killer prime rib and a different, but pleasant twist...

I booked this place to accommodate for my planning for Valentine's day hoping to satisfy my husband's steak craving. Maybe my expectation of this place was worked up from family and friends that's been here. It was my husband and mine's first time here and we were expecting to eat "great" steak. We started with the Beef Carpaccio and we really liked it! For our mains, I ordered the Steak Neptune (steak at medium rare). The steak was cooked enough to my liking. My husband ordered the Steak and Prawns (steak at medium rare) and he was little disappointed. He's never chewed with his mouth opened ever, but this time he did. The steak was very chewy as he's described.

My opinion is that I think this place reminds me of The Keg just with a different name (mind you.. I sometimes like The Keg). I was expecting more, that could have simply been from all the stories told to us by others on how "amazing" their steak was and it hyped up my expectations.

The atmosphere was overall lovely. The service was okay. Server helped us moved tables as I was getting anxiety which was very nice of her. That I really appreciated! The only reason why I'm saying the service was okay was the fact that we waited roughly an hour for our main dish. There was two couples and a family that was close by, came after us and left before us. Maybe we were forgotten; not sure. We were very tired waiting.

If I could, I'd rate the place a 3.5 star but Google doesn't allow that and we didn't like it enough to say 4 stars. I asked my husband if he would like to try this place again. He said he's not sure. Maybe in the far future we'll give it another chance but not...