charbar — Restaurant in Calgary

Attended a wedding here last night as a guest. With events outside of anyone's control they were thrown so many challenges that could have ruined the event (Roof top wedding had to moved inside mid ceremony due to hail. Once relocated inside and re-commence the ceremony - the fire alarms go off in the restaurant below and we had to evacuate!)

The wedding made for a great story - and was still one of the most fun weddings I've ever attended. That aside.

So I saw the venue through it's worst - and my review is still 4 stars, easily persuaded to 5 with some slight adjustments. A lesser venue under the same circumstances would have been a failing grade.

Event Space: Gorgeous. The historic charm and mixed industrial aesthetic is to die for. Perfect for Calgary without being two rustic or two industrial. No need to go over the top on even decoration because it's already a feast for the eyes. Location is great and not too hard to get to. There isn't an abundance of parking, and I could foresee that being an issue but wasn't for us. The roof top access was an interesting highlight with a view of the bow and walking paths. Given it's location it would take a lot of abuse to outside elements. Rehabilitation to the gazebo over the service area might be coming due - and only stands out because the caliber of everything else is so high. The provided "High Boy" pedestals for the Wedding flowers need to be replaced with a design that incases the bottom of the arrangements, and potentially more weighted to prevent tipping in the wind. A slight oversight with unfortunate repercussions. Brides and Event coordinators consider that in your designs.

Food: I'm a beyond fussy eater. I am not qualify to review cuisine - so I usually don't. But what we were served was classy, and accessible. (As some elevated dinning options can be intimidating for me). The flavors were amazing. Everyone commented on the nice wine that was served. The array of options was amazing. Cocktail hour: Mini Sliders (a+), A Balsamic skewer I think (cannot comment) Macaroni cheese balls (B) cebiche I think (cannot comment) Meal: Calamari or Avocado Salad (cannot comment) but nice presentation. Steak with Polenta and a rich gravy - DELICIOUS.... but needed to be served with a steak knife, not a butter knife. Odd over sight. Late night offering: Pizza and Mini Poutine (A+)

Staffing: I have an extensive Tourism Education (Diploma, BA and MBA - my professors have served the Queen). As a student I had extensive training in looking for flaws in Resorts, Hotels and Restaurants. (to add context) I try to keep my opinions to myself because I feel that level of critique is not fair to most of the caliber of establishments I enjoy. I did notice the Event Coordinator for the Venue as he obviously had to make announcements due to the extenuating circumstances. If you own an event business and can poach him do. He was exceptional in a crisis. Class and Grace and level headed professionalism. He kept the guests happy and the service and program moving without disruption. I have witnesses staff at Fairmont 5 diamond properties flounder under less stressful situations. The rest of the serving staff was fine. Again maybe not fair of my more critical review. But some of their attire lacked professionalism and their customer service was underwhelming. I respect that they are probably feeling burnout (it's 2022), and that they are not motivated by tips at a wedding, and it's been quite an event for them as well (hail, evacuations, maybe staff shortages). But staff experience is always an indicator to me of the business, especially when it's not just one staff member but the general staff as a whole. I've worked weddings for years in various roles - this was high paying client and a respectable crowd. The staff's demeanor seems more of a reflection on the employer then the situation. A review of their practices for employee engagement and satisfaction would be an asset.

7 out of 10. I would still recommend for an event...

Massively disappointed with my latest experience at Charbar. I had been once before a few years ago and it was great, so I planned to take my boyfriend there for his birthday on Monday. We were seated at 8:05, however weren’t greeted until 10 minutes later. It was clear there was only one server on the whole floor, and he was running around to each table non-stop. At around 8:15 he finally came over and took our drink order, he was kind but could tell he was in a rush, he didn’t make any suggestions or any if we’d come by before. We were very dressed up and I wanted to mention it was a special occasion, but didn’t get the chance so I thought I would mention it later. Another 10 minutes go by before we finally get our drinks, (8:27pm) brought over by whom appeared to be a host/busser. They were great. Our meal order is not taken. We waited for the server, 20 minutes go by. Our order is finally taken at 8:45. I am already overwhelmed by how long we’ve waited just to get an order in. Either way we order; blistered cheese, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and the ultra dry aged steak.

We received the blistered cheese quickly. It came in several minutes, which I was really happy about. We proceeded to try and found we couldn’t cut through it at all. I thought perhaps we needed a better knife, my boyfriend got up and asked the bartender for one as the server was nowhere nearby and we were dying to eat as we’ve been sitting for near 50 minutes now. The bartender came over and explained they only have one knife, and if we weren’t able to cut through it, a new one would be made. He apologized. We received the second one about 10 minutes later. It was after 9 at this point. However, it was much better, the bartender apologized again and we thanked him for bringing us a new one. We then waited for our food.

At 9:38, an hour and 40 minutes after arriving we finally received our food. I was so exhausted and disappointed at this point. We barely ate as we had little to no appetite anymore. We each had a few bites. The server stopped by and we asked for our bill. No dessert, no mention of my boyfriends birthday. Essentially a $250 dinner that we waited so long for we didn’t even want to eat it.

Having worked as a FOH manager before, I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt several times throughout the night, but ultimately can’t believe the experience I had. If they were not adequately set up for the night due to short staff, I would have rather been turned away so my boyfriend could have had an enjoyable birthday somewhere else. With a multitude of steak houses in the city, I won’t be returning to charbar, even though I once had a great meal and experience before. Looking at several reviews as of late, it seems that the understaffing is a constant problem and others have had similar times as we had. So...

Edit: after taking the time to write a review and touch base with the email provided below, I never received a response. Reading through other reviews as well, It sadly seems like there is some major operational dysfunction and miscommunication that results in people being passed off to someone else and falling through the cracks, which is disappointing as the food held a lot of promise.

After hearing about Charbar from friends for months and their experience, my fiancée and I headed there today to try out the food and take in the experience as a birthday celebration. Unfortunately, it proved to be quite a underwhelming experience which saddened us as the food was great, but the overall visit really left a mixed taste in our mouthes as we were really excited and felt quite disappointed afterwards.

When we first visited, we were greeted by a gentleman who told us he was going to prepare a table on the patio for us. After around 10 minutes and not hearing anything, we chatted briefly with another staff member who said they would look into it and get us seated ASAP. After another 10 minutes went by we noticed a few later arrivals get seated before us while the patio had 6-8 empty tables - it seems like there may have been some short staffing or miscommunication. This unfortunately affected a few other customers as they got quite agitated by this experience and left. We found another staff member at this point who said they would check to see if there was a table free.

After waiting for around 40 minutes we were finally seated and went ahead and ordered an appetizer and entrees. While the food was quite delicious, it took around 30 minutes for us to receive it which unfortunately corresponded with the rain we were hoping to avoid but couldn’t due to the delay in being seated and staff not realizing the weather had turned south, which left us a little unsure of where to sit or what to do and resulted in our food getting wet.

While our server was very kind and approachable, she had forgotten about a few requests (drink and sauce refills) which we didn’t end up receiving, but that kind of stuff happens. Over the past few months, we’ve been looking for the best wedge salad in Calgary, and Charbar undoubtably has a great one, however the experience as a whole was quite disappointing as we were really excited and took a lot of time out of our day to make the trek out for lunch.

Edit: We sent the CharBar team an email to try and redeem our experience as they...