Da Vinci's Steakhouse & Lounge — Restaurant in Calgary

TL;DR severely uncapped potential but they're still new.

I came in with some red flags but thought nothing of it until other negative experiences happened throughout the meal which brought all those red flags to light, that's why this review might start feeling nitpicky. Keep in mind though that they've been opened for only 6 month at this point.

I made a reservation for my birthday, asking for the date night platter but I wasn't asked if there was a special occasion. I came in 15 minutes late, usually fine dining restaurants call to confirm, but they didn't even call to follow up despite the tardiness. When my partner and I got there, there was no staff anywhere to be seen. I walked around calling for the staff for like 5 minutes and almost walked into the kitchen before the server came out to sit us. She walked right past me as I was explaining that I had a reservation and ushered my partner to the table...

For some reason the server (F) seemed to pay attention mostly to my partner (F) and little to me, I thought nothing of it at first but it became almost insulting by the end. We ordered the date night platter and asked for suggestion on the wine pairing since the platter was seafood and steak. It was a good thing that we asked because it turned out that they were out of most of the wines.

When the apps came, the onion soup was tasteless, Ceasar salad was as you'd expect. The $205 platter was good, nothing to write home about, BUT it came on a normal platter. Now, there was a lot of food, a T-Bone steak and crab legs, with a lot of sides. This takes a lot of time to eat and withing the 10 minute mark the food started getting noticeably cold because it didn't come on a hot plate. The server didn't ask us how anything was after that so we couldn't provide feedback. I tried suggesting a hot plate when we went to pay our bill and she seemed extremely disinterested.

When we finished the platter (for which you needed to use your hands) I asked for wat naps but they had none, instead I was given a bowl of water and paper towel. I appreciate that she found an alternative solution, but for a $200+ meal I expect wet naps.

Halfway though our meal the club below started blasting their music which completely killed the lounge vibes with elevator music that they had going on.

After we finished the platter it was time for dessert. We were presented the choices and my partner said that since it was my birthday I should choose. This is the first time the server found out the occasion that brought us there, and it's like she didn't hear it at all. I'm not the entitled type but when dropping over $300 on a meal I would expect some acknowledgement. Maybe if it were my partner's birthday she'd have wished a happy birthday... Well, I ordered the cheesecake, but when the dessert came out it was the tiramisu.

During this whole experience there were only 3 tables in the restaurant and the chef who is also the owner never came out to check on things. Overall, this was a horrible experience and I am willing to give it the benift of the doubt but there's a lot of things that need to be worked out, starting from the firing or retraining of the server.

Feb...

Came here with a couple friends on a Friday evening and had a quite unpleasant experience. Service was terrible, one server for the dining room (apparently she had the bar as well as she mentioned there was no bartender?), no management or help to be seen at all. Our drinks took forever to come. Tables weren’t cleared for the 2-3 hours we were there. Drink menu is small, lacks variety…. That’s just the start.

Now the food: we were very excited to come here as it did just open in July, and seeing as the Google reviews are quite high, we decided to take a chance. Don’t trust all the good reviews. We started with the bison carpaccio and the Burrata. The bison carpaccio was under seasoned and very underwhelming, Of our plates were a mess and a not been cleaned up before coming to the table. It is unfortunate That it was like this, as I have worked over eight years in the restaurant industry, and know that if you are paying this cost for a dining experience, that there should be a standard, that should not be overlooked. The carpaccio itself was nothing to write home about wouldn’t go back for it as it lacked flavour and had huge chunks of Parmesan on top. As for the Burrata, I understand that peaches are out of season, however, serving rockhard, and overcharred peaches Should be something to look at. It was very unenjoyable. So not the best start for the night. Onto our mains: we had the lobster ravioli chicken Neptune, and the Seafood pasta. The lobster ravioli pasta was undercooked and not edible, As for the filling inside, the lobster was overcooked, and the filling lacked flavour. The chicken Neptune was all right at best. Chicken was overcooked, And the burnt flavour of the chicken overruled the whole plate. The garlic mash that was served with sour and had no garlic flavour at all. Seafood pasta was OK. Muscles were overcooked again lacking flavor.. For dessert we had the cheesecake. I understand that you consider it a burnt cheesecake, but We were unable to eat it at all. The cheesecake was very salty, and The texture was that of curdled milk. The blue thing that came with it was Questionable. For a bill that was over $300 we expected something that was at least enjoyable. I would not recommend this place to anyone. We will definitely not be going back at all. Seeing as this is a new place, you would think that their standard would be high to make a good impression The food we have in Calgary. However, it fell...

First of all, I want to say that I understand that in the beginning things can be the stages of making improvements and little hiccups. We had a big top the other night and the service wasn’t that great. There were only a few tables in the entire spot and was very quiet. We all came one at a time and some people arrived later on. The Paloma seemed a little underwhelming but wasn’t enough to send it back. While we were waiting and talk amongst ourselves, we heard super loud music vibrating and realized it was coming from either under or beside the restaurant, probably during sound check at first. Was not expecting that. Later on when we ordered, a couple of us had asked for our entrees and the others still didn’t know what they wanted, so the server said they’d come back to take orders. 30 minutes later, the entrees of the few of us were put in while 70% of the table still hadn’t ordered, because the servers never came back until dropping the food off. We had to ask them to take our plates away because it wasn’t done so from when we had appetizers earlier. The plates were a good size considering price, so that wasn’t the case. When we got dessert, the chocolate cheesecake wasn’t what I was expecting with being covered with chocolate on the outside. Hopefully in the next couple of months the...