Hawthorn Dining Room & Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

My partner and I came in for the Valentine's day 4-course meal and were left fairly underwhelmed having spent over $300 for the two of us.

Hawthorn itself is located within the Palliser hotel. There is no signage upon entering the hotel to indicate where Hawthorn is. You either know, or you have to ask the front desk staff for directions. A simple sign would fix the first impression issue this creates. The Dining Room and Bar are separated by the bar itself but the entire location is one large open L-shaped room.

The feel of the location is nice but the atmosphere was significantly damped by the loud and artificial piano music being played through the speakers. This in turn creates a loud atmosphere with patrons having to talk over the music. This is all despite having an actual piano in the room which was not used. I would expect that for special occasions such as Valentine's day, someone would be brought in to play live music.

The service staff were excellent. Our waitress was quite knowledgeable about both food and drink. She ensured our glasses were never empty and every question we had was answered with great clarity.

The food itself was acceptable but the service surrounding the food was not good. Having a pre-set menu should have helped the kitchen staff to be successful. From the time we ordered, it took 45 minutes for our "Shrimp Cocktail for two"' to arrive. I was less than satisfied to find only six shrimp to share between two people. After this, food appeared to arrive promptly with only small delays between courses. We did find the gnocchi to be underseasoned and had to request salt and pepper be brought to the table.

My final note comes about how payment is handled. I have never had a restaurant place a secondary hold on my credit card following the initial payment. Not only did Hawthorn put through the $300+ bill, but they also put through a $300+ hold on my card effectively charging me $600+ until they clear that hold (it has been 7 days now).

All in all, I do not think we will be returning. A better atmosphere and food service can be found elsewhere in Calgary, especially for the...

I don't think I've ever given a one (or two) star review before but our Christmas visit to Hawthorn was such a disappointment this year, one is all it deservers.

A group of us have started a tradition to go to the Fairmont for Christmas drinks. I called to make reservation because I was specifically looking for the area in the dining room with the fireplace. I called mid-November and it took them 3 days to return the call. Unfortunately we were told the area was too small for our group so we booked the main bar area.

The table we were sat at was terrible. Right beside the band and the tables are too high for the chairs which result in an uncomfortable evening. We asked to be moved but they could not not accommodate even though the bar was empty at the time.

The group ordered several different cocktails which were in the $16 dollar range which is reasonable give the location and complicated ingredients. I stuck to fountain club soda (which was $6.00) to start and nothing really appealed to me. Finally, when everyone else was on the third round I saw Mezcal on the menu ($13.00). I asked her if they could make me a margarita using Mezcal she said sure. The drink took 20 minutes to arrive. When I got my bill I was shocked that the margarita was $26.00. I expected it to be more than the $13.00 charge for "neat" Mezcal but $26.00 is ridiculous especially given the fact the other fancier cocktails were $18.00.

We also ordered a variety of food for sharing. The charcuterie board looked like something you would get from the Safeway deli and was small. The rest of the food was ok.

The service overall was very, very slow and yes, it was Christmas (December 2nd) but when we got there we were the only people in the bar so it should have been better.

In the end, I my bill was $59.00 (pre-tip) for a margarita, club soda and a little mediocre food with slow service.

Unfortunately after our experience we will be changing our 2023 gathering to a...

Our October 2024 visit to Hawthorn was supremely disappointing. Between the bad service and the mediocre food, my friend and I were both very upset with how our visit went.

Once we sat down, we were introduced to a waitress we both immediately found to be almost-aggressive and rather annoying. We asked for her wine recommendations and she gave us a few options. When we asked about a wine from Niagara region, she told us she didn't like Canadian wine, but preferred Italian and French. I mean, Fairmont is a Canadian brand. So we were disappointed she chose to voice this distaste for Canadian wine. She also started to recommend more expensive options, one of which was Tolaini Valdisanti, which is about $37-40 in stores and was on the Hawthorn menu for $145! A bit of a price gouge, IMO.

On to the food. We ordered the ginger beef for $16 and the sirloin steak to share. The ginger beef was quite delicious, but for $16, there was barely enough for the 2 of us to split. Then the $39 sirloin arrived, and in atypical contrast to the generally high quality of the Fairmont brand, the chef didn't split it onto two plates for us. We have done this many times before at other restaurants, and they almost always split it up for us, onto separate plates. So we were a bit annoyed they didn't opt to do this at Hawthorn.

The pieces of meat were relatively small and the salad was bland and also quite small. The steak was also underwhelming in flavour.

In the end, I would have to say that while the atmosphere and ambience was nice, as the Hawthorn was right off the lobby of a beautiful and historic hotel, the service was extremely disappointing. I found all the staff, from the hostess to the 2 waitresses we had, to be condescending and a bit snobby. Not at all friendly. If the food was incredible, we would have overlooked that. But it just wasn't.

Don't waste your time spending too much $$ for pedestrian service and food at...