Holy Grill — Restaurant in Calgary

Like Holy Grill puts it, life IS too short to eat fast food! Might I add life is too short to skip lunch and skip out on this place! Great burgers, paninis, creative sides, add-ons, and service! Read on if you have time for a tale...

My mind wanders back to the time I first set foot at this almost-corner-side grill joint. T'was June 6, 2020, a stormy Tuesday night... just kidding, I don't know. I'm on a first date, and he recommends a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner, closer to the core of downtown. Is it just me or does it feel darker as you continue Easterly towards the LRT tracks and river? The office buildings get taller, more claustrophobic. Turns out this shadowy Vietnamese restaurant is closed. Note: this guy doesn't research restaurant menus, origin stories, and hours beforehand, he may be a psychopath. I'm hangry (a piece of unsolicited advice? Never go on a first date hungry) and genuinely NEED food in the belly in order to participate in the dreadful interview questions and polite chatter that accompany a first date. A couple of jokes that don't land and several sidewalks later to the meteorologically lighter side of downtown: The Holy Grill.

Like a true holy beacon, we timidly enter (picture me stretching my hand in front of my eyes to shield against the uncertainty of foreign terrain like a properly weathered, metropolitan soldier, and him nearly ducking, out of habit (not a short door), as he is a tall, lanky fellow). We are greeted on our right with a corner grill, kind-but-not-manic smiles, menus. I order the blackened chicken burger, thinking to myself - already disappointed as if I can't SWITCH my order as I'm ordering - that I have mis-ordered, and who is buying a chicken sandwich at a place specializing in burgers (we return to this later*)? Sit down, failed attempts at more polite chatter.

Abruptly, our food rolls in! This is much faster than I thought, waitress and burgers are saviours! My burger is a welcoming size - not too small that it looks pathetic, not too large that it becomes a threat. Dig in, huge bite, regardless of my date's reaction, and... mind is at peace, belly is at bay. All is well in the world. Burger is tender and well-seasoned, mozzarella covering it's surface area. I crunch into the complimentary pickle and fried onion stacked on the skewer holding it all together...it's nice to know there still exists complimentary things in this world. Bliss. Get my hands on some fresh, made-in-house, further complimentary beet chips nestled by burger. Guy becomes more interesting (freshly-fed mind starts thinking he may have been interesting this entire time?). Date gets better. Was it a love story? Yes, but that is another story for another time! We are here to talk about the food, as I've so efficiently demonstrated here.

I returned lately to the Holy Grill, and the customer service, quality, quantity, and speediness has not changed. Feeling nostalgic, I got the blackened chicken burger. Same sense of reassurance that a good meal gives (think: Anton Ego taking that first bite of ratatouille). Not that I imagine myself to be Anton Ego while eating out around Calgary or anything... Also was given a tester of their honey dill dip by the smiling man I presume to be the owner. Thank you.

*The Holy Grill doesn't simply make delicious burgers... It makes other things too - paninis, breakfast handhelds, yummy sides... Maybe it even makes...

Arrived to the restaurant 10:13 (paid for parking 10:11). Walked in was told to take a seat and they will bring a menu. Then waited till 10:46 with no service, no water no coffee no table check to see if we wanted a beverage.

As we left the service team gathered around talking. So our comment was does it REALLY take 33 mins for an coffee and water order...? The waiter said I can take your order now... we said save it we are leaving to Reds where we always get great service because they don't CHEAP out on a thing called Service..

My family has owned and operated restaurants, I've been short staffed and had to come out on the floor to assist service staff and have worked in restaurants over the years and have had as many as 12 tables (he had 7). You don't serve tables, you take care of a section. You scan the section before you go in or in or out of the kitchen. You learn multitasking or you get stuck in the weeds and you can never recover and everyone suffers.

Break down in management, training and operation effectiveness. A table beside us finished their breakfast the server cleared the table and didn't bring the bill back so they went to the front to get the bill after waiting for 11 mins which I timed (habit I learned being in the industry and knowing service cycles).

My last position was a conceirge in the service industry for a 4 star 5 diamond hotel so I can appreciate issues with unexpected shortages in staff but that is what managements job is to support their people which there was no sign of any Manger. Poor service, poor acknowledgement of the situation and poor training.

Reds was as expected menu and beverage order taken within mins of sitting (3-5Mins). Server came twice within 8 mins of being seated and worked her section with "full hands in and full hands out when coming in and out of the dining room. Before leaving her section she looked to see what else was needed before she left and watched her bring beverages to multiple tables and hand out bills to 2 tables. On her way back she served food and stopped by each billed table to see if they required the machine. That is called training...

TLDR: Poor service and not worth the money; would not recommend. Better to walk a few more blocks to Clive Burger!

I just left here less than an hour ago and I’m eager to write this review to get this bad start to my day out of my system… it was my first time here and will certainly be the last. To start, the female cashier there was less than welcoming; curt to borderline unpleasant. (The guys making the food seemed great but I didn’t interact with them much). I tried to ignore this young lady’s attitude but then I ordered a hot chocolate and things took a turn for the worse… They literally poured chocolate milk and steamed it serving lukewarm chocolate milk as hot chocolate. It literally tasted like tap water with cocoa powder. It shouldn’t even be on the menu much more cost $4.75! I built up the guts to return it and the young lady proceeded to ARGUE with me before reluctantly giving me back exactly $4.75 in coins. The burgers were ok. Nothing special and definitely not worth the price or the aura (it’s basically self serve minus making the food). Too bad the whole experience left too bitter a taste in my mouth which couldn’t be redeemed. I only stayed because we were starving, otherwise I would have refunded everything and left. Point blank.

Dear owner, please make sure your staff are trained to give the customer service you intend. And please learn to make hot chocolate or remove it from the menu (or rename it as “steamed milk”) but you can’t have people paying $4.75 for warm chocolate milk...