Leopold’s Tavern Calgary - Beltline — Restaurant in Calgary

Been supporting these guys well before and during pandemic. Ordered food in even when they couldn’t serve. I have a 7 year old child and we have been taking her since she was 2. We’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars here. We bring different people for gatherings and have countless evenings here.

There is a posted limit for children being at establishment being 8pm, however, for 5 years we have been going as a family, with what felt like non strict compliance (there are commonly grey areas in this industry with seemingly judgement being employed by staff in different places) that we felt like became unclear boundaries to be followed.

For reference, we have been to over 400 different breweries with her, of which, extended said policies based on behaviour of child and flow of the evening. She’s well behaved, and therefore, most places have some tolerance for us, and let us stay longer than posted protocols when they don’t pertain to liquor laws. We have inquired in the past whether this is a factor with leopolds, and at no point been given clarity there was a legality issue or behaviour issue that would prevent some level of flexibility. We’ve been served additional drinks well after 8pm in many cases with her there, even after said discussions have transpired, that made us perceive there was some wiggle room based on trust we had perceived to have built up with staff. These instances have shaped our ordering habits and vision for evenings, and became a key reason that we select Leo’s for our family Sunday dinners, instead of random Boston pizza or Swiss chalet dinners. We aim higher.

In fairness to staff, there have been instances that I can understand, have left frustration in their end that we may not have fully unsterstood, and for that we apologize. There are posted and communicated protocols with various staff members that we may not have fully understood or complied with at all times. We certainly apologize for those misunderstandings and certainly did not intend on disrespecting anyone, although it may have been perceived that way.

However, to be essentially, rushed, and kicked out of a common establishment, by unknown staff, unable to even finish our meal, was certainly not reasonable for the relationship we had felt we had built with the restaurant. We felt like the relationship built deserved more than what we received, and being “kicked out” of a familial pub, even after escalating to on sight manager was highly surprising and disappointing. We were open to reasonable discourse and long term understanding. My point was that if they were going to firmly hold us to the cutoff, it felt unfair to serve us food and deliver it 15-20 minutes before, offer more drinks, in knowing that there would be a stern rush (that we had not previously experienced). It felt contradictory.

Should we be met in the middle. Instead, staff was petulant with us, and we had to de-escalate the situation, a bizarre chain of events that was inverse of normal protocol. It turned out we had an underlying, fractured relationship, with a place we loved, that we didn’t know about. Perhaps we lacked in self awareness. Possibly true for sure. We just thought we were comfortable here and why we kept coming back. Didn’t realize we were creating a negative interaction for others and that certainly wasn’t clear or communicated.

This is a great place, great menu, beer selection, vibe, staff, etc - to be clear it’s a great spot, and unfortunate ending to a good relationship. Clearly we like this place and should what we feel, reasonable communication been employed, we could continue our patronage. I absolutely recommend it, and only provide the low ranking based on our unique experience. For our overall history at this establishment to be deemed disrespectful because of a misunderstanding with no direct communication prior to now, is highly disappointing.

We apologize for being frustrating customers to you, of which, you can trust was not intentional, and will relieve you from...

It pains me to say... my first time at this location didn't go well. The food tasted delicious, as always. Atmosphere and staff are also fantastic! They are super nice and addressed my issue. With that said... it took over 30 minutes for my food to get to my table. The chicken in my sandwich was cold but my plate was a furnace from the heater. It clearly sat in the window for a while. They made fresh fries at least. My partner didn't finish he meal because her eggs were "rubbery" after sitting in the window, bun was hard on top, soft on bottom. Here's the thing. It was Saturday, just before lunch, one person working the whole room. Server, bartender and food runner. They were packed soon after we arrived. It wasn't her fault, the team to help her wasn't there until the rush was well underway, clearly scheduled to show up around noon. I'm disappointed because this is my favorite place to eat. They needed to schedule people to help transition that rush, not come in and "make the best of a bad situation". My server could probably tell I was annoyed, because I didn't see her at our table for the rest of the time we were there. I had to leave to pay for more parking when I paid for 1.5 hours. I still tipped well and didn't bring this to the staff because it isn't on them, it was a clear scheduling issue, running the place on a skeleton crew on a Saturday morning close to lunch. I will return for sure. I just hope I won't eat cold food again because my server is being pulled literally dozens of directions at the same time. She was great! They even thanked me for my patience. Honestly I normally would be, but after working in restaurants for years in my 20's, I know a bit about this topic. This shouldn't happen on a busy Saturday at lunch downtown. Especially with the cost of eating out these days. I will change this review if I feel this is somehow resolved or if my next visit goes much better. Until then, my review must...

Me and my partner came in around 6 PM and ordered the BBQ Rancher Poutine and the garlic parm double Mac and cheese.

Our server who we did not catch the name of but was wearing a shirt with Patrick the starfish on it brought our food to the table but then said “oh wrong table” and walked away to bring it to the table next to us before I could say anything and dropped the food off. She then came back to the other table a few moments later and I overheard her apologizing to them for bringing the wrong food to their table and then she walked past ours and said “your food will be out shortly” and did not explain further what had happened.

She went over to the other table multiple times to apologize and ask how the food was but never said anything to us and avoided looking at us when she walked past, even though we had arrived 15 minutes before the other table that got our food and we were the party that was most effected by this mistake. When our food finally did come we had to ask for take out boxes because we had other plans that we needed to get to and had been waiting for our food for over half an hour

At no point did our server apologize for the wait or explain the mistake they made to us and also did not do anything to make up for the mistake that was made and just pretended that it did not happen while apologizing to the table that had got what I would assume would be two free meals on top of their other food that they ordered. Meanwhile we were charged full price and were not compensated at all even though we were the party that was most effected.

The food was also not great which may have been because they had to rush the food out as quick as possible in hopes that we wouldn’t notice what happened (even though it was clearly our food that was brought to the wrong table and we could overhear the server apologizing to the...