Milestones — Restaurant in Calgary

We’ve always had great experiences at other Milestones locations, so we were looking forward to trying the 8th Ave location for the first time. Unfortunately, this visit left a lot to be desired.

Our group of six requested to sit on the patio by the fireplace. The hostess was friendly and seated us promptly. However, no staff came to light the fire—we had to do it ourselves while employees watched from inside.

Later, our server arrived and took our drink orders. It then took 15+ minutes just to receive basic non-alcoholic beverages. When it came time to order, we gave both our appetizer and entrée selections, but the server left all six dinner menus and two drink menus cluttering the table. When the starters came, there was no space to place the dishes. The calamari was overcooked and chewy, although the other appetizers were fine.

Before we even finished half of our appetizers, the entrées arrived. Rather than placing them correctly, the food was “auctioned” off with staff asking who had ordered what. It seemed the restaurant staff doesn’t use seat numbers for organization, which caused confusion. At this point, we had starters, mains, drinks, and eight menus crammed on the table—and not enough room to eat. Some of us were forced to eat with plates in our laps.

To make matters worse, we were only given three sets of cutlery for six people. One guest had to cut her overcooked steak (ordered medium rare, served medium well to well done) with a butter knife. The server never returned to check on us after taking the order—the hostess ended up being the only one who helped at all.

When we raised the issue about the steak and missing cutlery, the hostess removed the steak without asking how we’d like the issue resolved. One of the roll-ups even had hair in it—clearly, there’s a lack of attention to cleanliness when assembling cutlery. The hostess later returned to ask if we’d prefer a new steak or have it removed from the bill. Since everyone else had already finished eating, we opted to remove it.

Shockingly, we didn’t see our server again until it was time to clear the table and pay—which was still crowded with dirty dishes and menus.

Overall, the level of service and quality at this location was far below what we’ve come to expect from Milestones. No manager ever came to address the issues, and the server was largely absent throughout the entire meal. The only redeeming part of the visit was the hostess, who went above her role and did more than the actual serving staff and management combined. She deserves...

Man I hate leaving these kind of reviews but was I ever disappointed in milestones when we went for date night last night. We went for date night for the first time in years, as it’s always been good in the past. I used to love this place. I don’t know if we got an off night or what but here was our experience.

For anyone who doesn’t know it’s $75 for two people to share a starter, 2 meals, and a dessert.

The spinach dip was fine though the chips were somehow greasy? Not sure what was up with that. But the dip was great.

The crispy chili chicken bowl had almost gooey like chicken bites (in the past they’ve been crispy), and a sauce that just tasted like they tossed cilantro and sriracha sauce in a bowl and the rice was gummy. I ate like two bites and then couldn’t eat anymore, they just brought me a box and my hubby and I shared his mushroom chicken which in itself was really good, however the “roasted veggies” you get on the side was 2 carrots and 3 green beans on the plate. It was the saddest side of veggies I’ve ever seen.

My husband tried to crisp up the leftovers in the oven for lunch. He ended up salvaging the chicken but tossed the rice and just made some at home to go with the rest.

Finally, the dulche cheese cake was the most underwhelming cheesecake I’ve ever seen. It was served to us like it came out of a Walmart freezer. They garnished it with half, yes half, a strawberry and no extra dulche over the cheesecake. It was a tiny serving and the crust was so thin it wasn’t even in some places. They did sprinkle some powdered sugar on the plate. And the flavour of the cheesecake was really good. It had a lot of cinnamon in it which I loved.

The server was pretty slow, but I think she was the only one on last night. She was really nice though. And the only reason I’m not giving 1 star overall. So props to that lady last night.

The atmosphere was fine except they sat everyone right next to each other even tho it was slow. So we ended up all crowded together even tho there was no reason for it.

Oh my Bellini was great, they are always really good. So there was that.

Overall, For a $140 dinner it just wasn’t good, and I’m upset we wasted our one expensive dinner a year on...

Autumn leaves don’t fall , they fly

My friend Rachel and I recently dined on a very cold Sunday night at Calgary’s downtown Milestones We were very pleased to be served by Autumn. Rachel’s schedule is very unpredictable so we did something new for us, we viewed the menu online and ordered ahead. We sort of Dashed out the Door, got to Milestones , Skipped taking the food home and sat down for Eats, and Uber’d home. Sorry. Turns out Autumn was both the person who took our phone order and our server. She has several tattoos on her right arm and shoulder, including a dragonfly my favourite flying garden dweller. From the moment we walked in until the end, Autumn was attentive and had what is rare in servers, perfect anticipation of our needs. Since our preordered food was almost ready Autumn rushed our drink order so that all the food and drink arrive in concert. We ordered the Sweet Chili Chicken bites, Tuscan bruschetta and California Spring salad with pecans and strawberries and added grilled salmon. One of the best salads i have ever had. Simple, crisp and colourful. Our drinks were a peach Bellini with a dollop of strawberry ice, and mine a chili mango tequila Caesar. In fact what i thought when the food and drinks arrived on rustic brightly coloured plates bowls and flatware shining in the glow of the warm lights above it, was I was looking at a spring day. rustWhen I looked at Autumn and said out loud what I thought “Autumn this looks like” spring she said. When a server does the job properly they are both invisible and completely accessible. At one point a side plate was slowly getting pushed to the edge of the tables cliff, as I was just about to pull it back a hand appeared as Autumn gently saved us from a ceramic disaster. Autumn was the kind of server you would love to have in the spring summer and...