Milpa — Restaurant in Calgary

We visited Milpa in the final weekend of the YYCEXP and were very excited to give it a try. The space itself is pretty cool from the front, with the repeating teal/tiffany blue arches and lighting, it's an Instagram Photo Op in real time. We were greeted warmly and immediately felt like we were on vacation, with the music and general atmosphere of the space - initial impressions had us very excited. However, once sat, we were abandoned for close to 20 minutes. Plenty of staff walked past us, checked on tables all around, but we did not meet our server for some time... this would be the theme for the night. She was very friendly and warm, explained the concept of the menu and answered our questions - we placed basic drink orders, a 9oz glass of red wine and a bottle of beer, and made our selections from the preset YYCEXP menu. SLOW is the only thing I can say about the service for the remainder of the night. First courses came out about 20 minutes later (both cold dishes), before our drinks, which didn't arrive for another 10 min. Spacing of the food was strange, even for a shared plate model, which saw us waiting with food cooling in front of us often. My partner ordered a second beer mid way through and it took another 25-30 minutes to get that. When I booked the reservation, it noted they allow for 2 hours service for a group of 2 or 4, which SHOULD have been plenty of time... even after we asked for the bill, it was another 30 min before we got out of there. At least it was consistent, everyone around us was making comments about the poor service as well. Food wise, we generally enjoyed most items, but looking at the pricing on the actual menu, I can say that not everything was of a quality that matched the pricing. Based on that, I would not bother with the salsa tasting (so small), coconut ceviche (delicious but small for price) or Empanada (generally flavorless, had so little filling it was mostly dough) again. That said, the Papas Bravas were delicious, the sauce was perfection. The Rajas Poblanas was rich, warm and had just the right amount of spice, which paired perfectly with the fresh corn and flour tortillas. Equally fantastic was the Quesabirra, they were loaded with flavorful tender brisket and cheese, the consumme I could have sipped right from the bowl. The dessert options were not on the regular menu, but we would have returned for the chocolate mousse if it was. As we are not cocktail people, the drink options were a disappointment - especially the wine side, which is setup to basically force you to purchase a whole bottle by pricing very limited single glass items super high, $27 for a 9oz glass of essentially house red (though I had I known we were going to be there so long, I maybe would have ordered a bottle haha) Overall, sadly the service, or lack there of, ruined the experience for us. We enjoyed the food overall, but the very slow no chalant service and the pricing vs. product will likely make sure we...

My friend and I made a reservation at the end of February to dine here on March 25, 2023 at 7:00pm. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:55 and we were greeted by a friendlty host. It was very busy with many people entering and leaving the restaurant. By the time it was 7:10, we have not yet been seated, however there were at least 3-4 other tables that came in after us but was seated before us. When we told the host we were still waiting, he said he was waiting for a table of 2 to finish. At about 7:13, our table was ready. We were seated at the very back corner of the restaurant which looked like it was a makeshift table. There was storage rack right behind our table.

I was indecisive with the drink menu, so I took the advice from our server and who recommended a drink (I don’t remember what it was called) and my friend ordered the Pineapple cocktail. We decided on the prefix dinner with included coconut ceviche, potatoes, tacos, more tacos and a dessert. To be very honest, everything was no better than average. The only thing that was kinda neat was the coconut ceviche. The portion size was very small and everything was underwhelming. Wasn't worth the price. Not to mention our drinks came really late. Neither my friend our I liked our drinks - nothing to do with the bartenders, just a personal preference. The restaurant did comp us for the drinks as it had a major delay.

The design of the restaurant was very neat which was what prompted us to dine here. However, I was disappointed sitting at the back corner facing the large bright unattractive kitchen. My view during the entire dinner included watching the cook deep fry and watching other chefs cook. Our table was wobbly and the music was too loud.

The entire night I felt really irritated with the bright kitchen light so I felt compelled to make a suggestion to our server after we finished the 3rd course. I explained to her that the table that we had felt like a makeshift table and the restaurant shouldn’t be seating people here because it was very bright, and facing the kitchen wasn’t very nice. She blatantly responded with “What?” or “Why?” I could not clearly hear her because the music was very loud. I then repeated myself to her. She mumbled a few words “Oh ok” and she made me felt like it was not big deal. I honestly expected her to say something along the lines of ‘thank you for your suggestion. I will pass it on to my manger’, as that’s what I think a regular server would do but to not receive a real response was a bit odd. We didn’t bother staying for the desert.

Overall, it was a terrible dining experience. From the wait to be seated, then being seated to the worst table of the restaurant, the wait of our drinks, the food being underwhelming and the response from my server after I made a suggestion to her. I won’t be returning nor recommending this...

Well, let me just provide a simple metaphor for this entire restaurant (or is it a bar?) experience…….why not make a really good Margherita, but instead ruin it by putting a vertical band of salt vs the rim, and use a shot glass, with two ice cubes while you’re at it. Perfect, ruined it, now charge $15!

I didn’t pick this spot, influencing algorithms worked on my partner, and alas we found ourselves here.

We ordered 3x different drinks;

sour sop mojito - so a creamy beverage with no mint, but a branch of mint in the glass. $17

Slush of day - purple, way to sweet, way too sour $17

Margherita - see above….was told by server they don’t even really advertise this drink, so people won’t think it’s just another Mexican place…..don’t worry, you got that part bang on.

We order 2x apps

Dips and chips - the quac had pomegranate in it, the cheese was mostly lemon and acidic, and the bean was not bad. Not sure what the beet or vegetable chips were for, was not a plus.

Tuna - hmmm, cinnamon and fennel, and lemon….turns into pretty much a celery acid flavour, tuna was completely obliterated. Perhaps is had been prepared so far ahead, it just destroyed any flavour imparted by the fish.

Mains

Quesabiria - this was basically a single shredded beef taco, with a puddle of fried cheese along one edge. The beef was nearly indistinguishable from Grandma’s six hour cook thanksgiving turkey…it was dead dry, and the bowl of broth couldn’t even help it. Nearly unable to swallow.

Al Pastor - This is another idea that was not successful. Slab of pineapple, a few pieces of shoulder (cartilage, large pieces of fat, tendon, all the stuff you don’t want) not sliced thin, all held together on several toothpicks. Oh, you get handed a set of scissors…wtf for no one mentions. This was the most expensive dish, and it was terrible.

At this point we have six glasses, and five plates on a two top table. Twenty minutes passes after we have finished and stacked as much as we can to create some space. Zero attendance after the mains were dropped.

Eventually I had to go to the front door, and get the host to retrieve an invoice. Our server was still carving watermelon to make drinks at the bar (perhaps they make their own tables drinks?). But, 20 minutes of absence and having the table staff run the bar…dumb.

Anyhow.

The colours are fun, the food is vibrant and visually pleasing. This is a cool, trendy, popular place to come and take pictures of food. But, if you are looking for dinner, and further, good Mexican, this is not it. In fact, I have never seen a place work so hard to be not even be middling, but...