NUPO — Restaurant in Calgary

I booked Nupo (for YYC Food and Drink Expo) for a long-overdue date night to have some quality time with my husband. We’ve been to Nupo a couple times in the past and have always been impressed with the freshness and creativity of the menu.

In order:

1/2) Charcoal grilled oyster: the oyster has a warm chili butter scallion sauce, which is a pleasant surprise from a typical cold oyster. Cocktail is a Pink Sencha Collins, a pink gin-based drink which was refreshing and not too sweet. 3) Deepwater Farms Tokyo Turnips: the server recommended we eat the entire turnip (including greens) by dipping into miso sauce. Very mild turnip flavour (more like a radish) and the miso sauce is a great complement to the turnip. (Still drinking the Collins) 4) Tempura parsnip roll: wild mushroom, truffle aioli, horseradish. This was one of my favourites, primarily because I normally hate the taste and smell of mushrooms, and the texture and balance of these with the roll was phenomenal. Drink pairing Grace Gris de Koshu (Japanese white wine made with Koshu grapes). 5/6) Acadian caviar and tuna tartare: so many layers to this dish. The caviar is layered on top of avocado and tartare, and the nori sheets have a layer of rice paper to give it the backbone to hold up the tartare. Not too salty or overwhelming. Drink pairing Masami Origarami (a sparkling sake). 7) Eggplant tostada: my husband quite liked this one, and although it wasn’t my favourite it’s hard to fault it since it’s going up against so many other winners in the Prix fixe dinner. Paired with a Karahashi Black cocktail. 8 ) 5 courses of nigiri: ora king salmon, haidacore tuna belly, kanpachi yellowtail, 7 day aged gindara sablefish, and Hokkaido scallop. Melt in your mouth, fresh quality sushi fish is hard to come by in Calgary, and this course thoroughly impressed both of us. The server let us know the 7 day aged sablefish is usually the crowd favourite, but I preferred the scallop and yellowtail. (Still drinking the Karahashi Black cocktail). 9) Basque cheesecake: a lovely dessert which isn’t too heavy or too “cheesecake” in flavour (think Japanese cheesecakes).

We always have an amazing time, and the cost is up there (but we rarely have a big night like this one and so we budget accordingly). The restaurant is fairly small, and definitely busy (we went on a Friday night) which can get a bit loud for conversation. For the Expo the Prix Fixe menu is $75 per person (includes an 18% gratuity) and reservations are made through Tock and require prepayment. On a whim we added the drink pairings ($55 per person, which are timed well and not necessarily with every dish) and each cocktail or wine pairing was excellent (since we added the cocktail pairings after our initial reservation we paid and tipped on this bill separately). Service is prompt and attentive (without being interruptive or overwhelming), and staff bringing by drinks or courses were very familiar and knowledgeable...

My wife and I just had our "Culinary Journey" with another couple visiting from out of town. We spent nearly $800 on the Culinary Journey plus beverage pairing and 20% gratuity- upfront, 2 weeks prior to dining in. While the food was mostly fresh and tasty, the only thing that was actually interesting was the first course which consisted of a smokey tomato broth with noodles. The 2nd course was a nice tasting oyster (literally just one). My wife and I aren't familiar or excited about oysters in general but this was buttery and not slimey since it was cooked. My issue is that it was literally 1 oyster for each of us. Considering the $200 per person price tag, I'd like to offer my suggestion of increasing the value of the experience. Perhaps 3 oysters would be a more appropriate tasting portion. Still a "taste" but not one that is so quickly gone and forgotten. Another course that fell short was the salad course. It was just a bunch of thick, sliced red cabbage, onion slivers and some smaller unidentified morsels, including a somewhat large, fibrous, purplish Grey chunk of something that tasted quite unpleasant. And all of this was drizzled with a very tasteless dressing. The beverage pairings were pretty underwhelming, also. I don't think the "pairing" aspect was given much thought as they didn't seem to bring any cohesiveness to the table. It was mostly a collection of different sake which did not seem to pair well with the dishes at all. The sushi course was just okay. It came with 5 pieces for each of us and was fresh but was nothing special at all. Again, for the $200 per person, this should have and could have been something exceptional or imaginative. We did all agree on the dessert being pleasant which was a basque cheesecake but the overall experience was a disappointment. Aside from the food, the seating location was bad as it was right next to the door which led to the patio. This caused the presence of small flies to enter our space from time to time plus the outside noise muffled our server's voice so we often had trouble hearing them describe the dishes. Our table location was also amongst the other dine-in clients which meant there were conversations happening all around us adding to the difficulty hearing our server. They should have sat us at the bar in my opinion or somewhere a bit more intimate. The physical tables themselves were a bit uneven and small which detracted from the supposedly 'elevated' dining experience. Overall, quite disappointing and I cannot recommend based on our...

I really wish I could give a 3.5 star, because three stars might be too critical. However, there are a few reasons why I was underwhelmed by my $400 meal. Forced 20% tip paid in advance when booking reservation, with zero cancellation policy. I could understand having no refunds when canceling 48 hours before the reservation, the fact that I had to pay full price for my meal plus a 20% tip when I booked my reservation 4 weeks in advance, gave me a really bad first impression. Why am I forced to give a huge tip when I don't even know what the experience will be like? The atmosphere was loud and cramped. When I'm spending over $400 on food only (2 people) I expect absolutely every part of the experience to be wonderful. I understand that the sushi bar is small, and that's totally fine, but I was shocked at how many tables they forced into this tiny space around us. The atmosphere was incredibly loud, because of the conversations around us, but also because of the loud music which didn't seem to fit the style of the cuisine. In my opinion, the whole point of omakase is to experience the chefs perspective on the food, but I could hardly hear half of what he said because it was so loud in the restaurant. The interior did not impress me. Any other time I've spent over $200 per plate, the interior design has impressed me. I honestly can't remember what the interior of this space looked like, other than it was black.

The criticisms I have are only due to the price of the meal. If it was $100 each, I would not have had such high expectations, nor would I have been as nervous about the zero refund cancellation policy. The forced 20% tip paid in advance is unforgivable for any restaurant at any price in my opinion. I've spent much more on a meal in Toronto or New York, but I have never been asked to pay a large tip in advance.

As for what I liked about the restaurant, the staff were very nice and the food was absolutely delicious. I don't think there was a single bite that I didn't enjoy, my favorite was probably the scallop or the cheesecake. However, aside from the cheesecake, there was nothing here that changed my perspective on sushi or introduced me to something that I had never experienced before. For the price of the meal, I really expected it to change my viewpoint in some way, so I was simultaneously delighted with the food but disappointed...