Oxbow — Restaurant in Calgary

I was planning an outing to Kensington, and I really wanted to try a new place to eat for our supper. Weeks ahead of time I sent messages to so many restaurants in the area, to ask about accessibility and allergens.

The only place that replied to me was Oxbow, at Kensington Hotel Arts. And they were so wonderful! Specifically Morgan and the chef Junelle, were so wonderful. They replied with how accessible it is, that the lounge would be the roomiest area for a wheelchair, and that there’s a ramp etc. They told me which food options I could have that would need no changes or simply need the jus omitted, or another small thing omitted. I was so excited and so grateful they responded to me.

My excitement was merited! 😃 We were greeted by a hostess who knew my name before I said it. She took us to a beautiful, spacious table in the lounge that was set up for us. Then Morgan came, said she was who I’d been conversing with online. She was great. Assured me my food would be allergy free. That she had printed up my list and put it in the kitchen, and she’s got me. All taken care of. Food would be safe and we’d have a great night. Took our orders.

The ambiance was really nice. Cozy. Welcoming. Quiet background music.

Starters:

I had the bacon and egg salad with no alterations. What a surprising flavour profile!! Once you have a bite, with all the flavours combined, it’s like an explosion in your mouth of sweet and savoury, with soft and hard textures that all work so well together. The crispy egg was so good! I don’t even love eggs, but I loved that egg. It had mushrooms, large bacon bits, tasty greens, egg, I think some onions and a sweet dressing. It was so nice to eat something with unexpected flavours that I couldn’t completely place. A real, new food experience for me.

My husband had the Caesar Steak Tartare. He really enjoyed it. He said it was more garlicky than he’s used to, and, although it was excellent, he’d probably get my salad next time, just due to personal preference.

For mains:

I had the striploin steak dinner, medium rare. Omitting the Jus. Another true surprise! I was expecting a basic steak dinner, but the basics were elevated. There was a creamy corn section on the bottom which was sooooo good!!! (And I had been worried I wouldn’t like it, as I don’t typically love creamy things) and on top of that there were delicious crispy Brussels sprouts and perfect potatoes, with steak on top and to the side, along with some pickled tomatoes along the edge. The steak was tender and flavourful, even without the jus. Everything was so equally tasty that I had to alternate every bite with a different item, because I couldn’t just stick to one.

My husband had the Pork chop meal. No alterations. He DEVOURED every item on his plate. It was all gone. He had no regrets with his choice. He was even like, is it ok if I eat the meat off the bone? I was like go for it! Enjoy to the fullest! It had leeks, crispy Brussels sprouts, another veggie I’m not sure of/maybe turnip? Something orange haha. He couldn’t tell me what it was, but he liked it. Lol.

For Dessert:

We shared the espresso crème brûlée. Omg so good!!

Morgan and the other servers and the hostess were all so friendly. Junelle is an incredible chef!

The entrance was easily accessible. The bathroom was beautiful and fully accessible, including having a toilet seat high enough, a hand bar in a good spot, room under the sink for the chair, reachable touchable tap. The only problem I had was getting out of the bathroom area. The door was too heavy for me to keep it open and wheel out. It was easier to get in. It would be awesome if it had an automatic door/button to the bathroom, but staff came to help me.

Overall an amazing experience that exceeded my...

We went for the YYC Experience Pop-up that has Yellow Door Bistro and Oxbow working together.

Firstly, the food and wine pairings were quite good. The hamachi crudo and agnolotti were the standout for me, and my fiancé loved the fennel sausage and pommes aligot.

The service and lack of organization is what brought this rating down so hard. Our server barely knew the type of wine pairing he was serving to us, despite us asking for details. Every course we were told if it was "bubbles, cider, or a mixed red." The wine pairings came out first and the last three courses took about 20 minutes each to reach our table after we'd already received the small glass of wine. We were hoping there might be a top up or something provided to acknowledge the lengthy wait times for the food that went with the pairing, but nothing was offered. The servers also did not explain all the components of each dish and we found ourselves looking it up on our phones between courses.

When we received the fennel sausage with the table side pommes aligot, we had to ask someone where the tableside offering of melted cheese was. While our food got cold, our waiter simply said "oh, they didn't come by with that yet?" and then went to find the guy with the cheese while we left our dish untouched waiting for its final topping. The heating mechanism was failing for the melted cheese experience, so the server was using a hand torch to get the smallest amount of cheese to put onto the potatoes. The mechanism failing was certainly no one's fault, but the kitchen should have pivoted and began melting cheese in the kitchen to provide fully melted cheese on this dish. We saw them serve a table with completely unmelted cheese nearby, scraping off hunks of solid cheese, and that was rough.

At the end of the meal, we had our dessert served to us by the sommelier who brought out the bottle of sweet wine to tell us about for our final dish and pairing. We expressed that we had wished she had been around for the other wine pairings because her attention to detail was great.

In the end, the food was really the star, but with so much disorganization and the servers being unable to explain the dishes or the wine pairings, this was a bit of a disappointment for the price of $320...

Absolute worst service experience I've ever had in a restaurant, if I could post with zero stars I would. We had a local newscaster seated next to us, they're party was served all courses with staff and chef falling all over them. We were given 2 menus for 4 people, yup we had to share menus until we could get the wait staffs attention. We watched as our neighbours dined on their fresh bread, breadsticks and appetizers while staff just walked by our table over and over as though we weren't in the room. We waited forever to get our meals ordered, they forgot our appetizer, a request for gluten free bread took so long we were finished with appetizers before it arrived, and it turned out to be 1 measly slice of mediocre bread, really, why bother? We had to repeatedly ask for water and coffee, and cream and when our meals finally arrived after waiting over an hour, they brought the wrong meal to one of us. It took nearly 3 hours to finish this nightmare dining experience, but our celebrity friend who arrived at same time was finished, paid and long gone! We complained to waitress who fully admitted our neighbours got preferential treatment and said, "I'd like to buy you dessert". Three of the four of us ordered a dessert assuming they were treating all of us only to have the waitress come back and say " so I agreed paid for 1 dessert, who would you like the other 2 charged to?" Are you kidding me? You want to nickle and dime over 2 desserts? Unbelievable, that was the last straw. We called over the Manager and went through the long, long, long list of problems, he agreed to not charge us. It was the only thing they did right all night! What an absolute mess. Unprofessional, unpleasant, awful. Food was good when it finally arrived, but at that point, who cares, the entire night was blown. With all of the choices in Calgary, and entrées running on average $35.00, Oxbow better get it's act together and fast or they won't last. I saw Oxbow on the morning news so was excited to try it, ironically, it was the same station the newscaster that got all of attention happens to be on, hmmm interesting. Oxbow was an epic fail...