Paper Lantern — Restaurant in Calgary

A little while ago, I came here with a group of 5 friends around 7pm when the restaurant was only hosting only 1 table at the time we walked in. A little later, 2 more friends wanted to join us. I know the policy is no groups larger than 6, so I asked our server if they could come. I even said that if not, we’re understand. She went to check with the manager and came back saying yes, it was fine since there were no reservations for the night.

Before my friends even arrived, the restaurant started to fill up. Still, I figured it was okay because we were ordering plenty of food and drinks, not just sitting there. As soon as my friends sat down, the servers handed them menus but gave them barely 2 minutes to decide. They quickly ordered drinks, then placed their food order a little later.

Right after the food order was taken, the server came back and told us we only had 15 minutes left at the table. That’s when we learned about the 2-hour time limit. I understand if that’s their policy, but if they weren’t going to restart the clock when new guests joined, they should have told us upfront. Instead, my two friends barely had 30 minutes to sit, eat, and drink.

Then the bill came with an automatic 18% gratuity for parties of 6+. I normally don’t mind gratuity, but in this case it felt unfair. The service was rushed, inconsistent, and my friends hardly got to enjoy the experience.

Honestly, it felt like they said yes to adding more people because the restaurant looked slow, but once it got busy, they rushed us out without hesitation, like they didn’t care about our business. I left feeling like we got scammed — not because of the gratuity, but because of the lack of transparency and how rushed the...

RESERVATIONS: Made reservations by DMing the page on Instagram. Unsure whether they are on OpenTable or Resy. You can walk-in but this place is pretty busy as it’s only open Friday and Saturday nights and are seating you at every other table due to distancing so it’s better if you make reservations.

If you use google maps, it'll lead you to the place. You just have to walk down the stairs, where you'll see a "You Are Here" sign and enter a rundown looking area with chairs. But the blue door on the left hand side is what you open to go into the cocktail lounge.

This is a “speakeasy" lounge with VERY affordable prices and great food and drinks. The plates are small and inexpensive enough to eat by yourself and are pretty worth for the prices.

FOOD Pork Belly Bánh Mì (pretty good! But I wish they had more Thai chilli peppers to give it that kick) Mango Salad Bowl (good but would've like a Thai chilli kick with it too)

DRINKS Mai Tai (really good!) Saigon Sling (it's like a cherry white claw except with more alcohol = YUMMY)

This place is known as a cocktail lounge so it's gotta have great drinks (and it did!). From the food, you can't go wrong with a banh mi and from the drinks menu, you can't go wrong with anything. All of this amounted to about $42 which if you think about it, adds up to a lot for one person. However, each item was worth the price and small enough to fill one person. I would still get two drinks (as their menu is quite extensive) and 2 appetizers. You can always share if you're not hungry though. All in all, this place was great for both food and drink and I would definitely go back a second time now that I know...

I did not realize this when I first came but I believe Paper Lantern is a speakeasy bar. It was a bit hidden so you need to go downstairs from the Ho Won restaurant and enter the door adjacent to the "I am here" sign. The decor inside was cute with several traditional Vietnamese art work on the wall. We sat at the bar and ordered several cocktails. I personally had the Ce Soir and Banana old fashioned. Both tastes great and were made from high quality ingredients which include their homemade clear ice. Since the drinks were 18 and 14 dollars respectively, I think it would've been nicer if there was something extra to the drinks especially since this is a speakeasy bar. An example would be maybe a little more garnishing, a larger and heavier tumbler for the old fashioned, some more smoke to the old fashioned for visual appeal, etc. Not a big deal but that would elevate what was a great experience to an amazing experience. The food on the other hand was on point. We had the banh xeo, rare beef salad and bo loc lac. They were all authentic, delicious snack size meals which were very reasonably priced. I also loved the food presentation / plating as well. The chefs obviously cared about their craft. An example is that the banh xeo came in twos and identical in size, crispy and neatly presented. The lettuce that came with it were carefully cut to look presentable and wasnt given haphazardly. It was busy at 10 pm Saturday night when we arrived but the service was still reasonably prompt and very friendly. I 100% recommend this place to anyone who enjoys cocktail bars and Vietnamese food. Can't wait...