Posto Pizzeria & Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

My husband and I enjoy visiting Posto’s when we visit Calgary. The food is great, but service really needs to be elevated. We’ve had 3 consecutive negative experiences. I haven’t provided reviews for the previous visits, but I thought I would for tonight’s experience. Perhaps my feedback will be a helpful teaching tool.

Our observations: The staff spend a lot of time visiting amongst themselves. Management may be a bit weak with staff supervision. I can’t help but wonder if the staff find the guests to be a distraction; the ongoing visits with colleagues seem to be a priority and the cause for table service to be neglected.

For instance: This evening our server forgot to bring our starter, despite the fact that she read both our starter and meal requests back to us before she left the table. So, okay, no starter.

But, this is what didn’t feel right. The server did not offer an apology, rather her response was “Oh, I thought you wanted the starter with your meal?” I stated, “No, remember, you actually read each item off to us and told us you would bring the starter first”.

Then, she offered to bring out the starters during our meal. We said there wasn’t any point, as our main courses had already arrived. Still no apology. So disappointing. Interestingly, throughout the evening and the service blunders we noticed clusters of (not busy) staff (including our server) laughing and visiting.

When, the group decided to disassemble, and did a pass-by our server noticed our water glasses were empty. She mentioned she’d bring another bottle, but she failed to do so. We asked for water several times during our meal and finally received a glass just before dessert. Again, too busy visiting.

And, when our bill arrived the starter was still added to the total and had to ask for it to be removed. Our server wandered off again, did some visiting and returned some time later.

While we waited for her return we couldn’t help but notice a couple at a table nearby trying to get the servers attention as their starter had arrived, but they had nothing to drink. They weren’t provided any water and their bar drinks had been forgotten. We noticed they too were quite disappointed.

Very disinterested...

One night I got the gnarliest craving for spaghetti, I'm talking so bad I questioned my womb as to whether I was growing a being that would make me crave a food so voraciously.

We went down the street to Bonterra Trattoria and to my horror (because it was rationally more late than one would typically venture out for pasta on a Tuesday night) it was closed! The lovely waitressed suggested we check out their more informal neighbor, Posto.

Well I don't know about you but when I crave something that bad I don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to go to bed and maybe cry a little. That said, I didn't want to ruin the night so I conceded and we proceeded in.

I hummed and hawed over the half price menu (the whole thing. half price after 10. THEY EVEN HAVE WINE) and finally we settled on the mussels and one of their pizzas. Mostly for my boyfriend, mind you. Sure, there was a spaghetti on the menu but it wasn't THE spaghetti, you know?

So our food comes and he cajoles me into having a bite of pizza. Just one! Well let me tell you, the heavens opened up and the skies poured out a beauty like none other. And I can honestly say, not a week has gone by since that we haven't gone in to work our way through the list. And we have, a couple times over! We don't even track on their pizza card (YES! they have a card cause you know you're going to want to keep track of the ones you haven't had yet!) cause we are so focused on getting that pizza (with flavored oils) in our faces before we get too full.

Then, the mussels. We also order those every week. Then he eats the mussels while I just eat the broth with a spoon. Sometimes the pizza crusts make it in there, but you know sometimes a pizza crust just doesn't carry enough broth in one go!

AND THE DESSERTS! Are you looking for a place to grab dessert and wine with the girls? That is also half price friends, and (shocker) also delicious! I always go for the affogato (gelato and espresso) when I manage to save some room.

Let me tell you, we have tried nearly everything on that menu. The charcuterie, the pizzas, the small bites. It's all amazing and keeps us coming back...

We had a reservation at 8:30 for 4 on Sunday. When we got there, it was pretty full but as it was a later reservation, the dinner rush was more or less finished. We ordered a trio of meat and cheeses, the cauliflower salad, the Korean Mushrooms dish and 3 pizza. The charcuterie came out and boy, was it disappointing.The Riopelle came with some apricot pruree and some hazelnuts. The 3 types of cheddar and pork lonza came by itself. You're paying $20 for 8 paper thin slices of cured meat and very small amounts of cheese. You don't even get crackers or bread. When the cauliflower salad came out, we were all a little shocked. It came in a little mini crockpot and there was enough for everyone to have 1 bite. That was $8. The Mushrooms came out after and that was even smaller than the cauliflower salad. It was so unpleasant - the flavours did not work, the textures did not work, the whole dish was a fail. AND all of the mushrooms were raw. It came out in a little plate big enough to hold a scone. That was $10. So by now, everything was petty subpar and the bill is already at $38. Thank god it was half off pizza that night. we waited close to 50 minutes for our pizzas to arrive. It was already 9:20 when I checked the time and out waitress said that it shouldn't be much longer. I don't understand why it took so long. The dough is premade, the ingredients are already prepped and the oven is insanely hot. These types of pizza don't take more than 5 minutes to bake and it was near the end of the night. It was so quiet, so why the long wait? I don't know if the kitchen forgot about our orders but I don't see how that's possible as there was all the other tables ate and maybe 1-2 more tables in after us. Their crust is good, chewy and good flavour. But with the unreasonably long wait for 3 pies and super small appetizers portions, we won't be coming back nor would we recommend this...