Pure Street Food — Restaurant in Calgary

TL;dr - save your bucks and don't believe the Guy Fieri hype, but I'll get to that in a second.

As a Pho place goes, Pure is fine, but it's no better than fine. As a rice bowl place it's less than fine to fine.

My friend had one of the normal Pho items and it was the same as pretty much any other Pho restaurant in Calgary but for 40% more, which, given the location, almost makes sense.

My partner had the galbi beef rice bowl, and another pal had the pork belly rice bowl.

The galbi rice bowl was super boring, the rice was very plain and there wasn't nearly enough toppings to go with it, and a bunch of lettuce(??) didn't help. Menu also said there should be cucumber in it and there wasn't. The beef itself was ok, but the gochugang sauce just tasted like plain sriracha and did nothing to redeem the dish as a whole.

The pork belly rice was similar, but the pork was better than the beef.

But.. let's get to the "star" of the show. The 72 Hour Beef Rib Pho, talked up by your friend and mine, Mr. Guy Fieri. I love Guy. I watch an unhealthy amount of triple D. I've eaten at some triple d restaurants and really enjoyed it.

This, though? I felt robbed.

For one, it's $35.

For two, It's basically the same bowl of pho you'd get with any other order, you just get a pre sliced sous vide beef rib sticking out of it like Excalibur.

Because it's 72hr sous vide, it's incredibly tender.

Because it's sitting in a bowl of pho, it becomes mostly flavorless, but hey, you don't have to chew it.

Now, I get it, there's a cost attached to beef ribs. You go anywhere and you're gonna pay a little bit more.. but, this wasn't worth it. It didn't bring anything exciting to the bowl and I probably would have been just as happy with some pork belly at half the cost of the beef rib bowl.

I'm glad I tried it, and maybe it's a bit like some DDD joints that just fall off a bit after Santa Fieri comes to visit, but the next time I'm in the food hall, there's a half dozen other places that I'm likely to go to, because I have no reason to go back to Pure.

Learn from...

When researching where to eat in Calgary, I came across an episode of DDD with this restaurant. I knew I needed to try it! I got two different doughnuts and a chicken rice dish. I wasn’t in the mood for pho at the time. I was a bit frazzled when I ordered - I couldn’t remember what was on the show - and I wanted to get food I couldn’t remember share with my daughter. We both really enjoyed the donuts. They are savoury and meat filled. I thought we would split each but my daughter liked hers so much she didn’t want to try mine. They both had very different flavours which was a pleasant surprise. There was a bit of kick in each, adding a little hint of heat at the end of each bite. The chicken rice dish was very yummy but and huge! Way too large. We couldn’t even make it through half. Keep that in mind if you are ordering here - unless you are a big eater or very hungry - you may want to share a dish or just order one thing and not two - I recommend the donut! The food hall is a fun and funky place. Lots of action and people. I didn’t have any trouble finding a seat to wait for my food and I took my food to go. I noticed there is a playground behind the food hall so it looks like a great place to bring kids. You will have to wait for your food - it is fast food but they still make it to order so it’s...

Disappointing Decline in Quality and Service

I’ve been a regular at this spot purely out of convenience — it’s located right under my building, which makes it an easy stop in the morning. Unfortunately, that’s just about the only thing it has going for it.

The food used to be decent, but the quality has noticeably declined over time. There are plenty of better options in Calgary if you’re willing to go even a little out of your way.

The service is where things really fall apart. Staff seem inexperienced and more focused on chatting with each other than actually helping customers. On my last visit, I was rushed to place my order, then scolded for not having a buzzer — which they forgot to give me in the first place, because they were too busy talking. That kind of disorganization speaks to a lack of basic training and professionalism.

And unfortunately, one staff member in particular — a man who seems to think his attitude is part of the brand — is consistently rude and dismissive. If the goal is to make customers feel like they’re an inconvenience, he’s certainly succeeding.

In short: if you care about being treated with respect, or just want a reliable place to grab a decent bite, look elsewhere. This place isn’t worth your time unless proximity is your...