Salt & Pepper — Restaurant in Calgary

First time ever that I visited this place with my partner and absolutely the last. It was supposed to be a nice experience but it was absolutely the worst restaurant I've ever been to in Calgary. Waiter was kind and nice but he doesn't take orders, I was shocked. After we were taken to a table by the waiter, he brought the menu and informed us after 10, 15 min that once we're ready we had to get up and line up to order with a cashier that btw is also the bartender, you can imagine how busy he gets, poor thing. We were not offered water at least while waiting and our table stayed clear until they brought the drinks we order, which for a Michelada took FOREVER and the strawberry Margarita was delicious. No condiments, no center piece, nothing on the table and also they were serving drinks first to people that got there after us. We got there around 6.15pm, we line up and we order food at around 6.45pm, it seems the POS system is not quite effective, food got to our table at around 7.30pm. The special of the day was ordered by my partner and I order Barbacoa tacos, the most disappointed food I've ever seen and hella expensive too! The refried beans were sitting god knows for how long, and it didn't taste fresh, tasted more like straight out of a can and to the microwave. The tortillas of the tacos were cold, the meat was delicious but it was dry and doesn't even get close to what a Barbacoa should taste. Clearly they're trying to be cheap, from all the workers, I counted 5 people running the restaurant. 1 waiter, 1 cashier/bartender/waiter, the chef and 1 cook and 1 dish washer. They all looked confused, and rushed, the impression was that they were not expecting a full house last night .

My advice to the waiter. Ask to the clients if it's their first time, after direct them to the table explain how the ordering works, come around to update your tables about their order status, when food is served ask how it tastes and please if you don't get paid enough to do this trust me there are better places, and finally this goes to management too, it's doesn't cost anything to serve a glass of tap water to your clients while they wait.

Management. it seems pretty clear that the employees get paid the minimum or not enough, don't be cheap with them, they're the face of your restaurant and as an alternative the waiter can take order and give it to the cashier to ring it in. More than selling food you're selling an experience as well and that's what makes...

An Abysmal Experience - Incompetent Service and Absurd Prices

I am writing this review with profound disappointment. This was my second visit, an attempt to give this restaurant another chance after a previous unsatisfactory experience. I can now say, with certainty, that there will not be a third.

Our nightmare began before we were even seated. Our party of 4, including a toddler, arrived to find multiple visibly empty tables. Yet, we watched as the host turned away a couple ahead of us, claiming there were no tables available. This was simply untrue and a strange way to manage seating.

When we were finally seated, the host promised to bring a high chair "once one was available." One soon became available at the table next to us, which was left dirty for no less than 30 minutes. I flagged down our server and specifically asked for that high chair. She acknowledged the request but never followed through. After waiting endlessly with a restless child, I had to retrieve the dirty high chair myself and clean it off from the previous guest.

This set the tone for the entire evening. After being seated, no server came to our table for over 30 minutes. We finally managed to order, and what followed was an excruciating wait. Our simple order of two main plates and a kids' meal took a staggering 110 minutes to arrive at our table. That is an utterly unacceptable wait for any restaurant, let alone for a child's meal.

When the food did arrive, one dish was not to our liking. The crux of the issue? Our server vanished and never returned to check on us after delivering the food, so we had no opportunity to voice our concerns. The complete lack of follow-up is a fundamental failure in service.

To add insult to injury, we asked for a simple substitution of rice for a side salad on one dish. We were charged an outrageous $7 for this swap. This isn't an upcharge; it's extortionate and feels like a punishment for daring to customize your meal.

Every single aspect of this experience was a failure: from the dishonest hosting and neglectful service to the glacial pace and predatory pricing on substitutions. I genuinely tried to like this place, but you have lost a customer for good. I will not be returning and cannot recommend this...

We came in here for my birthday yesterday, overall I will say I was not terribly impressed. When my wife and I arrived our party had already been seated. They had been given menus, but then not checked on for an additional 10-15 minutes. Following mine and my wife’s arrival, there was yet another 10-15 minute wait before any server came to speak to us.

Drink orders took more than 25 minutes to arrive (2 mixed drinks, a beer, and a can of Pepsi) appetizers came out about 10-15 minutes following that. So in total we are into about 30-40 minutes of waiting at this point to get a couple of drinks and an appetizer. The appetizer was quite bland, and was not as hot as it should’ve been. After drinking our drinks and eating our appetizer, our waiter did not come back once to remove our appetizer dishes, ask if we wanted refills or new drinks, or even to just generally check on how things were with the meal.

The next time we saw our waiter was when they were bringing out our main. Honestly, I found the food quite un-impressive. Two of us had enchiladas the enchilada size was more comparable to a flauta not an enchilada, extremely small and not really generous with the salsa verde so a touch dry. The enchiladas also came with beans and rice. The rice was the most pitiful portion I have ever been given in a restaurant (genuinely no more than a tablespoon or two of uncooked rice went into this portion), and to top it off it was bland and cold!! Refried beans tasted canned or at least not freshly prepared and were quite bland.

I worked in kitchens and service for almost 10 years. The restaurant was not even close to capacity I would say not even beyond 75% of their capacity. If your kitchen, bar, and wait staff completely fall apart under the stress of an average Sunday late lunch/early dinner crowd I don’t know how they can operate on a Friday night. There are a number of other restaurants in the city running a tighter operation in a smaller space, with substantially less wait times. If you’re looking for Mexican/South American food, there’s a lot of...