SOT — Restaurant in Calgary

Well, there has to be one of these, I suppose. In short: good from far, far from great. For $200 (for three, with two drinks) I expect a LOT more.

Location and atmosphere was nice. Clean, Asian inspired aesthetic. But not, as many suggest, anything brilliant. A bit too bright, a bit plain. Which is fine; I would not NOT go to a place because of this personal critique.

Service was good, but not up to par with a place charging what they're charging for an evening. There were several miscommunications and misunderstandings due to language barriers. And this too is fine; we've experienced this dining around the world, it's not a deal breaker. Just not up to the snuff they think they have.

Food was good. We ordered the Kimchi Shumai (it was small, but the best of the evening, for us), the Seafood SOT Ceviche (small and tasty -- especially the marinade), the Beef Bulgogi (also tasty), and the grilled assorted mushrooms.

Now herein lies the travesty; I'm not at all sure we received the mushrooms. For $28 I expect something more than a 4oz prep bowl with a few chopped mushrooms. It did come with a bowl of kimchi and another pickled something, but it was not mushroom. Very disappointing for $28.

Actually, a joke at that price.

We also ordered a rice bowl, whereing the server mixed the contents and served us into our three individual bowls. A weird thing happened, which I do not understand - another server intruded and basically told our server to hurry up, and (literally) snatched the big (empty) serving bowl away from our table. As though it was immediately needed elsewhere. This was curious.

In short, the food was good, but neither great nor overwhelming. Which is what is should be for @200, 18% tip included. This restaurant pretends like it aspires to a Michelin star. Just look at the gastro foam included with the ceviche. The foam was inexpertly applied, and added nothing to the presentation or the taste. Just a little bit pretensh.

Altho the tastes were tasty, there was nothing memorable, nothing to take home and brag about. And to boot... after $200, I was still hungry.

I give it a two star overall because, not because the food was bad (it wasn't), just overpriced and lacking the servcie one usually pays that price for. For those of us who care about the money, this was not worth it. Better to save up an extra 100CAD and go to Rouge, and see what REAL fine...

A rare gem. My wife and I, along with our good friends, were having a lovely afternoon in Inglewood when we decided it was time to look for dinner. We saw on Google that there was a Korean restaurant a short walking distance from where we were having some local craft beer. The reservation link on their website showed that there was room if we hurried over so we walked there immediately. We didn’t know anything about the restaurant but everyone in our group likes Korean food so it sounded like a great choice for dinner. The first thing we noticed upon entering was how busy it was and how good it smelled. A very nice surprise was the selection of Springbank and other Unicorn whiskey bottles displayed behind the bar. The food menu was focussed and everything sounded fantastic. When the dishes started to arrive we knew we were in for a treat. Everything was amazing. My one friend does not like mushrooms but he had the steamed egg in a mushroom broth and said it was delicious. The broccolini was crisp and tasty and the BC stripe prawns wonderful. From the Bulgogi, to the duck, the short rib, and the Arctic char we couldn’t stop sharing our dishes as we all thought our dish was the best. That is until we tasted the others and realized they might all be the best. The made-to-order SOT rice with toppings that were mixed and served at the table were satisfying with a wonderful level of umami goodness. Drinks were as good as the food which is saying a lot as the food was stellar. We finished the meal with pours of a divine Springbank 8 local barley with samples of a few other impossible to acquire Springbanks and a Hazelburn 21. The owner is a fantastic chef and host, and lucky for us a fellow whisky enthusiast. Between himself and the other chefs in the kitchen who prepared the food, to the bartender who mixed our cocktails, to the waiters who served our table, everyone was friendly, professional, skilled, and knowledgeable. All together it was a memorable and amazing meal. Our other friends will be told about this place, and we will definitely venture back to this gem...

Came here for dinner with my family.

Service was very nice. Our server was very attentive with water refills, clearing of the dishes, and making sure all of our dishes accounted for our dining party's allergy. She was very pleasant to interact with and made our meal there enjoyable.

Of note, although the restaurant is kid friendly, they do not provide high chairs or kid focus menus. Our toddler is not a picky eater and we bring our own high chair every time we go out so this was not a huge issue for us.

We ordered a variety of dishes including stuffed zucchini, pork terrine, seafood xo sot, duck breast, and the stir fried chicken. We thought that the duck breast was the outstanding dish and is of the quality that one could expect for a modern Korean establishment such as this.

We had ordered the chicken dish for our toddler. Although the sauce is quite red in appearance, it was not overly spicy. Unfortunately the dish initially arrived with the chicken thigh pieces, undercooked (still raw and pink in the middle). Our server brought it back to the kitchen immediately to have it recooked. Of note, The manager, I did not come to discuss this mistake with us nor was any compensation offered. This is a little bit atypical given that this is a modern dining establishment.

Re: Sot Rice dish, We all felt that the flavor was decent. However, I believe it was just steamed rice mixed with various ingredients and served in a special pot. I do not think the rice was cooked in the pot as there was no deeper flavors or crispy rice layer layer that one would expect with a similar dishes such as a Paella or dolsot bibimbap. As such, this dish lacked this additional complexity.

Our pork terrine dish was enjoyable other than for two rectangular pieces that contained small shards of bone which is typically not found in terrine or other forms of head cheese.

Overall we understand what the restaurant is trying to achieve with its menu and overall ambiance. However, modern Korean dining is quite...