Starbelly Open Kitchen & Lounge — Restaurant in Calgary

Our overall experience was extremely underwhelming. I would strongly recommend a different brunch spot. Here’s our experience.

We were a table of 6, two kids, made a reservation.

My wife ordered Belgian waffles and asked for a side of strawberries. Waitress told us she didn’t have any fresh fruit options like that for the waffles, and couldn’t provide any “berry” fruit for the waffles. She said she had a jam if my wife wanted and that was the only option. I ordered a fruit cup, shocked to see it arrive with beautiful fresh cut strawberries on top. Need I say more?

I ordered poached eggs. I was very specific that I wanted the eggs hard poached. She knew exactly what I was talking about, as I didn’t want any runny yolk.. Not only were my eggs, not hard poached, they were actually undercooked as the egg white was still runny. When I mentioned it to the waitress, she could not have cared any less. Literally just said oh, sorry. There was no follow up from a manager, there was no follow up from anybody within the restaurant. They simply didn’t care.

All of the butter for the toast was rock hard and straight out of the freezer. If you’re serving toast at a breakfast spot, would it not make sense to have nice soft butter that you can spread on your toast? It was actually a situation of comedy at our table with everybody ripping apart their bread trying to spread butter lol, it became more of a joke than anything else.

The restaurant seemed to be run by very young inexperienced, servers, with no leadership or direction visible on the floor. There was no real desire to ensure a positive experience to the customers, and at the very best, the bare minimum requirements were a struggle to be met.

There were a few other incidents that are not worth mentioning, but I will sign off by saying, figure out a way to leave pepper on the table lol! The server was walking around asking if anybody wanted fresh ground pepper, and when we asked if we could just leave the Peppermill on the table, it was meant with a very staunch no, I can’t do that - lol. It’s pepper, why are you treating it like gold? If a customer wants pepper left on the table, leave freaking pepper on the table, lol.

There are a lot of options out there, and a lot better ways to spend your hard earned money. I would strongly think twice before going here, as there are certainly better...

I’ve been to Starbelly many times (including a baby shower, wedding & mini market) over the years since they first opened (2015?) & have always experienced great service. I haven’t gone as often in recent years, but last nights dinner reminded me what a gem this restaurant is to SE Calgary. Said service can be a little slow, BUT that’s not always a bad thing when you want to go out to eat and not feel rushed or bothered when in deep conversation. You can spend several hours there without feeling like someone else is waiting for your table.

Last night, myself & 3 friends went there to celebrate a birthday. Upon arrival, I was initially sat in a dark (but cozy) corner. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, so decided to work up the courage to ask if we could either be moved somewhere else in the restaurant or even the empty patio given the warm weather. Without question, they immediately moved our table to outside & pointed out several options we could choose from. We initially sat in a shaded corner & then about 10 minutes later, our party moved to the sunniest table (so table #3 😅). But it was all taken in great stride by our waitress & what I assume was her manager, and we were only met with kind comments such as “ah, I see you did end up going for the sunny table!”

We ordered a few appetizers (whipped ricotta and truffle fries) & then finally our main meals (I got the yummy ravioli), but as those were coming out, the temperature outside started to drop. Despite my people pleasing tendencies and avoid being an inconvenience — we were growing quite cold and asked if we could once again be moved. We were only met with complete understanding, and eventually moved to their private event dining space inside to finish out our meal (table #4 if you’re counting). The bills got a little mixed up & so it took some time to sort out, but while we waited, the manager (wish I had grabbed his name) brought out a free cake to share because he said he “saw us eyeing another tables”. We really weren’t as we were honestly quite full from our meals, but we still appreciated the kind gesture.

Thanks for being such a great host Val “Bobbie”!

Our experience will definitely have me returning to Starbelly sooner...

UPDATE: November 9.18 I am changing my 5 star review to a 1 for customer service. Went to pick up my order today around 5 pm when the restaurant was not busy yet. When I got him I realized they forgot the garlic aoli dip for my truffle fries and baguette for the mussels. Now after calling them and letting them know they asked if I could come back to get them ... by the time I drive 15 minutes there and back my fries would be soggy along with cold food. She only offered her apologies and didn’t offer anything else. Now I’m writing this review hangry right now but for the type of establishment they are, the price you pay and including the 15 percent tip I left for take out it’s very annoying when you get home and don’t have everything you ordered and on top of that no other compensation. Fresh fries with the garlic aoli sauce that should have been there in the first place would have been nice.

Came here on a Friday Night after booking on OpenTable, requested a booth if possible during reservation but was sat at a small table off to the side while booths were still open.

Now the drinks and food were absolutely amazing and delicious but the only reason it didn’t get a 5 star is because they lack in customer service.

We ordered a salad , 3 “Starters” and main pasta dish to share between 2 ladies. The pasta and one other starter arrived first and we were told the kitchen wanted to hold the salad and our 2 other “Starters” since our table was too small and everything wouldn’t fit ? Why would you make all 5 of our dishes at once and then send out our main first when we haven’t even received our salad. We requested for all dishes to come out and just made room on the table however we could . Started with our salad and appetizers , by the time we were done our main course was cold so we had to send it back to get warmed up. That was our only disappointment of the night as other restaurants I have been to would move you to accommodate more dishes on your table not hold your starters until you finished your main. Just didn’t make any sense to us.

The donut dessert was a great end to the night. I would definitely recommend and come back otherwise.

Mypiglife rating :...