The Highwood Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

Now, I'll preface this review with letting you know I've always really enjoyed The Highwood in the past. You REALLY, REALLY dropped the ball for my wife's birthday last night though. Our server was nice, but not particularly attentive, and made several mistakes that I just didn't bother to correct. We waited forever for water, which should have been immediate. Another server spilled water all over our table, leaving a foot wide pile of water right in the middle and nobody ever bothered to clean it or change the table cloth. That was fine, but the food was the worst food that has ever came out of that kitchen. The Hungarian goulash was elevated canned soup at best, the roasted squash soup was really good, the vegetables were completely underwhelming, and the mains were the most disappointing of all. We ordered medium rare and medium, they came out rare and mooing. I sent my wife's rare one back, and just didn't touch my blue rare steak. I took it home and cooked it myself. The prawns were rubbery, and pairing very average fries with surf and turf in a fine dining restaurant is truly insane, they had no business on the plate. The Best part of this meal was easily the bread at the start, which was incredible, and the beet butter was very nice. I'm not sure if it's the pop up space, or the start of the season, but it really was laughably bad last night. I have never had a worse meal at a Denny's than you served us last night. I've been ranting and raving about how great The Highwood is for the last 25 years...... That was not a meal to tell anyone about. Also, if you are serving tough meat, invest in steak knives. I literally couldn't scratch the back of my hand with your "steak knife". Table 33, check the cameras around 7:30pm Friday night, that's me sawing onto the back of my hand with your steak knife..... Not a scratch. You can and should do a lot better than you did last night. We've been loyal to you and chosen you for many special occasions. You let me down last night, but far more importantly you let my wife down on her birthday when there's were so many other places I could have...

First of all, we had difficulty just understanding our initial waitress, plus, she had great difficulty trying to explain the exotic new drink choices that were created that evening. It then took 3 waitresses approximately 20 minutes to serve the first drinks to the 8 people at our table. One comment at our table was, "Can I go to the fridge and get a beer myself this time?", so the slow pace was a sentiment felt by everyone at our table. As for the food, it was average nouveau cuisine, that's not very filling and the time between courses seemed excessive. The best nouveau cuisine restaurants have at least one item on the menu that would be too much for a very large person. This dining room did not have anything that would "stuff" anyone, of any size. When it came time to pay, we were not asked if there would be separate billing, so there wasn't, and I was told by another diner, that they don't do separate billing, they should, as this caused a lot of confusion and although I didn't get involved in the calculation, I did follow it, and thinking back, I believe that as a table, we underpaid, on the $240.00 drink portion alone, by at least $30.00. Again, they should consider separate billing that every other restaurant that I have ever been to has.This being a school, I was surprised that a survey wasn't given to the diners for feedback. How can students improve without feedback? and why would you want the feedback to be public like this, rather than private, and from everyone who eats there? They should have a detailed rating system for everything, so that the public can grade the students, in an effort to improve. Just a thought. There are many high end Calgary restaurants with experienced staff that I would easily rate 5 out of 5. Respectfully, I hope that the school's educators read this review, as it is delivered to help them, and not meant to insult the...

Pricey. Worth the visit for a foodie - 5 courses of well prepared dishes. Presentation is everything, quantity is limited. An average adult will go home satisfied, but a big eater may need to visit McDs on the way back. Students are average hosts and are not equivalent to bar hostesses; however they are very polite and it is respectable to see them work. Local artisans becoming the future industry - not sure how it all works tho.

Anyways great for a group date. Didn't see too many single tables, more 4-10 sized, but that doesn't mean you cant share a table of 4.

Beginning of the meal they offer bread with butter. The bread is very fresh - there was corn bread, regular loaf slices, and these really soft light / soft ones.

I ate the Smoked Salmon for the app - great presentation. Flavor was ok, but i would have preferred the carpaccio after seeing it.

Next was the Vichyssoise Soup - HANDS down the better soup. Thick creamy taste. Beef Consomme looked just like clear beef broth.

Next - the salad. I really like Beets so this was good. Beets were loonie sized. Had some deep fried chips to go with it & pea sized pickles. Remember...small portions.

Main - choose wisely! This will make or break your meal! Butternut Squash Angolotti - I saw only had a few stuffed pastas, which is common in fancy restaurants. They also had a lobster special which looked really good for lobster lovers. Tofino Salmon is plain jane but stick with what you love right? Braised Pork Belly looked good to me as well. I had the steak and it was great - it came with a scalloped potato. Found it weird the steak was ontop of my potato but w.e. Didnt see anyone get the duck confit.

Dessert - menu varies night to night. I had melting chocolate, it was a tear drop shaped chocolate on top of... some more meltable chocolate and they pour this warm salty chocolate mixture ontop and everything on...