The Potion Room Bar — Restaurant in Calgary

Really disappointed with this place. I just went for the third time- I never wanted to go back after the first time but friends keep being intrigued and wanting to see for themselves.

Originally my only complaint was how expensive they are, but I get their service alongside the themed cocktails is their main thing, so it's bougie and costly. Fine. But then I don't need to see it twice. Unfortunately I have.

Each subsequent visit the service has been worse and worse with the latest visit bring the worst.

Staff is very friendly but seemingly untrained or overwhelmed. We went extremely long bouts between seeing our server and it took a long time to even get our food and drink orders in.

As the night continued we would receive things we hadn't ordered, and pass them to the table beside us as they claimed to order those same items. Rarely did our server bring out our drinks or food but multiple different staff members (almost a new one every time) and many times they dropped off things we hadn't ordered (2 food items, 2 drinks, and 2 special themed cocktails).

Due to the various names and such of everything we didn't always realize it was wrong until they'd gone and we'd had a second to reconsult our menu and see if it was what we'd ordered or not and then try and communicate with the table next to us.

We asked our server if she was aware of the table numbers and if the multiple mix ups were on our bill or not and she told us she was sorry and would double check, and later in the night clarified everything was correct and the bus boy helping out just didn't know the table numbers well. (But again, I'd estimate just every server and / or bus boy brought us something that night, correctly or uncorrectly, not just the same one guy.)

Overall this might had been better if we didn't wait long periods in between this problems to see our actual server in charge of fixing these things. Even when we tried to catch the attention of other staff members they did their best to absolutely ignore anyone not directly in their section... which I understand to a point but this restaurant in extremely small and crowded just by their own tables let alone if customers are inside or not. It's clearly intentional to ignore someone at your hip.

Our server was good when we saw her, the food was fine enough, but eventually we had to cancle our last desert and round of drinks because they were taking so long to come out. (3 deserts arrives but the 4th and the drinks never did. Took ages to find a staff member willing to speak to us so by the time we could ask about the missing items around 20ish minutes had passed since the first deserts were presented and maybe 45 since first ordering them.) We had to go.

We also realized after all of this that the popcorn we ordered at the start never got delivered but we all forget at the time and it wasn't on the bill. Overall just disappointing.

The place itself is always decked out to the 9s which is fun, it's just not really good for being a real restaurant or bar. Like I said, one visit is all anyone needs to experience it and then you're...

Magic in a cocktail glass. That is what is promised here and it was absolutely delivered. JK Rowling would be proud to visit this little haven where enchantment can be found in a single sip of these creative concoctions. This place may not have a perfect score out of the 3.5 stars given but it is worth experiencing all of these fabulous potions that they create.

The ambiance brings you to the secret underbelly of Hogwarts. A spectacular speakeasy that the professors of the elite school would come here to take a load off. Floating candles, twinkling lights, and a little bit of romantic goth thrown in for good measure. A perfect place to sit for a spell.

The group ordered the nachos as a snack to go with our drinks and they were the best nachos ever! Loved the chipotle drizzle on top of them, and the added bonus of black beans, corn, and other kinds of veggies that a lot of restaurants don't put on. It was also great that they had the sour cream and salsa on the side. Some people don't like having these ingredients actually plopped on top like a lot of places do.

Now we come to the drinks. Why people like to come to this lounge in the first place. Although on the pricy side, these drinks are presented in a way that makes a person believe that the impossible is possible. In other words, magic! They serve your chosen drink on a special tray with the props and presentations that this beverage is based on. Then as you drink it, you realize how delicious magic can taste. These potions were clearly well thought out and special in their own captivating way.

What we ordered was the Tricky Pixie Dust and Unicorn Blood. Both came with a story, and a small task you must do. It provided a lot of laughter and fun to our evening. This is truly something a person can't miss.

Sadly, this is a 3.5 star experience because of the service we had. When I came in, the server told me that we only had an hour and a half to stay. Which of course, our party agreed to but that turned out not to be the case. The second incident was the busser was clearing our table even though jackets were placed there as a sign that people were sitting there. We had to stop him obviously. It took a long time to order and get what we asked for. The servers did not seem as prepared as you would hope when you go to a restaurant. When we ordered our nachos we did not get smaller plates to eat them with and we had to ask for utensils and napkins. This is why they had be docked points.

Luckily, they were still good and friendly. They also showed a lot of enthusiasm when presenting our cocktails to us. So that was greatly appreciated.

All and all this was a great experience, and would love to explore more of what they have to offer. They just need to fix their problems when it comes to customer service, paying attention, and preparations. Perhaps it was the curse of...

My niece and I have an annual tradition to go out and celebrate her birthday at a different restaurant every year and this year she decided that The Potion Room was where she wanted to go. Knowing nothing about the restaurant, I went online to investigate. Obviously there is a huge Harry Potter theme going on and you can tell by the pictures how true that is. So, let me tell you about my experience and why I rated things the way I did.

Firstly when we entered, we were greated by the server who was dressed up in a cheerful Christmas themed dress and said we could seat ourselves anywhere we wished. There are multiple tvs playing various Harry Potter movies at any given point throughout the evening. Though there was only one other couple that entered when the place opened besides us, the server spent her time prepping the place to get it ready and therefore took some time to get to us and the other couple. Luckily the atmosphere of the place is electric, figuratively and literally. Their electric bill must be enormous to power all the lights that were plugged in.

We scanned the QR code on the table and were able to bring up the menu. The menu consists of your basic pub fare, nothing fancy except for the Potteresque naming of each dish. The real star of this place is the cocktails. There is an enormous list of cocktails I've never heard of not just because of the Potteresque naming scheme but the myriad of ingredients each drink contained. We both ordered a drink and although it took some time to get the drink, partially because they were short staffed but each drink with all its ingredients takes forever to make. The charm of the place is in its presentation of the drink. Each drink order comes in a special carrying tray that is usually lit and has a theme. When my niece ordered the Goblet of Fire, the server lit the piece of paper on fire like in the movie while the cocktail had a burning candle or something to that effect in the drink itself. Before taking the drink, my niece would either make a pledge based on something from Harry Potter in order to receive her drink.

When we ordered the food it was pretty quick to be delivered and tasted fine. As mentioned before, nothing fancy except the names of the dishes and we enjoyed our meal.

The atmosphere is why you come to this place. If you are a Harry Potter devotee, you will be enchanted by all the decorations that scream the Harry Potter movies. You could spend an hour walking around in there finding all the movie Easter eggs. All in all, we both had a great experience. The server was wonderful, just wished she had a little more help especially as things got busy. Luckily for her, I think everyone was OK with that as we all spent an inordinate amount of time in conversation talking about our surroundings. I would definitely recommend this place to try once if only to soak up...