The Ship & Anchor — Restaurant in Calgary

I am astonished at the Google rating for this establishment. So let's tackle these in order...

Food: the grilled cheese is fantastic. Good mix of cheeses, gooey and rich. The fries need to be rejigged to contain less saw dust. They were tasteless and dry.

The calamari... well, I have had a lot of calamari in a lot of different places and on my list of worst 5 places to get calamari, this pub is 4 of the 5. Calamari is generally tender baby squid, deep fried. This was straight up tentacle. My guess is they were originally about 2 inches across and they were quartered and chopped into 2 inch long strips that individually could be used as industrial tire plugs. Breaded in some kind of material that manages to be as devoid of taste as it is of texture, this dish is the type of offering that, if it was the first time you tried calamari, you would never eat it again.

The service: there were 5 of us at the empty table. We sat down and waited. There were sauces of various kinds on the table I spied a bottle and a rag and ended up cleaning the table myself so we could put it hands on it. The server seemed displeased by that. Perhaps in a fit of vengeance, she only seemed capable of taking two orders at a time. The people ordered drinks and she walked away. Two people ordered food and she walked away. Two were later asked if they wanted drinks. Had to flag her down to order food, she asked two people if they wanted additional drinks. She was very pleasant though, like someone who was going to prison later that evening.

The atmosphere: decent. The ricketty table felt like something is expect on a 17th century British frigate. There was plenty of nautical decor and memorabilia and some music that sounded like sea shanties were playing. But then, out of if nowhere, there was a guitar screaming that sounded like it came straight out of an action scene from the movie Lords of Dogtown. It seemed to last forever, it might still be playing for all I know. It broke the pub's character. It was also hot like the devil's ass after squat day at the gym. Far hotter than I would expect for a rainy night.

There you have it. You have...

Tried the ShipandAnchor tonight, ventured downtown from the deep Northeast based off the great reviews. For the most part they did not disappoint. Fantastic drink selection and decor, very friendly open atmosphere. Love the gender neutral barhrooms. We had the boneless wings and burger, both were great and good portions. There wing hot sauce is fantastic it, not to hot and has a great tang and saltiness to it. There burger is simple and rustic in all the right ways, very yummy and filling, and it comes with homade fries, can't beat fresh fries. Prices for food where very reasonable and affordable, hooefully they can keep them down. Where we were let down is with dessert, we got the peach cobbler, sadly it was gruel, cream of wheat poured on top of peaches and browned under the salamander. Evan came to the rescue buying us two drinks on the house to make up for the disappointing dessert which we waited 25mins for as the kitchen was backed up, so good on Evan for saving the night. Another improvement they could add would be a sign advising to seat yourself, you sorta wander into a bustling ba with lots of activity and no direction or hostess to tell you what to do. You sort of wander under you find a table and just decide to sit. Having a seat yourself sign would be helpful. There servers could be abit better organized in there assignments, after getting a table on the patio, it took 20mins before a server greeted us, and they are not overly attentive so you sorta just have to hail one down as they fly by, but they were extremely busy so could just be overworked and short staffed. Overall it was a good experience and a good place to go to, I would not hesitate to visit again, just stay away from the Cream of Wheat peach cobbler, you'll...

PLEASE READ THIS Honestly where do I begin? Our server was Evan, really nice person and amazin host! Did everything perfectly!

Me and my girlfriend were visiting from Toronto and as you'd imagine, we've been to a few restaurants in our time( we both worked in the restaurant industry) Nothing compares to what we've experienced here. One of the low reviews suggests this place is pretentious, that couldn't be a bigger lie, really wish I could argue all of the low reviews and make it perfect. This place is straight forward and exactly what you want from a pub!

We got a lot of recommendations for this place and honestly the hype was worth it. The food we had was delicious, I don't understand people complaining, if you want super fine dining with dainty servings go somewhere else and judge that, we got the fried pickles as a snack and those were really yummy, then we got the deluxe pizza and the bangers and mash, which was absolutely amazing. I'm a pretty big guy(6'5) and the bangers n mash filled me up! And it was delicious. Evan was also very knowledgeable about the menu and was able to recommend some good beers to me! Awesome guy!

Their prices also are something that should bring you in to this place as you are able to have a really good time and eat well and not have absoulte regrets the next night about how much you spent!

I don't think I've ever written a review as long as this one for a place, and there's so much more I could write about but honestly all I have to say is go and try this place! They have something for everyone! (Wish we took better pics) We are 100% returning to this place and...