The Wilde on 27 — Restaurant in Calgary

Let me count the ways in which this restaurant was mediocre…at best. 1.When I arrived at the 27th floor I wasn’t greeted by a hostess. I’m assuming the bartenders signalled someone. The tables we were sat at were angled to the window. This placed me right beside a large pillar resulting in the majority of the window view totally blocked out.Even with trying to look around the pillar I could not see what should have been a clearly visible Calgary tower. The chair/seating placement became even more uncomfortable when the table on the other side of the pillar had guests seated there. With my seat angled in front of the pillar I now had someone sitting very close, directly behind me. 4.The low back deep chairs are not comfortable to sit in. The upright banquette on the back wall looked pretty solid. The server was pleasant enough. She admitted to only being there two months. In the service industry the long list of previous employment isn’t usually touted as accomplishments. She had a nice list though including places like major tom. Good for her. I’m sure the list will grow… 6.I asked for regular water. I do not drink anything carbonated.By the time I realized I had sparkling I had also figured out what you want and what you ask for doesn’t really matter in this establishment. 7.We did not have wine with our meals. My go-to cocktail is an amaretto sour. This was competently made.My second drink was a chambord royale. It had either tonic or soda water added? That alone ruins this drink for me. Back to the service part of my evening. When the server was placing my drink on the table she spilled a substantial amount out of the glass. She realized she had spilled on the table. She didn’t realize she had spilled on my hand, which was also holding my fork. I put down my fork and proceeded to wipe myself off. At this point the appropriate reaction from any server, especially in what is claiming to be a high-end restaurant, is to be most apologetic. I would expect any server to be mortified they spilled a drink on a guest. My server was nonchalant, casual, laughing…but the comment I received was “Oh, did I spill on you? I was just trying to baptize you.” Who says that to a guest…and thinks it is appropriate? And now we move onto the food… The scallops…we added one extra to the dish so that we had two each…the temperature was uneven in the scallops. The top sides was crusted. I assume the uneven temperature was due to one side being crisped for service. The bottom side, the cold side, was swimming in what I can only describe as green soup, also lukewarm. I ate both scallops. This was the only dish I ate in its entirety. The flavour on the scallops was okay. Nothing spectacular. My main course was the beef. I was “told” that the beef is served medium rare. I replied I would like it to be served medium. It was served medium rare. The fondant potato was the best part of the dish. One of my favourite things to eat is mushrooms. I could not eat the majority of the mushroom medley. The food runner that served the meal poured the sauce onto my plate with a flourish. I was waiting for the splash to hit my face. Apparently every main is served with a pouring of the sauce onto the plate, perhaps another metaphor for baptizing the guests? My plate was removed by the server when she decided I was finished eating. I gave her no indication I was done. My knife and fork were not placed across my plate. She simply decided for me. The food comes across as fully cooked via sous vide method. If it is, it isn’t kept at an appropriate temperature. This would account for both courses being lukewarm at best. Dessert was the hazelnut offering. The temperature in the desert was a perfectly expected chill. Overall the hype was not lived up to. The food and service were nothing special. I wouldn’t return. There was table of four talking about all the other places they could have gone. They listed a nice selection of great places to eat…other than here. There was no visible supervisor/manager. Final bill $300.+/not...

Went for the Brunch for a girlfriends birthday. Have been wanting to try their brunch for a while now. The food was not as good as I thought it would be. For $95 a person, we may as well go for dinner instead. Their dinner was very good.

They had different stations, a crepe station, a risotto one, one for seafood, one for beef wellington, one for eggs benny and one for snacks and desserts.

Their crepes... Nothing special, something my younger sister who doesn't cook could make. I've had better crepes and I've made them with fresh fruit not the frozen stuff they used.

Their beef wellington was pretty good, I really like their sauces that they provide. It was their chefs take on beef wellington, I would say, without the sauce the wellington itself wouldn't be as good.

For the risotto, it was pretty okay. I prefer the saffron version over the mushroom. Saffron risotto was creamy but the truffle mushroom was watery and the truffle they used had zero truffle taste. They really should try truffle oil instead.

Their meat and cheese and pastry bar wasn't anything special, pastries were dry, the cheese wasn't that great and the salami really should've been covered. They were air dried and hard.

Their eggs benny station, everything was pretty bland. Everything tasted how it should separately, crab tasted like crab, pork belly tasted like bacon, hollandaise didn't have much to it... Putting everything together.. It's meh. I’m an eggs benny person and try them at every brunch place I go. This was one of the worst ones.

Their desserts was mediocre. Their cupcakes gave us safeway vibes... I don't really buy store bought cakes or cupcakes so that was let down. They had a peppermint Christmas tree that was marshmallow. I personally don't eat marshmallows. If anything their coffee panna cotta like dessert was pretty okay.

Lastly, what I actually enjoyed is the seafood bar. They had these trout tartar cones that was very tasty. I enjoyed a lot of them. Their crab claws were good as well. The raw oysters were disappointing. I love raw oysters, the ones they had, they tried doing some fancy sauce that didn't taste good. At that point, just serve them with the normal compliments. Some lemon and horseradish can never go wrong.

Service was okay. My friend got sprayed with hollandaise sauce accidentally. It was all over her shirt and jeans. All they offered was club soda which was no help. The staff doesn't seem to care. Just tried to avoid it as if it would go away as long as they pretend nothing happened. Hollandaise is oil, there were oil stains all over her shirt... No compensation whatsoever. Just said sorry, would you like some club soda? That's just the service I expect for high end restaurant....

It is like night and day for their brunch and dinner. The Brunch made me think students were cooking. I would not pay $95 for students who are still learning. I would much rather go to an actual brunch place that serves amazing food.

This was such a let down. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. For brunch, go to Brekkie, Brok'in Yolk, Zcrew, or Queen's, they are all good options. If you want to come here for the experience, there's nothing stopping you. I would recommend going for dinner for the experience. Don't waste your money on the mediocre, over...

Had high expectations for this dinner. Sadly, they were not met. For a $1,000 meal, I did not expect burnt fish, inconsistently cooked meat, no tap water, inexperienced and forgetful service. We left disappointed. Still looking for that Michelin level restaurant in YYC...

Right away the meal service began on a weak note. The sommelier, Jason, was conspicuously surly when he came to our table. Even my kids noticed it. After that I returned the surliness with single word replies and decided not to deal with him beyond that. I got the sense he didn't have a lot of experience at this level of dining - got more the Keg vibe / experience from him. Our server gave us wrong information from the beginning re POET happy hour drinks - hey, it happens. No biggie. Unfortunately, the cycle of errors and forgetfulness continued throughout the evening. At a lower price point, you would ignore this service. But the Wilde sells themselves as a higher end restaurant (and with prices to match). That's fine. But they need to execute. They did not.

Re the food - Inconsistent is the most apt description. The scallops course was too salty but the pork dish was bland and required more seasoning. The fish dish was burnt black - see the attached picture. The beef on 1 plate was cooked to a different level to the beef on another plate (this is the same course) - see the picture (I have placed the beef from the different plates side by side for comparison). How this food was allowed out of the kitchen shocked me. Jason and the server did not seem to care. Not even sure they understood the issues. The dessert course was plated a la 1980 - giant plate with a tiny dessert that seemed out of place. Where do get these chefs??

At the end of the meal, we had finished our bottled water and we did not want to get another bottle. We asked for tap water. Our server informed us the restaurant did not serve tap water due to the ongoing water restrictions. Huh? I get that some nicer restaurants may not want to serve tap water but don't blame it on the City. Cowardly and stupid.

Here's an interesting point - they changed their tasting menu courses online but did not update their increased cost for that menu. Either dodgy practice or no attention to detail. Which is worse...

I am in the process of writing to various culinary publications / platforms so they are aware of the poor experience I encountered at Wilde on 27. If Michelin ever comes to YYC, the Wilde on 27 should not even be considered for a Bib Gourmand let alone a coveted star. At least until they make some substantive changes both front of house and in...