ZCREW Cafe — Restaurant in Calgary

I had the opportunity to visit ZCREW Cafe last week on June 4, 2018 during their "soft" opening. The location is on the street level of The Guardian condo tower in between 11th and 12th Ave SE (in Victoria Park). There is plenty of paid street parking and parking lots too. The cafe itself is very small but quaint, however the view is open with big windows surrounding the space. I'm guessing it probably seats sub-30 guests at max capacity with an open kitchen concept. Let's get onto the food:

I indulged a bit during this soft opening as it was a unique opportunity to try out some offerings and provide my critique to the owner. Here's what I ordered:

London Fog - This warm cup of tea was very aromatic and was wonderful to smell and sip slowly while waiting for our food to arrive. Smooth and with just the right amount of milk that didn't overwhelm the tea itself.

Spicy Ahi Tuna Bowl - I thought it was strange to see this offered as well as poke (we'll get to that next), but it was a pleasant surprise for the taste buds. It may look like a small portion but one bowl was very filling. Good thing I was sharing this lunch with others. The wasabi mayo and edamame beans really brings everything together with the spicy tuna. Well balanced and you have the option of sushi rice or brown rice. We've asked the owner if he could provide a "skinny" option with spring mix or kale as an alternative. It would be a good option to have on days where you don't want to carb load so much.

Special Poke Bowl - I love Poke from Oahu, and it's hard to replicate in the middle of the continent. However ZCREW makes a very good and filling bowl of poke. The salmon was not as flavourful as the spicy tuna and could use a bit more marinate. But again this would be a great option for a quick bite on the go.

Bird Nest - This was next level deliciousness! Imaging if you poached an egg, but battered it up and deep fried it so it still retained the overall egg shape. Then you place it in a "nest" made of fried potatoes. BOOM! Mind Blown! I loved everything on this dish. The soft poached egg, the fried shell, the fried nest all sitting on top of this savoury tomato sauce/salsa (I don't know what to call it exactly, but it was thick like salsa, but not as tangy). The photos don't do this dish justice.

Chicken Soba Noodle Bowl - Another winner for the hot weather we've been having as of late. This is a cold soba noodle bowl with I believe to be sous vide chicken breast. Everything is mixed together with an asian type slaw in a mayo-like dressing. We suggested to the owner that it could use some more seasoning and a spritz of citrus to balance out the mayo. Another easy one to grab to go for lunch if you couldn't get a table.

Fresh Fruit Toast Tartine - Our first dessert item and it was so fresh and yummy. Piles of fresh fruit on top of this delicious lemon cream cheese (it was so zesty, I loved it). An easy favourite if you wanted something light to eat to go with one of their specialty coffees or teas. You could share it, but I'd rather keep it all to myself :)

ZCREW Signature Waffle Bowl (Belgian Waffle) - Last but not least, we decided to also get the signature waffle bowl. Take a look at the photos and you'll be hard pressed not to try it yourself. The waffles are warm and sitting on a generous helping of custard. Topped with fresh berries, gelato and a toffee crisp. Every bite was delicious and we were scraping up the custard afterwards to savour every bit.

So yeah, the food was very good, borderline excellent. I'm glad we dropped by to check out this new offering in Victoria Park during their soft opening. It's a shame that the venue is so small, because once word spreads about how good this place is, it'll be hard to get a table. Excited to go back once they've gotten...

Visiting Calgary and after reading the reviews and looking at the menu, decided to check this place out. The food absolutely did not disappoint! I had the beetroot latte - didn’t taste very much beetroot but the oat milk was really creamy, and the optional vanilla added a nice touch of sweetness. Then I had “Finding Nemo” and it was an explosion of umami flavour in my mouth - all the ingredients complemented one another so well, and the seasoning was perfect too, just enough savoury with a dash of toasted sesame seeds for the slight added crunch. Even the yam fries were cooked perfectly - right amount of seasoning, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because the server who seated me and brought me my water missed one (I feel) important detail - it was a warm day and after walking for 10 min to the restaurant, I was quite hot. When I stepped inside the restaurant, it felt really muggy so I asked to sit outside. The server, who had the soap and towel, let me get seated outside first, then brought me the menu and a bottle of water, but she didn’t think to clean the table even though there was more dust outside. After about 5 minutes, I went inside and asked if she could wipe down my table and she did. Other than that, service was overall great - another server who saw that my napkin had fallen to the floor brought me a couple new ones, and the one who brought me my bill, although I was supposed to go pay inside because he wasn’t sure if the machine would work if removed from the cable, decided to bring the POS to me for my convenience. If there’s opportunity, I would want to try other menu items and would highly...

Summary 1.Please ensure all your kitchen staff wear mask properly when cooking customers’ food. There was a a kitchen staff having his mask on his chin while working. Please make sure the foods you are serving are actually cooked.

I was excited to visit this place, since I’ve seen great reviews and have been on my list for a while. Ordered the Bird Nest, I was quite excited for the dish and it looked great when it was served. I thought it was a very creative and fun dish as it presented. However it only went downhill from there. When I took a first bite of the scotch egg, I thought it was not hot or warm, just room temperature. The egg yolk was runny and it felt cold. I shouldn’t have, but I ate the first scotch egg without thinking further - it tasted meh but I am not usually picky. The second scotch egg, I ate the egg only first and then I noticed that pork wrapping around egg was RAW. It was NOT cooked. Maybe I should have known something was not right when the scotch eggs didn’t look golden brown and felt cold inside. After I looked at that RAW pork I felt nauseous and disgusted. I notified my server and she said it looked cooked to her (take a look at 3rd photo). But she offered to take it back to kitchen and then they admitted it looks uncooked. I initially was offered another scotch egg…or free coffee. I appetite was completely gone at that point so I declined. Then they comp’d the dish - which I expected - and offered free coffee stamp which I declined. There was no further action from management (apology, or explanation about how/why it happened, or how they are going to assure this is not going to happen again, etc). The server apologized and she was...