Cilantro and Chive - Lacombe — Restaurant in City of Lacombe

Was delighted when this place first opened and have been back several times. We drove an hour today to go for a late lunch and we're updating our review from 5 stars to 1. The menu has been so "fine-tuned" that all the wonderful homemade thoughtful items our entire family enjoyed are no longer offered. What's left is a lazy menu using the same protein for 4 items without adjusting the flavours, nothing of interest or value for the kids. The kids ate $13 overcooked noodles swimming in a pool of congealed butter because the cheese sauce looked gross when we saw it earlier. A burger and fries and grilled cheese that would put a beginner home cook to shame. The fish and chips were ok but soggy from the coleslaw which was so runny it made everything the consistency of puke. Guess where else the coleslaw is? In the pulled pork tacos. Enjoy soggy tortillas with sweet BBQ style pulled pork on a big heap of coleslaw. Nothing taco about these. Don't worry though, you can find that same pulled pork on 4 other dishes. Want a Bacon Caesar? They have those but you'll only find a sad 1 inch piece of bacon swimming in the bottom of your glass. The gravy is a tasteless brown pot of something that has a powdery consistency. I'll never understand why owners make these choices then struggle to identify why their restaurant fails. I hope they recognize and adjust the oversights, bring back homemade thoughtful dishes and lose the lazy chef/ general manager. We felt bad for the staff having to sling dishes that are obviously no good and having to deal with technology that keeps crashing....

Very disappointed with this trip. We have loved meals in the past at both the Red Der and Lacombe location. This time I ordered the favorite fish and chips while daughter had the burger of the month and son had the smash burger. We were seated quickly and given drinks and orders taken but then - crickets. At the 35 min mark after waiting for the meal we asked a passing employee who just served another table and she said she would have our waitress look into. 10 min later two more staff delivered our meal. Burgers were good. Both kids enjoyed. My fish came out much different than I’ve had before. Usually a large piece is presented this time it was three skinny pieces. One bite in and regret was felt. It was pure batter no fish. I pulled the batter off to find the fish and found a little piece. Well it was so over cooked it was almost as crusty as the batter. So that was done. 5 min later waitress stopped by (fyi no drinks topped up either ) to ask how we enjoyed the first bites kids both said theirs were good but daughter mentioned my fish was overcooked. She did offer to get me a fresh piece but by that time I was just over it and kinda turned off and declined. Finished up and went to pay. Was slightly surprised the price of the meal i couldn’t eat because of the cooking was charged at full price but decided to just chalk it up as a life lesson and likely will not return. Sad though as it had been a family favorite...

I finally decided to visit after hearing all the hype about Cilantro and Chive from my coworkers. We originally had a reservation for the patio, but we went during the week it was extremely smoky. They were kind enough to offer a table inside instead. My fiance ordered their Caesar flight which didn't disappoint. However, I was very disappointed in the food. I'm not sure if it was an off day but the braised duck wings were extremely salty. It just tasted like pure soy sauce and nothing else. This came as a surprise since this was actually my coworkers recommendation. I had ordered their Caprese Benedict and the poached egg was overcooked, it wasn't runny at all and basically looked hardboiled. My fiancé ordered their chicken and waffles. While it was good, it wasn't anything special. What really shocked me though was when one of the staff members came up to our table to let us know that someone had a reservation and they were going to be seated at our table in the next 10 minutes, but no rush. It basically just felt like they were trying to politely kick us out. We weren't even finished eating yet but honestly, that was enough to make me want to leave and not come back. I may give them another try one day, but not anytime soon and I'm not going to drive an hour just to eat here. Maybe if I were on my way home from Calgary (I'm from Edmonton) and I'm starving...