The Cable Wharf — Restaurant in Halifax

Disclaimer Do not put much faith in bad reviews (especially regarding the quality of food). Most posters have no idea what they are talking about due to lack of genuine experience, or may have lost their common sense of good taste. So take those with a grain of sea salt!

I visited the Cable Wharf for the first time ever with my family from Toronto. Having dined around the world, and extensively in Toronto, my food critique kung-fu is strong, not to mention my sensibility regarding overall experience. This restaurant at the edge of the boardwalk, a wharf off the harbor of the downtown Halifax waterfront, will with offer you, a uniquely magical experience if you are lucky, as we were, or at the very least, a great dining experience in the city of Halifax! Dining around? Not knowing where to go? Give The Cable Wharf a try! They will set the bar so high, it will prove an interesting culinary challenge for the competing restaurants around, and there are a good handful of them. I will rate, in all transparency, the quality for each category and hopefully set the right expectations for you.

Location: Great! A magically nestled little secret hide out, behind the famous Cows ice cream. Deceitfully big inside and out! Steps from the downtown core, you will adore.

Setting: Magical! Whether you wish to eat inside or outside, they have it for you! We planned on eating outside, on the patio, at the edge of the venue, offering a fresh, romantic, magical setting for some, and a fresh breeze sitting on the edge of the harbor, overlooking the calm waters. We were lucky enough to catch golden hour and the sunlight made it ever so magical for our group! Such details are often lost in the experience, but if you take the time to take a deep breath and catch the little moments of magic, you will find a glimpse of happiness and plant a lovely seed in your memories.

Washrooms: Very clean, stocked, well thought of. All rooms are all gender and offer privacy ( I may be wrong with this but from what I could tell, each washroom is a private one ).

Staff: From the moment we were greeted at the entrance, to the empathic host helping us find availability for our group, to the lovely and awesome server, Hera, who took care of us, everyone one greeted us with smiles. I did not see one staff member complain to another as you see sometimes ( I catch those small details often ). Everyone seemed to either love working there or pretend to love working there, either way, this made the atmosphere all that much enjoyable! Thank you!! Hera our server was a superstar and deserved her well earned tip! You will be lucky to have her at your server!

Food: Excellent if not perfect. 9 out of 10. 4.5 stars. I loved all of the dishes ( I tried many ) except for the mushrooms, but only because I did not like the taste, while my family loved it, so there was nothing wrong with the dish, perhaps I did not like the particular recipe used to cook them, either way, that is a small negative by comparison to the outstanding food quality we got. The oysters, lobster, ceviche, tartar, steak, you name it, was top notch. I would recommend everyone to benchmark their quality over any other in a heart beat.

Cost: $$$$ - on the expensive side, but well worth it. We paid a little over 400 for a group of 5. Tried lots of different recipes. T?he cocktail was a little too costly for my taste and the portion not very big and would have loved to get 150% of what I got, but again, a small negative. Overall, not cheap stuff. Premium quality food you get what you pay for. There are cheaper AND more costlier alternatives.

Overall impression: A wonderful, magical engagement of gastronomical pro - portions! A very charming restaurant catering to both upscale and casual dining experience! The Cable Wharf offers art, style and food in a cleverly put together package for the whole family. Go try them right now, or go give them...

What a fantastic restaurant offering wonderful views across the water, brilliant service, quality and experience all for a decent price and without being pompous… my husband and I arrived wearing shorts and T-shirt, wondering if it would be OK, we needed had worried, we were greeted warming and advised that what we were wearing was no problem… I’m sure we would have been turned away in the UK. We were served by Elvira who was an absolute delight! She was full of energy and joy, gave us all the information on the local produce, her favourites and recommendations… plus we could have a good laugh with her which we love! We decided to go for… 1/2 Dozen Maritime Oysters (from 3 locations; PEI, NS & NB), the Hot Seafood Medley (Whole Lobster, Salmon Fillet, Blackened Haddock, Digby Scallops & Prawns, Clams), Sourdough with Maple Butter, PEI Potato Salad and PEI Wedges - absolutely everything was delicious, perfectly cooked, well seasoned, flavourful and generous portions. Despite being rather full we just knew we had to have dessert: Bean to Bar (Chocolate & Espresso Cake) and The Nova Scotian (Blueberry & Haskap Cheesecake), 2 very different desserts but both divine, rich and full of flavour. To wash it all down I had Tidal Bay Wine & my husband had a local Propeller Pilsner, both crisp, refreshing and perfect with the seafood. Our experience was perfection, we will come back here in a heartbeat when we are...

If I could give this place zero stars I would. First off, the food was absolutely horribly. Our table had 8 people. We ordered a wide variety of the menu. The mussels were over cooked and mushy and another person at our table had mussels that were raw or rotten. The mussels had no flavour as well. We actually did not even eat more than a couple mussels and the waiter took them away and never asked why we didn’t eat them. The tuna tartare was bland and tasteless. The lobster roll was watery and obviously frozen before being served. The fish and chips was fine but the chips had no seasoning. The clam chowder was bland and only had four clams in it. A neighbouring table ordered lobster and asked how to eat it as they were tourists and none of the wait staff knew how to eat a lobster. The only good thing about this place was the view hence the three star rating. Numerous guests were sick from the food. I have no idea how this place has 4.4 stars at this time. This was my bottom three for restaurants that I have ever experienced. On top of it all they made us pay for the appetizers that we didn’t eat because of the quality. Then they asked for a pre-promoted 18 percent tip. It was an all around awful experience. Go spend your hard earned...