ALBA Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Jasper

I'll start off by saying we didn't plan to go here. The place we intended to go didn't have a table for us so we went here randomly which turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Jasper. This place is really underrated, which I'll get into at the end. First and most importantly the food was fantastic. Each dish was prepared just right. We had the shrimp risotto, gnocchi parmigiana, duck and sockeye salmon. Each dish was awesome, with maybe the only the salmon being just good. Both risotto and gnocchi were prepared just right and tasty without being overbearing. The duck was perfectly medium with a nice glaze and tasted delicious. The salmon was perfectly cooked but but in comparison to the other dishes, I could only rate it as good. I fully expected the salmon wasn't going to be spectacular, but felt I needed to get off the over eating of red meat and carbs that I've had all vacation. For desert, despite being full, we shared a tiramisu and rhubarb panne cotta. Both were small but very good. Just enough to hit the spot.

We also had a bread basket and meatballs appetizers. The bread, while nice and warm, was just ok. The meatballs were nice.

The portions for the gnocchi and risotto were just right. The salmon was as expected, but the duck was a bit smaller than what we would have liked. The great basket portion was a small considering it was just bread and we had to pay for it. The meat balls were a bit on the small side too. Despite the smaller portion sizes, the prices were very reasonable given the location, overall quality and taste of the food.

I highly recommend and if it wasn't our last night in town, we'd certainly go back.

I feel this place should be packed but somehow they aren't and I'd offer up some suggestions:

Since they are on the 2nd floor, the restaurant need do a much better presentation for first impression at the entrance. We almost didn't go in because of that, but went anyway because of the good reviews on Google Maps and my kids were hungry

The menu board frame looks worn and beat up. The glass is not clear, inside the frame it's a bit dusty, the wood frame itself is worn and water damaged. The menu board advertising "best prices in town" was a real turn off. No good restaurant would draw clients in with that catch line, or you'll get the wrong clients in looking for cheap prices and they'll be disappointed. The pictures on the menu board really do a disservice to the food. Both the colors and the actual photos are not appealing. The stair case needs a refresh or something. The concrete paint damaged stairs, metal hand rail makes this seem like a back door emergency escape, rather than the main entrance of a nice restaurant. I noticed many customers come up, looking confused and trying to figure if they were indeed in the right place and if they should really eat here. I can only assume many don't even make it up.

Lastly if this was my place, I'd replace the folding sign with something a bit more upscale, maybe a chef caricature statue holding a chalk board menu, but this is a small detail.

While the inside decor could use some work that would be a bigger investment. I'd first focus on the lower cost front...

ALBA $130 + $27 TIP Our experience at ALBA was pleasant. Service was professional and prompt. However, whenever the server came to ask how we were enjoying our meal, he used language like, “It’s good, right.” Not a question, but a statement. This left us little room, without being confrontational, to comment. And not everything was good. See below for our order and comments:

Calamari ☹️ - too chewy, not crispy, despite being referred to as “Crispy Calamari” in the menu and recommended by the server. It tasted of grease, which fried food should never do, and wasn’t as hot as it should be.

Beef carpaccio 😁😁- very tasty. Good portion size.

Garlic baguette w/ oil & balsamic 😁- eaten with the beef carpaccio. Two more halves would have been perfect.

Lamb shank with creamy polenta😁😁- excellent flavour, well seasoned and nice presentation. The lamb was soft and flaked off the bone. Polenta was delicious and the cherry tomatoes added a great balance to the dish with sweet acidity cutting some of the richness of the lamb and cream.

Oxtail ragu w/ wide & long flat pasta😁- Rich and unctuous; however, it needed more flavour notes and some acidity to give balance. More mushrooms could have been added. The oxtail itself was delicious.

Tiramisu - caramel mascarpone with a maraschino cherry 😕- I prefer a traditional tiramisu. The maraschino cherry added sweetness this dessert did not need and created an artificial flavour to the dessert. The mascarpone had a caramel flavour added, too sweet, and there wasn’t enough expresso soaked lady fingers in the dessert. It was served in a plastic martini glass, which really cheapened the overall presentation.

Chocolate ganache cheesecake 😁 - nothing special about this dessert. When asked, my husband said, “We could have made this at home.” So tasty, but it didn’t stand out as...

This place is NOT kids friendly! The waitress was very rude when we asked if they have crayons and when we asked if she could leave the kids menu (because our doughter didnt decide what to order). Overall we didnt like the atmosphere. The prices were high, the gnocchi didnt taste well, actually it was awful, though my wife liked the Mezze Rigatoni.

Edit/response: Your response actually makes my point… Not having crayons is ok, but combining it with condescending response from the waitress when asking to keep the kid's menu for a few minutes: was asked 3 times (!) by the "pregnant" waitress if by leaving the menu our daughter will tear it up (why would she? The pregnant waitress should probably work on her kids skills) = not kids friendly place. Sorry for not making a reservation, really rude, there were two empty tables when we came. If you have a problem serving people with no reservation you should say something, we would have been more than happy to go elsewhere (there is no shortage of restaurants in Jasper), we thought u were a restaurant. I will state it again, the gnocchi was awful, it tasted like feet. Please check the camera to see how long it took the waitress to come and take our order and how much time past until we got food, it was very long! Some service providers are never willing to learn from their feedbacks and always blame the customers, you have to work on your non-existing service/customer service skills. Taking personal shots at customers doesn't look good! btw, the restaurant across the street is awesome with excellent service and food, u should try it and maybe learn...