Good food and great service, does a meal make! [Saltlik Calgary review]

 2011, 4 - Consulting Lifestyle, 6 - Monday Morning Consultant, Canada  No Responses »
Jan 012012
 

So after the crapshit service of Chicago Chophouse, we decided to stay closer to the Hyatt and the Marriott and to the Mechanical Horse – so it was off to Saltlik Steakhouse.

The list of downtown steakhouses on the list are as follows (with review)

  1. CHARCUT Roast House
  2. Saltlik Steakhouse
  3. Palomino Smokehouse
  4. The Bank Restaurant
  5. The Trib
  6. Quincy’s
  7. Chicago Chophouse
  8. Caesar’s Steak House
  9. Paul’s Pizza & Steak House

Walking into Saltlik was easy and unpretentious, even for a place with the good name of Saltlik. We didn’t have reservations at 8pm and there was no fuss about getting a table. The overall decor itself was pretty standard … new hipster, steak room decor … typical of newer steakhouses.

However, after walking in though, we were greeted by a cross of something from Doctor Who … it evoked the following thoughts

  • Holy Shit … it’s not art … what is that?
  • It looks like a cross between cranberries, jellyfish and an afterbirth
  • I would not sit under that thing for any money
  • Then Diane mentioned that it looked like what should thought Chlamydia would look like … which made me ROTFL

After the initial shock of the Doctor Who floating Chlamydia, we were treated to some excellent food and quite good service.

The wok-fired calamari appetizer was definitely a great appetizer … it is far to easy to ruin this with over done Chinatown and Greektown nonsense. It was cooked like the traditional Chinese salt-and pepper method,  – we didn’t bother with the Greeky yogurt style sauce – it didn’t need it and and the grilled lemon was a nice touch. Wasn’t overly salty or overly spicy or overly battered; great balance. If you paired that along with the Panko crusted Onion Rings, you’re on your way to fine start to the meal.

Our entrees were the Chipotle BBQ Ribs and the Cowboy Ribeye (Chicago – Medium) … the ribs were average and bit too fatty for my taste, but D’s steak was excellent and she found her happy Chicago Medium steak.

Compared to the Chicago Chophouse … this was 12 star dining.

I’ll definitely keep Saltlik on my short list for Steakhouses to eat at in Calgary … the minutae and details you can get on yelp, opentable etc … but overall … good steakhouse, satisfying food, decent pricepoint, and very decent service – they know how to serve a Vodka/Soda but not serve a dram of scotch.

Good food and crappy service, does not a meal make! [Chicago Chophouse review]

 2011, 4 - Consulting Lifestyle, 6 - Monday Morning Consultant, Canada  No Responses »
Dec 302011
 

Calgary isn’t the mega food mecca that one can hope for when booking projects. That being said Alberta AAA beef is a very good standard of beef … which makes for excellent steak eating here in Calgary. After a couple weeks in Calgary, I can say that the steaks here are very good, but will not beat Argentina for quality, price and value of phenomenal steaks or even parts of Brazil.

On Stephen Avenue, there is a litany of higher end steak houses, and my goal is that by the end of my project, I would have had the 10 best steaks in Calgary to compare to steak around the world. (Note : I’ve been harangued by my Canadian friends about my lack of love for Canadian Beef)

The list of downtown steakhouses I’ve tried or will try are the following (I’m not going to try Ruth Chris or the Keg, since I am intimately familiar with what their food tastes like and honestly they’re like McDonalds … it all tastes the same regardless of where in Canada you are)

  1. CHARCUT Roast House
  2. Saltlik Steakhouse
  3. Palomino Smokehouse
  4. The Bank Restaurant
  5. The Trib
  6. Quincy’s
  7. Chicago Chophouse
  8. Caesar’s Steak House
  9. Paul’s Pizza & Steak House

The first on the list of reviews will be the Chicago Chophouse (Wednesday 28th, 2011 , 8:45pm)

So we get into the restaurant and the place is almost completely empty … yet I had to wander around waiting for the 3 girls at the desk or the counter to acknowledge my paying presence. She actually asked me if we had a reservation in an empty restaurant – this bitch was dead to me already and we hadn’t even gotten our a drink as yet.

The service started negatively and continued on a horrifically downward trend. At the price point of this place, I would expect a smile with some water to start … but that didn’t happen. When you review the menu, you have to KNOW that the steak is literally JUST a steak. No veggies or sides, no nothing but a 40$+ price point.

Notice the large slab of meat on the far right hand corner … that was a 14oz Cowboy Rib Eye, but the plate is empty aside from that … know why??? Because you have to order your sauce and sides all separately … and even the menu is organized like a Horse’s Ass (not in a good way, mind you!)

That being said …  the atmosphere was nice, even though it felt like an upscale sports bar …

Getting back to the ultra shitty service – it took a while for our server to come after we were served our food, I asked for hot sauce and some water, but we never saw her again until after most the food was gone.

More importantly … the waitress who sat at the counter filing her nails, or scratching the AIDS off her head or whatever she was doing, didn’t even have an inkling of how to serve a god damn dram of scotch.

I asked for a dram of Glenmorangie Port 18, after all this nonsense and this is what followed

  • <Rishi> Can I have a dram of the Glenmorangie 18?
  • <Dumb bitch waitress> Which one is that?
  • <Rishi> The one that says Glenmorangie with the Orange Label (points at it …)
  • <DBW> Are you sure that’s Glenmorangie? Is that Scotch?
  • <Rishi> … holding back rage and spit … yes it is scotch …
    •  (A couple minutes pass)
  • <DBW> Here you go sir …
  • <Rishi> Are you going to bring some water with it?
  • <DBW> Why?
  • <Rishi> Because you don’t serve any single malt scotch by itself, but with water on the side. Have you never served scotch before?
  • <DBW> No most people order Soda and some wines …
  • <Rishi> Well consider yourself educated …
    •  (A couple minutes pass)
  • <DBW> Here is the water sir .. (She brings cold ice water)
  • <Rishi> Well you obviously have no clue … I’d ask for you to bring some room temperature water, but I think you might just fall and piss yourself and the water, if you had to do anything else. Go away and bring the bill and if I have to wait … you can pay for the 300$ meal yourself.

Conclusion:

The food was quite decent and my very well done Rib Eye (I asked for it like that) was quite good. Everyone was happy with their food, but the service was dogshit.

Slow, inattentive and unknowledgeable service. Decent food. Extremely high prices = Completely not worth your time.

Monday Morning Consultant – Westin Calgary review

 2011, 6 - Monday Morning Consultant, Canada  No Responses »
Dec 082011
 
Monday Morning Consultant – Westin Calgary review

Calgary is quiet town relative to Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto … in that order. However with all the money that this town is awash in … there seems to be a startling lack of high end hotels in Calgary. So far I’ve stayed at two Starwood properties here …  Sheraton Cavalier and the Westin Calgary Once [... Click here to keep on reading this article]

Tuesday night sculpture hunting in Calgary

 2011, 4 - Consulting Lifestyle, Canada  No Responses »
Nov 302011
 
Tuesday night sculpture hunting in Calgary

After working all day, the nice thing about leaving work is that I can go hang out with more crazy Calgary public art displays. In front, the Canadian Pacific office, there is a lovely locomotive hulk and tender that’s been meticulously restored to its former glory by the CP shop employees for permanent display in front of CPR’s [... Click here to keep on reading this article]

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