lolacola "I love Tapas!"

Concorde Restolounge is a tiny gem in the city’s far south west. People often refer to the far southwest neighbourhoods of Calgary (Springbank, Patterson, Christie, the Slopes, Aspenstone, Westsprings) as the “boonies”. It’s true, these neighbourhoods are on the outreaches, and generally foodies need to journey into the core, Kensington or 17th avenue to get the trendy cuisine they crave. Well fear not foodies, there’s a new lounge in town.

Concorde has a very unassuming flat glass front with tinted windows. I spotted Concorde while shopping at the Blush Lane Organic market and decided to take my mother there for dinner. Although Concorde is small, bar seating, and about 10 tables, they make the most of their space. The ambiance is rich, dark and luxe, everything is shiny black or silver, with soft and deep white leather chairs.

For a small place Concorde has an excellent wine list, with lots of choices by the glass. I chose a glass of the Caymus Conundrum white blend ($15.00) that was served perfectly chilled. My mother was just as enamoured with her choice the Spy Hill Sauvignon Blanc ($9.00). We were quite happy to have chosen crisp whites as it became apparent that the a lot of the cuisine at Concorde featured our favourite food, seafood.

The service was excellent. We had a very polite and unobtrusive waiter and after we ordered the chef brought us out an amuse bouche. A perfectly cooked mussel was served with shavings of chilled Asian pear. The textures went extremely well together and it was light and delicious beginning to our meal.

For her entrée my mother ordered the Ocean’s Stack ($35.00). 3 large cannelloni stuffed with seafood, mushrooms and spinach, were topped with even more seafood, mussels and jumbo prawns. The seafood and pasta was perfectly cooked, but the sauce was a little on the bland side. It was a creamy lemon rose sauce that smelt delicious but unfortunately fell flat. Although even though the sauce needs a little more work, my mother still enjoyed the cannelloni.

I am a huge fan of mussels and fries and often can’t avoid ordering them should I spot them on a menu. Concorde’s mussels and fries ($17.00) were some of the best I have every had. Listed as an appetizer, this dish could easily feed 4 people or be a meal for two. I could barely finish them myself! The heaping stack of steamed mussels were served in a delicious lemon, herb and butter sauce, that was very light and didn’t over power the taste of the shellfish. The dish was severed with a spicy chipotle mayo that I wasted no time dipping the fantastic crispy fries into.

Totally satiated, my mother and I couldn’t even look at the dessert menu, but that didn’t stop us from having another glass of wine!

Although Concorde’s entrée prices can be a little on the steep side (rack of lamb $42.00 being the highest), this lounge has great value for money. With high quality ingredients, innovative and trendy cuisine, this is a heaven for the suburban foodie.

I am one of those people lucky enough to have great bosses. They took another employee and I out to lunch to say thank you for all of our hard work and chose Murrieta’s as the spot to take us. I have heard very good things about Murrieta’s and was excited to try it.

Murrieta’s is housed in the upstairs of a heritage building in down town Calgary. The dining room is insanely gorgeous with a vaulted ceiling, dark wood and stone accents. Even with the tuxedoed wait staff and white linens, Murrieta’s doesn’t feel pretentious or stuffy. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the service as much as the décor.

Murrieta’s is in the normal price range for a down town restaurant (read: high) with entrees ranging from $18 to $45. I didn’t look at the wine, but one of my bosses chose a very nice pinot noir. Now there were six of us at this lunch, but the table they put us in was way too small. It was crowed and everyone was bumping wine glasses and elbows. The place was packed or we probably would have moved.

The combination of a crowed table and a clumsy waiter, who brought out our calamari appetizer, ended with a glass of wine in my bosses lap. Luckily he was wearing dark pants and only got a little on his shirt. However, the waiter was not very apologetic and wordlessly brought my boss some “spray to prevent staining” and was gone. We weren’t offered clean napkins (we had used all of ours were used trying to mop up the mess) and had to ask for them. They didn’t even offer my boss a complimentary glass of wine, as the waiter had spilt all of his, and just said oh would you like to order another bottle?

The service was also quite slow and the waitress often rushed off before we could ask for things; which led one person at our table to remark “Ack come back, I want to order! I’m starving!”

The food did come quickly, however mine wasn’t very good. The calamari appetizer ($10.00)was surprisingly greasy for an upscale restaurant and came with a boring red pepper dip. For my entrée I had the Cobb Salad with Salmon ($20.00). Which was some butter lettuce, egg, bacon and chevre cheese. There were lots of tomatoes and cucumbers, but the salad was very sparse on the other ingredients. The “creamy basil dressing” was bland and flavourless and the salmon was very overcooked.

Nobody else really made any comments about their dishes either positive or negative, although I tasted my friend’s seared scallop fettuccini (18.00) and instantly wished I had gotten that dish instead. The scallops were perfectly cooked and the noodles were tossed in garlic, olive oil and red chilli, which made for a spicy and tasty bite.

All in all, lunch took about an hour and a half and I felt the food was only mediocre. I don’t think I would go back.

The westhills shopping center in the city’s south west has been suffering from the dole-drums. People have been bored of the same old restaurants; there is an Earls, Moxies, Montanas, Joey’s Only, and an irish pub. Pretty much the same kind of family or casual style restaurants you would expect to find in any large shopping center. So when my friend and I were looking for a bite that was close to home, and found the Phoenix Grill where the old Kelsey’s used to be, we were excited to try it.

Being that it only opened 3 days prior, the place was packed at 1:00pm on Saturday. The tacky Kelsey’s décor was redone in a tasteful, if very neutral, contemporary style. Although the place was very busy, the good design made it not too noisy. The restaurant is for families, so if you don’t like children, you should sit in the lounge. We really didn’t care where we sat, and ended up in the dining room next to a crying baby, so I think it will be the lounge next time.

Out waitress was new, very new. I think to the restaurant business in general, and not just the Phoenix. She informed us it was her first day, and other then a couple little mix-ups, (having to ask what beers could be made into icebergs and not knowing how to work the debit machine) she did a good job for her first time. The food service was on the slow side, but considering how busy it was and that the kitchen staff was most likely new as well, I wasn’t surprised.

One of the appetizers caught my eye right away: the mini firecracker salmon tacos ($10.00). The salmon was described as being tossed in spicy hoisin sauce and mixed with coconut rice and julienne vegetables. The mixture was nestled in little crispy wonton cups (so not really tacos) and was a very generous portion of 7 pieces, so great to share. The flavour was not what I was expecting it to be, but was still good. I really wouldn’t call them spicy, they had more of a tangy teriyaki flavour, and the coconut rice didn’t come through to me at all. Don’t get me wrong, they tasted good and the salmon was perfectly cooked, just not as good as I was expecting. My friend had the same consensus.

Although I saw some novel things that looked quite tasty on the menu, (chicken quesadilla with basil pesto $11.45 and the Cajun basa with seafood Creole sauce, served on lemon sundried tomato couscous, $19.45) I was really in the mood for an old favourite: a cesar salad with Cajun shrimp ($11.00). My friend was feeling the same and had the cesar salad with Cajun chicken ($11.00). The salads were very generous in portion as well, and had plenty of shrimp and chicken. The lettuce was of good quality and the dressing was quite tasty, however it was missing some sort of je ne sais quoi that could have brought it up from good to delicious. Perhaps a citrus kick or more garlic in the dressing?

For drinks my friend just had a diet coke and I had an iceberg pint: which is draft beer with citrus slush on the top. Very refreshing and tasty. One thing to note about the iceberg pints here, they can be made out of any of the six beers on tap. I know that at some other restaurants I have been too, they only do icebergs with a certain kind of beer. Phoenix has a good, albeit small, wine and beer selection; I didn’t peruse the cocktails.

I actually know the general manager from a restaurant I used to work at, and he told me that they were going to really focus on customer service to stand out from the other restaurants in westhills. He said that customer service was what he heard people were looking for. I think that because the Phoenix is in an area where basically all the other restaurants are family casual, it needs to work on standing out from the crowd. Although customer service is important, I have been known to go to a place with bad service because I am craving a certain delicious and signature dish. The prices are very good ($22.00 plus tip for half an appy, entree salad and pint of beer) and the portion sizes are great as well, but I think that some of their recipes need a little more zip or once everyone has been to this new place, it’s 15 minutes will run out and it will fade into the background like Kelsey’s. Although I hope it doesn’t happen until I have had a chance to go back and try that Cajun basa lol.

I have been to the Redwater Rustic Grill for dinner numerous times, and have always been impressed by their food and service. I especially like how they offer “naked” entrees: beef, pork and seafood selections where you choose the sauce (if any) and the sides. It is perfect for particular eaters like myself. When the Redwater recently opened a downtown location, I was eager to try it for lunch. It is hard to get a reservation there, so be sure to book about 2 weeks in advance.

My friend and I went there for a lunch on a Friday. The Redwater has the same opulent yet cozy décor that is found in the other location on McLeod Trail. I was quickly seated by a friendly hostess at a side table by the window with deep comfy leather chairs. When my friend arrived, she was shown to the table where I was waiting without any confusion or delay. Good start.

Our waiter quickly took our drink orders as we perused the menu. For an appetizer we chose to share the Lobster Quesadillas ($15.00). For our entrees we each chose a sandwich; I had the Crab and Shrimp Club ($16.00) and my friend chose the Southwest Chicken BLT ($13.00). The waiter took a long time to bring our drinks over, so we were more then ready to order when he came back.

The service at this location of Redwater was not as good as I have experienced previously. The waiter seemed quite flustered when I asked to have no avocado/tomato relish on my sandwich and wanted soup instead of fries. He looked at me rather funny and said “uh okay”. It was a little irritating. Thankfully, the food was much faster than the waiter.

I loved the Lobster Quesadillas. They were shaped a little more like dumplings then quesadillas, and there were four pieces in light pastry shells. The quesadillas were stuffed with melted gouda, poblano butter and tender pieces of lobster. There was a shaved mango and carrot “salad” and a lime aioli for dipping, served with the quesadillas. All the flavors went very well together and I was in heaven. My friend however, did not enjoy the quesadillas as much as I; she found them to be bland and in need of a garlic or spice kick. As gouda is a mild cheese, I think that was where the dish went bad for her.

Luckily she really enjoyed her sandwich, which was juicy pulled rotisserie chicken served on a toasted bun with bacon, lettuce, tomato and honey mustard. My sandwich was just as good; the crab and shrimp were mixed together with a scrumptious dill and garlic mayo, topped with lettuce, tomato and bacon, all served on a crisp croissant style bun. The soup I had for my side was a fantastic broccoli and cheddar soup, that was rich and velvety and tasted amazing. We were stuffed.

Another note about the odd service, our waiter dropped off the food, but had no ketchup for my friend’s fries. She managed to flag him down to get some ketchup, but when she asked for it, he gave her that weird/flustered look again and kind of stomped off to get it. Maybe he was having a bad day? He kind of disappeared towards the end of our meal, and another waiter checked on us, re-filled our drinks and cleared our plates. Our waiter did show up again when it was time to bring the bill, and was all smiles then.

Although the service was inconsistent, I would go back to this location again because they can get the food out fast, even in such a large restaurant, which is a must for one hour lunches, and the food was delicous.