The Bison

Had a lovely meal there. Slightly too familiar service than I usually like, but everything was prompt and well served. The wood-​fired dishes make great sharing apps. The bison chorizo flame-​grilled peppers are highly recommended. The mains were all very good, although nothing was dream fodder. In a city these prices would bump my rating down, but as everything needs to shipped into banff, and you’re basically trapped, you just have to swallow that $ 45 main.

We enjoyed our dinner at Bison and came recommended from our hotel as one of the best. Perhaps it was the hype, but the food, while good, didn’t live up to the rave reviews. The elk gnocchi is a must order and quite inventive. I ordered the bison flank steak as they had run out of the other bison special. My steak was, meh. It could have been that it got cold quite easily but it seemed rather tough. It could be that I had the B option but it wasn’t great.
The service was good and the wine was a nice local wine. As for my dining partner, he ordered the venison loin, which I tasted and was better than my flank steak. However, the stand out was the elk gnocchi.
4stars for the elk gnocchi
2 stars for my flank steak
3 stars for the venison

A mid-​upscale restaurant in Banff that is a great place for a date or peaceful, delicious dinner with a lovely ambiance and view by the window.
While road tripping through Canada with my boyfriend, we stayed a night in the cute and bustling Banff. We looked for a nice place to eat and settled on The Bison. It shares a space with The Tavern downstairs, so it’s easy to get confused between the two. The Tavern is a more casual pub type venue downstairs, so if that’s your scene, check it out. The Bison staff recommend you make a reservation, as it does get packed. I called in for a same day reservation and there was only 5:15pm and 9:45pm left, so 5:15pm it was!
My boyfriend and I ordered a gnocchi poutine to share, bison ribeye for him, and venison strip loin for me. The gnocchi is extremely pillowy and soft, the cheese is gloriously melted with gravy, and there is a good amount of elk in the dish, all of which comes in a mini cast iron skillet. The bison ribeye, medium rare, was perfectly seasoned and juicy, without any gamey flavor. I didn’t care for the potatoes it came with though. The venison, also medium rare, was lean yet so tender and flavorful. On the plate also were three potato croquettes, various veggies, berries, and two sauces that did not taste like very much. Not a very cohesive dish in my opinion, but the venison was still very tasty.
The Bison is upstairs with a lovely view by the window, is warmly decorated with a great ambiance and friendly, attentive service. I would recommend it to visitors to Banff looking for a bit of local flavor and hospitality.

Excellent meals and appetizers, our table had the cheese board and gnocchi poutine, Bison Short ribs, Venison Strip loin, and Pasta. No complaints at all, everything was cooked wonderful and paired nicely with a Cabernet Sauvignon. Would definitely come here again because the menu was so hard to choose from.

Dear Bison: You had me at bone marrow. So so SO good. Definitely one of the best meals I have had. Down to earth but romantic with rustic eco-​chic charm (just the way I like it) Full of flavor! My husband and I were visiting from NYC and loved this place, it was a culinary highlight of our trip. The price was not painful. Our server was awesome. These are things I am noticing and loving about Canada in general as being from NY, it’s such a contrast. I also love that I don’t have to ask if the meet is organic, it’s pretty much a given. The elk gnocchi was addicting! ELK! Who’d a thought. Love it. So to all my real foodies out there, if your ever in Banff this is solid.

We stumbled upon this restaurant after an afternoon time hike around the Banff area. What lured us in was the gnocchi poutine found on their menu — and thank goodness for that! The gnocchi poutine was melt in your mouth! The gnoochi was tender and unlike the usual chewy texture that gnocchi is often associated with. It was the perfect pairing with the curd cheese that was melted in oozing truffle gravy.
We also got the fire roasted pepper (although good, nothing too special) and bison ribeye. We were sold on the bison ribeye when our server told us that the bison had a good amount of marbling. She wasn’t lying, the bison wasn’t lean at all and had enough fat to make the meat more juicy than what bison is typically known for.
On top of delicious food, we were also able to enjoy it with excellent service. Our server was very attentive and warming. She was knowledgeable with the menu but also made sure to give us our space to enjoy our time there.
I would definitely return! (and for that gnocchi poutine too.!)

It’s a little pretentious looking, but staff was extremely nice and helpful. Portions need a little work. The Bison Short Ribs were too much for me to finish (large guy), while the Venison Steaks left my tiny wife still hungry. She ended up finishing off most of my plate. Then we ordered the Apple Pie, which turned out to be a «deconstructed» apple pie which meant the entire desert was only a few bites worth.
With that said, it still deserves 5 stars. The staff was knowledgeable and prompt. The silverware, plates, and glasses were spotless. The food was cooked to perfection and the prices were more then reasonable for the quality.

Great flavors and superb menu. The Elk gnocchi appetizer was phenomenal. Duck breast tonight with bacon mashed potatoes and roasted veggies. the whole atmosphere is superb and the service was top notch. Definitely the place for a fabulous dinner.
Exceptional pairing options for drinks with the meal. Don’t forget the dessert either. Wow fabulous.
Service was great. Friendly and creative. They all paid attention to making our meal fantastic.

The reviews on this restaurant were very good, however «The Bison» did not live up to expectations. The food was good to be fair, but it reminded me of cafeteria food. The prices were extremely high for food of this quality. Service was slow. The wait staff were helpful and friendly.

Best restaurant in Banff! My wife and I went here for a bite to eat. We wanted something good, did some research and found The Bison. We were looking for a good place to eat with great food and found this place. It is very fresh and local. All food is also organic. Some of the dishes rotate out as different food comes into season. We had this butternut squash dish that was killer. We also had a lot of other dishes. The food was fantastic. There were a lot of other great things about this place.
The wine recommendation was great. We described the wine that we like to the server and he was able to offer a wine that was top notch and met our needs. He was also very friendly and recommended a lot of dishes that were amazing. We also were able to sit outside and it was a great night.

Bleh food.
Expensive.
Don’t go.

By chance we happened on this restaurant as we were searching for a place to eat in Banff. We noticed some very unusual, yummy looking food as we walked by so we chose to stop. We ate outside and had the best pizza ever called Donair. You are given honey and chili oil to dip it in. Excellent!
They also have daily specials and have very nice servers. I hope we can visit it again!

Hands down the best restaurant in Banff and surrounding areas!
Reasonable price (compare to similar restaurants in GTA). We ordered a bottle of wine, 2 appetizers and 2 mains, came to under $ 200 including tips and tax (gotta love Alberta 5% tax)
The name said it all, the Bison! Must try the Bison steak and Bison burger.

The Bison was the first dinner we had in Banff. Coincidentally, it is situated right above the place we had lunch, the Bear Street Tavern. The Bison, though owned by the same, offers a much different menu that includes locally sourced game meats and dishes including elk, bison, venison, and duck. The restaurant is a bit fancier and we were seated on their rooftop patio which overlooked Bear Street and had nice views of the mountains in the backdrop.
I had the Bison Ribeye while the girlfriend ordered the Duck Breast. The Bison Ribeye was an amazing cut that was cooked a nice medium rare (though more on the rare side — which I love). The bison meat, though a bit leaner than beef, tastes just as good with a bit more of a mild taste as opposed to a gamey taste. The ribeye was tender, though a bit dry on the outside (though it comes with smoked butter atop). It comes with a side of lyonnaise potatoes, which are liked scalloped potatoes with cheese. Wonderfully cheesy and buttery side.
The Brome Lake Duck Breast is split into two giant slabs of duck breast meat cooked a nice medium. The duck breast was very meaty, and skin was rather crisp without too much fat. The blood orange reduction helped add a bit of sweetness with the savory duck and really made it a good dish.
Wish we were hungry enough for any appetizers or desserts, cause they did have some interesting looking ones, but we were so damn full from dinner. Service was lovely and was checking in often to make sure we had enough drinks and such. The rooftop patio is nice, especially on a beautiful summer day in June. Definitely coming back when in the area again.

We only had 2 dinners in Banff, the first one at Evergreen was a disater. Bison was much better. We didn’t make any reservation, walk in and was put at a table right next to the stair. Luckly the high back chair was big & comfy enough to not border me. The best part of the dinner was the escargot over bone mallow. Maestro in southern cal serves up a nice bone mallow appertizer just like that but this one added my other favorite, escargot, well done ! The bison rib was actually decent not great, it doesn’t melt in your mouth, a little bit chewy but tasty. The bison rib eye was better, probably the medium rare kept it tendor. Overall nice meal and restaurant.

Very nice restaurant !
With had dinner at the patio which looks like a rooftop !
Very good meat (especially the bison !) well cooked and very tasty !
And perfect service !!!

Pretty worth to try.
We had the seared scallop for starter, I was a little bit disappointed about the size of the scallop, it was so small. But the bison porgy was good.
We tried the bison short ribs, the bison ribeye, flank steak. The short rib is a little bit oily but it cooked all through and still soft. So nice choice if you do like raw stuff. And the bison ribeye is amazing. I ordered medium rare so it was soft and tender. And the flank steak was just like other restaurant. I would recommend the bison ribeye.
For the desert, most was so sweet. The cream brûlée was worth to try.

If you’re in the mood for bison, this is the place. They have bison short ribs, bison appetizers, and everything is from Alberta farm. the only thing I wanted more of was the bison ravioli. I mean it was only an appetizer! Can it please be in entrée!!! Also the bison entrée was so rich! It needed maybe pastas or potatoes to balance out the flavor. But the server is wonderful and the seats are large sofas so it makes it feel like a king/​queen.

Service was very good and attentive. Feeling is like in a train station. Very loud and drafty location.
I had the bison burger. The beef was very dry.

We enjoyed our meal here, however it wasn’t outstanding. We had the Kung Pao Quail, which was interesting and tasty. The bison steak was very good, however one of the steaks came out cold. They quickly took it back and replaced it with another — very good service. In particular, the potato dish the steak came with was excellent!
Overall, a good meal, but a bit expensive.

Super Essen. Genialer Koch. Schöné Atmosphäre. Regionale Küche. Nicht günstig aber Preis-​Leistung stimmen zu 100%. Unbedingt reservieren.