Da Guido Restaurant

Great food. Very large menu with plenty of great selections. I’ve been coming here for over ten years and my favorites include the scampi al burro, any veal scallopini dish, and the gnocchi. Bruschetta and bread is free and delicious. Plenty of waiters that are available for suggestions or great wine pairings, this is truly one of the best Italian restaurants in Calgary. Intimate setting, great for romantic dates or a small celebration.

This is argubly one of the better Italian restaurants but «fine dining» it certainly isn’t. If you can see past the rushed waiter and long wait for food then you might have a good experience.
Tip: Order more wine and be patient. The true Italians operate just like Da Guido.

I give Da Guido a very mixed review. While the food was very good, the service was abrupt and rushed. The waiter seemed annoyed and preoccupied and was not at all interested in clarifying the specials. The veal was very tender and tasty and everyone enjoyed their desserts. Unfortunately the service was lacking, I don’t recommend.

Da Guidio’s is one of the very best restaurants I’ve enjoyed on my travels. Regarded in Calgary has the best Italian place per my business partner and it sure lived up to its reputation.
Excellent food and service. Don’t miss out on eating here.
Very nice ambience and first class place.

Definitely great… The scargots were delicious and the linguini di mare was very good too… I really enjoyed my time there, the service was very good, the chef came to our table and chat with us. I definitely recommend this place!

Ok, I have to start by saying — I dont like to give bad reviews. Unfortunately I have to in this case. I recently went here for a shared birthday dinner for 2 couples and we were all quite looking forward to it. I had planned to write a long review here, but will keep it simple. The food (at least mine) was quite average nothing exceptional. The waiter who served us was older, aggressive — encouraged us (actually told us) to order quickly — left no room between courses — and then disappeared at the end of the night. We had to ask a different server for our bill (we were ignored for 45 minutes which considering that we were asked to order quickly was quite hard to swallow) Many on here seem to love this place. The mood in the restaurant seemed very much like a «regulars club». If you weren’t a regular, then you weren’t very welcome. It was definitely not a place I would go back to. Thats amore? Definitely not for me.

Ok, it only took me another 2 years to come back, but it wasn’t with my husband!
I came here with some work colleagues after work on a Friday and the place was busy. I love that it is alive with staff who speak Italian to each other and treat each other like family. Like the coat check, I don’t remember that last time I was here.
All the staff I have to say were very pleasant and it was like they all really wanted to be there. I love it when the chef comes out and speaks with his customers, he stopped by and chatted with us briefly, one of my girls is a regular there and he as well as a couple of waiters immediately knew her, that was sweet.
I found our waiter kinda overtly friendly and I would consider it flirting which I find inappropriate, he was older so it was bordering creepy.
We nibbled on some lovely brushetta and warm rolls while we waited for our food to come out. Service was surprisingly fast, our salads arrived in no time and were very good and the mains followed shortly after.
Here is where the points get docked, my meal, pollo vino, was lukewarm and really bland. I was expecting a bolder, richer wine sauce and this just tasted like some cheap white wine in a butter sauce. Also the veg were really really sad, some steamed spinach, steamed carrots and lightly sautéed potato balls, they were not even baby potatoes, they were regular potatoes that were melon balled!
I found the side pasta way over done too, what happened to al-​dente? And the sauce tasted like canned tomatoes. Don’t get me wrong, canned tomatoes are a staple in my house but for a higher end restaurant I would expect the stuff that comes fresh or out of a glass vessel; you get zero tin taste that way.
On the plus, the shrimp risotto dish my friend had was superb! I would totally get that next time, but will will run you about $ 20, if I recall correctly.
I am not writing off Da Guido, I will give it another go one of these days, but I’m kicking myself for saying this but my hubby was right, average food at above average prices :(

My gf and I decided we wanted to treat ourselves to dinner, and after not being able to get into several locations, she suggested Da Guido, as she told me she had been there a few times before.
We were promplty seated and given water by a waiter. Another waiter showed up and gave us the regular spiel about the features, specials, wines etc. We were given bruschetta to start, and it was mediocre, not zingy enough for my liking.
We finally made our decision and chose the caprese salad to share to start — they were nice enough to put it on two individual plates — as well as the calamari. The caprese salad was good, but I’ve had the same quality at other restaurants, so nothing new there. The calamari, however, was amazing. Crunchy coating but not greasy or heavy.
I chose the risotto with prawns and my gf chose a seafood pasta dish. Both were very good. i find it hard to get a good risotto in Calgary. They did a great job, but after 5 bites the butter (or oil), was swimming around the sides of my dish and I couldn’t eat anymore.
I found Da Guido a pleasant experience, but for the quality of the food, I’d choose another Italian restaurant to try first before returning here.
As well, the server didn’t really serve us, as we had another waiter give us the food, and yet another give us the check. This would be fine if it were very busy — which it wasn’t — but I found it was because regulars had come in and he was too busy chatting at their table to deal with us.

This restaurant is pretty amazing. in so many ways.
If you love Italian, please try this place out (and book ahead it gets very busy — it’s not huge). The menu is authentic Italian meats, pastas, fish, and everything else (ie: desserts — yum). The owner regularly comes out and chats to the guest’s and he’s a lovable, jolly fun guy. He knows my friends VERY well, so we get to speak with him about every time we’re there. Service is always great with immediate seating, menus, drink orders et al. The Food is delicious (try the risotto, caprese salad and any of the mains. The pastas are so fresh and tasty as well). They are very accommodating to the late nighters when required as one night we stayed drinking bottles of wine until after midnight and two servers stayed with us until we were done (but I guess a fat bill helps). Speaking of which — a really nice wine list of Italian wines is also available. The full menu is all very reasonably priced and affordable for a family night out or for a bunch of friends to enjoy wine and food. They are also open for lunch which isn’t as busy, but can be so book ahead. Ciao Bella.
April Challenge ⁴⁄₃₀

Celebrated our first anniversary at Da Guido and we were very disappointed.
I started with the caprese salad and it was served with mediocre mozzarella and flavourless tomatoes. My husband had the Caesar salad and it was gross. Served warm and wilted, as if it had been made an hour prior to our arrival.
Our mains arrived before our salads were cleared. The main courses tasted fine, but nothing too special.
We had the cheese cake for dessert and it was clearly not made in house. It was served to us frozen.
The service was very rushed and impersonal. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Not bad at all.
We ordered musscle, this dish was very average n a bit too salty, oh well, we had better one in other local Italian restaurant. But lamb n ossobucco are both fabulously delicious !!!

My husband and I stopped for dinner at Da Guido’s on a friday night last friday. We were glad they were able to fit us in since friday nites are usually very busy no matter where you go out to dine.
We started out with the appetizer of calamari. Nice and light and very delicious ! The attentive waiter brought us ice glasses of water and kept it filled through the evening. Great service and very attentive. He also brought us a small basket of nice soft bread and buns to enjoy.
For my entrée, I had the seafood pasta which I really enjoyed with the white wine sauce. It was much better than places where the sauce is creamy and when it cools down, it becomes pasty or thick and gooey. But not here. I really enjoyed myself since it was not a cream based sauce. I felt it was the right amount of food and was glad I didn’t have enough pasta to feed an army.
My husband ordered the evening special which I think were chicken or veal cutlets topped by asparagus and a side serving of penne in tomatoe sauce. He enjoyed his meal as well.
To end off the evening we had a cappucino for him and a latte for me along with a dessert we shared together. We tried the mango cheesecake with raspberry sauce which was quite divine ! Nice and light and not a heavy dessert.
Its nice to end a hectic work week with a nice supper with the two of us, soft Italian background music and excellent dinner out. Of course excellent service too. It was our first time here and will be a stop when I crave Italian again. Very Nice place !

We were very disappointed with our experience at this restaurant.
I ordered the seafood pasta and I guess they must have had a shortage of pasta because there was just a wee bit with the wee bit of seafood. I had two shrimp, two mussels, and a clam or two. There were also a few rings of calamari thrown in, which was a good thing because they kind of looked like pasta. The dish was fishy as heck too, which was not a good thing.
What was good about the place was the complimentary bruschetta they initially brought to the table. Delicious! The decaf latte I had to finish off the meal was very tasty. My husband had ordered a decaf coffee that never made it to the table and when the bill was brought, he pointed that out and asked that they take it off the bill, which they never did. Strange. The waiter paid for that because my husband is a great tipper but wasn’t paying for something he didn’t get.
The waiter kept interrupting us throughout our meal and I was getting annoyed. We won’t be returning any time soon. Villa Firenze is far better!

The food is fabulous and the pasta is really fresh. The staff were very friendly and apologized a lot for how slow everything was. We went on a Saturday and there seemed to be a lot of bigger groups there which was slowing it down. We are definitely going to go again — but we’ll try to go during the week when it is a little slower. Definitely worth trying though.