LOCAL on 8th Ave

Great beer selection. They rotate their taps every Thursday, as with many places downtown. So there’s always something new to try!

Good food especially the Fish Taco’s. Staff are awesome always friendly. Busy atmosphere any day of the week. Very attentive always fun to go there.

Literally, the BEST tacos I have ever eaten in my entire life, and trust me, I’ve tried many! Plus they have somersby on tap, you can’t go wrong! Hands down my favourite restaurant.

Great ambience and very good appetizers. The guacamole was really good and the wine is not bad! Great place to go with friends and have fun!

One of the most disappointing bars in Calgary. Pretty waitresses but OMG they are thick. The wine is absolutely awful and the clientele just bunch of dumb easy girls and cowboy boys with no taste or brain. This place is only good for psycho evaluations.

It’s okay
Walk by every day at lunch, have tried twice on weekends as its not so busy.
Staff is friendly enough, food and drinks are good. Just expect more serving wise for my money.

Excellent fish tacos, probably best I’ve had in calgary. Also love the mystery wine glass for $ 4. Service is pretty good. But Brunch was disappointing. Their banana pancakes are NOT banana pancakes. You can’t just put a couple of slices of cold banana on top and call them banana pancakes. And they were not served hot or with butter — that will cost extra. Benedict had heavily overcooked eggs and hollandaise sauce that wasn’t as good as homemade. Smashed hash browns and bacon was good though. Also tried huevos rancheros and it was a little spicy (was hoping the sour cream would be on the side) but otherwise it was delicious.

One of my Fav Stephen ave eats n drinks
Great Staff — Great food — almost everything they serve is awesome —
But I have to complain who the heck takes a picture of a giant Jug of sangria and not mention it. That should be a crime because 1. now i want to go get a giant jug of sangria with not knowing if its any good
2. that’s just a jerk move
YUP this place rocks!

We stumbled upon the Local from our hotel (Fairmont Palliser) and had an excellent experience. Tasty tacos, tortilla soup and salads — really yummy food made in an open kitchen. Our server Megan was extremely warm and friendly and made our first dining experience ever in Calgary very memorable. Highly recommend.

I love the fish tacos here… actually i’m kind of addicted to because I always crave it. I prefer to have it without the cilantro because it’s kind of over powering. The batter on the fish is perfect! It’s light, crispy and not greasy. The tuna poke is okay sometimes it’s too salty. The burgers look amazing but it was just okay. The rest of the menu looks good but I’ve never tried it yet because of the darn fish tacos! The service is pretty fast and I will be done lunch in less than an hour.

Based on all the reviews, I thought I would like this place more than I did. The crowd that night I went was in the 18 – 25 years range. On a Saturday night, the place was completely packed. Service was fine.
Beer was cheap at $ 5.50 for a 14 oz glass. The fish tacos were tasty. I enjoyed the fresh crunchy cabbage and creamy sauce inside, but the red hot sauce served on the side was way too salty. The calamari was underwhelming and I would skip this dish. The portion was tiny and it lacked any flavour. The sauce was awful. Hot sauce mixed with something heavy and creamy. I don’t like hot sauce in my calamari and the way it was mixed in, there was no option.

Kati C, our waitress was most attentive and friendly as we sat outside this wonderful Stephan Avenue pub and enjoyed Gypsy Tears Red Ale in the cool evening of a Calgary Summer Day among the Beautiful People unwinding from their busy days of being gorgeous.

This has become one of my favorite places in Stephen Ave because the food is decent and they are great drink specials. I struggled between giving them three out four stars because the food can be a bit inconsistent. However, if you are going for bar snacks and a drink, it’s at least a four star place in my book.
That being said, I do think this place is great for long lunches or after work drinks. I don’t think is necessarily a dinner spot, because as I mentioned there is some inconsistency in the food. For instance, there seemed to be a period of time where the afternoon shift was over salting everything, especially the tacos, so I just stopped ordering those. I do really enjoy the burgers and the salads so I am fine with choosing that. Even with the oversalting I still kept going because I enjoy the rest of the menu, the service, and the drink specials.
The thing I like those most is the daily wine special. They have $ 4 mystery wine everyday (red and white) which is the cheapest I have seen wine on Stephen, if it’s not Wednesday. Plus that special goes on all day, not just happy hour, which I appreciate. They also have daily beer specials but I am always so jazzed about the wine I forget what they are.
This place does get packed during lunch so go before 11:30 to ensure you will get a table. You might have to wait after that. However service is super quick so if you don’t want to spend more than an hour at lunch then you definitely won’t. I really do think you should try this place — I think the food is good and so reasonably priced that this is a step above many other places around.

I was a bit late to meet up with some friends at LOCAL on 8^th Ave so I only had a couple drinks and skipped food. This was my first time visiting LOCAL and despite it being a short experience I couldn’t help but notice the warm upbeat atmosphere and great service.
Inside is much bigger than the outside leads you to believe, there’s plenty of seating and it doesn’t feel too squishy. The décor was interesting, somewhat rustic meets industrial with a little bit of modern flare. The drink menu was quite solid, good selection of craft beer and rotating seasonal beers, they had awesome drink specials as well! Our server was on the ball and was very personable. She went as far as to have an entertaining side conversation about Jurassic World with my friend lol.
Quick sneak-​peak this time, but definitely enough for me to want to go back. Hope this is a taste of a great future visit :). Cheers!

LOCAL on 8^th is well… on 8^th avenue SW, along Stephen ave. It’s like the prime neighbor meeting spot. Upon entrance, you could be greeted but it’s more of a make yourself at home kind of place. I’d say Local is a casual but classy pub. A big bar in the center, some booths and high top tables scattered and closer to the back there are some normal seats, half booth half chairs.
The menus are already on the table but I’d say don’t even look at the menu and trust me on this. FISH TACOS, yes… FISH TACOS — get them, probably order about 2 – 3 to start, maybe a side of yam fries but you must order the fish tacos. They’re SO bomb, actually the best in the city — BEER (need I say more?) battered Baja, shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, some of their special sauce and lemon. If you’re feelin hot, squeeze some hot sauce on them, you really can’t go wrong. Super soft tortilla, crispy but juicy baja fish, unreal sauce, light crunch on the shredded cabbage and pico de gallo, the combination is heavenly like the close your eyes and remember this moment heavenly. I can be pretty over the top sometimes but this is for real, my friends and I crave these tacos all the time and even for my past birthday, I requested that we go to Local in order to have the perfect birthday celebrations!
Okay okay, enough raving about the fish tacos (for now), I’ve had other food and the fries, burgers, sandwiches and salads are all wonderful, kind of typical pub food but with their own twist. They even offer brunch on the weekends from 10AM to 3PM which I highly recommend. It’s like people don’t know about the brunch menu or something. The eggs benedict is great and the banana pancakes are yum! They actually taste like crispy banana pancakes, fluffy banana goodness and the brunch prices are all under $ 20!
Now to the staff, they’re amazing. Every time I visit, they’re always top notch — very attentive, always making some small talk, fun and super friendly. I’ve never had a moment where I felt rushed even after I finish eating, I’m a chatterbox so friends and I stay for a little to chat and never once you get that feeling they want you out. They say on their website «who are we — …kind of like your living room, just with better food and people to serve you beer» it’s true. The vibe is great, as if you are among friends.
I highly HIGHLY recommend visiting Local, not just for their absolutely delicious, amazingly crisp, heavenly and tasty baja fish tacos but for the environment, vibe and good times. Go visit, you wont regret it.

The Baja Fish Taco’s are off the chain! Fresh ingedients with lots of flavor, be prepared to order a few more!
The staff is friendly and sociable, I’ll be back soon.

Had the fish and chips and it was pretty bad.
But extra stars for friendly waitresses and fun crowd !

You won’t be disappointed!
Everything you want from a Pub. Happening, alive, entertaining. With really good service, decent *pub* food, a great variety of alcoholic beverages, good looking servers, loud music (but not too loud), etc etc.
On the weekends, during lunch hour, or right after work, if you can get a seat, go for it !

The experts were right. You shouldn’t grocery shop hungry or go to a restaurant hungry; cuz then you buy a lot more than you need. That happened to me! I was so hungry I ordered a Caesars salad, 2 fish tacos and churros for lunch. It was A LOT of food but I didn’t let a minor detail like that stop me from eating it all. It was my first time eating fish tacos but it won’t be the last. The food was delish and the taco veggies tasted fresh.
The churros were the only thing on the dessert menu and they were served with a thick cocoa dip that had roasted marshmallows floating on top. Le sigh du bliss!
In terms of ambience, the inside was a little dark but I opted to sit on the community table in the patio. It’s a good spot to people watch as long as you have the self restraint not to butt in on the conversations of the strangers sharing your table.
I went towards the end of lunch hour and service was quick. No complaints on the chirpy server. Just wished that if she cared enough to ask me a question, she’d stay long enough to get an answer.
My lunch came out to just over $ 20 which is a pretty decent deal for a good restaurant lunch in Calgary downtown.

Are you at Local? Are there seats available? Hurry! Grab them!
Local is one of the busiest places on all of Stephen Ave with their modern pub approach attracting all of the foot traffic walking by. If you try to go at noon or after work, you usually will not be able to find anywhere to sit. The food is worth heading over early though. Their modern approach to classic pub fare is a refreshing change and break from the usual. Although I have not tried everything on the menu, I doubt you could go wrong selecting any of the items on the menu. I’m a big advocate of the fish tacos (get 3 or 4 if you’re hungry) if you enjoy deep fried fish in taco form. My friends ordered the sushi grade ahi salad which looked delicious and all of them enjoyed.
Whether you are looking for drinks, snacks, or a whole meal, you’ll enjoy your Local experience.