Lotus Grill

Food wouldn’t exactly blow your mind away, I’ve eaten at better vietnamese restaurants. What’s exceptional about this place is that the service is horrendous and the staff has manners similar to a homo sapien raised by a pack of wolves.
The lady by the cashier was extremely rude, my card wasnt working then and I couldnt understand why. She kept throwing the rejected receipts towards me. The payment finally went through about the third time but I never felt so humiliated for something that was never my fault to begin with.

I go to Calgary once or twice a year from Edmonton — usually for the tattoo convention.
As an avid phở lover — I always try to check out the local vietnamese soup joints.
Lotus is walking distance from the BMO center where the convention is held so my fellow tattoo artist friends or Calgary pals find it convenient to pop in to when we get a spare minute.
The room is typically decorated with traditional nicknacks and artwork.
It’s overal clean and tidy looking.
The service, like most vietnamese places I’ve visited is efficient yet unfriendly.
I always order the same thing: P
–Vietnamese iced coffee. at Lotus, it’s served pre-​made over crushed ice, which I don’t prefer over having the carafe brought to the table and then poured over ice cubes.
Lotus serves their iced coffee with a little plastic spoon and a wacky straw…
–The steak skewers. I think they were a little on the pricey side for two skewers, but I order them EVERY TIME. You cannot pass them up. They are big, meaty skewers with tender seasoned and marinated beef served with a spicy dip sauce. SO GOOD!
–As always, I ordered the House Special soup in a large. Well priced for the size. This is THE biggest bowl of phở I’ve ever had. A little bit too much noodles, but otherwise tasty. The broth is «safe», not too robust or beefy. I prefer the taste to be bolder.
I also found the noodles to be a bit softer/​soggier than I like.
The next times I visited this week, I ordered the regular bowl. It’s still a very generous portion of soup and great value.
Lotus is always a safe bet on a Calgary trip for me based on it’s convenient location and consistent service and quality of food.
Try it out — Don’t pass up the beef skewers.

This place is nothing special. They seem to have a wider variety of things vs just appies, phở, bun, and rice dishes. They carry pad Thai and other Thai/​viet entrees.
They definitely have selection but I think they should just shrink down their menu and focus on giving a more flavorful menu.
I ordered the vermicelli bowl and well it was okay. I’ve definitely had better. Noodles we’re clumped together a little bit.
And things are overpriced — 2 salad rolls for $ 5 and vermicelli bowl for $ 11
If you’re looking for Vietnamese in this area I recommend going to «Vietnam Restaurant» or something like that on 12^th ave and Macleod 2 blocks down. They serve a more authentic product and it’d less expensive.
The service was nothing outstanding, they know English so it’s not awkward ordering. Mind you I did go during lunch rush and with a group of 16

It is a hard task to find a Vietnamese restaurant that delivers but also takes certain kinds of payment. This is the trouble the ladies of my office and I had one day when we all decided that we wanted some bowls for lunch!
After calling around to four or five restaurants we finally found Lotus! Delivers? Check! Reasonable time frame? Check! Accepts our method of payment? Winner!
While making the order all went well, except I found it weird that the woman taking the order did not tell me the final price but just asked for the payment information and told me a time frame of delivery.
We ordered battered shrimp, chicken with spring roll and vermicelli bowls, deep fried wonton and salad rolls.
The delivery time was great and the food came exactly at noon, although the packing was weird (it was in a dirty cardboard box)
As we started to distribute the orders I noticed that the portions were HUGE and no one finished there bowls in one sitting.
My bowl was pretty tasty but I found the chicken to have a couple charred pieces and a couple fatty slices that I didn’t care for.
The salad rolls were good but almost to overpacked because they were splitting down the sides which made it hard to eat. I didn’t try the shrimp but I found the won tons to be lacking, the pork seemed dried out and overall too battered and fried.
We were all satisfied by our meals and I think we’ll order again for lunch… Just not the won tons… maybe ill even try something different!

A little more funkier than most Phở places, nice menus if anyone cares.
Tried their spicy seafood Phở, now that had real kick, sweating bullets. Imitation crab, some squid and 4 shrimps, so not too shabby.
Too bad they didnt steam their sprouts.

I’ve been here a few times, and wasn’t too impressed. I really love Vietnamese coffee, and enjoy having it served in the special glass with the coffee dripping into the condensed milk, but here they serve it for you already premixed. I definitely prefer Vietnam Restaurant, which is just down the road. The service is pretty crappy — usually we have to get up and go to the counter in order to pay because the servers don’t come around.

Terrible!
I still feel gross after finding a LARGE fly in my PHO. What a way to ruin a lunch :(. When we went up to pay, I informed the cashier of the LARGE fly in my soup, and he offered me 10% off of my meal. I kindly let him know I refused to pay for my meal, since I was unable to eat half of it after finding an insect in my soup.

Lotus is a great place for takeout Vietnamese and bubble tea. The best word to describe it is consistent. You get what you pay for and if you need a quick lunch, dinner and work/​live close by; its not bad. Especially compared to the «Vietnam Restaurant» on 12^th just a block away. They use white meat for chicken which wins me over. Dark chicken meat is a huge pet peeve of mine. If you need a decent staple Vietnamese meal and are close by its a lot safer than the other options in the neighborhood. Salad rolls are excellent!

I end up grabbing some food from Lotus a couple times a month simply because they are a block from where I work. If it weren’t convenient I’d never go.
I recommend sticking to the basic dishes if you visit. Anything more «exotic» in my experience has been a disaster. I had some sort of baked macaroni one time and it was one of the worst dishes I’ve ever experienced (what was I thinking).
While I think the food ranks in at about 3 stars the service leaves much to be desired. Ordering over the phone can be a painful experience as can picking up your food or paying. If you need service ring the bell. If you don’t you will be ignored.

Our office used to order this in for work occassionally. It was always just ok… then it went from ok to terrible. I have never been in the restaurant so I can only comment on the delivery and the food.
The last time we ordered from them we wait 90 minutes for it to be delivered, this despite 2 inquiries from me asking where our food was… I was told that it wouldnt be long… the worst part is, is that we are literally 2 blocks from it.
When the food finally did arrive, the meat in my coworkers soup was raw, I am not talking pink, I am talking raw, dangerously raw meat. I am not sure how they prepared the soup, but all i can guess is that the meat is thrown in the soup as an afterthought…
The rest of the food was oily… the bags and box were soaked with oil.
I dont like giving one star, but in this case, i have to.
:(

i tried this place on my last visit to calgary back in july ’09 (it was during the stampede festival)… and this viet place is located right across from the stampede park.
One word i have for the food here: WOW !!! i know that canada (calgary included) is famous for their vietnamese foods, but never did I realize it was THAT GOOD!!! I esp loved their chilly hot oil sauce… I think this is by far the best phở i’ve ever had, even way better than those in southern california! and this is coming from someone who eats phở for a living, and me who’s lived in LA/​OC for 10 yrs and have tried so many diff phở places, westminster included :))

My honey works near this place so we thought we should at least patronize the local businesses. I was a little surprised to find an executive style décor here, and then I understood why, the place was filled with business people. It was a busy lunch crowd, all seemed enthusiastic and chatty and enjoying their meal. Enthusiasm is contagious so it got me excited to order.
We sat down in a spacious, comfortable table, the hostess very nice. I ordered the Vietnamese beef on a skewer with rice lunch special at 9.95 and my hon’s usual phở addiction. Water was immediately brought to the table as well as Chinese tea. Pleasant all pleasant.
When food was brought to us, my meal was exactly as advertised. Two small skewers of beef on a bed of rice. But it was such a small serving, I was expecting heaps of rice and nice hearty skewered beef perhaps even a garnish? But there is sat so uninspired, this is something my aunt could have made for me for much less the price. It was not amazing nor did it blow me away. The phở was okay as well, but I know for a fact this restaurant has a good reputation for its phở, perhaps I should come back.
I will admit however with all the amazing Vietnamese restaurants in Calgary I would return to the Lotus simply for the convenience of having it near my partner’s work.