Redwater Rustic Grille

I’ve never actually written a review on anything before but I am so upset, I took the time out of my work day to do so. Had a company function at this location. Food wasn’t too bad and the service was actually pretty good. What made my blood boil was the manager on staff. I leave after lunch to discover a parking ticket on my car. When I went back in to the restaurant to inquire the manager immediately goes off on a tangent about how they will not cover it, they have signs all over the place, it’s not their fault, there is nothing they can do, etc…
Not only does she come off extremely confrontational but does so right in front of other guests. This took what was a pleasant experience in the restaurant and turned it on it’s head.
Not only will I never go back, I will go out of my way to share this experience with family and friends.
WOW, pretty brutal.

We did not try any of the desserts as the mains filled us up. The food was quite nice, we have had better but not at this price. We will go again.

Over an hour we waited for our pasta dishes, mine came out so overcooked (soggy pasta, tough rubbery chicken), and bland, and ick but i wasn’t about to send it back and wait another hour while the family ate theirs.
No apologies for the wait times, and the restaurant was not packed… not sure why the waits.
To be fair I like the other locations just fine… this one just seems to have stopped caring.

Yesterday we dined here for the second time. Our reservation was for 7:30. The food was good quality but the experience was poor. They were out of 1) the Special. At 7:30? 2) the veal and 3) mushrooms. Really? A steakhouse runs out of mushrooms at 7:30? Very disappointing as it was our company Christmas celebration.

How can a restaurant not get it? It is a very simple formula… good service… good food… make money. They failed… miserably!
My husband wanted to go and take a friend of ours for dinner… I wasn’t sure about the choice… but everything is worth a second shot.
Short story… waited 25 minutes for anyone to acknowledge us. Finally got a drink… and waiter spilled wine all over table. Had to ask for a cloth to clean up (this is 10 minutes later… when I was expecting this to be a no brain situation) …because glasses were dripping off the bottom…
Food was ok… but marginal.
I sat and watched other tables getting anxious on equally bad service. How bad can it be… when I can just waiting for what table will blow their top first?
Really folks… go the to the USA and get some tips on customer service. Money is tight in Calgary right now… and anyone heading out for dinner probably does not have an expense account.
We asked for a manager… no one showed up… don’t expect us back… and trust me… I will be sure to use social media to make you realize your stupid, elementary mistakes.
URGGGG…How can you not get it?

This year was the first year separated from my friends and family on my birthday so D and I wanted to go out for a nice dinner together. He’d always wanted to try Redwater and the menu online looked decent so we thought we’d give it a try.
To start we had the Braised Squid. Being from Vancouver I have had a lot of kalamari, but nothing like this. It was chewy but not tough — it had a fresh texture to it and light flavour. The toppings were very Mediterranean with lots of kalamatas, sundried tomatoes, and a light hint of citrus from the orange and lemon. Definitely worth having again!
For dinner we shared part of a bottle of Ca’Momi Merlot which was lovely (half of it came home), great flavour and a hint of bite to go nicely with the steaks we’d ordered.
We each had the 8oz Tenderloin paired with the Calabrese Mac & Cheese and green beans. His tenderloin got the Maple Ancho BBQ sauce, mine got the Chili Garlic Butter and it was delicious. The meat was cooked to just the right medium rare, the beans were well seasoned, and I loved the sauce on mine. He wasn’t entirely sold on his but I think he was expecting something closer to a traditional bbq sauce. The Mac & Cheese wasn’t as large a portion size as we were expecting but they came in little cast-​iron pans that kept the cheese hot and gooey through the meal, and the spices were a nice touch.
For dessert we split the cheesecake but had them add some of their spiced peaches along with the berry sauce. The peaches were warm and the cheesecake was delightfully light and fresh.
All in all a great meal, we were very lucky it was a quiet night so we got exactly the environment we wanted for the evening.

I know what you’re thinking. Why go out on Valentine’s Day when you can have a quiet, unhurried dinner at home? Sad to say, our beloved kitchen is a construction zone, so here I am with my hubby on Valentine’s Day. Why not go to one of our favourite restaurants in the Northwest? Sure enough, despite the fact that all of the tables were booked for the evening (it’s always a good idea to make a reservation on OpenTable), Redwater delivered excellent food and top notch service.
Our server was friendly and attentive throughout the entire evening.
I started out with a complimentary sparkling wine topped with a half a strawberry. Hubby and I chose the Valentine’s Special set menu at $ 65.95 per person (drinks not included).
Wild mushroom velouté en croute: a nice, earthy, creamy soup with a light, flaky puff pastry crust. I wished that they’d had served it in a larger crock bowl (like what they use for French onion soup).
Spring artisan lettuce salad, sweet Merlot poached pear, champagne lemon emulsion and sunflower seeds: my poached pear was perfect – it was soft but still firm with a hint of the Merlot. The tartness of the lemon and sweetness of the champagne just brought this dish up to another level!
Coffee and peach pork belly with pear gastrique, arugula and strawberries: I tasted my hubby’s dish and went to heaven. What an incredibly clever combination of flavours!
The pork belly was so juicy and tender; the flavours of coffee and peach were subtle without being overpowering.
Veal osso buco, thyme mashed potatoes, local vegetables and rosemary demi glaze:
this dish was utterly amazing. The veal shank was tender and perfectly seasoned. The show-​stopper was the rich, creamy marrow from the bone (some of which I combined with my mashed potatoes). I found the demi glaze a bit salty but most of the sauce was off to the side on my plate (instead of drenching the potatoes or the osso bucco). I also thought the tender crisp carrots looked a little lonely; some baby beets would have been good.
Chocolate dipped strawberry sorbetto with roasted hazelnut: oh my… What a refreshing, light dessert to top off an excellent dinner!
Best of all, we didn’t feel rushed at any time (it looked like our table was booked for the entire evening) – we must have been there for at least two and a half hours.

Parking is a joke. Stay for more than three hours and you have to pay in a run down strip mall. No parking meter near by

This year we decided to take our vacation in Canada. We first went to Vancouver and stayed at the L’Hermitage while touring the city. We found everyone to be kind, polite and helpful. Today while in Calgary we by chance stopped at the Redwater Rustic Grille.
It was around 11:30am when we entered the restaurant and noticed it was ¾ empty. We were met by a young kid in a tie. He gave us the once over then asked if we had reservations. We said no and his reply was a totally rude, snobby and stuck up «We only have space available in the lounge at the moment.» His attitude was enough for my husband and I to decline and leave. We were dressed appropriately. We were polite when we inquired about eating there. There was absolutely no reason for us to be treated so rudely.
We were enjoying our vacation until that moment. We had nothing but kind things to say about Canada and it’s people. We will not be returning to Calgary ever. It only takes one bad experience to ruin everything and I really resent some snot nosed kid being allowed or trained to be such an ass.
We co-​own businesses and I would be horrified to have anyone who worked for us to behave like that to a customer.

These days, extremely rare to be swarmed by great service, and our service experience at the Red Water — University was a treat! 5 by 5 on service!
For a Friday night 630 reso, the place seemed quiet with maybe only 5 other tables seated at our arrival time. Throughout the night the place filled up and not once did we feel neglected. Our Server was attentful and at least 2 managers were by to see how everything was going.
I ordered the Ceasar to start, and my wife a glass of Riesling. Ceasar was very well made and if I wasn’t driving I would of had 2 more. I ordered a shrimp appetizer that includes 5 tiger prawn, a cream cajun sauce (well balanced with my ceasar), served over foccacia. It was too much bread given our mini loaf of bread arrived moments before.
My main was the rotisserie chicken. I chose to go with the cimichuri sauce and mac n cheese as my side. The chicken was served over some asparagus. Cimichuri is very liquidy, and would have been best served on the side, nit directly on the chicken where it ran right off onto the plate. Unfortunately the amount of the sauce was too little for the ½ chicken served and proved overpowering for the asparagus which were now smothered.
My pet peve with chicken, especially marinaded chicken, is that sometimes the blood stains the bones and as you eat it you see red or pink by the bones. Generally speaking, it’s totally food safe and not actually blood anymore. However, I never have this issue when I cook chicken so it’s a matter of the technique used by the kitchen. Moral of the story: don’t make me second guess whether the chicken is safe to eat or not.
My mac n cheese side was amazing with a slight chipolte pepper heat.
Overall I would say food was a 3 by 5.

What a fantastic find! We went here by accident. Did you ever hear of a fantastic accident, well, this is my first one! No insurance claims necessary! :-)
Great staff, highly efficient — polite.
They will give their opinion when asked, about what is amazing to order that night, I have adored every suggestion.
Their food is always delicious. Some restaurants are a hit or miss,
this one is super consistent, I (we) love predictable, when its about restaurants and food.
It was, and has been every single time, mouth watering delicious!
Great place, a pretty place, delicious meals and fabulous staff!
Our new, go to — restaurant!!!
Enjoy everyone!

This is a good, not great, restaurant. I keep going back mainly because it is the only decent restaurant to take my guests (visiting scientists, recruitment candidates, etc.) to that is within walking distance of the Foothills & Children’s Hospitals. The menu has a reasonable assortment of pastas, steaks, and continental entrees. The service, décor and plating are upscale, but the main problem is that the food preparation & quality is inconsistent. For example, I have ordered the 6oz tenderloin with yam fries a few times: some times it’s fantastic, other times the meat is chewy and flavourless. The fries have been crispy sometimes, flaccid others. The menu boasts that the side stripe prawn garganelli is made with «sustainable shrimp», which would appear to derive from the fact that they caught and cooked virtually no shrimp to make this pasta dish. The butternut squash agnolotti on the other hand are really nice. salty and earthy. Long story short, you may have a 4 star meal here based on the potential of the menu and setting, but it’s not guaranteed in my experience.

One of my fave go to restuarants! They have a delcious menu, which does get changed now and then, and they will cater to the seasons. They always make a new flavor of butter, and they have GF bread, which I appreciate.
The staff is always friendly, knowledgeable and make sure you are enjoying your experience. Being a celiac, I asked our server which sauces, sides and plates were GF. He wasn’t certain on a couple of the items, so he went to ask the chef to be certain, which again I appreciate. I had the 6oz sirloin with mashed potatoes and brocolini. As always, it was a good meal, everyone enjoyed theirs.
Being that we were there for a birthday, they gave my mom a special chocolate tart, and we all had some dessert wine.
It’s a great staple resturant and I prefer it to the Keg.

I’ve only been in Canada for a week and it seems that most restaurants are quite expensive, but it was nice to see that this place had some decent lunch choices that were under $ 20.
I forgot the name of my dish but it was some type of pasta with a cream sauce. It was quite good and the service was good as well. The waitress spilled water over our table but I admit it was a freak accident as the cup of the water snapped off out of the blue when she tried to hold the base.
The manager did give us a 20% off discount for the mishap anyways which was nice. Overall great establishment with some pretty good food, I would have given it the coveted five stars if it wasn’t as expensive… I mean it is lunch after all.

We went in here for dinner, excited to try the chain, our expectations up very high from all the positive reviews.
We were set up at the bar until seating became free in the lounge as it was going to be 90 min to be seated. The bar is this tiny strip of quartz where having a drink is not so comfortable. You are in the zone where the waitresses converge, waiting for their tables‘ drink orders.
A glass of red wine at $ 9 appears to measure about 3 oz in the glass. It was 5 sips worth and then gone. Good though, I had asked for a Malbec.
The menu looked interesting — but very overpriced.
Ordered: crab cakes to start as a shared appy — $ 13. Tiny morsels (2) dressed in thousand island dressing with tiny can-​like crab flakes and hunks of potato that should have been crab. I had asked not only our server what was good at Redwater before we dove into our menus. Needless to say I was let down by this suggestion.
My husband ordered the steak which upon asking staff was told that it was quite comparable to the Keg in how they prepare it and present it. Wrong. The steak looked awful on top of mashed potatoes (those were good at least) surrounded by a few beets slices. No pizazz, no colour. Not worth $ 26 and that was for the smallest 8oz! We were so hungry so we did eat our food but our server could see we were not impressed. We had asked for more bread — that was also good, served with a pomegranate butter that gave the bread some good tang.
I had asked for a pasta substitution which would have cost me another $ 7 — no. I just ordered the mussels, again recommended and they were just — OK. Very bland in a tomato sauce but not as bland as the poor steak sitting across from me. We had to pour some of my mussel juice on top of the steak to give it a bit of flavour. You are able to choose a topping for your «naked» steak and my guy chose the garlic poblano butter which did absolutely nothing for the meat. To be fair, the cut of meat was good but the grill surely was not hot enough when the meat was put on as none of the steak had any kind of colour to it, limp, no char.
A manager had come to our table after some time and asked if everything was good and we answered that it was just OK. She prompted us for comment and we politely told her our issues with the food, giving some positives as well such as — our server was nice and the restaurant itself was beautiful. She thanked us for feedback and that she would talk to the chef. She asked to buy us dessert but we just settled on a coffee each. It was not enough to make up for what we had to pay for.
Not sure we will return, never to this location anyways on Uxbridge. Maybe the one on Macleod is better…?

This is a chain steakhouse. Similar to Flemmings down in the U.S.A.
Generally speaking, the place is overpriced for what you get. Steak selections are not extensive. Quality is just ok. Sides are pretty plain. I would say its not as good as The Keg, which is right across the parking lot. Wine list is very limited and overpriced. Grocery store Barbara almost pushing $ 100.

Having gone to the location on MacLeod Trail and really enjoying it, I had expectations for the one up in the NW to be just as good.
It was quite busy, which isn’t a problem, but there were kids screaming and playing hide and seek. When you are paying a lot for an an entrée, part of that comes with a certain dining experience. If I’d wanted to hear children I’d have gone to a FAMILY restaurant and eaten there for a fraction of the cost.
Our waiter was overworked and very odd. His first visit to our table, and he proposed waters, and didn’t ask us for a drink order. I was fully wanting to order an alcoholic drink but he didn’t even give us the chance to ask. With it being super busy, our water arrived quite a lot later, and then we had to ask for our drinks. again he didn’t ask us if we wanted appetizers. I guess he couldn’t multi-​task.
After we got our alcohol we ordered, he did know the menu quite well. My appetizer was the salad greens, which were very delicious. I ordered the salmon with broccolini and beets. The vegetables were delicious, but my salmon was cooked just barely enough. I’d prefer it to have some crispy outside, and not a majorly soggy inside.
Parking was also a nightmare, its a large complex, with not enough spaces. We had to park in the Wendy’s lot.

Not sure what’s going at this place, but for $ 40+ entrees, you sort of expect a bit of a departure from the norm. What I mean by this is, the management should be asking families to remove themselves when their children are acting up in the restaurant. Honestly, there were kids running around and screaming. This is something I expect from Jack Astors or Kelseys or the such. It was beyond annoying (to everyone in there).
My 8oz striploin was overdone, but the sides were pretty good (had broccolini and mushrooms).
Normally I don’t worry too much about the atmosphere. But with prices as steep as they were, the place felt like a low budget family diner.

Had a business lunch here, and have to say is was pretty near perfect. Great atmosphere and excellent service. The food was plated with care, I had a salmon dish (can’t remember what it was exactly) with a side salad. Nice greens but the salmon stole the show. I agree with Erin D., the dishes here are perfectly portioned.
This is a great place for a business lunch, the volume level was just right for conversing. it’s busy during the lunch hour so reservations are recommended.

The atmosphere is very nice and elegant. The lighting is dimmed and wine glasses and silverware is all organized neatly on the table. The waitress was extremely courteous even though we came about ²⁰⁄₃₀ minutes before they were about to close. We took FOREVER to decide what we wanted to order but all the waiters were still very helpful and nice.
We basically ordered every appetizer and a lot of steaks. Since we were new to this area we took recommendations from the hotel clerk and she definitley steered us in the right way! The food was delicious and it was a good dining experience.