alloy

overrated. there was so much hype about alloy that we just had to check it out. i heard it was very elegant andniceinside, but i got a tacky feeling from the decor and design of alloy. it felt like we were in an old funeral home! the food was alright but nothing special. our server was great, very knowledgable, friendly and efficient.
i might go back but i can name at least 5 other restaurants/restolounges in calgary that i would much rather go to! 5/10

awesome experience!. alloy is one of the restaurants in my list to visit again and again. gorgeous atmosphere, attentive and mature service. complimentary snack of hummus / olives / pita was anicetouch to start. we ordered gnocchi and short rib, found them very tasty. overall: successful combination of yummy food and relaxing ambiance.

wow, wow, wow! loved it! went for lunch, and had steak frites and was very pleased with quality of meat and the frites where delicious - i realize it’s unusual to comment on fries, but they were really good!! place is tucked away and unassuming, but as you walk in, it is very classy and you instantly forget where you are. we didn’t sit in the patio, but looked veryniceas well. i will be back!!

i love the place and ambiance. the food was great too.niceand friendly staff. i would like to try here on summer. this is aniceplace to celebrate special occasions.

arrived at the restaurant with excitement and high expectations, i was a little disheartened by our experience that evening. given the chefs' background, i was anticipating an array of ground-breaking, innovative dishes. we participated in the chef-tasting menu, however, besides the seared tuna with thai curry sauce and lamb kefta, there wasn't much chemistry going on between the different types of cuisine to create truly bold flavours. yes, it has aniceambiance and the service was flawless. but, i wasn't quite sold on the food.

i've been lucky enough to eat at alloy a number of times including their new years eve set menu last december which was fantastic.  as it was my birthday dinner i had high expectations and as usual alloy did not disappoint.  we were shown to our table, a booth with that silky smooth white leather.  atmosphere was great for dinner out with your significant other.  as our drink order was taken we were offered tap, still or sparkling water. we had some trouble deciding on what appetizers as everything looked great, settling on the lobster risotto and crispy pork belly.  meanwhile we had the fresh pita bread, olive and hummus basket set out. normally we clean this up quick smart but that night someone had a heavy hand with the cumin and it was overpowering and not so good.  the appetizers arrived and as we were sharing these, started on the pork belly first.  one word for this dish, amazing!  my wife avoids pork belly normally as it can be quite fatty. i chose this one and she was glad i did. it was the highlight of the dinner. not too much fat, anicecaramelisation on the outside and soft and melt in your mouth inside. the portion was generous and well worth what they ask. the lobster risotto was creamy, tasty and generous with the lobster. couldn't have asked for a better start to the meal. the mains we ordered were beef short rib for my wife and lamb chops for me.  the server (who was great all night) made sure to let me know they serve the lamb medium rare which i'm fine with. nicethat she gives a heads up on that.  the size of the mains was very generous. the beef short rib was fall of the bone and melt in your mouth. my lamb was juicy and also melt in your mouth delicious. have to say, alloy you guys do a great job with portion size. the only people who should be going home hungry after a meal here is a sumo wrestler. we finished with coffee and dessert.  mini doughnuts with dulce de leche for me and orange creamsicle crème brulee for my wife.  loved my dessert in fact loved the whole meal.  this is becoming one of my favourite places to eat out.thanks alloy!

i  had dinner here with my boyfriend about a week ago.
verynicedécors, the place did smell like tuna when we came in, but the food and service makes up for it.
there's a cute little dining area outside i think would be perfect for dinner when it's a bit darker out. so cute.
we started out with two appetizers to share, the pork belly with pomegranate glaze, and the crab cakes.
there was something that tasted pickled that accompanied the crab cakes which i wasn't a big fan of. they were not bad, just okay.
the pork belly was amazing, one of the best things i have ever eaten. texture was perfect and the coleslaw that came with it, complemented it well.
 
for the main course, we both ordered the beef short ribs. it was served on top of a ragu, and a dallop of what i believe could be sour cream on it. 
i loved everything about it, everything about it just worked. my boyfriend however did not care for the ragu.

we then ordered dessert to share, the creme brulee, it was very good as well.

overall the dinning experience was good. portions are a bit small for the asking price, but quality made up for it.
i would definitely come back just for the pork belly.

i love alloy such good food decent price and anicevenue for anicenight out. we have gone here a couple times and they change up the menu

overpriced, mediocre food,nicedecor and service. my experience at alloy was disappointing as i found the food not very memorable and over priced. with the price of appetizers and entrees as high as it is i expected an exceptional meal and was let down. i found the service and the decor to be excellent. my date and i had a very private semi-circular pod for our dinner which allowed for privacy and conversation. i would not go back.

delicious food and intimate setting. we decided to go to this restaurant for my birthday because it was right beside the holiday inn that we were staying at, also we love trying new places. making the reservation was very easy, left a message on their phone and they called back right away. hostess was very pleasant on the phone. we made a reservation for 6 people plus a 1 year old, i specifically asked if it was acceptable to bring my young daughter and they said of course. when we arrived again the hostess was very polite and friendly, but we found out they do not have high chairs. luckily enough we had a portable high chair in which they were more than happy to allow it. also no change tables for babies. the restaurant is beautifully decorated,nicelighting and could accomodate a large group or a romantic date. they are completly fine with kids but i did feel bad for having my young daughter there as she likes her voice and does not sit still. i would not take my daughter back but i would definitly go back with my husband. i would take an older child that can sit still and listen. the food was amazing. for appies we had the prawn tempura which melted in our mouth and the truffle gnocci which was creamy and not too strong of a flavour, it was just perfect. for the main courses i had the beef short rib which was so tender and pulled apart so easily. the meal sizes were perect it was aniceportion of food that filled everyone up, even my husband but not too much food that you have to take anything home. we felt the prices were reasonablely matched to the food and portions. no one out of our group had a bad meal, everyone was soo impressed with the flavours of their food. the only thing we would suggest is for our server to smile a little more, she was very serious and not sure if she was annoyed by us or what, but everyone else that worked there was smiling and greeting us. soo yummy, cant wait to go back as they change their menu with the seasons!

we were disappointed by this place. the restaurant wasniceenough; however, we were seated on the south side and the bench was so short, i almost felt like i had to ask for a booster seat (and i am 5'7").
it took eons for our wine to arrive, to the point that we thought that maybe we actually hadn't ordered it. we had the gnocchi and tuna sashimi to start. the gnocchi was tasty, but very salty. the sashimi was....unusual. definitely not my favourite. our second course was the soup which pretty much tasted like i was sucking on the end of a fire pit hot dog stick. not good.
for our mains we had the halibut and the pork tenderloin. thankfully, these dishes were both decent. tasty enough for the $40 price tag? umm, no.
as for dessert, the strawberry dessert was delicious, and for something a little different (and if you like cardamom), the coconut dessert was pretty good.
the service on the other hand was slow and felt unorganized. it should not take 4 hours for a 4 course meal in a half empty restaurant on a thursday.
overall, the experience was definitely lacking in service and taste. glad to have this off my bucket list, but won't be returning.

buttermilk chicken.nicedécor and attentive service. the humus, olives and pita at the start was the high light. it was all down hill after that. the buttermilk chicken was sad, very disapointing. it tasted like bland boiled chicken that had a huge bone in it so half the chicken was inedible. and a small serving spoon of mixed vegetable, also tasteless. there were also 4 mini tim bits called yam doughnuts. what were they doing there? i really felt sad about the whole experience. management said good-bye at the door. "how was your meal?" "oh lovely" i hate lying, i just wanted out of there.

most disgusting starch dish i have ever had. we went here as a party of four: overall the service was subpar, and the food was not worth the money.... also, there was a weird smell all of us noticed upon walking in. we all concluded it smelled like a dirty bathroom in the entire dining room. something that concerned us all about the facility (maybe a toilet blew up somewhere).

1) service: i had told the hostess on the side that we were celebrating a birthday, and she assured us the waiter would be informed so we wouldn't have to mention it in front of the birthday person. she said they would provide a complimentary dessert with a candle. it never happened. we were even charged for the dessert we ordered. the waiter was inattentive and unsociable. he took our order, and served without us even checking in to see how the food was. i waited the entire meal for him to come by so i could tell him something was wrong with my food. he never came until it was too late to even bother complaining. the restaurant wasn't even full, and it was a monday night. among the worst services at a fine dining restaurant we have ever had.

2) food quality: we each ordered a different dish. i had braised beef short ribs that came with a squash cannelloni as a starch, and a broccollini veggie side. the beef short ribs were very good (but how can you really mess up a braised dish?). the meat fell apart nicely when you cut into it, and the broccollini was cooked well. but the cannelloni it came with tasted like raw flour, filling and all. it was weird because the pasta shell was really mushy and overcooked, but the whole thing had a very weird, off-taste to it. i have never tasted any starch or pasta dish that bad before. it was awful. i even had my fiance try it, who usually eats almost anything, and he hated it. i wanted to like it so much (i love cannelloni or any pasta, squash or potato puree - so how can you go wrong?), but i have never had anything from a restaurant taste so disgusting in my life. we likened it to raw flour, as if someone mixed raw flour into the filling?? i made sure neither of us touched it anymore because i was worried we might get food poisoning from the cannelloni. i usually don't send food back, but this time i wanted to send it back but the waiter never came to check on us, so i just finished the beef and vegetables and left the entire cannelloni (i didn't want to make a fuss especially with our friends around). but he never came back until it was time to take everyone's empty plates. he never even mentioned or asked why my cannelloni was pretty much untouched. i was really disappointed in the service. i never had a chance to even express to the waiter how i was served raw flour in my starch dish. i let him take it away without saying a word, because it was getting late into the evening.

the rest of the food: the pheasant, like other reviews stated, was dry and tasted like chicken. apparently the yam puree it came with was good though. overall our party rated it not worth the $33 they charged.

the featured fish dish (steelhead trout), was okay but nothing to sing home about for $30. anyone could easily take a piece of store-bought salmon, stick it in the oven, come out with something like what they served. it tasted like a cheap piece of salmon.

the broek pork was actually pretty decent. i usually don't go for pork chops because they are often tough and dry. but this one was pretty tender and nicely marinated. it came with a tasty side of braised kale. this was $29, and probably the best of the four dishes. my beef short ribs would have been my favorite if it wasn't for the gigantic piece of raw dough in the middle of the plate that pretty ruined my palette and the entire dish.

dessert was okay, it was the chocolate and peanut butter pate. the menu said it came with roasted peanuts, but there wasn't a single peanut. they did sprinkle little flower petals all over the dessert which frankly made it really annoying to eat around.

oh, and before i forget, their appetizers: we got the duck duo (duck pate and duck chorizo sausage), which was super pretentious - the pate was not good. i have had much better elsewhere. this one tasted too 'livery' - a good pate (especially foie gras) does not have that strong liver taste. even if its made of fattened liver, it should taste smooth and rich, not bitter. the chorizo duck sausage didn't taste like anything special. not worth the $16 they charge.

the shimp/crab corn fritters were decent, but overpriced. 5 balls of little fritters for $15... okay but not a great price for what you get.

overall: like other people, we agree its not worth the money. there are some decent dishes, but with all of the hit and misses on their menu, i wouldn't eat here again if i can help it.

the first time i went to this restaurant should have been a red flag, when they coated my steak so heavily with peppercorn, it burned my throat and mouth. i couldn't even taste the actual meat, and sadly couldn't finish the dish - i hate wasting food.

all 4 of us regretted coming here. we wish we went for aniceaffordable place with less pretentious food, and doesn't serve raw flour to you.

also, the smell of rotten toilet didn't help.

all around a great dining experience. i chose to have the beef short rib and it was beyond words amazing. the meat was perfectly cooked and so very tender. the cannelloni served with was also tasty withnicetexture. i thoroughly enjoyed the meal. i would certainly recommend alloy.

until a few days ago, when browsing through the pictures on my phone, i had totally forgot about my lunch date at alloy restaurant nearly 2 months ago now. oops.... the thing is, i did want to write about it because it was really, really good. apparently i just never got around to it as the lunch was scheduled less than 24 hours before i had to write 3 final exams in one morning. will you forgive me? anyways, i went with my cousin and her new baby. our server was amazingly friendly but i'm not sure if that is an accurate representation of her usual personality considering we had a baby with us whom she clearly adored. ok, i shouldn't be so mean, she seemed like a reallyniceperson. my cousin ordered the lobster salad with hearts of palm and passionfruit dressing. not a combination you see in calgary very often. she loved that it was something "she would never try to make at home". i ordered the beet salad. and if you think it sounds boring, well you're wrong. well you're right, but yo