briggs kitchen and bar

so so, but will try again. enjoyed the concept behind the restaurant, but food quality wasn't asgoodas i thought. will try again!

consistently great food. best burger in town: juicy and steeped in beefy
flavour. roasted chicken is a must try as well. deviled eggs are delicious. the house salad is always cold, fresh and one of the best in town.goodbar.goodpeople. briggs raises the bar for casual dining in calgary. this is where you should bring friends from out of town.

i am slightly remiss because last time i was at brigg's, i would have given them a 4. their brunch was fantastic. their boozy punch bowl - even better. this weekend, i took some family there for lunch. 

ambiance: i love the feel of briggs. i loved coming here previously for a boozy brunch with friends. i love the industrial, restoration hardware feel, with mortar oozing out between the bricks - assumably all original. i love the open kitchen concept and the bar in the centre (voyeurism at its finest if your a foodie like me!). they allow kids there, which is fantastic for brunch - there were a ton of families there when we went.

service: service was good. our waitress was on point- she brought us drinks, took our order, and there was no mid-bite awkward 'how's your meal going?' as the waitress watches you chew your food before answering (or do you answer with a full mouth? i've never quite figured it out.). 

drinks: i started with the rosemary & jane cocktail - i found it like drinking straight lemon juice but the server was super accommodating and recommended a different drink for me to try - the oolong lady. it was so good, i may have had two.

food: everyone enjoyed what they ate - my father-in-law raved about the beef barley soup, my husbands prime rib sandwich and poutine was fantastic. horseradish mayo - to die for. gravy on the poutine - not traditional but super flavourful! if it's your 'cheat-day' this is the lunch to try. i ordered the tuna potato salad - and everything about the salad wasgoodexcept the tuna - it was prepared correctly, unfortunately, it was quite fishy for tuna - not as fresh as i would have liked. 

in summary - i would definitely go back to briggs - i'd like to try more on their menu, and get more of a feel for the quality of food. great place to bring a big group of people - the restaurant definitely has a social-feel to it!

half a star for the polite however somewhat mediocre service, half a star for the house cabernet, and one star for the gnocchi, 0 stars for the rest of the dinning experience. 

came here for a birthday dinner with friends to what was supposed to be a wonderful get together. arrived and ordered some drinks, although flavours are very much opinions, the old fashion was also "meh".

we arrived at 7pm, and i don't disregard that larger parties are often harder to coordinate, however an hour until appetizers was presented from the time of ordering is kind of an unpleasant. considering the restaurant still had empty tables.  

it was my friend's intention to bring our own cake to the restaurant for the birthday celebration, they had even called in advance to confirm it was ok. upon arrival, they declined to take the cake in due to "insurance and allergy complications". we ended up taking our cake to another restaurant and bar after the dinner where we filled up our stomachs with better and a more enjoyable experience.

the tomahawk steak was very tough, there's a reason they had to cut it off the bone when presented. because unlike other restaurants that is able to soften this tough piece of meat so it falls off the bone, they recommend charging 7-9$ for adding flavouring sauce, (which we needed desperately for the steak and other dishes). it literally tasted like pan fried stewing beef.  

on a lighter note, the gnocchi was very well done. it wasn't heavy, had verygoodmouth feel, and was one of the better if not the best dishes.  

the lobster poutine was covered in what i would describe as a propane-ish oily aftertaste. made the poutine oily and taste very unagreeable with our pallets. 

my friends ordered the birthday girl a "muff dive" shot, but the restaurant declined and said they don't do this kind of drink, i ordered two other alternative burt reynolds shots, but the restaurant declined one again. seemed like rules were a big part of this somewhat mediocre quality by today's standard restaurant.  

in conclusion, you would have a better experience at an earl's, or joey's, which is viewed as a lower "class" restaurant, but at least their food and restaurant operations is consistently better. or just go upstairs to japanese village, you will definitely enjoy your night more.

service was terrible, bartender and manager were both cut on a weekday around 8pm, no cocktails were available. wine was finally brought at end of meal and requests to speak with assistant manager were ignored, with no one showing up to hear our concerns. steak was way undercooked with large pieces being inedible due to the poor cut. crab gnocchi and mahi mahi wasgoodbut not worth the horrible experience.

i had the beef short rib after seeing all of the positive reviews for the dish, but i was disappointed. the hash browns were soggy with grease and the short rib was nothing special. it wasgoodand tender, but at $27 i expected it to taste a lot better. service wasgoodand the decor was nice.

met a friend for lunch before christmas and the place was full.  i ordered the briggs paella $15 with chorizo, prawns, calamari and saffron rice.  it appears small but it is definitely filling for 1 person (female).   when i have visited in the past, the food has always been prettygoodbut this time, the paella was way too salty.  maybe just don’t order their paella when you go. 

the space is large - great for groups. this lunch was just two people so it was a bit loud at times for us to have a conversation.

came here for dinner a while ago. had the beef short rib and it was amazing! it was big enough to share as well if you get a side. service wasgoodand server was knowledgeable with their menu and was able to make excellent recommendations.

came for lunch on a friday when the jay's game was on. the place had a nice spacious atmosphere. we were a group of 4 and got the 48 oz tomahawk rib eye with a bunch of sides. the rib eye itself was not bad, the fatty parts at the end were amazing and the body was so so. it was dry at some points but delicious at others, i can understand as this thing was massive.

the brussel sprouts salad was surprisinglygoodand their deviled eggs were out of this world. i will probably be back to try some of their other dishes.

it was our 6 year anniversary and we chose to go to brigg’s because we wanted to go somewhere cost effective with excellent food. with a whole lot of major house renovations this summer, our eating out budget is getting smaller and smaller… (insert sad face here!). the food at briggs, yet again, did not disappoint. our server was super friendly and service was great. i’ve (almost) always found the service to be verygoodhere, and tonight we even had the pleasure of a quick tour of the kitchen! our only issue with the evening was that it was way too loud and therefore difficult to talk. i figured a thursday evening would be less busy than the actual friday of our anniversary so i booked our dinner a day early. however, briggs had just launched their new happy hour the day we were there so there was a lot of excitement in the bar. the noise slowly died down as people left the bar throughout the evening. i’m not the kind of person who loves a loud, fun vibe when i’m eating out… if i’m having dinner i’d rather have a quiet, slow ambience so i can talk to the people i’m dining with, without having to shout or get distracted. so, call me an old lady (i’ve heard it before!).

eat lunch here the other day. i had croque madame. my wife had a brisket sandwich. both were good. service was verygoodhere. never had to wait for more water or pop.  
only complaint was that i ordered a beer and they did not have it. said they already replaced it with something else. the menu is just in paper.... it seems like it would be very easy to keep updated.

the beets are amazing and i have vivid dreams of them....... the broccoli is just as insanelygood. i would eat them everyday for the rest of my life if i could.....

nicely renovated place and awesome server who was very attentively and really knew the menu and restaurant inside out. i would go back just for the server.

the food wasgoodbut not amazing that i am dying to go back. i'd be willing to give the place another try when the menu gets switched up a little bit.

i've been here multiple times and honestly don't have anything bad to say about it. the service has always beengoodand the food has been excellent. we tried dinner where we gave our server our budget and he brought us out food until we hit our limit. we left really full having tried an awesome selection of food. i will be back.

nice but initially hard to find location. if you're looking to go, follow signs to japanese village and they almost share the same entrance. group i was with had the private room booked for a private dinner function. restaurant outside of this room can be very loud. excellent food.goodmenu with tasty meat options. great service. i understand that brunch isgoodtoo, will save that for another weekend.