briggs kitchen and bar

just awesome! came here .... just awesome!

came here for my bday dinner. we were able to make reservations over the phone; they even send you a confirmation email as well & you can also book a table online. when we arrived, we were seated in their private room. nothing private about it, as the walls were actually windows. we were able to take advantage of how our food would be cooked through our window viewing room. menu is outstanding! there is so many choices and pricing is reasonable. iorderedthe pacific tuna salad and trust me, it is awesome. my other partyordereda variety of other dishes and they were superb as well. the tomahawk though.. let me tell you, it is such a crazy excitement. it's a 48oz steak and it was cooked to perfection! service was on point and decor is amazing. just saying, you are definitely missing out if you do not dine here.

came for mothers day brunch. terrible decision.

service was horrible. firstly, we got there early (probably ~20 mins of them opening), the restaurant was less than 30% full when we got there, and as far as i can tell not a lot of young kids. however we were told that there were no high chairs for us since they were all in use. my mother came in a bit late, didn't realize we had this conversation so mentioned it to our server again that we need a high chair. server snaps at my mom. about 40 mins later, i go to the bathroom and pass by the private room, only to see two empty high chairs just sitting there, unused. i asked the hostess why we can't use one of them, only to get an eye roll and "they are in use". we asked for four coffees, only got two, and in a span of two hours we were offered one refill by our server... as we are paying our bill.

food feels like its taking a turn for the worse. this is the third time we haveorderedthe tomahawk steak, and this time around the steak was way under seasoned and largely overdone. potato pancakes came out greasy and soggy.

the rating gets 1.5 instead of 1 because at least our salad was decent.

tess, alex, mike and jena go to briggs just for dessert.. after a very filling meal at ox and angela i convinced everyone to roll over to briggs for dessert. weorderedtwo lemon pies, one for each couple, and althoughe everyone had complained about being full, they were devoured in record time. was definitely worth it! go.


-----30 apr, 2014-----

tess and alex go to briggs for a sexy date night.. lots of yummy dishes to choose from that are easy to share which is my favorite way to eat! my boyfriend and i had the charred local sausage, newf's poutine, seared pacific scallops, potato tic tacs, and the rustic flatbread. it was alot of food and we didn't leave one bite behind. the decor is nice but i have to admit i've seen the "industrial theme" a little to much. our server was super nice and had a natural friendliness. the best part was the lemon pie, i'd go back everyday just for that. it's just like a lemon meringue pie, but with a cold creamy ice cream center. if you like lemon desserts this will be your new favorite!!

i stopped by on my way home from work with a friend. we decided to split appetizers and entres and weren't disappointed.
i started off with the briggs old fashioned. it was booze forward, but could taste hints of the root beer bitters.
weorderedthe deviled eggs and cauliflower to start and they were the best deviled eggs i've had in my life. the curry on the cauliflower was light, but good.
we had the lobster roll with fries and summer pasta for our mains and they were pretty much perfect. the salt and pepper on the fries was wonderful.
will definitely return.

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. iorderedthe tuna potato salad - and everything about the salad was good except 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 andorderedsome 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 very good mouth 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 friendsorderedthe birthday girl a "muff dive" shot, but the restaurant declined and said they don't do this kind of drink, iorderedtwo 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.

would give it 3.5 starts, if half stars were available. i have been here a couple of times over the past 2 years. it use to be one of my favourite places but hasn't been on my go-to recently. they no longer have the lobster mac and cheese, which was my go to. the last time i went iorderedthe tacos and they came back and told me they ran out of the meat and that i had to order something else. iorderedthe rock crab gnocchi, it was decent. one thing i do love is the potato tic tac's. overall do like the place but comparable to a lot of other places that serve similar food. it is a little more on the pricy side as well.

came here for a birthday and found it alright. the interior is cute and the customer service was phenomenal. my water was always filled before i even finished it and they didn't charge us gratuity for having a large group. iorderedthe steak sandwich so i could try the steak without paying an arm and a leg and it was alright, a little difficult to eat but it was fine.

we tried their brunch this morning....iorderedthe pergoies breakfast for 15 bucks...came with 4 pergoies, sausage and a fried egg. they had piled a ton of salt on the dish whuch made it unbearable to eat. alsoorderedthe benny with crab (eggs came out hard as a rock)
i would not recommend eating here for brunch.
maybe will come back for dinner menu.

met a friend for lunch before christmas and the place was full.  iorderedthe 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 pretty good but 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.

we stumbled upon this gem on a friday night when we had to give up our reservation at japanese village. we are sure glad that happened. they were able to accommodate a party of 14 with no issue and no trouble. we even had two kids and this place is totally kid friendly. i had family visiting from malaysia and australia and they wanted alberta beef. they were not disappointed! ribs and meat wasorderedand we loved it. 
service was quick and efficient and the kitchen staff, who you can see, looked happy to be making our food.
the decor is very trendy and they even have a private room that has a super cute table with a tv and soundproofing!

update: i'd like to say cory from briggs reached out to me and apologized for the experience and wanted to ensure my next would be great. i do appreciate the gesture and if i return to briggs i will definitely update my thoughts.

i have been to briggs a few times for dinner and have always had a great experience and great food. i don't know what happened today! we were at briggs for sunday brunch around 12. let me start off by saying it was not busy, however, the service and food, was something less than desirable. i walked in and 2 servers/host walked by me and didn't say a word, fine, i waited and finally someone showed me to my party. i just found the service not that great, and the food just okay, and plating/presentation was messy. iorderedthe pulled pork gnocchi and you can see by the photo how bad the plating was, with the gravy smeared everywhere, and the gnocchi just thrown on there it seemed - presentation is everything! this photo was taken before i even touched the food. the portions were small for the price ($18) and overall i wasn't that pleased with the experience. it is too bad because we were there for a 30th birthday party so it should have been a special event. also to note, briggs does not allow you to eat an outside came for birthdays , they told us you can bring it, you just can't eat it. (well why would we bring it then?!). they say this is due to allergy reasons and if someone were to have a reaction, the restaurant would be liable. fair enough i guess, but i feel with restaurants these days, many expect people to bring an outside cake for birthdays, so it was just odd. i may return for dinner, but never again for brunch, there are much more options out there.

eat lunch here the other day. i had croque madame. my wife had a brisket sandwich. both were good. service was very good here. never had to wait for more water or pop.  
only complaint was that iordereda 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 atmosphere is really nice here. really classic and elegant. the food was a but disappointed. we haveorderedtwo appetizers to share. both of them were really salty. the portion of the main dish was okay. my trout tastes pretty good, but the risotto underneath was salty too. my friend's mahi mahi was greecy on the sude dish. kinda disappointed on the food quality.

this is a nice place to have dinner when you're on date or out with friends. the atmosphere here is really nice and comfortable. the lobster mac and cheese was delicious, minus the fact that for some reason there were a lot of peas. i alsoorderedthe deviled eggs and they were just as good! i would definitely come here again to try their other dishes.