briggs kitchen and bar

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 thirdtimewe have ordered the tomahawk steak, and thistimearound 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.

do you smoke or go to the bathroom? that's not ok at this restaurant. as soon as you leave your seat, in their eyes, you are going to dine and dash. oh wait, my purse is still on my seat? no no, i just left that there for show as i plan to leave without it and without paying. 

honestly, i've never felt more judged and criminalized with a group of friends than at this restaurant. there were 15 of us, and eachtimea person left, the staff could not accept that the other 14 were walking, talking collateral. furthermore, at the end of the meal, our server and the other staff were nothing but rude. they had 15 separate bills to disperse yet to staff, a group of adults was deemed unable to sort out which was which and who had what on their own. they wanted to make sure that they could "personally account for every member of our party" and did not feel safe with dropping off the cheques for us to disperse between ourselves. over my whole adult life, never have i run into such severely unprofessional and judgmental behavior at a restaurant - i don't even remember what the food tasted like.

i am slightly remiss because lasttimei 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 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 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 thetimeof 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 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.

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 lasttimei went i ordered the tacos and they came back and told me they ran out of the meat and that i had to order something else. i ordered the 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.

what happened? we have been here for dinner several times before and always had great meals and service. this last visit (october 2017) was pretty shocking. we had three different waitresses. two of whom were friendly and one who was absolutely miserable. previously we had only ever had one server so that was odd. we had the sausages to start which were tasty but we only got two slices of bread and a whole pile of sausages? when we previously had it, we got more bread. i had the lobster gnocchi. the gnocchi was crispy which may be there way of doing it but i didn't love it - it was like breadcrumbs you would get on top of mac and cheese. the sauce was quite overpowering. my partner had the hanger steak which he has had before but said thistimeit was really poor quality. we also had a really long wait for our food, especially between the starter and main.

wow, we were really disappointed. my husband had the pappardelle with chicken...pasta was sooo overcooked and was served as a big lump with no seasoning...had to ask for salt.
i had the paella royale.....was like a smoky, greasy chinese fried rice....really poor quality and no spice or heat at all like it should have.
3 of the shrimp had actually spoiled so i removed them from my dish. i used to come here often when they first opened but we will not be back...huge waste oftimeand money. too bad....maybe this place is ok for a quick lunch but it was a brutal dinner....

going down hill fast. i use to like this place. last few times i went the food was meh and not hot. my lasttimethere was today and i won't be returning. barley anyone there and almost ten minutes to get a drink. waitress specifically asks if we want the food all at once. we say yes. than broccoli and potatoes come and sit on the table for almost 10 minutes before our meat came. brutal!!! high class restaurants like this are a no go. we left. bye felicia

went to brigg's for the firsttimewith my friends for lunch! the service was amazing! our server bravely killed a wasp for us and offered a free meal to one of my friends who wasn't fully satisfied with her steak (she asked for medium rare). my meal was delicious! and would happily go again :)

yum yum yum! returned for a second meal at briggs this weekend. had to get the dish i ordered the firsttime(prawn-angel hair pasta) because it was so tasty. loved the pesto-type sauce and the 5 giant prawns! it was consistent with my first experience here. we also ordered the tomato tart and beef short ribs, which simply melted off the bone. there was a small delay in receiving our last course, but were perhaps spoiled by the super-fast speeds of our first two dishes. highly recommend!

this is a fantastic restaurant. the food is amazing. the decor is great. and the service is (usually) good. we strongly encourage getting a few meat dishes with some vegetable sides. for a nicer restaurant, the prices aren't too bad either. they have a big smoker in the restaurant which all the meat dishes are done in and they come out delicious. the vegetable dishes are different too, but also great. the only reason we don't rate this a 5 out of 5 is the most recenttimewe went there the service was definitely lagging.

update: we went for the fourthtimefor brunch. again, the food was amazing but the service was terrible. 2/4 times we have been the service has really detracted from the experience.

this restaurant is always busy and good luck getting a table at lunchtimeif you've not made a reservation a while in advance... that said, it is because the food is damn good, the place is lively and fun.
if you want to tweak your order a bit, they will not have a problem with it at all... and i definitely recommend the twisted blt, add a fried egg and avocado, and you'll have the perfect breakfast sandwich!

started with the deviled eggs, which were delicious and surprising. i spent the day craving beef, and the 48 oz. rib eye didn't disappoint. i shared it with my gf, and also ordered the warm beet salad. it really complimented the meat. the service was the best i had had in a longtimein the beltline. definitely one of my favorites now!

one of my alltimefavourite restaurants in calgary! never disappoints and the service is great! they have amazing lettuce wraps i love their seasonal desserts.

we had the most wonderful experience last night at the briggs kitchen and bar.  we were celebrating our son's upcoming wedding with his bride, their attendants and her family.  my husband and i hosted - it was amazing!  we chose the briggs experience which enabled all of us to sample the appetizers from the main menu.  i was already in a food coma, by thetimethe main dishes, beef, and chicken, arrived accompanied by delicious vegetable sides and finished with to -die-for deserts.  wine, beer, martini's (with extra olives!) and service that was totally 5 star made for an unforgettable evening!