cucina

so so... soup of the day was tasty . the braised pork shoulder was ok. not the best. but definietly not the worst. loved the tiramisu. and service was great. i would like to comebackto try more items on the menu

may 7, 2015 / by t_topcat / in restaurant reviews / post comment i joined a friend at cucina on stephen ave on a monday after work – i chose the location because i wanted to try something new. it was a bit of a walk from my office, but it was a nice day and the restaurant was a pleasant surprise! such a cute little place, with a good looking menu and even a 3 course menu for $35! i’d love to gobackwith my boyfriend for a nice evening. the service was quite good, but there were only 2 or 3 tables throughout our time there so there wasn’t a large demand for the staff’s time. cucina kitchen we shared the stuffed calamari: calamari stuffed with chorizo, green curry, parsley, garlic, onion, braised in tomato sauce. i was actually disappointed – the calamari was rather tough, and the chorizo was regular dried chorizo sausage cut into small cubes. i was expecting it to be fresh ground chorizo sausage (fluff style) with a smoother texture than the chunks of dried chorizo. the flavours were nice, but i wouldn’t order it again. stuffed calamari i ordered the feature of the day, and it was delicious. it was scallops and a veggie purée and roasted veggies. i couldn’t tell you what the veggies all were, but they were all awesome – if i could have licked the purée off the plate, i would have! scallop feature of the day i recommend cucina and plan to go back, for sure!      

nice deco, good service! beef tartare was good, personally i think to add a bit of lemon taste would be even nicer. risotto is tasty, but strictly, as you can see from the photo, it had too much moisture. gnocchi was not bad but a bit too salty. generally speaking, we enjoyed the dinner and will gobacksometimes, hehehe

after hearing really good things about his place, i finally got the chance to take the plunge and give it a try.   ordered the mussels and they were bland.   tried 2 kinds of pasta, and they were both good, but nothing to really rave about.  also tried the scallop appy which was surprisingly very small.  cucina is a small cute place,  i would comebackand give it another try...

calamari was delicious! and bread basket. friend had kale salad and had to ask for a vegetarian entree pasta to be made but they complied. he really liked that pasta. i tried the pappardelle alla bolognese with beef ragu. i found it a bit too salty but otherwise good. full portions are large!
customer service was ok. i think they are trying to change their approach based on some negative reviews online. a pricier place like this definitely is affected by negative reviews.
the place is too cramped. the waitress/waiters slide between tables and their hair almost gets in your food. . and just to get to the washroom you feel you need to say excuse me to the tables by there because if they are leaningbackin chairs you will bump into them to get by. it was busy but no one checked in to see how food was. tried to get attention of other staff to get pepper and for a bag for to go items and did eventually get it. even though i gave a full 15% tip the waitress seemed disappointed. not sure why. also note that the menu has changed a bit from what is posted on their website. there are even less vegetarian entree options.

came here for a bday party and there was 20 people. service was great and food was fatastic! ceasar insalata was very tasty and chicken liver parfait was good as well. i had the crispy duck breast entree and it was delicious! duck was perfectly cooked and risotto was yummy. menu is a bit pricey but will definitely bebackagain for a special occasion.

i met an old friend for dinner here on a wednesday night. it was a nice treat! i really like this place because it’s small and has yummy food! oh, and they have peroni beer on tap! woot!. we were seated in a small table in the farbackcorner of the restaurant. it was perfect for us to catch-up until another group of two right were seated right beside us (literally, their table was two feet from us in a small corner and we could hear everything each other said). thankfully we were almost done our dinner and conversation by the time the two ladies were seated beside us, or i would have asked to move. we could hardly hear ourselves think, let alone hear each other talk. i know the rest of the restaurant was set up for large groups, but the all the tables on the one side of the restaurant were empty… i was not impressed.

quality and taste aren't quite worth the price. cucina is interesting... the space is delightful if you get a good table, if you get a bad table (and there are a few), you're likely to feel isolated and almost like an after-thought. the menu is small, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just don't expect much for selection. my last visit, i had the grilled romaine appetizer ($14) but had to send itbackas it was just bad... the tiny portion of romaine was soggy (not charred like good grilled romaine should be), the dressing tasted like a flavorless aioli, and the sous vide egg was quite under-cooked with runny egg whites. the arctic char fish special was nice, though the portion was small. this could have been alleviated if served with a bit more veg. my friend enjoyed the daily soup and risotto though, both of which were decent portions. the service was good and we were offered a dessert to make up for the bad appetizer, which helps and the effort was appreciated. but for me, i didn't feel the value was worth what i got. not likely to return, much prefer mercato.


-----08 feb, 2013-----

fabulous! can't wait to taste more.... the service was great, the wine list offered a good selection, and the food was fabulous. the risotto was rich, creamy, and perfectly cooked and the spicy spaghetti was incredibly flavorful. i will definitely gobackfor more.

we won't be going back!. four of us went to cucina a few weeks ago; we had made a reservation long in advance. they gave us the worse possible table in the restaurant. it was very busy and the waiters were constantly in our space to get cutlery and dishes.

their wine list is limited and they don’t bother to decant a $140 bottle of wine.

nothing that we had picked ahead of time from their website was available. apparently, they had some technical problems with their website. fair enough. we ordered two appetizers to find out that they were out of them by 8pm. the meat balls were quite bland, the lamb shank was just pasta with no shank, the cornish hen prosciutto was overcooked. the fish of the day was good but it was soaking in maple syrup, too sweet for our taste.

the service at cucina is okay but the food is mediocre. overall, cucina is not worth a visit. 500$ later for 4 people, we expected a great dining experience but we did not get it. we all agreed we would not be goingbackto cucina. there are so many good restaurants in calgary, don’t waste your time and money here.

really want to like this place but they can't cook eggs to save their life. i have been here for breakfast at least 6 times and every time i have ordered eggs i have had to send them back. over easy always come out hard as pucks. i have also had the chorizo skillet and actually got eggs that were see through, sent thembackand the cook over cooked the skillet so much the eggs were black on top. seriously, it's eggs not rocket science. hire someone from denny's to train your morning staff.

food is good, but will not return. nothing bothers me more than when places do not provide water free of charge. there is no excuse for this; customers paying for a meal should be entitled to a glass of tap water at no extra cost. aside from this, i found the food very good but not mind blowing. i had the porchetta risotto, which was tasty, if a little salty. lots of squash, not too much pork belly (which itself wasn’t overly flavourful), portion was a good size, although some might find it small. i'm not entirely sure it was worth the higher than average price. i liked the restaurant itself - it's small but i found the decor made it light and airy. service was ok but not remarkable. the extra $1 per person for water, combined with the fact that the food was on the higher end of the price spectrum and just good (not great) means i won’t return. were it not for the water, i would have been keen to comebackto try some of their deserts or the brunch menu.

treated ourselves with cucina. we spend over $100 dollars/person on this enjoyable evening. enjoyed the ambiance and the service immensely. loved having the chef come to tell us all about what we were eating and how it was prepared. we weren't blown away by the food (mains looked great but were too salty) but we would gobackfor the overall experience.

not good. i ordered the roast chicken. it came swimming in gravy. the accompanying salad was swimming in dressing. i mentioned this to the server who did nothing to address my concerns. i don't normally complain about food and am generally easy to please. but this meal was not appealing and it was expensive to boot. i won't be goingbackto cucina.

in a brightly lit space sits cucina, a casual eatery with a strong victorian influence, making me feel like i've been transportedbackin time to have brunch in a summer cottage. the furnishing and decor is carefully chosen to mimic country elegance, but there's definitely some quirkiness as well when i see the portrait of chef macneil with a pig head.

follow up; completely terrible bread.. wentbackto cucina today to try the porchetta sandwich after being less than impressed with the roast sirloin sandwich last week. verdict? mediocre.

the porchetta sandwich suffers from the exact same problems as last week's roast sirloin, namely an overpowering taste of garlic and useless bread. unlike the roast sirloin, the porchetta sandwich is served on cibatta rather than a baguette. the problem? it seems as if they're baked from basically identical dough recipes and just formed into different shapes. both these breads offer absolutely no texture or flavour; they're lifeless, limp, and overly flour-y. as far as i'm concerned they actively detract from what are actually pretty decently prepared fillings. it's as if none of the presumably talented chefs in the teatros group actually tried this stuff, or even worse they all did and this was the best they could do.

the combination of lack of attention paid to the basics and inflated prices make me worry about the long-term viability of this restaurant. undoubtedly the premium location will attract the corporate card wielding type and somewhat buoy business but at this rate this will never be a reasonable food destination.


-----12 nov, 2012-----

an improvment on the vendome formula.. stopped by cucina last week to grab a quick to-go lunch.tried to order the porchetta sandwich but was informed the porchetta wasn't ready yet (which at around noon seemed somewhat odd). as i was being informed about the lack of porchetta a tray full of freshly prepared roast sirloin sandwiches were brought out; i figured i could settle just this once.

immediately noticeable once i gotbackto my office and unwrapped the sandwich was how generous the portion is; more than enough rare roast sirloin, chevre, and arugula on a nearly foot long "in house baked baguette". overall the sandwich was good with some care paid to the ingredients. however some slight problems prevented this sandwich from being truly great. the in house made baguette failed to offer the crispy exterior and chewy bite you expect from a fresh baguette. without this the whole sandwich ended up texturally boring; soft through and through. in addition to this one of the fillings (either the roast beef or the chevre) was far too garlicky, overwhelming the taste of the beautifully roasted sirloin and peppery argula.

to accompany my sandwich i ordered a large drip coffee; a perfectly brewed phil and sebastians ethiopian. although i live mere blocks away from vendome i tend to largely avoid it because of the mediocre coffee program. cucina has more than addressed this glaring flaw in the vendome type restaurant program with well executed offerings from phil and sebastians. cucina is now the best place on stephen avenue for coffee and i'll bebackon that strength alone.