phil's restaurant

as a senior born in calgary, i have frequented your restaurant since it opened on the north hill and miller was singing there. over the many decades as a regular customer, i have been more than pleased with your food and service; however, i have encountered difficulty with your kingsland location over the past few months. your beef dip has been my favourite for decades, but recently when this was served on a very stale bun and was not enjoyable - i did not say anything the firsttimeas i figured it was just a mistake; however, it happened again a few weeks later and was not enjoyable. the nexttimei visited (a couple of weeks ago) i mentioned to the server that the buns were stale the last 2 times i was there and she made sure i had a very fresh bun and i thoroughly enjoyed a delicious meal. i returned with friends the following week and made mention to the server that i would appreciate a fresh bun rather than a stale one ... i could not believe that i was served the stalest bun ever - i could not even scoop out the inner part and it remained unchewable even after soaking it in the gravy. i mentioned this to the server but the only response i received was "it is toasted, that is why it is hard'. this is a lame excuse for serving food that is unsuitable for human consumption and i will never order your beef dip again as i am sure this has a lot to do with the 'bad attitude' of the so-called cook at kingsland location. i will probably go back to this location; however, i will make sure i order something that does not involve stale week-old bread and that is guaranteed fresh. i am really disappointed in the negative reaction of the cook and the server.

inconsistent food quality. we started going to phils as it was close to the hospice my mom was at. for awhile we had just great food and since then it has seriously declined. the hashbrowns which are our favorite may or may not be cooked very well. some days it so overdone you can't eat it. toast comes out burnt and dry and the kids pancakes are either so over cooked the kids can't eat them or almost raw. i honestly worry that this resturant will go the way of banff's location. gone!! it might be a good thing if someone actually read some of these comments and looked into quality of food and consistency of the quality as well.

one more thing the lasttimewe went our food was a disaster and we found out from wait staff that the cook showed up to work late and very hungover. his worked showed it and lucky we found out or we wouldn't even consider ever going back. we will wait a few months and give one more the managertimeto sort some staffing and quality issues out if it doesn't change then sorry but we will go find other places to dine.

firsttime- impressed. firsttimevisiting phil's, after driving by it a few times. thought there would be a wait as it was super busy looking, but they sat us right away. very friendly service and very fast timing. really happy with our first time! we will be back!

basic good food, cooked the way you want it. phil's has been around for a longtimebut i hadn't been there for years.

our family was craving a basic plate of eggs and accompaniments - nothing fancy...so we thought of phil's.

phil's did not disappoint. it was delightful to see that phil's takes their breakfasts seriously, having many variations on the basic breakfast plate. do you want your hash browns chunky or shredded? do you want brown or whole wheat toast? how would you like your eggs done? what would you like with your eggs, pork links or chubbies, chicken or turkey links? side or back bacon? would you like your poached eggs soft, medium or hard?

we joked with our server that we sure had to answer a lot of questions just to get our breakfasts. we could basically customize our plates any way we wanted...many things are also offered as additional sides.

everything was cooked just right - or should i say eggsactly as we ordered! the table was outfitted with a selection of jams and jellies and three kinds of syrup to go with phil's signature pancakes. also a nice touch for a breakfast place is our own carafe of coffee at the table. it's so nice not to have to wait for someone to refill your coffee.

the only negative i must add is that the ambient noise in the side of the restaurant we were in was deafening..there wasn't any music playing, but the acoustics in there are made miserable with many hard surface walls. the sound of the table chatter bounces around but not much gets absorbed. so we found ourselves shouting just to hear each other across our table. it's like being in a traffic jam - you don't like it - but realize you are part of the problem.

phil's is nevertheless a great place for family dining - good basic food cooked the way you want it and at a still decent price.