river cafe

romantic, romantic, romantic.... what more can be said about about the cafe?

i suppose that if you ever wanted to define what fine canadian cuisine, as many canadian's do, this will be your best start on your journey.

my wife and i of ten years spent one of our first valentine's day supper there. i still remember the warm service and fabulous food as vibrantly as i do the short lamplit stroll to and from this quaint rustic canadienne cottage on the bow. fresh game and fish - perfectly seared. lovely people and ambiance. forget an anniversary? make a reservation at the cafe.

lovely spot for brunch. nice brunch in the park, service was great food was even better and can't beat the ambience. will be back for more!

good start to any day. wanted to try this place out for the location. great decision. maybe not the biggest breakfast in teems of portion size but an exceptionally tau meal. perfectly cooked poached eggs. tasty elk bacon. creamy hollandaise sauce. a few more potatoes and this dish would be perfect

river cafe is super. great food, service, drinks, and views!

beautiful and divine ambiance and surrounding but.... the food is bad. service is great. this place is a great place to impress your date because the ambiance is very romantic and you'll forgive the river cafe for bad food.

so, we're walking in princess island park...sunny day. "hey, isn't that the river cafe?" so, we get the last table on the patio. "i hope the food's good." then some rose`. "let's try the red lentil humus." then the halibut arrived. waiter asks how the food was. "is spiritual too strong?" "perhaps replies the waiter." and so it went. my tan improved. the food was fantastic, and the wine was like drinking summer. we will be back.

continue to believe that this little gem is one of calgary's finest place to eat. amazing ambience, great menu & beautifully presented / prepared food.

very good food, long wait time for food. our family dined at river cafe on may 11 to celebrate my father-in-law's 75th birthday. we had 430pm dinner reservations. shortly after arriving we were told that we could only order from the limited selection "early bird dinner menu" unless we wanted to wait until 5 pm. so we ordered drinks to pass the time and our food order was finally taken at 5:15 pm.

although the food was very good, we weren't served our main courses until 6:30 pm. our server indicated that the kitchen was busy with a full patio but the interior of the restaurant where we were seated was perhaps one-third full at best. one would expect the restaurant to properly staff up to deal with the dinner rush.

it was very disappointing to have to wait a full 1hr15min for our meals, especially when we had tried to get there early to avoid the dinner rush. when taking reservations, it would be great if the staff could advise customers that there would be limitations on what could be ordered if our dinner reservation fell within their "early bird" time.

we had two young children in our dinner party of 8 and long wait times for food can make or break a dinner experience.

our dinner bill was north of $500 and for this amount of money we would expect better service.

since you do not respond to my inquiries via e-mail.. diners beware - horrific experience for the price i paid. they have not responded to my emails i hve sent them regarding this experience so hopefully they will see it here.

i recently took my mother and grandma to your restaurant to celebrate a belated birthday and early mothers day. they are new to western cuisine and typically stay within their realm of comfort when it comes to restaurants and they recently told me they feel intimidated and afraid to try new places with limited proficiency in english. i promised to take them to a restaurant with impeccable service and great food which is what i thought i was getting when i suggested to visit your restaurant. i was wrong, very very wrong. we sat at our table on the patio for 35 minutes with dirty dishes and not one visit from our server (the table beside us was visited frequently by their server and they even turned on the heat lamp for them and offered them blankets which was unfortunately not offered to us as it was getting cold.) my guests inquired as to why we were not waited on or offered such services and felt simply ignored, neglected, and ultimately forgotten about. when i inquired with the manager he simply said he will bring dessert menus over immediately which he did but with no follow up. we sat a while again in the cold awaiting once again for curt service from our server. what infuriates me most is that my guests felt ignored and treated unfairly and ultimately self concious of the fact their english is poor and that is why they are receiving such poor service. i am writing this not to accuse our server but in hopes your management are aware of the service you are providing to people and the guests persepcitve in such situations. to treat all guests the same and ensure their experience is consistent with what your brand and restaurant stands for. i for one will now stop bringing family, friends, or clients of my business to your establishment in fear that they will be treated poorly due to their appearance or what you perceive them to be.

impressive!. i really enjoyed this restaurant! casual, comfortable atmosphere, very well presented food, from amazing quality products!

enjoyed reading the menu too... some very big words used for very ordinary things (ie. wild boar = bacon lol)

can't wait to go bak!

the atmosphere was perfect. right off the bat, we saw a tray full of muffins and pastries at the kitchen counter that looked delicious

lovely place but not sure it's worth the price. we went last saturday and had a good experience - good service, lovely atmosphere, and such a pretty walk. but: not being much of a fish or pork eater, i went for the tenderloin which was $46! it was good, don't get me wrong , but $46! honestly, i just couldn't justify that. we each had an appetizer (the fish and game board ($22 for two) was fine although the pate was spectacular) and, credit where it's due, when i told our waiter that i didn't enjoy my mushroom raviolo, they took it off the bill. our entrees were tasty - the portions were a little small but that's usual in an upscale place, i guess. the best part of the meal was the saskatoonberry pie. mmmm. for the four of us plus a reasonably priced bottle of wine, it was over $400. whew. now sometimes that's worth it and i get that. but i'm not sure yet if it's true here.

nice atmosphere and food presentation. a little pricey for me, thankfully it was a work lunch. i definitely like the fact they use local suppliers and fresh product.

i was looking forward to a nice dinner with my daughter last night at the river cafe, it was a special occasion.  she was taking me to dinner.  beautiful evening by the river in downtown calgary.  we ordered the lamb dish for our main course.  sadly the lamb was disgusting, it was a lump of fat covered up with brown coloured sauce.  i literally had nightmares about the dish, it didn't even taste like lamb.  of course we sent it back and explained that it was terrible to pass this off as lamb.  thankfully they did not charge us for the dish.  but really what were they thinking?  i have eaten there many times before and loved the restaurant, that is why i am writing this review, please never pass this garbage off on customers again or you will loose all of them. -0 rating for that experience.

love the ambiance of this restaurant. the food was amazing and the staff was fantastic. it was a bit of a walk but very romantic with all of the christmas lights. this is location great for romantic dates, friends and business meals. highly recommend checking it out!