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 fabulousfoodas 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 greatfoodwas even better and can't beat the ambience. will be back for more!

beautiful and divine ambiance and surrounding but.... thefoodis 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 thefoodwas. "is spiritual too strong?" "perhaps replies the waiter." and so it went. my tan improved. thefoodwas fantastic, and the wine was like drinking summer. we will be back.

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 ourfoodorder was finally taken at 5:15 pm.

although thefoodwas 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 forfoodcan 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 greatfoodwhich 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.

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

love the ambiance of this restaurant. thefoodwas 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!

went here for our wedding anniversary. to be honest, the place did not live up to our expectations or to its reputation. it might’ve been great a decade ago, but these days there are simply too many much better options in calgary. thefoodpresentation is beautiful, but the flavours are absolutely nothing to write home about. i am not 100% sure what my beautiful halibut was crusted in, but it tasted like cheap cornmeal which ruined the flavour of the whole dish.

i've the views and the ambiance of having a sunday brunch here on a good day in the park. service is excellent. thefoodwas good just a bit on the pricey side for it's worth.

considering the price, thefoodis not that great, but good.foodpresentation is not up to my expectation for an upscale restaurant. my husband had "hog wild boar" and i had halibut, i prefer his dish to mine. service was good.

thefoodis consistently amazing at this restaurant but the servers seem robotic. and i've experienced this on more than one occasion and have heard it from other friends. the servers need to be more friendly, more engaging, get to know the people eating (if that's the vibe they're putting out) and generally just create a whole experience beyond just the food. i have not seen anyone capable of doing this at the river cafe. it's unfortunate.

our friend who lives in calgary was really excited to bring us to this special restaurant. we wanted to go for lunch so i could try a bison burger (bison isn't available in south africa), but we ended up going for dinner instead and sadly the dinner menu was totally different to the lunch menu. the options were quite limited but there were a few options that looked lovely. my mom and i had the wild boar and our friends had the trout and the sharing board. to be honest thefoodwas pleasant, but not mind blowing and definitely not worth the crazy expensive prices. $45 for a pork loin with vegetables is really exorbitant.
the setting is gorgeous though - stunning decor, views of the river and island. and the service is very good. i'd recommend coming here for a light lunch and i'd come back for that.

i am born and raised in calgary and travelled extensively in europe, united states, china, japan, taiwan, etc. sampling different type of restaurant and cuisines.  
going to the river cafe was the biggest disappointment in my life.  i went into the restaurant at lunch, hungry and ready to dine on some fine local cuisine.  instead, the waitress told me that there was a two hour wait time and there would be no room for 1.  she didn't offer to waitlist me or ask me if i wanted take-out, she pointed me to the door.  

if you go there, prepare to be as disappointed as i was.  worst service experience ever.  i have left feedback with management on facebook a year ago - no response.  calgary tower, catch, saltlik, anju, etc. are all restaurants where i've received better service.  can't rate thefoodbecause i didn't get in the door.

it wasn't bad! service was a little lacking thefoodwas presented well but needed more flavour. great dishes on the menu! the atmosphere was cluttered and we weren't quite sure what it was they were going for with the decor.