river cafe

verygoodfood, 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.

lovely place but not sure it's worth the price. we went last saturday and had agoodexperience -goodservice, 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.

i've the views and the ambiance of having a sunday brunch here on agoodday in the park. service is excellent. the food wasgoodjust a bit on the pricey side for it's worth.

came here with a coupe buddy for an early dinner i have never been here before & it is a beautiful spot on princess island park. i got the early dinner special for $31 this weekends was red lentil hummus with canola seed flat bread & duck confit with oyster mushrooms, beets & barley. the hummus was delicious great flavour & when you add the roasted garlic with it on the flat bread was amazing. the duck confit wasgoodbut could have been better but the beets were delicious & the barley was amazing i so wish i had the recipe was so good.

i love everything about river cafe - the food, service, environment, and cool factor. if you haven't tried it, try it! it is on the expensive side, but that's what agoodrestaurant is all about.

went here for the first time during big taste yyc 2016 and the experience was okay... nothing too stellar. also, our server was a bit arrogant or snotty and that's a big no-no. food was great and at that time i thought of coming back to try their regular menu someday.

went back here tonight to celebrate my parents' anniversary.. and i am not too happy with the experience and the food. we were seated on the patio and i must say it had a nice atmosphere. i ordered the halibut & pork belly. the fish was cooked very well, even the pork, but overall the dish was a bit salty. i had the rice pudding for dessert and it wasn't asgoodas i thought. this place is very hyped up (kudos to your marketing team) but it didn't meet my expectations.

finally got to visit river cafe!
to be honest expected more then what it really was.
service wasgoodbut the food was ok.
its a place i would want to try again but for now its an ok restaurant

i love how this place looks in the middle of the park. perfect for walking around before or after your meal.

i've only been for brunch and the food was pretty good. the little pastry basket wasgoodfor sharing. the eggs benedict was good, except that i asked for my egg to be soft and one came out completely hard. the server apologized though and service was amazing. tiramisu wasgoodbut nothing amazing that i would go back for. the chocolate tart was good, and the fruit sorbet was so refreshing, i would recommend. the drinks were refreshing and nice on the patio, but nothing to write home about. mixed feelings about the food depending on the dish, but i would definitely be willing to go back and try for dinner.

i hate to give this review but this place is about a 50/50 and not on thegoodside. location, menu and ambiance, amazing. service, wine and water service, execution of food, terrible. service was 4/10, she had too large a section and took forever for everything. burger had a big piece of plastic so we sent it back and asked for a to-go, what we got was a box with a sticker. the sticker was well placed as we didn't open the box until we got home.. much to our surprise finding the same half eaten burger patty with chucks of others. disgusting and a disgrace.

it was a fancy lunch for five people!.goodchoice menu! each dish arrangement on a plate was beautiful and unique! unforgettable taste! what a talented chef!

i love the atmosphere of this place. i love how they decorated their restaurant with boats, and mason jars. however the food was really bad. the soup was gross. the seafood plate was notgood- it was too creamy and bland. the steak was okay but not outstanding. it made me want fountain pop as i was eating there. the drinks weregoodthough. coffe wasgoodand the apple cider was really good.

nice place for a summerdays. i enjoy walking to the island on a summer's day and sitting on this restaurant's patio. great way to spend a warm sunny day. food isgoodas is the service.

artful, locally-sourced food in a beautiful setting. i've been to the river cafe a few times now and never been disappointed with my food, beverage, or service. that said, i knew what to expect in terms of portion sizes. this is not your corner diner. the river cafe beautifully presents the dishes, and quite frankly, i find the portion sizes just perfect (i'm female). on a nice sunny day, the patio at the river cafe under an umbrella is asgoodas it gets!

lovely atmosphere, but not the food.... the location, decor, and whole atmosphere of river cafe is so inviting, cozy, and beautiful which i really loved.

unfortunately the food, was extremely lacking. i ordered the pork chop and my friend ordered the striploin. however the pork was extremely undercooked to the point where it was pink and wet in some places, while the striploin was very overcooked and resembled beef jerky; they were garnished with similar salads with a few pieces of arugula, few pieces of fruit or something, and drizzle of sauce. the food also took a long time to come out. i don't mind paying more money forgoodfood, but when the pork dish was $40 and the striploin $50, i expected so much more... a lady came over (i'm presuming the manager or owner) and she saw that i barely touched my pork and asked what was wrong, and she acknowledged that the pork was very rare too; i was offered another dish and the pork was taken off the bill.

another negative was that when i first stepped into the restaurant, probably 3-4 servers and even the hostess saw me and made eye contact, but nobody even acknowledged me. i waited about 2-3 minutes before the hostess even came over, and greeted me in an apathetic and disinterested manner.

all in all, i would love to come back, but don't know if i can give them another chance with the prices.

my fiancee and i stopped by the river cafe while on a walk through beautiful princes island park. we decided on the fish and game board and the jolie farm rose wine. the board came ingoodenough time, 15-20 min, and looked delicious, but our wine hadn't arrived yet so we waited to try anything. the waitress came to our table 5-10 minutes later (so now we are nearly the 30 minute mark) to tell us they were still looking for our bottle in their cellars. we were still staring at this platter, not having a bite until we had our wine. 5-10 minutes after that the waitress told us they couldn't find it. we asked her to have the manager suggest something similar that they did have while we looked again at the wine menu. when she returned (were now talking 45-60min) my fiancee had chose a different bottle and she promised it right away. still staring at our food...
when the waitress came back another 5 or 10 minutes later she promised the wine was coming. we discussed the possibility that this one would not bw found as well and were hoping to see a manager approach us with some kind of substitute/compensation. the third and final time the waitress came back regarding our second bottle of wine, she told us they still couldn't find the bottle and they were calling the sommelier.
at this point we had been sitting there with only water, and an untouched platter of food on our tbale for over an hour and a half. we told her not to bother and we were going to leave and try somewhere else. we assured her thjs was not her fault, at which point she asked if we would like to see the manager. i had to laugh, and my fiancee politely declined. we expected to see a manager over an hour ago.
so we cant speak to the food, the water was fine. the server was polite, but the management seems non-existent and the wine selection is obviously a total disaster.
we will never waste our time at the river cafe again and would never recommend it to anyone.