teatro

great decor. therestaurantis decorated very well and when you walk in you feel like your in a very fancy restaurant. the service was great and food was tasty. great wine menu and the carpaccio was delicous.

highly recommended place for those who like a quality kitchen. the service is impeccable and it is the coolest heritagerestaurantbuilding in calgary, it's worth just admiring the architecture once inside. the portions are on the small side, but they know it and so should you before you go.

teatro is probably one of the restaurants that are on my go-to list in calgary. i’ve been here several times in the past, for lunch and for dinner, and it was actually the first “fancy”restauranti visited when i was still in high school, back in the day when dealfind still existed. i’ve always had great experiences here, and last night was no exception. our server was kind and polite (i even got a little stool for my bag), the food was delicious, the food came out quickly (so there wasn’t any major waiting in between courses), and it was pretty busy! a huge reason why i like teatro so much, is because of the venue itself, as it is housed in the historic dominion building in downtown calgary. the interior and exterior of the building is gorgeous, and there are high ceilings, an open kitchen, and is very spacious. teatro is located just next to olympic plaza, and so it is nice to take a walk around olympic plaza or stephen ave before or after dinner. during winter, the skating rink is available for use and easily accessible, which is a bonus.

i had heard good things about thisrestaurantbut never tried it because i tend to be a little skeptical about fine dining restaurants. i eventually decided to go during the week of the big taste of calgary. the service was good and the food was delicious. all in all what you would expect from a place this highly rated.

this is a great place for a romantic date. while it is a little on the pricier side, it is worth the money. we managed to get in to thisrestauranton a free event which was pretty cool. the food is presented immaculately, and tastes fantastic as well. the service is also on point. you get what you pay for at this restaurant.

went here for the first time thursday evening for a fancy evening experience for before the calgary philharmonic orchestra. the service was amazing but i was so disappointed by the food. we order the fois gras and i had to stop myself from gagging (i told the server and they took it off my bill). also there was a tuna salad that was also disgusting. we ordered the beef tenderloin and the duck and both were okay. they weren't anything special, i think it was way overpriced for not spectacular food. i prefer alloy or trib steakhouse. although the kitchen andrestaurantwas gorgeous, won't go again.

i've been waiting to try this place for a really long time and finally tried it today. therestaurantis beautiful on the inside, i love how it looks. i had the tagliatelle bolognese, which was good, but i unfortunately found it very salty. other than that, the duck and tiramisu were fantastic. it's definitely a place to go if you're looking for somewhere really fancy for a date night. good experience here.

so this was my first time at teatro and i want to go back. therestaurantis beautiful and the food the three of us had was all truly enjoyable. when they called the day before to confirm my reservation they were nice enough to ask if we had any allergies or special requests. i thought this was a nice extra touch. all i asked for was a quieter spot because the three of us wanted to be able to talk. the customer service when we arrived was thorough – they offered to take our jackets and insisted my friends’ umbrella was placed in the bin by the front desk. we were served olive bread and focaccia as filler. yum.

chef john michael macneil brought moo out some greens to graze on we had been to calgary many times but never had the opportunity to drop in to try out teatro , overseen by chef john michael macneil . therestauranthad been recommended to us by a number of people, so when we knew we would be in town for the calgary marathon, we decided to go try out their tasting menu. compressed ice melon with vermouth, encapsulated balsamic vinegar and berlotta ham therestaurantitself is beautiful, opulent and classic. the space is filled with massive columns, though somewhat imposing, less so when compared to the impressively high ceiling. we began with a cold preparation of apple and pear encapsulation topped with morel mushrooms with asparagus veloute. the apple and pear spheres were very cool in the mouth, and when they popped open they were oddly thirst quenching, like fruit juice. the asparagus voulete was also satisfying and refreshing. faux bacon carbonara next a beet, lotus root, orange and crumbled goat cheese salad was light with a hint of citrus. the crumbled goat cheese added creaminess to each bite. next a compressed ice melon with vermouth, encapsulated balsamic vinegar topped with berlotta ham were unremarkable as separate components, but eaten together in one mouthful made for a beautifully balanced yet mildly acidic, salty, juicy mouthful.

easily the best lunch i've had in calgary. my family and i celebrated my husband's birthday with a lunch for four on a chilly tuesday afternoon;therestauranthad just opened, so we had a few quiet moments to admire the surroundings and soak up the ambiance before the crowds began to stream in.

teatros is pricey, but the service, the food and the presentation are just outstanding. i ordered the salmon lunch special, which was served with a beet and mushroom accompaniment and olive oil roasted potatoes and i am quite certain my taste buds actually had a moment. the dish was so good...just exceptional. my fellow diners had the chicken special and the risotto, and i doubt there was one bite of food left on any of our plates.

the other point i'd like to mention is that teatros understands how to serve a wonderful meal, within the typical lunch hour time restraints, without making diners feel rushed. the timing was perfect....we were relaxed, well fed, 100% satisfied, and able to leave without "missing that next meeting" or checking our watches. well done. my family will absolutely be back.

first of all, it is arestaurantin an old bank so i loved the atmosphere. secondly, we received amazing service. and then of course there was the food. not one thing we ordered did we not like. there were four of us, and i tasted almost everything from everybody’s plate. we are sharers in this family. best of the best was either my sister-in-laws calamari, or hubby’s veal chop. we even got a little show at the end when they made

walking into the restaurant, it looked grand. the ceilings were high with amazing moulding, the pillars were big and there was nicely placed large pieces of art at each of the main walls. the kitchen was open, with copper-coloured steam vents which was even more visually appealing. the bustling sound of people working at the kitchen made us excited to try the food there. the waiter who was serving us promptly came to greet us and asked us about drinks. soon after, he had came over and due to the fact that tfung had kindly alerted therestaurantpreviously that it was our 3rd year anniversary together, champagne was brought over to us! the champagne was quite good, not too sweet and not too dry, the bubbles rose quickly, evenly, and in one very straight column. as we looked at the menu, the choice to me was obvious. for appetizer, it was either the calamari or the beet salad for me. we ended up just sharing a calamari appetizer since we were going out for drinks after (and maybe some sn

prince gastronome. there are certain things not up for comparison. shakespeare plays, stanley kubrick movies, the bugatti veyron, ava gardner, robotech, elements of our society which cannot be rated alongside others despite sharing similar traits. reasons can be varied, from being so far beyond the quality of others that such comparisons are meaningless, to the subject in question being so far removed from the standard tropes associated with the others that comparing them is like rating which is better, the simpsons or a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
teatro falls into this latter category—arestaurantoffering an experience so detached from any other i had encountered thus far as to preclude any comparison. i mean, is it italian, french? it’s not a family restaurant; it feels like a posh bistro. it has a tasting menu with i eventually ordered. yet with all these common attributes, the resulting meal still cannot be measured to others, not even to claridges. that’s not to mean it’s better by any account, just different...and yes, it’s also better. but that superiority comes with a price, a hefty one preventing one from repeating such a visit weekly or even monthly. despite my desire to return to teatro again, i can’t see myself taking in the tasting menu for a very long time. even if i moved to calgary, i’d still save teatro for only the most treasured of special occasions, like if i had a special date or a...a...okay, that’s really all i got, and it would be one to secure a second to be sure, or actually more like a fourth. she would have to be ava gardner in the killers to warrant teatro on a first date.
so what makes teatro special? it’s something called molecular gastronomy—a subdivision of food science dedicated to unique and obscure approaches to cooking in order to create, in many situations, wholly new results from traditional ingredients. it involves the study of chemical interactions and physical changes depending on temperature and pressure. admittedly, this can sound a bit elitist as some of the techniques involve the use of vacuum chambers, evaporators, and ultrasounds. the end product is often served in small portions with multiple courses to showcase the various examples of the craft. this is what teatro offers with their extremely pricey tasting menu, all eight courses of it.
i made the reservation for the last day of my trip, a consequence of downtown calgary being three feet below water not two weeks earlier. i was lucky to get in when i did. i was offered a spot in sight of the expansive open kitchen, next to a window where wind and rain was molesting the unsecured patio seats outside. there really isn’t much i can say about the decor of teatro, other than its simply magnificent. i adore the fact that the plating area is brightly lit from low hanging lamps so patrons can see the attention to detail given. i adore the high ceilings, the wrought iron rails, the greek pillars.
i made a point to cherish each course—i needed to considering that the whole experience was setting me back $135. i was presented with a platter of salt, a spoon, and some olive oil. i still have no clue what i was supposed to do with that other than perhaps make an impromptu bread dip, but i lacked the balsamic and a plate to use other than the one the bread arrived with. i ended up leaving it alone. after an amuse bouche, the experience began.
i could go into details of each dish, but half of the time, i didn’t even know what i was eating. each plate was barely three bites, four tops. i recognized homemade pasta, truffle shavings, and sea scallops. what i didn’t recognize was the grilled compressed basil, the lemon garlic foam, the focaccia lace, vegetable ash, parmesan custard, confit de’ grapefruit and the halibut basted in squid ink. yes, you heard right, vegetable ash. what, you were hanging on, the squid ink? well, yes, that is kind of odd. most of the time, i didn’t even know what the waiter was saying as he switched from a flawlessly spoken french pronunciation to english, often times mid sentence. despite these unique combinations and textures, was it any—well, of course it was good, amazing even. the pasta with compressed basil with parmesan custard was a particular highlight. however, the real jewel was the last, the raspberry sorbet made in front of me with liquid nitrogen and a stand mixer. these are only two examples of the eight courses. in all it took almost two hours for the evening to end. i felt satisfied but not full. the waiter was incredibly adept in his craft, on equal stature with the chefs.
value on the other hand is probably up to opinion. everything was at the top of its game, an upper echelon of the industry, but is it worth $180 with tax and gratuity. i would say yes with the caveat that it’s an experience that you may only have once. so why not try it once? teatro specializes in creating an experience you’ll remember your entire life, and you should, because once in a while you should do something stupid. regular customers are those with a mercedes parked next to their ferrari, with a house in inverness and another in edinburgh (inside joke). the rest of us may not be able make teatro a regular outing, but we have better hats.

decor: 10
plating: 10
service: 9.5
food: 10
value: 6

overall: 9.1 out of 10

nice atmosphere, decent food, ridiculously poor value for money. first time i attended this restaurant, i have heard many things over the years good and bad. i have to say we waited far too long for our orders to be taken. it was after the lunch rush and the menu only has about 20 items to read about so really doesn't take long. but the worst part was the time it took for our meals to come! over 45 minutes! thank goodness i wasn't on a time schedule today or i could have been fired. the server was friendly and accomodating. therestaurantitself is airy and open, although we were seated in corner area that didn't have much going for it near the doorway. overall thumbs down for us, we won't be back. i also found the the cost for value ridiculous.

teatro intro. we purchased the taste of calgary menu at teatro's which was a good way to be introduced to their food. a 7 course dinner. the ambiance is one of the best i've been in in calgary. it is upscale and the setting is a beatiful in an old bank so the columns, very high ceilings and dimmed lighting make it quite romantic. i also liked the choice of music. there seemed to be a lot of male waiters - more than necessary with at least 2 if not 3 "managers" waiting around. after each item we were served we were fitted with fresh cutlery which i thought was a bit over done and quite interupting. the food is prepared fresh and in an open kitchen. i do find it somewhat surprising that they classify themselves as italian - not really in my opinion although they do serve pasta. i had booked the reservations a solid week in advance and at the time of booking requested no pork (i don't eat pork) several hours prior to our meal i called and also requested no mushrooms for my partner. when we arrived they were un-prepared. first the waiter did not know until after presenting us with their regular menu that we were there for the taste. secondly, we waited extra long as fresh pasta without pork needed to be prepared for me. they seem to want to pull off being a very high end resturant so if they actually were - i would have expected them to know we were there for the taste and staff should have been notified of our preferences - which we gave plenty of notice for. it was expensive so save thisrestaurantas a "special night out" which we did (celebrating a very very big promotion) so it helped when we got the bill for over $250 which included 2 glasses of wine and 3 highballs. when we rated the meal - califlower soup, pickled beats, squid ink and/or mushroom tortallini, scallops (which was the first time i ate a scallop - i don't typically like sea food), strip loin steak with 3 peices of various vegetables, a very small sampling of beaufort cheese and a cake with carmel ice cream topped with black salt our top three were the beats, pasta and dessert. the servings were quite small but presented very nicely and once all 7 courses were devoured we were quite full and satisfied. we did notice that other patron plates were quite large in portion size and we were there for a "sampling." overall we would recommend teatro.