Rustica

Quaint and luxurious atmosphere with delicious food, but selection, portion size, and service was abysmal. We made a reservation on a Friday night for a special occasion and when we arrived, we were immediately told that THREE of the EIGHT main entrees were not available that night. All three unavailable options were beef options, making the tenderloin and the Alberta tomahawk (at $239) the only beef options for a person if they wanted to have a beef steak. Upon ordering drinks, we were told to provide TWO options for bottles of wines, in the event that the first option was not available (to save the server a trip to the wine cellar). Our drinks took approximately 30-45 minutes to arrive. Because of the limited main course options, three of us ordered the elk tomahawk, but the size of tomahawk between the three plates varied quite substantially. Unfortunately, mine was severely undercooked (ordered as a medium rare but arrived as a rare-plus, making it extremely game-y) and I had to send it back. The same piece of meat was thrown back on a grill and re-plated and served back to me (as evidenced by the small pieces that I had already cut off were re-seared and re-plated). Again, for dessert, one of the four options were not available. For a fine dining establishment and the hefty price associated with the meal, I was very unimpressed by the limited selection, service, and quality of the meal. Despite all the issues noted above, not a single drink nor entree were comp'd and we were left with a $500+ bill for a very unsatisfying meal.

A terrible dining experience for our group of 8. After two hours, we were only halfway through their set menu offering, had received no drinks beyond the included Prosecco and one cocktail, and ultimately left without finishing the last two courses. Service was unacceptably slow and disjointed. The first two courses were cold, uncooked dishes, some served on plates that were clearly straight from the fridge. This was particularly frustrating given it was a Valentine’s Day set menu, which should have made service straight forward. We also experienced inconsistent and inattentive service. The table beside us was served additional items (outside of the set menu), including a tomahawk steak, that were never offered to us—even after we asked about accommodations for a food restriction. No server returned to take drink orders, we repeatedly had to ask for cutlery, our table candles were never lit, and overall attentiveness was extremely poor. The only reliable service came from staff refilling water. Management was dismissive even after we raised concerns an hour into our dining experience. We told the manager how dissatisfied we were and said we planned to leave, we were later asked if we wanted to order dessert, which showed a complete lack of awareness. My fiancé made this reservation two months in advance for a retirement dinner for eight people and was informed only one week prior that it would be a mandatory set menu, leaving little opportunity to change plans. This whole experience did not justify the price and we ultimately left this restaurant to go get pizza. Save your time and money and stay away from this place.

We had a highly disappointing dining experience with unfortunately no redeeming qualities throughout the evening (which took 2 hours to get halfway through, with no drinks except for the included Prosecco in the set menu, and 1 cocktail ordered). After sharing our feedback a couple times with management earlier in the experience, we ultimately decided to leave 2 hours in without finishing the last 2 of the 4 courses. We were super surprised at how long everything took (everything we consumed in the first 2 courses were cold, uncooked dishes and some seemed to have been unwrapped and taken straight from a fridge based on the temperature of the plates it was served on. We aren’t sure why the service was so slow considering it was a set menu for Valentine’s Day to help with execution for a busy night. With no exaggeration the best service was from the younger servers filling our waters. Beyond how slow service was, and mediocre the food we ate was, the table beside us seemed to have several other food dishes served to them that were not available to us despite us specifically asking if there was flexibility due to a food restriction. We also saw that they were served bread and butter that were never offered to us. No drink orders were taken at any point after the first offering, in two hours of sitting there. We had to ask multiple time for cutlery as well, never had the candles lit on our table like others had, etc. We spoke to the manager and the response was very non-chalant and was not at all the manner you’d expect for this caliber of restaurant. After we expressed how poor the experience has been and that we just wanted to cut our loses and eat elsewhere, he actually came over to our table once more and asked if we would like to order dessert… It’s worth noting I made this reservation 2 months in advance for a retirement dinner for 8 people, knowing it was landing on a long weekend. I was informed 1 week before our booking that it will be a set menu (too late to have many options to change our reso to a different establishment). There are many Canmore restaurants to pick from, at a fraction of the price that deliver better service and quality.

Great service and very good food. Very comfortable environment. We got amongst a few other things both the 30 oz 35 day aged Porterhouse and the 50 oz AB Tomahawk. Personally, I wasn't as much a fan of the more potent aged porterhouse, but the tomahawk was fantastic.