For Jay’s 44th birthday he chose seafood for dinner. I had heard good things about Rodney’s and the menu looked good so we gave it a shot. The restaurant is bright and open – a nice change from the dark, closed in steak houses I’ve been to lately. The white walls and big windows gave a fresh feeling. Unfortunately, we were seated in an area off to the side that had a shorter ceiling and a darker feeling.
Service was really good – we were brought bread right away (although, it was plain, white bread and it was kind of dry – certainly nothing special). Our server was knowledgeable and she recommended items and explained what each dish came with as a side. One thing we noted was that the menu lacked information. There was no information indicating what the dishes came with (e.g. our scallops came with seasonal veggies and our lobster roll came with wedgies or skinny fries but the menu just said – scallops & lobster roll). It was really hard to decide what we wanted to eat because we had no idea what else we’d be eating. We shouldn’t have had to ask the server 50 questions in order to place an order.
Our server recommended Rodney’s house white wine – a blend that Rodney himself created to serve with his food. The first sip made us both twinge… it was dry and zingy. I guess we both like a sweeter wine, as it was not a wine that we could sip without food. We wouldn’t get it again.
Now, I’m not one to criticize a dirty mind, and I swear like a trucker sometimes… but the server’s were all wearing t-shirts that left little to the imagination – ‘Eat me Raw’ and ‘Shuck me, Suck me, Eat me Raw’… Of course they were talking about oysters, but still! Not very classy…
Every day they have a different fresh sheet depending on what seafood is available for them to purchase on the market. On the fresh sheet this day they had a ‘Captain’s Platter’. It was a cold seafood platter with lobster, prawns, marinated mussels, oysters, crab claws and a few different sauces. We’ve come to learn that we’re really not a fan of cold seafood platters. We found the prawns and lobster chewy and crab claws flavourless. The best items on the platter were the marinated mussels (we’d totally buy these as a stand alone menu item) and the oysters. One of the sauces was a homemade hot sauce (5/10 on the heat scale she said), and it was really good. For $80, the platter for 2 was not enough food. It really could have been a platter for 1 if you were hungry.
We then had a half order of scallops. They were really good – simply pan seared with no seasoning. A decent sized scallop, but not huge. There were three so we each got 1.5 and some sautéed veggies. The veggies were really good. I’m not sure the dish was worth $17 though. This was followed by the lobster roll. We had to try the lobster roll because a friend said they’re better here than they are at Brigg’s. We have to disagree. Don’t get me wrong – it was good, and loaded with lobster… it was just super greasy and didn’t have a lot of flavour. There was a garlicy white sauce that came with the dish – I put some of that on the roll just to add some flavour. That sauce was also amazing on the potato wedges. Mmmmm… The potato wedges were cooked well, with a nice crisp, and just lightly salted.
The options for dessert were: chocolate mousse, key lime pie and rice pudding – meh… so, we paid our bill and went down the block to Brigg’s for a dessert we’d had before and loved. I will for sure go back to Rodney’s at some point, but it’s not at the top of my wishlist anymore. I think I’d try something from the smoked menu and perhaps a bowl of clam chowder.
We got to Brigg’s around 8pm. It was packed – we’d only ever been here before on a Sunday and a Monday when it was quiet, so it was a different atmosphere; it was really busy and really loud. We didn’t have a reservation but they were really good to set us at a table because we told them we just wanted a quick dessert. The first table we were taken to wasn’t totally cleared yet and the host was very apologetic, quickly taking us to another table. We were clear to tell our server we were just there for a quick dessert and we didn’t even order drinks. The server was still very attentive and polite. We ordered the warm chocolate pot because we’d had it before and knew it was delicious. It was even better this time because there were more crunchy bits. Mmmmm….
Our bill was less than $10 – around $9.50. I put a $20 bill on the table and we got up and left. We were out the door when the manager came after us! He asked if everything was OK because he noticed we weren’t there for very long. We explained we were there just for a quick dessert and that as usual, it was awesome. I really hope he noticed I left a 100% tip! The thing is – the fact that the manager came after us and asked us if everything was OK, means that he cares. It makes us like Brigg’s even that much more. As mentioned in a previous post, we think Brigg’s is the best bang for the buck here in Calgary.
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