The Shoe & Canoe Public House is a new restaurant in the Delta Hotel in downtown Calgary. Not too far from my work in the Plus 15, I have been there three times now – once for breakfast and twice for lunch. The atmosphere reminds me of a ski lodge – big and open, with a fireplace on one end and big wooden tables on the other end. I think it’s the feeling they were going for; perhaps well suited to a hotel often filled with tourists from out of town.
I met a co-worker for breakfast before work. I chose the eggs benny because I think it’s a perfect way to judge a restaurant – if the restaurant can’t make a great hollandaise sauce I should probably stay home or go somewhere else. I got the classic Canadian back bacon benny for $16. It was served with 2 poached eggs on a lemon thyme biscuit, homestyle duck fat hashbrowns and CO2 hollandaise. Their duck fat potatoes are super tasty – moist, tender and full of flavour! I wasn’t a huge fan of the lemon thyme biscuit though – it was a tad dry and crumbly, which I suppose most biscuits are. Perhaps it would have been find if there was more hollandaise sauce to soak into it. The hollandaise was tasty, so that’s good.
I do have to give kudos to the server who found my rings in the washroom… Don’t ask me why I took off my rings when I scrunched the frozen gel out my hair… I totally forgot them on the washroom counter, and thankfully an employee of the restaurant found them and turned them into the hotel reception desk. Phew! I would have been so sad to lose them.
My 2nd visit to the restaurant was for lunch with two coworkers. We all looked at the menu in advance and knew exactly what we were getting upon arrival. L had the Classic Cheese Burger for $18. An Alberta beef patty on an Ace Bakery bun, it was garnished with white cheddar, lettuce, tomato, red onion, mustard, mayo and dill pickle. L noted that the burger was exactly as the menu described – nothing special, but a good traditional burger.
R ordered the Charcuterie for 2 for $18. With artisan meats, sausage, mustard, pickles, olives and crusty bread it definitely looked like a fun lunch. He was happy with the dish and noted that one of the cuts of meat was super spicy. It took him a while to covertly flag down our server to ask for a refill on his pop. When R ordered the charcuterie dish our server noted that there was no cheese… an observation that I may not have made on my own, but it’s a well-known fact that meat and cheese definitely go well together.
I ordered two items for lunch, just because I like trying as many things on the menu as I can. Now that I look at the menu again I see the quotation marks around “Caesar Salad” and understand why they’re there! The romaine lettuce was served as full leaves, drizzled with a creamy garlic dressing and grana padano. The lettuce was topped with white anchovies (the server made sure I actually wanted the little fish bodies on my lettuce), prosciutto, and croutons with a soft-poached egg on the side. For $15 I suppose they could have cut my lettuce… I found the dressing to be just a bit too zingy for me and I’d prefer my caesar salad to be a salad rather than something I have to cut and mix together myself.
The Fogo Island Cod Tacos – 3 for $14 – were pretty tasty. With roasted cod belly, quickly pickled cabbage, avocado puree, corn salsa, fermented habanero hot sauce and cilantro, there were some good flavours here. The tortillas were also nice and soft.
My third visit to the restaurant was upon invitation by the assistant manager, since I didn’t think my previous experiences matched the hype of the new restaurant. I appreciated that he wanted me to experience the good quality service and food that they always intend to provide. As a food blogger, I always like to give a fair and honest review, so I never let anyone know I’m a food blogger up front, lest it influence the service and the quality of the food. But, L and I returned for lunch and tried a few items off the updated menu, now everyone knowing I’m a blogger.
This time around, of course, service was very friendly and attentive. We ordered the Roasted Curried Cauliflower ($12) to share to start. I quite liked it – the cauliflower was perfectly cooked and there was a great combination of flavour and texture with the dried cranberries, seeds, pickled onions, cashews and fried chick peas. But, I had to add salt. Not because I wanted it salty, but because salt was necessary to bring life to all the delicious the flavours in the dish. Once I sprinkled just a touch of salt to the cauliflower it was great!
L ordered the Fogo Island Cod ($26) with a toasted cashew crumb, Alberta grain tabbouleh, saffron aioli and a cucumber, radish and fennel salad. She quite liked the citrus kick to the salad dressing and thought the grains were super tasty. The presentation of their dishes is quite pretty, I might say!
I ordered the Birch Glazed Albacore Tuna Nicoise Salad ($22). With tuna from BC, a caramelized olive tapenade, baby potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, arugula, a poached egg and a sherry dressing, this was definitely a salad with unique flavours. I found the tuna to be quite fishy tasting compared to most raw tuna I’ve had, and the caramelized olive tapenade and sherry dressing just made everything too sweet for my liking. I wasn’t expecting such a sweet dressing for a nicoise salad.
Overall, the menu at Shoe and Canoe is unique and definitely showcases what Canada has to offer. The ambience is not your typical hotel restaurant and it’s a nice new addition to the downtown food scene.
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