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.

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.

Fantastic steakhouse and perfect value for money! Our waiter Munif was very knowledgeable not just about food and drinks, but also about local culture and places to visit. We ordered a steak and salmon, both were grilled exactly the way we wanted. We also ordered shrimp and lobster add ons and those portions were positively much larger than we expected! + Spectacular views of the golf course + 3rd largest wine selection in Alberta + Atmosphere is quiet for nice chats + Large food portions - Dry aged steaks not available when we visited