Reviews for Reader's Garden Cafe in Calgary, AB
This is a cute spot that is nestled in the Reader Garden, next to the union cemetery. The signs are not that clear but you... eventually will find your way to the cafe. In terms of food, they use fresh ingredients and do a good job of cooking them. Aspart of a group, we had the plated dinner which included their platter to share, salad, entree, and dessert. The flavors aresimple and standard but overall, tasted pretty good (in the picture is the roast beef with demi glace). I would come here forthe ambience and less so the food. The service was also friendly. Read more
Beautiful location, especially peak season. I had the smoked salmon bagel, and the elder flower spritz. The bagel was $18.25 and... the spritz was $4.50. The food wasn?t anything spectacular, it was solid. Not worth $18.25 though. I would go here again for afun drink and maybe a dessert. Would not order a meal again though. Read more
As a local I am shocked that I have never gone to the gardens or he cafe before! It is tucked in between 25th and McLeod trail... and has the quaintest little cafe. The gardens leading up to it are beautiful as well, I?m looking forward to exploring themmore soon! Read more
We went to the cafe as we heard some great reviews from friends. Everything seemed fine. We did take a while to order because... we had to settle the kids down. We received our food and everything looked great. One of our guest had their eggs overcookedand it was handled efficiently and we got our eggs done perfectly. Then half-way through the meal, we found a long piece ofhair in our guest meal. She was eating her croquet madam when a long piece of hair was tangled up in her food, in her mouth. Itwas rather long and she had to literally dig it out of her mouth. To which she completely lost her appetite and we waved aserver over to show them the hair. It was just taken away and we felt like it was an extreme bother. They were short staff andnobody came over to acknowledge anything. Obviously at this point, our guest had no interest in a new meal. I saw the servergrabbed the hair from our guests hand and placed it on the plate. She walked and placed the plate on the table near the back. After which we proceeded to serve guests rolled up napkins with her unwashed hands. Followed by running plates of food. Iunderstand they may have been busy, wishing hands and sanitizing is an important step. We were also told that nobody else thatwas cooking had long hair. It seemed they were trying to say that it was our hair. Our guest?s hair was a short layered cut.He sat next to my partner which was a clean cut men?s hair. I sat on the other side of the table which was no where near hermeal. I was definitely disappointed with the SERVICE. Read more
Readers Garden Cafe hosted an event for us on the weekend - and it was great. We had 20 or so people plus kids, and found the... food to be of excellent quality. Every single appetizer was wonderfully tasty - the balance of flavours for each of them wasspot on. Service was attentive and friendly - we were very happy with our event and I highly recommend it for any parties orreceptions. 5 star experience for sure and many thanks to Helmut and his team for their patience putting this together for usand their flawless execution. Next up - I really want to give their brunch a try! Read more
We had a lovely last minute brunch at the Reader?s Garden Cafe. The place was very busy but service was friendly and timely. We... ordered the Chicken Pot Pie and Smoked Salmon Bagel. The portions were perfect for lunch and the food came out quickly. The PotPie was baked fresh, very delicious and had a hint of thyme sneaking through. The Bagel was excellent and thebagel:cheese:salmon ratio was perfect served with a twist of lemon. Finally, the homemade lemonade spritzer was a delightfulsurprise - not too sweet but not too tart. Will be coming back for sure. Read more
Amazing cafe! You do have to get a server's attention to get seated during peek hours, but they take amazing care of you once... you're seated! I recommend reserving a week in advance if you want to guarantee a seat outside on the weekend (small space).There is a bit of noise from traffic below, but not terrible. We ordered the homemade chicken pot pie & soup (split peafeatured that day), and lox bagel & salad. The chicken pot pie could use a bit more salt, however, the bagel was veryrefreshing! The salad is also very fresh, highly recommend. The portions do run on the smaller side for the price in my opinion,but worth it for the atmosphere! Will definitely come back again to try the weekend menu! Read more
This was a great little gem right in the middle of the city. I felt as if I was not in Calgary but maybe a Japanese garden or... some countryside enjoying the outdoors. I think a good old English garden is a good way of describing this little place. Thefood was decent nothing too special reasonable price comparable to other places. It's a lovely getaway if you can have a greatplace for brunch. Read more