Cilantro, Calgary

Two girl friends and I decided to branch out and try something new since we always eat at places like Joey's Tomato, and made reservations for Cilantro. It's a tiny restaurant with no paintings on the walls or anything to absorb ambient noise. The restaurant wasn't crowded, but the noise level was high enough that we had to speak louder and lean in to hear what we were saying. If you're looking for a restaurant where you can sit back and chat with your friends, this is not the place to be. It's too loud. It'd understand if this was a bar.... The waiter was curt - not particularly pleasant. The food was on the expensive side - a little casear salad that looked and tasted like any other casear salad in any other restaurant was more than $10. It would have been justifiable if the salad was amazing. The plate of mussels I ordered was fresh, but I have never seen tinier mussels in my life. It was an ok experinece, nothing to sneeze about. I rather eat at Joey's Tomato - the ambience, quality, and service is far superior there than it was at Cilantro.

I was looking forward to a night out with the girls. Trying a restaurant that I hadn't been to but had heard good things about. I was sorely disappointed... The reservation had been made for 6-8 people so we were seated at a table for 8. 4 of us got there a little early and we were provided with water and asked if we would like anything to drink. We all said water was fine for now (we were still waiting for others). 2 more people showed up and we figured out that the other 2 that were maybes had confirmed as no with 2 of us that were there.We immediately informed our server that there would only be 6 of us. Our server left water for the last arrivals...at the END of the table even though they had sat down in the middle and never asked them if they would like anything else to drink. We ordered our meals with Sahar going last because she wasn't sure what to get (she is vegetarian and all the entrees were meat). When he got to Sahar, she asked "are there any vegetarian options other than pizza?" and he answered "yes, the top two" (he had heard "are there any vegetarian options of the pizza?"). When she looked confused, he said "have you read the menu?", made a huffing noise and came around to her side of the table to point out the two vegetarian pizza options. We were brought bread and butter and then the two appetizers we'd ordered. Beka wanted salt for her soup and we wanted more butter but our server was no where to be found...eventually with a few spoonfuls of soup left, he came by and we were able to request the salt. When he brought the main course, he almost knocked over all our glasses in his rush to slam them down. By this point we were quite disappointed in his service and attitude and decided that we would eat dessert somewhere else and he would be getting a smaller tip than we usually leave. He came by to take our plates and asked if we would like to see the dessert menu. We said no, we were good. He brought us our bill. He had added IN PEN a 15% gratuity. Since we were not a group of 8 and were not happy with his service, we wanted to ask why this had been added. Again, he was no where to be found. Beka went up to the bar and asked why this had been added. She was told that it is their policy to add a gratuity to groups of 8 or more. Since we had booked and used a table for 8 - they had added the gratuity. Beka explained that we were not happy with the service we'd received so the bartender offered to send the manager over to our table. Our server arrives. "Actually, I am the manager. I understand you were not happy with the service?" "No, we weren't. We found that you were rather rude to us." "I think in fairness, the rudeness is on both sides. You had a reservation for 8 and only 6 people showed up. You are all drinking waters and taking up a table for 8. That costs the business a lot of money." *shocked silence* "That should have been made clear to us when we booked the reservation." "It's on the menu. You could read the menu" "On the menu, it says for groups of 8, we are not a group of 8" "Well, your reservation was for 8....look forget it...take the gratuity off...if you want to pay just the $140.98...that's FINE....forget about it" *this is not word for word...there were a few other rallies* So we did exactly that...we left $140.98.

Had great expectations, food was good for the price. However, we went to Cilantro on a cold winter-weekend. They crammed too many people into their dining room, extra tables were added around the door - nice cold draft. The acoustics are horrible so you and your companions need to scream at each other to be heard, the equivalent of trying to hold a conversation in a loud bar. To top it off, they turn up the music! Yo, anybody understand the concept of a conversation over dinner? Unless you are 19 and want to hum your way through dinner without talking, ok. Otherwise, a dud. Service was ho-hum, probably a function of labor shortages in Calgary. Although I enjoyed the food, we will never go back, a wasted evening.

My sister came to visit from New York and I wanted to impress her with a great meal. My local friends recommended Cilantro. The meal was mediocre at best, the ingredients were inferior, and the prices were more expensive then in good New York restaurants. When you pay more than $40 for an order of lamb chops, they better be exceptional. And to top it all, the food was so heavily peppered that we said they should call the place Pepper not Cilantro. I felt bad that my sister had to suffer through the whole meal. During the service the waitress never asked how is everything, not even once, after the dessert arrived she did, and only then did we tell her it was terrible, and she didn't do anything about it. This kind of establishment shouldn’t even exist. It's a rip off. SHAME ON YOU!!!

There is alot of hype with Cilantro but both times that I have had the priviledge with eating there was a complete disappointment. The first and most influencial turn-off was the hosting. It seemed like they spent all the money on ambiance and mood setting that they forgot the importance of first impressions. All the hostess required multiple explanations and were 90% dumbfounded when asked simple questions, to make matters worst, their responses were of which you would expect from a 15 year old walking through the mall; a giggle and ridiculous smile... Once you have passed the incompetent hostesses you sit for at least 30 minutes before anyone says hello and then another 30 minutes for drinks and the time just piles on along with the expensive cost for the food. I will give them credit for the nice patio but again if you are looking for good,cheap food, great service and not having to work in the restaurant industry to feel welcome, the ship and anchor is a better bet.

The menu was what drew me in. Very interesting options and nice variety. The food was generally very well-executed and presented. Ingredients were mostly fresh and the end-results flavorful, though I did have a few minor gripes. The 'mixed baby lettuce salad' had a bit too much dressing, and the accompanying corn chips were stale. I also had the spinach penne, which was flavorful...but the penne was overcooked (read: soggy) and the shrimp were slightly tough.

It was the first time I ate at a restaurant in Calgary.....Excellent food and service!