Last updated: August 2026
Looking for the best restaurants in Calgary? This guide highlights the city’s standout restaurants, from neighbourhood favourites and date-night destinations to some of the best pizza, steak, and wine programs in town.
I’ve personally visited every restaurant featured here and paid for every meal myself. Restaurants are selected based on consistency, food quality, service, atmosphere, and whether I would return.
If You Only Try Five
🥇 Bar Gigi → Small room, serious cooking, and superstar service. With only a handful of tables, reservations are essential. Bar Gigi was ranked No. 65 on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list.
🥇Cassis Bistro → A longtime favourite for classic French comfort food, including mussels and frites, steak tartare, and steak frites. In August, its small patio is the perfect place to sip a classic French rosé.
🥇Francine’s → Thoughtful French cooking in a lively room, with arguably the best steak frites and dessert in Calgary.
🥇Park by Sidewalk Citizen → Ingredient-driven cooking with real technique, in one of the best rooms in the city. The only place in Calgary where you can get a platter like the Aged Alberta AAA beef, three ways ($110, feeds 2–3).
🥇Sukiyaki House → Fish flown in from Japan, excellent tempura, sashimi, and classic dishes executed with consistency. Head chef Koji Kobayashi is both creative and technically skilled, with training in kaiseki, Japan’s traditional multi-course cuisine.
🏆 Best Overall Restaurant
If I’m booking ahead, these are the rooms where the cooking and service actually match the hype.
Bar Gigi
A tiny room where the food, service, and attention to detail consistently exceed expectations.
→ What to order: Try the prawn toast. The bread had a buttery, golden crunch that gave way to a prawn filling with a devilled egg–like creaminess. It brought to mind the fried goodness of a dim sum shrimp spring roll.
Full review → Bar Gigi
Klein / Harris
Precise cooking and polished service in the heart of downtown Calgary. It offers one of the city’s best lunch deals, but dinner is where the kitchen truly shines. Chef and co-owner James Waters has a remarkable touch with both meat and seafood, consistently delivering dishes that offer technique, flavour, and texture.
→ What to order: One Punch Lunch ($18): feature sandwich, choice of a side, mocktail or Americano, and two mini butter tarts.
Full review → Klein / Harris
Sukiyaki House
Fish flown in from Japan, excellent tempura, sashimi, and classic dishes executed with remarkable consistency. Head chef Koji Kobayashi brings both creativity and precision to the kitchen, drawing on his training in kaiseki, Japan’s highest form of multi-course dining.
→ What to order: Any of the appetizers, tempura, nigiri, and feature specials.
The Hachibiki carpaccio ($24) stands out, clean, balanced, and handled with creativity.
Full review → Sukiyaki House
🏆 Best Date Night
What makes a good date spot? For me, it’s a mix of atmosphere, service, and food that gives you something to talk about.
Bar Chouette
Owned by Duncan Ly, one of Calgary’s original trailblazers in fusion cuisine.
→ What to order: Start with the Beef Tartare with black vinegar and tapioca cracker ($20) and the Grilled Oyster Mushrooms with black garlic, pickled onion, and miso ($19). For a main, the Squid Ink Spaghetti ($46) is loaded with scallops, octopus, and prawns, all brought together with a fragrant panang curry sauce.
Full review → Bar Chouette
Paper Lantern
Make sure to indulge in a cocktail or two. Paper Lantern was recognized as one of Canada’s 100 Best Bars.
→ What to order: Banh Mi ($11), Mango Salad ($14), Crispy Crepes ($16).
The golden turmeric crepes crackle on first bite, giving way to pork, shrimp, and roasted sprouts with real wok flavour. Wrapped in lettuce and dipped in fish sauce, it hits texture, freshness, and depth.
Full review → Paper Lantern
Park by Sidewalk Citizen
→ What to order: Aged Alberta AAA beef, three ways ($110, feeds 2–3).
This is the plate that justifies the visit, 45-day tallow-aged short rib, 21-day striploin, and 28-day chuck. Finish off your meal with a house made doughnut and Turtles ice-cream.
Full review → Park by Sidewalk Citizen
🏆 Best Dim Sum
For Vancouver and Richmond-quality dim sum at better prices, Golden Sands is my pick. The fried squid is exceptional, and the oversized dumplings are generously packed. Service is friendly and warm.
→ What to order: Scallop & Shrimp with Black Truffle ($9.88), Prawn Dumplings ($8.25), Steamed Pork Shao Mai with Fish Roe ($8.25), Salt & Chilli Pepper Squid Tentacle ($14.88), and Beef Flat Rice Noodles ($18.88).
Full review → Golden Sands
The best option if you crave the old-school dim sum cart experience. Always bustling and packed for good reason. Even Judith from Sukiyaki House gives Central Grand her stamp of approval. The dim sum is good, but Central Grand really flexes at dinner.
→ What to order: Chiu Chow Steamed Dumpling ($7.29), Steamed Pork Dumpling ($7.89), Rice Crepe with XO Sauce ($7.89), Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli with Garlic).
Full review → Central Grand
Popular for serving some of the largest and cheapest dim sum in town. The stir-fried turnip cake and shrimp and BBQ pork rice rolls are the star dishes. What the beef flat rice noodles and seafood chow mein lack in wok hei, they make up for in sheer size.
What to order: BBQ and Shrimp Pork Rice Roll ($6.95), Ha Gow ($7.50), Stir-Fried Turnip Cake in XO Sauce ($7.50).
Full review → Phoenix Gate Chinese Cuisine
🏆 Best Pizza
Letty’s attention to detail borders on obsessive. If a pizza doesn’t meet the chefs’ standards, it’s tossed and remade rather than served to a guest. The beautifully soft, puffy crust showcases the quality of Letty’s dough. Its location also makes it a perfect stop before a game or concert at the Saddledome.
→ What to order. Start with the grilled cabbage ($17), one of the best cabbage dishes in the city, then order the Margherita pizza ($23) or the weekly feature.
Read full review → Letty Pizza
Noble Pie takes its pizza seriously. Just look to the open kitchen, where four chefs stand shoulder to shoulder, each focused intently on their craft. No reservations, so get on the waitlist!
→ What to order. The Magic Pie ($27/$37) is pure decadence. The fennel sausage was fatty and spicy with a hint of licorice, while the cream, basil, and fresh mozzarella brings even more richness to every bite.
Full review → Noble Pizza
The crust at Posto is a standout: thin and crunchy, yet still airy, with blistered bubbles that add texture and a subtle smokiness. More than a decade after opening, Posto continues to fire on all cylinders.
→ What to order: Ok…Ok ($26), the Velvet Underground ($25), and the Smoked Salmon Club ($28). Share the smoked salmon pizza, as it leans indulgent, layered with cultured cream cheese and thick slices of chilled smoked salmon.
Read full review → Posto Pizza
Quality is at the heart of everything here. From the dough to the garden-grown vegetables topping the pizzas, every ingredient is chosen with care. Fans of traditional Neapolitan pizza will feel right at home. You can pick up your order on weekends at the Killarney Community Association.
→ What to order: New Yorker ($15), Pepperoni ($17), Quattro Formaggi with Prosciutto ($23). All pizzas are personal-sized, making them ideal for one person. It’s important to note that Savino is about quality over quantity.
Read full review → Savino Pizzeria
🏆 Best Steakhouse
One of Calgary’s most iconic old-school dining rooms. Book a table in the main restaurant rather than the lounge, which can get quite loud.
→ What to order: Skip the steak sandwich and order a proper steak instead; the New York Strip ($58) and Ribeye ($64) are the better choices. For drinks, the wine-by-the-glass program isn’t the strongest value; you’ll generally do better sharing a bottle.
Full review → Caesar’s Steakhouse
Chairman’s Steakhouse
→ What to order: Wednesday special ($110 for two). Three courses: cheese toast, salad, 20 oz ribeye, sides, and cheesecake. Add the ruby port sauce to your steak. It takes 48 hours to prepare, creating a rich, concentrated flavour. I don’t usually order steak with sauce, but this one won me over.
Full review → Chairman’s Steakhouse
→ What to order: Order the Steak Frites ($39.95). The bavette steak is beautifully textured, with a charred exterior and ruby-red centre that delivers a juicy chew. A rich peppercorn glaze adds depth and just enough peppery bite to cut through the beef. The real surprise may be the fries: golden and impossibly light, with an ultra-crisp shell that gives way to a fluffy, whipped-potato interior. The French toast dessert is worthy of Michelin recognition.
Full review → Francine’s
🏆 Best Wine List
Consistently excellent service, a thoughtfully curated wine list featuring bottles rarely seen in local liquor stores, and chef-driven dishes that are a cut above. Visit during happy hour, offered from 2 to 5 p.m.
→ What to order: Burrata ($23), Crab Toast ($19) , and the Grilled Octopus Salad ($19).
Read full review → Bridgette Bar
Cassis Bistro
→ What to order: Mussels ($34), daily specials, and recommended wine pairings. Salt Spring Island mussels, some nearly oyster-sized, cooked right to that point where they go tender and almost custardy.
Full review → Cassis Bistro
A tight, high-energy room with a focus on shareable, vegetable-forward plates. Always packed, always buzzing. Make sure to book a reservation.
→ What to order: Charred Cabbage ($21), Tomatoes and Whipped Feta ($18), Arctic Char ($36), Butterscotch Pudding ($11).
Read full review → Where to eat in the Beltline / Victoria Park: Ten Foot Henry and Shelter
🏆 Best Vegetarian Restaurant
Padmanadi serves flavourful Indonesian-inspired vegan food in a bright, modern dining room. The extensive menu, generous portions and exceptional service make it an especially good choice for groups with both vegetarian and meat-eating diners.
→ What to order: Deep-Fried Tofu ($13), Curry Chicken ($22), Kwetiau Goreng ($19), Fried Enoki Mushrooms ($16) and Bean Curd Drumsticks ($13).
Read full review → Padmanadi
🏆 Best Catering in Calgary
Much more than a panini shop. The owners use fresh, whole ingredients and offer one of the city’s most customizable catering menus, making it easy to feed a crowd with different tastes, dietary needs and budgets.
Full review → Holy Grill
Charcuterie, cheese, and raclette when you don’t feel like leaving the house. Peasant Cheese makes entertaining easy with gorgeously assembled boards and quality ingredients sourced from France, Italy, and local producers. You’d likely spend more sourcing the ingredients yourself.
Full review → Peasant Cheese
→ What to order: The seafood fried rice, papaya shrimp salad, Vietnamese doughnuts and legendary pho are perennial favourites and a great place to start.
Full review → Pure Street Food
Not every night needs to cost a lot. For something more casual, see Cheap Eats in Calgary or go straight to Best Banh Mi in Calgary.
Hitting the Sauce 