Charbar

Our final wedding trip of the summer was to Calgary and fortunately, my mom and dad were willing to drive down to Calgary to spend some time visiting with me. While Byron

was out with the guys for the Bachelor Party, my mom, dad and I decided to head out to try a new restaurant.

To determine where to go I turned to my most trusted resource, Twitter. I sent out a tweet to some of my Edmonton food blogger friends who then got me in touch with some of their Calgary food blogger friends and before I knew it I had about 15 different restaurant suggestions. Sadly, we really only had time to try one, so I decided to go with Charbar since we’d had such a lovely meal at Charcut last October.

We started dinner indoors sitting at the bar where we got to watch some of the chefs at work while I enjoyed a cocktail called Smashed Up, which was made with El Jimador Tequila Blanco, Cointreau, Fresh Mint, Fresh Berries, Lime Juice and Citrus Syrup.

While we were at the bar, Chef Jessic Pelland came out to tell us a little bit about Charbar and to treat us to some delicious Blistered Provoleta with Charred Sourdough. As one would expect, the melted, gooey cheese was just heavenly and we gobbled it right up.

Once our table was ready, we headed outside to the patio right along the River Walk. It was an absolutely beautiful evening to eat el fresco with the heaters just taking the chill off.

Charbar has an excellent raw bar so I decided to try just a couple oysters to see how the stacked up and, no surprise, they were quite tasty.

Although Charbar had many tempting grilled meats on the menu, none of us felt like anything too big and once we saw a server walk past us with the burger there was no competition. The burger was made with 2 patties made from 7k Ranch Beef and topped with Provoleta Cheese, Crushed Avocado and Chorizo Bacon. The burger was delicious, all the flavours worked together perfectly and it was more than big enough for my mom and I to share. The fries were also incredibly tasty and that might have had a little something to do with the beef fat they were fried in.

We also ordered a couple of vegetable dishes to share between the 3 of us and they were outstanding. I am not usually one to rave about vegetables, but these sure were tasty. The Charred Napa Cabbage Salad was tossed with avocado, crunchy seeds, mint, and citrus and it was perfection. The flavours worked together beautiful, a wonderful mixture of sweet, salty and sour, and the I just loved the different textures of all of the ingredients.

We had a lovely evening at Charbar. The service was top-notch, the food was excellent and the restaurant itself is gorgeous. Charbar has also recently been listed as one of the Best New Restaurants in Canada, which is very well deserved. And as an Alberta Girl I’m always happy to see the Alberta food scene receiving the accolades it deserves.

Happy Monday!

Also, aren’t those blue plates just the best?!

Charbar
618 Confluence Way SE
Calgary, AB