Reader’s Garden Cafe - Calgary, Alberta

This was my second visit but I won't be going back since the same issues came up again. The food is fine, not stellar, but okay and the price point is affordable. The thing is that the service is absolutely terrible and the owner pushes back if you have a ... request and don't like something. Yesterday I ordered lemonade and it tasted funny. I asked my moms to try it and they both agreed that it was, for lack of a better term, unpleasant. When the owner came by for our order I very politely said the lemonade wasn't to my taste and I would just have water. He looked askance and said, "what's wrong with it? It's just lemons and sugar and water." Then, when I asked for my mom's burger to be cut in half, he again looked skeptical and said it was already cut in half (referring to the burger bun). Should I have to explain that my mom is 82 and can't hold an entire burger in her little hands? Finally, the service was almost non-existent. No one came to ask if we would like more coffee until way after the end of the meal and we had to ask for the bill twice. Yes, we left a tip, but only 10% because it simply wasn't worth more than that. Read more

3.5-4 overall. It's a very cute spot to have brunch/breakfast and it gets very packed. Reservations recommended or get there extra early. As quaint as the garden is and the house itself, the food itself was ok and in a smaller breakfast appropriate sizing (not bad but not standout ... unique either). Great service overall. The washroom is very unique and classic. There is a parking lot which you find at the base of the garden as you walk up to get to the house/restaurant . Read more

First off they need a disclaimer when booking as you need your running shoes if you’d like to go there. You have to take a hike to get there so definitely skip leg day the day you go. We booked for high tea unfortunately the waiter said we can’t have ... high tea and apparently it’s only once a month and it was the next day not the day we went. The service was a bit slow but the food was alright. The place is very cute and great for photo ops but you’ve been warned that they do not have parking by the place so you have to hike through a forest 😐 Read more

What a hidden gem. A hugely historic house in a location that you would never know it is there. The ambience will amaze you. The food was good but we were there for a quick bite so we didn't really give the menu a full challenge to amaze us. ... The brunch menu looked great and I will be back to try it. If you go, make sure to save at least 30 min to explore the gardens as that is a huge part of the experience. You could just go and visit the gardens but why deprive yourself of the opportunity to explore a long standing landmark restaurant. I am sure you will enjoy your visit. 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 overcooked and it was ... handled efficiently and we got our eggs done perfectly. Then half-way through the meal, we found a long piece of hair 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. It was rather long and she had to literally dig it out of her mouth. To which she completely lost her appetite and we waved a server over to show them the hair. It was just taken away and we felt like it was an extreme bother. They were short staff and nobody came over to acknowledge anything. Obviously at this point, our guest had no interest in a new meal. I saw the server grabbed 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. I understand they may have been busy, wishing hands and sanitizing is an important step. We were also told that nobody else that was 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 her meal. I was definitely disappointed with the SERVICE. Read more