Charcut Roast House

This place was recommended by a friend and turns out, my boyfriend had already eaten here (a somewhat pricey but 100% worth it dinner). I’ve heard it wasn’t the cheapest. However, I was also told about their $ 15 weekday lunch special and it is to die for. We came for lunch while I was in town and I’m still licking my fingers every time I think about it. This is a 3-​course lunch and insanely good. Everything tasted amazing and I can’t wait to come back again!

It looked nice, but we left shortly after we sat down as it was extremely loud.

I will admit before visiting Charcut I was nervous…
My dad picked this restaurant for his birthday dinner, and as a vegetarian Charcut «Roasthouse» didn’t entirely appeal to me.
This was the best meal I’ve ever had from start to finish at a restaurant to date.
Starters:
Brussel sprouts: fried in duck fat, seasoned with lemon and chili… I have no words, just order this.
Duck fat fries: so crispy, so soft and fluffy in the middle, the homemade «ketchup jam» is sweet and savoury, this is a must order.
Melted cheese & bread: mini brioche buns with melted cheese, creamy and savoury.
Arugula salad: arugula and mixed greens with a tangy acidic dressing, creamy white bean hummus and spicy peppers. So refreshing, something I will definitely be craving.
Dessert: salted caramel pudding, not something I thought I would enjoy but judging by it being gone within 30 seconds I’d say it’s pretty good. Reminded me of salted caramel crème brûlée.
Overall had an amazing experience here. Prices are high but I feel for the quality of service, execution, plating and seasoning it’s 100% worth it.
Can’t wait to come back!

I planned a date night for when I was home from work a couple weeks ago, and after wanting to go to Charcut for quite some time, we finally made a reservation and did it. We had an early reservation as we had tickets to a show after dinner. I had mentioned that when I called in to book it, and also mentioned that my fiancée was lactose intolerant, asking if they would allow menu changes.
We arrived and were promptly seated. Our server was Larae, and to our suprise she brought up the lactose allergy first thing and said they would make changes if necessary. I was a chef for 12 years, my fiancée was a cook for 6 years, we have gone out to eat a lot as well, and neither one of us had ever heard of or seen a server knowing that information ahead of being told at the table. Extra star for customer service, and we hadn’t even gotten water yet!
We ordered our wine, appetizers and entrees. Sitting there waiting for our food we looked around and took in the décor and atmosphere. Our type of place for sure! Relaxed feeling, casual, had the sense that the food would match the ambiance. Our appetizers arrived and we were off to a good start. Simple, clean, unfussy presentation and ingredients. Chelsea ordered the house made pickles which included carrot, jalapeño, beets and pickling cucumber. They were quite spicy with flavours of pickling spice. I had a bite of each and had the jalapeño to myself. I ordered the «bread and melted cheese» what could possibly go wrong there? Turns out nothing. It arrived as described, warm brioche buns and a hot pot of melted cheese. Needless to say, I didn’t share mine with my lactose intolerant fiancée, so I dipped away until there was nothing left, and it was amazing!
Entrees stole the show though! I had Bison brisket with wild boar bacon, served on creamy polenta and topped with sour cream. Oh… my… The meat was so tender, no fat, so flavourful. Boar bacon, do I even need to describe how good boar bacon is? No. Moving on. The polenta was cooked perfectly. I am a bit of a polenta snob as many people think that cooking cornmeal is hard to screw up, but I have had my fair share of disappointing polenta. This hit the mark. Creamy, great texture and flavour. The bison cooking juices and sour cream brought everything together. An amazing meal.
Chelsea has the quarter roasted chicken and roasted potatoes cooked in bacon fat and topped with wild boar bacon. She loved the dish, and even brought another serving home when she couldn’t finish it. The chicken was juicy and tender, not overcooked at all. I picked away at the bacon fat potatoes as well.
Overall an amazing meal, fantastic service, price was as I thought it would be, and worth every penny! We will be back!

This was my favourite meal throughout my whole trip to Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper.
Came here with my family at around 8pm on a weekday night and it was moderately busy. A nice formal ambiance was set with the candle lit dining room.
Our waiter provided tremendous help in navigating through the menu and ordering an appropriate amount of food for my family (5 ppl) — you generally just order a bunch of dishes and share.
After careful consideration and input from our waiter, we decided to order the escarole salad, arugula salad, Charcut board, 14oz of prime rib, and poutine. All of these dishes were fantastic, but my favourites were the prime rib and escarole salad. The prime rib definitely lived up to the hype — it’s very tender and served pre-​sliced. Also, the escarole salad was like the Ferrari of caesar salads. This amount of food was just right, if not a bit too much for my family of 5.
Charcut was among the most unique and tasty restaurants I’ve been to. If you’re ever in Calgary, this is a must-​go-​to restaurant.

Overall, food was pretty good. For starters we shared beet salad (where the goat chease tasted moslty like cream cheese, making the whole thing bland), the charred octopus (which was delicious, with the sausage and the two tomatoe sauce, making it the best meal of the whole experience), and the conserva tuna, which was very interesting, a good balance of sour and charred flavor.
We then shared the steak and chimichurri, which was worth the price without being crazy. The poutine, delicious though made very oily by the truffle oil. And the duck fat fried brussel sprouts, that were very flavorful though getting sour towards the end… Maybe too much vinegar. And we ended the meal with a very nice lemon tart, accompanied by a bland mascarpone ice cream (would have required something more.)
The service was nicely timed, never too fast, goving us time to drink the bottle of wine we got.
Though the waiter was explaining every meal to the last ingredient, sounding a bit akward, and even annoying at some point. Making sure he was the first to tell us about the plate, even if another waiter was serving it. He also made it clear he thought our choice of food was insufficent and made us weirdly uncomfortable.
I’m still giving 4 stars because the experience of a restaurant is not only about the service, and we got to give some credit to the guys in the kitchen, doing an amazing job.

We walked across the street from our hotel to this place and absolutely loved the experience! Good wine on tap (very sustainable) and incredible meats that can all be served family style which gives you a great opportunity to try several items. Love the fish and chicken with great smokey flavors and so moist!

Their sausage burger is truly incredible. And their deep fried marrow.
I don’t give it 5 stars because there’s an unknown element that makes you think they are not authentic enough. Maybe it is that the food, being so good and scrumption, does not match the executive feel it sports.

Charcut is our go-​to place if we want to dine with great food and awesome service. Their lunch service provides a full balanced meal with 2 price points and their dinner service has a slight difference in terms of the type of sides (served family style) — yet still phenomenal to say the least. In the past, Connie De Sousa comes around to say hi at your table but with having another restaurant at East Village we haven’t seen her much these past visits.
Charcut is great for meat eaters so if you are vegan, this is not the place for you. They do accommodate gluten free eating so just let them know.

The lunch specials are great! I have been here four or five times and always enjoy the sandwich combo for $ 15.00. They have different daily features all the time but you can count on it being quality food. The warm cookies to go are an added bonus!

Ehh… food was uninspiring… recommendation was that the roasted chicken was the star on the menu. I had it, not impressed, okay but a bit dry.
Also had a beet salad (okay, would get if I went back), poutine (tasty), believe a braised bison over polenta (best dish I had), and a wood plate with an assortment of meat (chimichurri — gross, and prime rib — pretty good actually).
Staff was attentive and accommodating. doubt I would return, if someone was picking up the bill I’d give it another try maybe…

This was a special trip out to Calgary/​Banff for my mum’s birthday. She rarely eats good steak, and so I wanted to take her somewhere nice! We decided to get two main entrees as well as their duck fat poutine. This specific poutine was something that I personally was looking for on this trip:
prime rib with onion rings and bone marrow
bison brisket served with mashed potatoes
duck fat poutine
Prime Rib with onion rings and bone marrow: by far the best prime rib that I’ve had. The marrow was exceedingly great as well, almost as good as having seared foie gras.
PROS
–perfectly cooked to order (we had it at a nice medium)
–super tender, juicy: my mom’s face was priceless
–definitely shareable for two eaters
CONS
–too much batter on the bone marrow. It was tasty, but after the first three bites, we ended up picking off the batter
–too much fried things in general when you add in the onion rings.
Bison Brisket with Mashed Potatoes
PROS
–ridiculously tender
–not overly seasoned so you can get the full flavor of the meat
–mashed potatoes was so creamy!
–those bacon bits were amazing: super crispy, almost no fat and shaved super thin. I want to say that they were prosciutto instead of bacon!
CONS
–none. Almost too filling if you get the poutine!
Duck fat Poutine: I am comparing this to the duck fat fries from Annabel Lees tavern in Baltimore, MD. THAT was some seriously good duck fat fries there.
PROS
–huge amount: definitely shareable for the table
–great gravy: I love gravy so this was just amazing
CONS
–not enough duck fat flavor
–worse: not enough cheese curds! I only saw ONE cheese curd on the top of my poutine. I know that the majority of the curds had melted, but seriously, I wanted nice chunks of cheese curds to chew on during my meal!
All in all though, I had a fantastic meal, and my mum was so happy and so wow’d by the food. Best of all was the service. It seemed like a fancy place but as we were on holiday with our main purpose of hiking in Banff, we only had jeans and sneakers to eat in. However, the staff still treated us like kings. Thank you for that :) it made my annual mum’s birthday meal extra awesome. Definitely would love to come again the next time I visit Calgary.

Loved the potatoes with bacon and sour cream, the steak was also very flavorful. One of the best I’ve tried. The octopus was very interesting, I liked the sauce with the sourdough bread that came with it. The oysters had a very peculiar taste, it was the first time my boyfriend tried it. He also tried rabbit for the first time, I don’t think he’ll try it again. The butterscotch dessert was delicious and the cheesecake was good! The customer service was also good and the ambience was nice.

Charcut Roast House was on the list of 100 Best Restaurant in Canada, looking through all the Unilocal pictures… I was determined to go here during my visit. My friend made a reservation for our party of seven about three days in advance and there were plenty of availabilities. Great decision! The prime rib was probably one of the best cooked piece of meat I’ve had in my life. Ohh, it was perfectly medium-​rare and juicy. All you needed was a little sprinkling of sea salt and nothing else because the natural beef flavor shined through. The only thing weird was that they pre-​cut our meat for us – even though my friend and I were sharing a 12 oz. cut, I wish they didn’t do that. We added the onion ring and marrow to the order, the onion rings were sweet and melted when you bit into it. I was expecting bone-​in marrow but it came fried, which was very interesting. You bite into a fritter-​like batter and the fattiness of the marrow runs out, I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not and concluded I didn’t because there was too much fried elements. Also had the duck fat poutine with an egg on top. The poutine was amazing, the melted cheese curds with the richness of the duck and gravy…*drooling*. My only gripe is that the $ 4 egg was overcooked. If you are going to charge us the same price as a carton of egg, please do it right. I want it soft-​proached that oozes over the top of the fries. I don’t normally eat more than 6 oz. of meat but I wanted more. I would definitely return in the future because I dream about that prime rib all the time.

Charcut is another one of those best restaurants in Canada, according to 100Best. The restaurant itself is located and attached to Hotel Germain right at the foot of the Calgary Tower, so it’s not hard to find. The interior is very nice and much of the patrons reflect that with their dress code. The menu offers up a variety of local options like bison, elk, duck, and such.
With a name like Charcut, its hard not to try the charcuterie board they had on the menu. The charcuterie comes as a half board or a full board. We ordered the half board and it came with a pleasant mix of meats. (We had to order bread on the side as it doesn’t come with). Though I dont remember them all, I recall a lot of pork. There was pork jerky, mortadella, chorizo sausage, pork terrine, and some crackers to help. The sausages and the jerky were real dry, but tasted pretty good. The mortadella was decent enough, but I was a big fan of the pork terrine. Though not as smooth as one hopes it to be, it had an awesome flavor and worked well with crackers and cheese.
I had the Bison Brisket with Wild Boar Bacon as my entrée. The girlfriend had the Butcher Steak Chimichurri with Arugula. The bison brisket is served on a bed of polenta with a tomato based sauce and sour cream. The wild boar bacon was very crispy and was good, but hard to discern from regular bacon. The brisket was tender and meaty and tasted just like beef. The sauce and polenta were a bit much as everything was too heavy for me to really finish. The steak chimichurri was too rare for my girlfriend to enjoy. The steak was overly chewy and the chimichurri sauce was too grassy. It overpowered the beef flavor and essentially turned a beautiful steak into a salad almost. Needed to have more acidity and spices.
The servers were friendly and the atmosphere was inviting. The place is huge and its nice to have a small view of the Calgary Tower while you eat. Despite the rave reviews, I thought Charcut was a tad disappointing. Maybe my expectations were way too high? Still a good meal though. Worth a visit.

I was fortunate the server was really knowledgeable with her craft and restaurant food. Otherwise I would of ordered everything wrong. The char cut board was worth the expense.
Poutine seem to be on every menu in Calgary.

Absolutely Fabulous Food — Average Service.
After we were finally seated 25 minutes after our reservation, our server, Zack, was mildly attentive and not relatable. I would expect a higher level of service from a restaurant of this caliber.
This was my first time dining at Charcut, yet we have stayed at Le Germain numerous times.
Guests at my table started off by trying the melted cheese and bread to start. Their reviews were not overly joyous however the rest of the meal blew us away.
I ordered the bison brisket which was probably the best dish I have had in years! The truffle poutine was a yummy gourmet spin on the traditional Montréal dish. As a side it was too much to add onto a entrée as one poutine for the table would have sufficed. Another guest at the table had the beet salad which she throughly enjoyed. To finish off dinner we had the French Toast Pie which I would highly recommend!
I would go back to give them another try as the dinner was unbelievable, but not without an email to the manager to make them aware of our level of service received and how it dampened our experience.

This place use to be a five star for me. Lately, I’ve been getting a few less than five star experiences. Having said that, on Stephen Ave, it is one of the better choices. The ambience will impress your out of town guests, the food isn’t your typical west coast cuisine that you find at chain restaurants.
My picks: dessert, poutine, charcuterie, soup, and lunch specials. The environment is lively and loud. If you are an out of towner, definitely give it a go. Make reservations as it is one of the most popular spots.

I haven’t actually had a sit-​down meal at Charcut yet, just takeout. My dad went for lunch there, and brought me some lunch the other day. Wow, it knocked my socks off!
The lunch menu changes regularly, which is pretty cool. I had the brussel sprouts cooked in duck fat, poutine, and the tomahawk pork chop. Seriously one of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time. Everything was cooked perfectly, and though the brussel sprouts were a bit on the salty side, they were still really flavorful. I’m a huge poutine fan, and their poutine definitely hit the mark. Simple, yet rich and tasty. The tomahawk chop was delicious, and was HUGE! Definitely a nice filling lunch!
When my dad was there, he said Chef Connie came by and asked how everything was. Super awesome when chefs do that, shows they really do care about their work and their customers. I look forward to having a sit down meal there, which I plan to have happen sometime soon.

I came here for a quick lunch with my Aunt on a friend’s recommendation and it was great! We both ordered the Alberta Prime Rib Sandwich and it was amazing! It came with a bowl of jus as well as a side of salad, parmesan fries or soup. I got the fries and yum! The lunch was huge and difficult to finish but we packed half the sandwich to go. Our server was super sweet and the whole huge meal was just $ 16 each plus tax and tip of course… A STEAL considering everything is made fresh in house! My only complaint is that the food could have been a tad hotter. If you’re downtown Calgary… Come eat here! Added bonus… sparkling water is complimentary!
Oh! I can’t believe I almost forgot… They also sell their fresh desserts to go in adorable little cups!