King’s Head Pub & Restaurant

Places has live music a lot which is awesome! Had wings anytime I’ve been which aren’t the best and pretty bland, the service here is ver sub par.

everytime I come here, seems like a new set of staff. and this time they are not too bright. switch to 2 table to find the cleanest one, and still wasn’t clean. she even looked at it like she wanted to clean it. but instead cleaned the one next to me. when my meal came, some guy in a Canadian tuxedo brought them and promptly said here you go sir, I’m 5’8, long brown hair, and clearly have boobs. this is just a example of being a robot in the food and drink industry. rush to get the cutomer out, sad part it wasn’t even busy. wings were good as always though.

Always a good time here, only on the weekends! The bands they have are really entertaining!
Their wing nights are ridiculous though– always too busy and the staff are ignorant. The lemon pepper and the greek wings were just plain with seasoning dumped on top. How hard is it to make chicken wings?
Sometimes I go in for a glass of wine after work and I feel judged for sitting alone.
I am only going there if a band is on and all I wanna do is dance :)

What makes a great pub?
Is it great food? Cheap beer? Great atmosphere? Good music?
Well, The King’s Head has only one of those, so let’s not worry about that so much.
It’s true, the beer is relatively cheap in comparison to pubs that people actually want to go to, and it’s true, that’s one of the only reasons to stop in.
In the mood for wings? Try wing night! Think of it like wussian woulette (a play on Russian roulette where the Rs have been… because wings… you get it), where you’ll pay mere dimes per wing, but you never know what you’ll get! Will they be cooked but cold? Hot but magically raw in the middle? The right sauce? The wrong sauce? No sauce at al?! Ah, just thinking of it brings me back. Exciting times indeed.
Their previously frozen appetisers exist in the «safe» zone of edibles, give them a try! Fried pickles, fried macaroni, a block of caramel covered popcorn, et al.
If there’s one piece of advice I can offer from the bottom of my heart?
Avoid the bathroom. The body can eject large amounts of waste from three orifices, and you’re bound to find one of those ejections somewhere it doesn’t belong.

this bar is great. Friendly staff and 5 and the people are cool as hell. i didn’t have the food but its a pub don’t expect gourmet but awesome pub food that adds to your smile. Great beers and a stool with a back so you don’t fall off when you are laughing and having a great time.

I paid King’s Head a visit for the first time a few weeks ago. I know people who come here regularly and they’ve all had good things to say about the live music, which is the primary reason they continue to be loyal patrons.
The night I was here they were showing UFC, so the place was packed and I grabbed the last table. I was happy to see that the crowd was primarily 25+ because as a women pushing late 30’s, I don’t appreciate feeling like a grandma when I’m out on the town. The bar was surprisingly clean, including the women’s restroom, but I was told by my friend that the men’s room was a pukey disaster. Service at the table was limited and our entire party had to rely on getting most drinks from the bar.
My overall rating is higher because the live band that played later in the evening was stellar. I haven’t danced that much in ages and the floor was always full. I’d say that your focus on going to King’s Head should be for the music only, as it was awesome entertainment and I’m excited to go back just to see another band. If the quality is consistent, kudos to Kings Head for putting in the effort and paying the bucks to good bands that deserve to play to a lively, yet relatively mature crowd.
Don’t get me wrong, older men turn into drunk and annoying idiots too, but at least they’re less likely to get into a fistfight or stab someone. I felt safe at all times and will definitely return.

The staff here is unbelievable. Every single time I walk in the door I feel like I am welcome here– way off from most bars in the city. Everyone from the managers, bartenders, doormen and ba’s are always working their butts off to make sure everyone is having a good time. The live music is always top notch and the place is always clean, no matter how busy they are. If you have a bad time here, you probably are the problem or caught them on a bad day (which we all have). They are one of the few bars that are consistently amazing thanks to all the awesome people that work there.

Horrible experience. Terrible service, «pints» were 12 oz, yet the same as you’d pay elsewhere for a real pint, food took forever and staff all looked depressed. First and last visit. And even though the review is today, this didn’t happen during the Stampede, and in fact happened a couple of months ago.

Awful service. Bar was dead but it took almost ½ hour for drinks. Menus were sticky and slammed on our table.

Went once with friends for wings, and as other reviews have said, they’re cheap for a reason, I wasn’t impressed. This review would have been lower if I left it then.
However I recently went back around mid-​afternoon, when it was MUCH quieter, and had a fairly nice time. The service was extremely slow, even when there were only three other tables filled in the entire place, and the waitress acted like she really didn’t want to be waiting on us the entire time. However the atmosphere and the non-​wing food itself was pretty fantastic, and made up for it.

We went here on St. Patrick’s Day, a friend suggested we meet up there. I had been here about 10 years ago and remember it being a nice pub we could sit and have a beer and some food. This time, it was transformed into nightclub style, with a band, dance floor, and lots of people standing. I’m not sure if this was just for St. Patrick’s Day or if this was their new style?
Okay, I was hoping that we would be able to sit, talk, and have some wings, but that was definitely not happening! We had to stalk people to find a table, then the waitress took forever to get our drinks (which were watered down). The bathroom was very dirty, with blood on the floor… gross! I was very disappointed with everything and don’t think I will be going back there again.

I went here on wing night, the wings werent the best, but they’re cheap so whatever… The drinks… Yet again, not worth as much as they charge, I found the pop was really flat… I stuck around and got sorta drunk running towards the end of the night (like 2am). And we were among the last to leave… This is where things went downhill. There’s myself, my friend and a group of skinheads who apparently seem to know people who work there or something… they approached me and asked if I was interested in having relations with not just one of them but ALL of them. I left the bar and they followed me to my car… I was extremely uncomfortable and because of this last experience, I will never go back. And yes, I know that has nothing to do with the pub itself, just a warning to other women that if this is the tye of clientelle going there. Count me out! (didnt rate the pub on this, just on the wings beer and service)

We sit down on wing night. Waitress bland and bureaucratic. I get a well drink costing me $ 5 or something.
As it was Wednesday, wings were 9 cents each. Decent size for 9 cents. We got mango chipotle, salt+peppah, and Jamaican jerk chicken. Waitress eventually relaxed and smiled when I stopped acting bland and bureaucratic back.
The mango chipotle didn’t taste like mango, but had chipotle flavored salt applied to it. Salt+pepper wings were just breaded wings. The jerk wings were fucking horrendous if you know what proper jerk chicken tastes like.
Good value as it was only 9 cents each, but, really? Chipotle flavored salt?

The atmosphere in this pub gives off a very local vibe. It’s definitely a place I don’t mind getting dragged into for a weekday beer and wing night.
Their beer selection is what you would commonly find as well as their wing special prices are competitive. The wings are tasty and will certainly satisfy your grease quota with it’s fatty deliciousness.
They used to have a blues jam session here years ago every Thursday night. It’s been a while since I went but I remember those nights. Nothing like working a hard day and kicking the boots back to some ol Johnny B (I think that was the bands name). Also the place is filled with TV screens convenient for watching sports games, go *insert favored team name*

Definitely had some fond memories here particularly blues nights with Kenny M. and Gabe A. but recently I find myself at the King’s Head only to pacify my weekly need of cheap chicken wings. (For the wings fans out there, the wings here are… lets just say they are 9 cents for a reason. But that usually doesn’t stop me from ordering 4 baskets lol. A good complement to the wings I find is a pint of Canadian)
As for the pub, it is dark drab place frequented by rowdy patrons, which is just the way I like my Calgary pubs! From my experience the service has been fairly adequate, at times slow and at times very attentive. At peak hours the King’s Head does get busy but one should have no problem finding a seat (that in itself is worth one star!). The menu is pretty standard with all things salt and fat to be washed down our gullets while playing some pool or taking in a live band.
All in all this place is a sold 3 stars… see you at Wing Night!

My experience with the King’s Head has two eras: from 2005-​06 I would frequently come on Thursday nights with my friends for the blues night, where a lot of local talent would come play, and the headliner would be Johnny V, a grizzled bluesman singing of love and loss and pain. He was a fiery performer: I remember he cussed out his drummer, Tex, because Tex couldn’t lay down a sizzling ²⁄₄ country stomp. «Dag-​nab it Tex, boom chick, boom chick!» he would shout! And of course Tex, old as Father Time himself, would look befuddled and struggle for a little, then JV would half-​jokingly call for a new drummer. The beer would flow freely, and the night would last until about midnight.
The second era has been the last few months: my friends and I usually come down on Wednesday for 9 cent wings and pitchers of Canadian. As far as I’m concerned, Canadian is a standard beer that is strictly middle-​of-​the-​road, and merits no special award, but the wings are almost always hit-​or-​miss. We’ve had really juicy, smothered wings, and we’ve also had dried out bits of turd sprinkled with a drop of hot sauce. They make for a good conversation piece either way.
A sidenote: this past month, my future clone was at the bar. Erick, Andy and I were discussing a possible excursion to Mexico this summer, and the sight of my future clone threw the discussion into a tailspin: was «I» there to warn us about the trip and a possible disaster? Anyway, I never did ask my future clone what he was doing there, so here’s hoping for the best!

This is probably my most visited pub in Calgary. Then why do I not rate it higher you may ask? Because I believe that no matter what I think of a place, accountability is huge.
With that being said, it does have it’s charms. The staff is friendly albeit slow at times (depending on who you get), the food is actually decent for a pub, and the prices are always reasonable. They show Flames games and you need to get there early on UFC nights.
As for the down side, I’m not a huge fan of their live bands. As well, it can get busy on the weekends and I’ve never been a fan for lining up to get into a pub.

This place sure gets busy on the weekend. We came for a friends bday party, and arrived around 7:30…Flames game was on the large projector screen.
Not a whole lot of tvs, could use more. Waitress was a little slow at times.
There was a band getting set up to play as we were leaving, someone commented it gets really loud when bands play, almost too loud.

I was in Calgary to speak at an internet conference right across the street from this place. So while in town, I dropped in twice. The first time was a quiet Wednesday evening. The second time was Saint Patrick’s Day.
The first visit was nice. The place is very relaxed, the food was tasty and affordable, and the beer was cold. All told, I would give it 4 stars.
The second visit was CRAZY. The place was packed with 80% guys and it was near impossible to get a drink. There were empty drink glasses and beer bottles everywhere and the bathrooms were a complete disaster. Yes, I know. Saint Patrick’s Day deserves nothing less, but I thought they should’ve easily had three or four more servers or bartenders on to help keep the place somewhat respectable. I’d give my second visit 2 stars.
So … I’m giving it the average of the two … 3 stars. Cheers.

Not sure why this is such a popular place. It dingy and dirty and it’s a rougher crowd on many nights. Next please!