Starbelly

Excellent food, great service and ambiance! Have been for dinner and lunch several times.

This place is absolutely gorgeous! It reminds me of a beautiful French oyster bar. The seating is very comfortable.
We come here quite regularly with my grandma, who lives nearby. She loves the mac & cheese and chicken fingers. They are so yummy looking, and tastes gourmet.
My husband and I usually order the lox Benedict. This Benedict is probably the best you can got in town! Although, it’s weird that it comes with a salad… That’s the last thing I want for breakfast.
We’ve also had the lentil pie, which is unique and delicious. We’ve had the fish as well — it comes on a nice bed of grains, if I remember correctly.
I just wish, as preferring to eat vegetarian, that there were more options on the dinner menu…

This is a great little location with great food in the Deep South end of Calgary.
When you live out in the suburbs it’s often hard to find a great neighbourhood resturant that serves above average neighborhood food. One of the greatest things about them is that they have a great commitment to using fresh seasonal ingredients. They make most everything in house from pickles to curing the meat to making sauces. Chef Sobol is bringing great fresh outside the box foods that you would normally find in the trendy areas of town like Kensington or 17^th ave to all of us suburbanites.
The resturant is a nice open space with lots of windows and high ceilings. It has an open kitchen in the centre of the room where you can sit and watch all the action bar style. The main room is filled with many half booths with pillows and always fresh flowers on the tables.
The several times we have been here the food has been both innovative and delicious. The brunch menu is small but the quality is great although my husband was still a bit hungry after his order of hash as it was a bit small. I shared my eggs Benny with him and the smoked tomato jam was amazing! I also stopped here one day to order lunch to go and was pleasantly surprised to find that the sandwiches and burgers come with both fries and salad. Both the burger and the BLT were great.
We also attended an evening ticketed event here and where several resturant we have been to are unable to handle the influx of people during a ticketed event both the service and the food were excellent.
We will be back often and are looking forward to trying out all the seasonal menu items. As a side bonus, they also have buck a shuck oyster nights on Tuesday’s so you can indulge and not have to head into the core!

First time there and really enjoyed our dinner, will be back for sure. Thanks

Took my «Dining Babe» for her birthday to Starbelly in Seton. It was somewhat humerous as, upon arriving in the parking lot on a Monday in the early evening, I was not certain it was even open despite checking Unilocal for dining hours. I tentatively pulled the door. Thankfully it opened as I had no «plan B.»
We were seated by a hostess and had a minute to take in the scene before our server approached. The restaurant has an interesting set up where part of the kitchen is located centrally and combined with the bar. Seating at the bar is available as well. They also have a 70 person meeting room that is separate from the main part of the restaurant.
Since it was a birthday meal, we started off with a nice bottle of prosseco. The menu is succinct with appetizer section and a charcuterie section. We opted for oysters on the half shell. Our server offered east or west coast, recommending the east which we went with.
Mains are not what I would call typical which was refreshing. They still offer a burger and a steak nonetheless. Birthday chick ordered a leg of lamb and mash, while I went with the wild boar gnocchi. Meals took a little while to come out, which was nice as it gave us time to digest oysters and gaze into each other’s eyes…(sigh)
Meals arrived, hot and fresh. Portions were nicely presented and ample. Both meals were tasty. Gnocchi was light and moist. Wild boar was delicious. Lamb was very good as well. Next trip, lamb will be what I choose! We added a bottle of wine to make it an excellent meal.
I mentioned to the server that it was my omnivorous dining angel’s birthday and post-​meal, a beautiful piece of dark chocolate tart with a candle arrived (comp’d) which was a nice touch. While I did not have it, only witnessed it walk past, the Root Beer Doughnut looked amazing (this will follow the lamb on next visit).

Current Review:
I decided to give Starbelly another 2 visits.
1^st visit: everything was great. Service, and food.
2^nd visit: everything went 180 degrees to terrible. We asked to cancel our main course as it took an hour and a half to get out burger and pasta. Everyone in the restaurant looked angry. The manager offered to comp our meal and that was nice but not necessary. We were unfortunately already passed that stage. We will not be retuning.
Inconsistency is a major problem.
Previous review:
Major points:
1. Reservation was not upheld– we waited for 20 minutes, a group of 16. I have read other reviews that ran into same issue. This is unacceptable.
2. Dishonest wait staff– the tip was added and the server did not notify anyone of this aspect. The couple next to me double tipped. I know it’s written on the menu but we were split into 2 tables. It would have been the honest thing to do.
3. The server was knowledgable on the food product but no sense of urgency in bringing us the bill or being attentive to our drink re orders. 3 hours was our total dinner. Much too long, even with good company.
4. Food and atmosphere was very good.
Too bad as many restaurants aren’t able to execute #4. #1,2,3 can be fixed with better management.
I am willing to give it another try due to close proximity and nice feel.
I give it 3 stars based on the food and atmosphere. I don’t see many of the other 14 people at our table returning for a 2^nd visit.
Easily a 5 star restaurant if service improves.

Came for a Saturday brunch with a friend, wanted to stay local in the SE. The atmosphere was great and it looks like it could be a great place to check out at night.
We had simple eggs Benedict. It was okay, I had asked for it on tomatoes or spinach and it came plated on butter lettuce, which truthfully was just odd. Brunch was good, but nothing exceptional. I would have been eager to try their dinner menu, but we felt a bit rushed by the servers to leave, even though the place was empty. That kind of service didn’t leave me with the desire to hurry back or stay loyal to the SE.

Really nice modern restaurant. I had the pork chop which was perfectly cooked and delicious. The mash was well seasoned. Overall a good dining experience.

An above average modern restaurant in a bright, stylish space. We went for brunch and everyone was happy with their orders… from flatbreads to eggs Benny to gnocchi all the dishes had a twist in the classic interpretation through the use of fresher, vegetable forward flavours and clean stylish presentation. Notably great fries. The coffee was really good too. The big advantage of being out if the way (unless you’re going to the South Campus Hospital) is that you get a good hipsteresque brunch without a lineup.

Checked this place out for the first time for brunch yesterday. Brunching on weekends in Calgary can get a little scary so I made a reservation through Unilocal for 10am. It wasn’t necessary though as my wife and I were only one table of a few people ready to brunch at 10:00 when they opened.
We were greeted by the manager and sat in a half booth in the centre of the restaurant. The layout of the restaurant is interesting. The bar is in the centre with a partially open kitchen. The seating is mostly to one end with a glass walled private party room. The layout makes me think that there’s a lot of wasted space where they could fit in more tables, but on that note its nice that you aren’t crammed in shoulder to shoulder with everyone else dining if the restaurant were to be packed.
Our server seemed a little timid like maybe it was her first serving job and lacked that edge of confidence you find with more seasoned servers. That being said, she was great. She was on top of everything and our whole experience was flawless.
I had the «Standard Issue Breakfast». From reading the menu its your standard eggs, toast, bacon, potatoes, etc. but the actual meal is more elegant and well plated. The eggs were a touch over cooked, but the rest was great. I really enjoyed the sausage. my wife had the french toast. I couldn’t convince her to let me try it, but she said it was one of the better french toasts she’s had.
Our meal was just shy of $ 40 +tip for the two of us. About on par with other similar restaurants in the city for brunch.
Just as we had pulled out of the parking lot after our meal my wife realized she left her phone on the table. Before we even had a chance to turn around the manager was calling me to let me know the phone had been forgotten. Great service.
Review #1600

So husband and I went finally for a date night without our kids, we arrive to this restaurant with high hopes of a great time. The waitress ask is if we want to seat anywhere special, we say ‘any place quiet with two chairs and a table’ so obviously she thinks that right under the speaker it’s a quiet place, that was not great, I order a raspberry margarita, worst $ 10 dollars I spent in my life, I order lamp and my husband the chicken. Lamp was great but the chicken, you just can charge so much for leafs and a chicken wing on a big plate, that’s just not cool other money bad spent was the ‘wake up call’ coffee, it says it had raspberry syrup in it, I couldn’t taste any berry in it, I let the girl know this and her answer is ‘I saw the girl make it, she did put syrup in it’ and then walk away. So pretty much half of what we ordered suck and the other half was amazing but for half good experience we are not going back and deftly not recommending it.

Went for Sunday brunch with friends who live WAY down south. Saying this, cause if you live WAY north of Calgary, a drive down to the South Health Campus is a commitment. But these guys put on some good food, plus allow kids all times of the day, plus portions are good value for the price. Not sad I made the trek.
It is well decorated, bright and really big inside. Kind of country chic without being too pretentious. You can see everything that is going on in the kitchen and bar as the main room surrounds these. They have a large area in the back that can be blocked off for private parties or used as extra seating when they are busy. Really attractive looking room.
We were offered the breakfast menu and the lunch menu so gave everyone lots of options to choose from.
One couple shared the Flame Roasted Sour Dough Flatbread with duck confit, sautéed field onion, walnut basil pesto and a pile of goat cheese. Really tasty and we all got in on having a bite just to help them finish it off /​we really wanted a taste.
The boys both had Pastrami Hash which is a nice difference on regular pulled pork you find everywhere else. Chopped up smoked pastrami, peppers, tomatoes, cheese, potato hash, 2x sunnyside up eggs. Sure you would be able to ask for your eggs another way if you really wanted. Good size bowl. Both boys were fill when we were done.
The other 2 girls had the Traditional Benedict. Lovely toasted english muffin with thin sliced back bacon, rhubarb mustard jam, and burnt lemon hollandaise — mmmm so good! Came with potato hash and little green salad.
I got the Starbelly ‘Grilled’ Cheese — which in my excitement over grilled cheese assumed it was a sandwich. My bad! It was actually a 125g of oven baked brie cheese, topped with cranberries and walnut bits, crostini and local honey on the side. Both saddened it wasn’t a sandwich and really excited by the mountain of grilled cheese in front of me. Shared with everyone.
The manager came over shortly afterwards to see how everything was. Told him it was amazing but I wasn’t smart and assumed it was a sandwich, and wanted to order the traditional benedict too. I think this may have happened before at breakfast as he knew exactly what I meant and got my order in right away. Came back shortly after and said that my breakfast would be out in 10min. It was, and exactly as ordered. Manager came back a little later to make sure if everything was still ok. Great customer service!
We had a little one with us, and high chair wasn’t an issue. Server was very responsive when we asked for the bill in advance to make sure we were all paid in case he got fussy. Had a really lovely brunch and will be back. Like that they take reservations too!

Came to Calgary for work and stayed across the street at the Residence Inn. It was convenient to go across the street! With the cold weather you wanted something comforting and their Duck Confit flatbread & Risotto was the most amazing thing ever! I came back the very next day and ate again. Compliments to the Chef and the staff was really awesome and hospitable!

A Real Restaurant amongst Pretenders…
Starbelly could be the best restaurant to hit Calgary in a while. My wife and I went because we heard all about it and it did not disappoint. Yes, odd location but perhaps that’s the wave of the future for good restaurants. The menu is Chef crafted food with great flavours, simple ingredients that go together and each item has some real thought put into it. The wine list is terrific, the atmosphere is modern and eclectic but also comfortable. The service is amongst the most professional we have had in a while. You feel like your dinning in Chicago, or Toronto but its very cool when you walk outside and its your neighbourhood instead. This is a gem amongst junk like Earls and the rest of those want to be restaurants. Kudos to the owners and Chef, we love Starbelly and we will be back… may you flourish for years to come!

Starbelly has been on my list of restaurants to try for a while and I finally went last week. The restaurant is really big, spacious and chic. I was planning to try some of the more creative dishes on the menu but when I sat down I wanted a steak instead so I ordered the Ribeye. My partner in crime got the Farmhand burger. My steak was cooked perfectly and the burger was pretty good too. I really liked the fries it had the texture of ‘fish and chip’ fries. The service was good and i’ll go back to try the brunch.

Applewood fire-​grilled steak was delicious.
Root beer donuts are awesome simply put.
Service was good.

I do not write reviews usually, but my poor mother just brought it up again so I know this isn’t just a one-​off to be taken lightly.
We thought we’d treat our mom to starbelly for dinner on mothers day. We made reservations for 630. We live in willow park so this was quite a drive down for us but we enjoy trying new restaurants and concepts so we didn’t think much of the commute. When we got there the table slated for us was just having their dinner so they invited us to have some drinks at the bar while we wait. No big deal, I figured.
I admit, the wait did take a while but I did not look at my watch because I was enjoying the company of my family while we waited. Apparently my typically laid-​back mother was more on the ball. She claims she saw another family enter into the lobby and immediately get escorted to our table. She was not having it. After a discussion with the manager mom asked us to finish our drinks, we paid up and quickly left. It was now 7:10. 40 minutes past our reservation with no table and who knows how much longer of a wait to get food.
Driving back home mom admitted she felt we were discriminated because we are Asian, and that was why we were not given the table we reserved. That’s a pretty heavy accusation and I really want to believe it doesn’t happen much here, but maybe I’ve just been lucky most of my life not to experience it. I think it is more likely an inept hostess who maybe even forgot she put us at the bar (but wouldn’t she have noticed our name was still on the waiting list?!) Whatever the reason for the situation waiting 40 minutes past ones reservation without a followup is unacceptable. Especially since we had plans for after dinner.

Great atmosphere and captures essences of a downtown restaurant in suburbia.
Large dining area with room for small to large groups. The hostess to the servers are super friendly.
My first experience (group of 8) here was the atmosphere and food are above average. Server was super knowledgeable in providing reason why restaurant exist using local farming ingredients and nearly all items made in house.
The timing of the appetizers grilled cheese and drink top ups was great. The entrees of risotto and burger seriously took longer than any restaurant should take (order in 6:10pm and entrée out at 7:30).
Dessert was quick as we order donut with vanilla gelato and touch of brown sugar.
Server was apologetic in length of time for food to come out.
This is reason why I only can give this place my current rating.

I was so excited for this place to open, being in my new neighbourhood and all. We decided to go on my birthday… Mistake.
We arrived around 8PM and I have to say when we walked in I expected it to be more dim lit. The light seemed kind of harsh to me for that time of night. Anyways, we get seated without a problem but two tables over are screaming toddlers at a table with balloons, (birthday twinsies? cool. whiney wandering children? Not so much) I mention whiney because one of their children kept walking around screaming and going straight into the bar area which was right by our table. real nice.
So right away the ambience wasn’t great, then our server came over. I think she must have been very green to the hospitality scene because she wasn’t quite on it. We asked immediately for a bottle of wine to start (since it was about 10 min wait till she came over initially) and I had to ask her when she came back to take our order where our bottle was about another 10 minutes later.
When she did come over to take our order, we asked her a few questions on the menu (Size of dishes, personal preferences, flavours, etc.) and she couldn’t answer even what was on their charcuterie only that it has «some nuts and meat» great. thanks.
We ended up ordering the mussels, charcuterie and scallops… we asked her, if we are hungry will this feed us? «oh yes, this is a lot of food» she says.
Yeah… when the food arrives I could have crushed it all myself in a single sitting. The charcuterie was one of the saddest little presentations I’ve seen in a long time with about 6 slices of meat, 6 crostini’s and pine nuts with roasted garlic and some jelly. Mussels were nice, they had an east Indian flair but I also thought it was on the small side. Scallops… meh.
There was no quality check after we received our food except to come and retrieve the plates and I’m not sure about this establishment but usually when we order a bottle of wine your server comes by to pour, but we ended up just pouring ourselves.
Overall our service was bad, food mediocre, ambience bad, and the prices did not match up to any of the quality. I am always happy to pay for a good experience, especially regarding food, but this… urg. I hope it gets better because as it stands now, I see this as a «been there, done that»

How come I haven’t reviewed Starbelly yet? It opened on Nov. 25 and since then I’ve been back seven times…
I love the open, bright space and the soothing décor. I especially love the copper accents and open style kitchen with it’s wood fired grill front and centre. The chefs know me now and always wave hi when I come in for a meal.
And I LOVE that it is nearby in my quadrant of the city and that I don’t have to schlep all the way downtown to have my socks rocked with delicious food.
Whether by myself or visiting with my family I’ve had a good chance to peruse the entire menu. Some items are outstanding, some need a little work but all have imagination and are filled with delicious house made ingredients like cured bacon, pastrami, and duck prosciutto.
Some standout dishes that I absolutely loved: For lunch the Beef Pastrami Sandwich with Habanero Red Cherry Pepper Jelly and Aged Cheddar.
For Dinner: Roasted Mushroom Risotto (which was the risotto of the day feature), Bourbon Honey Glazed Baby Back Ribs, Grilled Country Burger and THOSE FRIES!!!
For Brunch: The Monte Cristo was outstanding.
They also have a full bar with some decent cocktails and their very own Big Rock brew called ‘Starbrew’.
Chef Trevor has a vision for Starbelly. He wants to serve gourmet rustic food with no pretensions, just flavour. If you haven’t been to Starbelly yet, don’t let the deep SE location deter you… it’s worth the drive.
I’m already looking forward to my next visit… which is apparently on Monday!

Ah suburbia… where we have an abundance of minivans, stick figure families, soccer fields and franchises. So when we are promised a new fine dining experience that is set to open in summer of 2014, I think its safe to say that the inner hipster foodie in all of us gets really excited.
I know clocks are all different — I think of summer as July and August although technically it runs from June 20 to September 21 (give or take a day or two depending on who you’re talking to). When Starbelly still hadn’t opened in October, I figured we were in the long summer but was worried that winter was coming.
Alas! the end of November the doors were opened and we were excited to make time in our busy schedules to enjoy this fine dining experience. Except our server was in jeans — even the girls serving at the pub make the effort under the guise of Lulus to dress up! The server asked me if tap water was okay. I’m not a snob, so it was. Although, she could have just asked if I wanted a glass of water and I wouldn’t have remembered the direct distinction that it was tap.
This all doesn’t even matter if I hadn’t been charged $ 22 for the most boring and bland risotto I have ever had. And the hamburger that they brag about on their facebook page? My husband was so disappointed he wanted to walk over to fatburger where they understand hamburgers.
Here the thing — Starbelly’s menu is part of this trend of family style serving. Which is fun (hey Mercato, you rule at this PS) and works, but your server should tell you this. Especially at a new restaurant, my guess is 90% of the people in there are there for the first time and would like to know how the menu works. Maybe I wouldn’t have found the risotto so boring if I had paired it along with other dishes. Maybe I wouldn’t still be balking at the $ 22 price tag of what is essentially rice (it would also be nice had the pricing for that dish been mentioned when I ordered it, i understand it was the chef’s «special,» but even a ballpark).
Unfortunately, I was hoping they could redeem themselves with brunch, but the reviews online aren’t promising. And although the décor of country kitchen could have worked in a fine dining establishment, I really hated sitting under the chairs hanging on the wall. Unnerved me for most of the meal.
We won’t be back and are awaiting eagerly for the promise of the restaurants opening in the hotels.