The Palomino Smokehouse

Not the same «country» atmosphere I remembered from years ago but the food and service are still awesome!

I went to the Palomino for lunch & it was totally packed. I think I got the last seat in the house. Service was prompt & friendly, I got my drink right away. Prices were reasonable. However, probably due to how busy it was, the food took almost an hour to arrive.
When the food did come, it was delicious. The yam soup was pleasantly spicy, the greens were varied & interesting and the Palomino cheesesteak was so far beyond the pale excuses you often see for a cheesesteak sandwich. The BBQ meat was top-​notch, moist & flavourful, while the toppings were excellent.
A great place to come when it’s not too busy.

Come here regularly for lunch, and recently made a first time visit with wife for dinner. Best southern American BBQ restaurant in Calgary. Haven’t been here for music yet but I’ve heard good things; there is a basement with a huge stage and performing center. The food is delicious, staff friendly and lots of good beer on taps. I took off a star for the price; it’s very pricey compared to US BBQ joints.

I have eaten at The Palomino a few times and it has always been with a group of friends. We have ordered «The Fat Ass platter». This is great to share with a group of 4 or 5 and everybody will be full and will have gained a few pounds too. Greasy but good, sums it up!
The Patio has a good vibe during the hot summer evenings.
Beware they ID everybody on the weekends even if you are in your forties.

A big disappointment, the cooks obviously have limited knowledge of real smoked bbq and no pride of what it is they serve. Our waitress was friendly but the food was a disgrace.
The ribs were dry as well as the brisket that was served cold. The sides or «fixings» were sloppy and lacked soul.
This restaurant has an open kitchen that allows clientele to have a view on the cooks as they work. Clearly the standards are low and the kitchen personnel lacks experience, pride and energy.

Visiting Calgary for the first time found this place in a hotel magazine. Setting is a bit old and dusty we ordered a couple of burgers, brisket and ribs, the burgers were ok the buns were cold ;(the corn wrapped in bacon seemed like a good idea but it felt short. Anyways don’t think I would come back .
Service was good, waitress was very nice.

Great staff. This is a very casual bar with great energy. Immediately inside you have a feeling of comfort. Live music, great beer selections and BBQ.
I ordered a local steamwhistle beer to start off the meal.
The food was excellent: I chose the 2 meat special with 2 sides. Ribs, brisket, bacon wrapped corn and smoked beans. What a great combo the brisket was a tender, perfectly smoked piece of meat, ribs are crispy on the outside and tender In the middle, no sauce needed. The bacon wrapped corn was perfect with each bite, firm and tender. The beans cooked In house each day are a perfect combination of smoke and sweet.
Enjoyed my visit. Great meal!

Wow! This place is amazing. A great smokehouse. Wonderful prices amazing service and great poutine! I live in New York City so when I’m in Calgary I run around to all the places serving poutine. Probably the best I have had (I eat this stuff daily when I’m here) they have live music although I came during lunch so no music but the bar has a very western look and feel. Make sure you come by this spot. Well worth it! The plates are very big. So come hungry

A friend of mine went here and we split the Palomino Fat Ass Platter (For 4)
$ 69. Yes, there was just two of us and we finished it all (my friend is a big guy). We were royally stuffed. Everything was good. However, I’d have to say I wasn’t too impressed with the chicken. I felt the chicken was a bit on the dry side (even the dark meat was dry).
The Palomino is a staple in the area and hosts bands/​DJ performances. A great place to bring someone from out of town to give them a taste of how Calgary does BBQ.

Great spot for happy hour beers and good BBQ.
On this visit I had the beef brisket with my two favourite sides: the bacon wrapped corn and garlic fries. The beef was tender and savory and I loved the selection of five BBQ sauces at the table.
As a word of warning, don’t get the garlic fries if you have any important meetings or dates later on. While delicious, you will be forced to remember the pungunt garlic flavour the rest of teh day.

I really don’t know how this place got so many stars for a rating. It’s lucky it got 2 stars from me…
I had called to make a reservation for 10 people on a Saturday night at 8pm. No problem there. However, the section we were in were all small round tables, and it was so dark, that it was impossible to see the menus. Good thing we have flashlights on our cell phones.
The service was sub-​par, if you want to call it that. It took a while for us to even be greeted by anyone, let alone make a drink order.
The menu looked decently good. As a Barbecue place, and with pretty good reviews on Unilocal,I had high hopes. Boy was I disappointed.
My husband and I ordered deep fried pickles. They were actually really good, but definitely not house made. No worries, they were really good. My sister in law ordered some nachos for sharing, and it came with a side of chicken, and a side of baked beans. They were also really good!
Just before we were ready to order (which was an hour after we had arrived) the computer system went down. Oooookay.
As for the food: 3 of us had ordered ribs. One person didn’t eat them because they were so dry, one person sent them back because they were so burnt, and they completely messed up my order. How can you mess up a half rack of ribs, slaw, and baked beans is beyond me, but it was at LEAST 10 minutes before my food came. The ribs were hot, but they were super dry. The beans and the slaw were the best part.
My husband had a double burger. He said it was tasty, but again, it was really dry.
The corn bread was a complete write off. I picked it up and was shocked at how heavy and hard it was. The taste of it was sweet and had some jalapeño. However, you had to chew it, and chase it with a drink because it was so dense and so dry, that it sucked up all the saliva in your mouth.
My sister in law had the chicken, and she said «well, it was good, once I removed the burnt part». I guess she didn’t see it, because it was so dark.
My other two sisters in law had the pulled pork sandwich. Guess what it was. Dryyyyyy. I don’t even think it had sauce!
Brother in law had the catfish po’boy. Not sure if he even ate the whole thing.
Not sure what the rest of my party ordered, as I didn’t hear much in regards to the main dishes.
The general consensus was that the sides were the best. Knowing this, we would have just gotten the Side Car, which was 4 sides. The slaw, the beans, the garlic fries (oh wow, those were good) and the bacon wrapped corn on the cob.
Maybe it was just a bad night but I don’t think I would come back, or recommend this place…
Everyone else agreed we should have went somewhere else too… Sad but I guess now we know.
At least the football game was on, and the Eskimo’s won…

This is the type of place I just love! No froo-​froo fancy décor to lure you inside. Just a dark hole in the wall you might just walk on by. But don’t do that, because it’s actually pretty great!
4 of us ordered the «fat ass» platter to share for $ 68. It included ribs, pulled pork, brisket, sausage, and chicken. The sides included were sweet potato mash, potato salad, coleslaw, sweetened apples, and bacon wrapped corn on the cob. I added the mac’n’cheese and cornbread. It was a good sign when the waiter contemplated moving us to a larger table.
The food was respectable. It’s no the best BBQ I’ve had, but it is one of the better ones around here (not in southern U.S.). Everyone really like the sausage. The pulled pork was probably the best item. My least favourite was the cornbread. It was pretty dry.
Our server was super nice. The décor is unique. The lighting is quite dark… I used the light on my phone to see what was on the platter. But it’s a great place. Seems like it might get rowdy later at night.
And a huge THANKS to the bouncer at the door for id’ing us lol.

Children not welcome for dinner. That would have been nice to know when I made a reservation for 10 on a Saturday night. Instead, we only found out when we showed up at 7pm. Needless to say, finding last minute alternate arrangements for 10 is not easy.
A noisy bbq joint sounds like a great place for a large family dinner but apparently their liquor license does not allow minors after 4pm. This should be abundantly clear on the website as well as on the phone when making a reservation.

Great place that I visited on a weekend trip to downtown Calgary. Excellent brunch options and the décor was fascinating. Staff were friendly but I have to say service was unusually slow. For a place that has only four tables taken up on a Sunday afternoon, I didn’t expect to wait up to 20 minutes to be attended to, followed by a close to 40 minute wait for food. When it did arrive I was quite satisfied, but was already in an off mood. I can’t say I’ll return since I don’t live in Calgary, but I’m sure it does better as a night time venue for drinks based on other reviews.

BBQ is about as specific and varied as the people’s opinions about it.
I had the brisket, which is sort of like the orange chicken, or pad thai is to Chinese or Thai places in terms of a litmus test.
It was good. Not amazing, but not dry and chewy, so I was happy.
The Q was served with bottles of mustard and three different sauces, in addition to ketchup. Wow. So many choices. I had to try them all! And… all were good for different reasons. One spicy, one vinegary, one tomato-​e. I like selection. The coleslaw was meh, and the garlic fries were okay, though the addition of some ketchup and BBQ sauce went a long way to make them better.
I can tell this place get noisy and crazy at night and I imagine that the crowd can vary quite a bit depending.
That being said, it was nearly dead when i went in, a random assortment of country-​ish music playing and limited server support.
Service was slow, but I was not in a rush so that’s okay.
The craft beer selection was okay, more domestic than craft, but a few winners on the list including Big Rocks Traditional which I thought was wonderful.
This is a good spot for loud groups and live music, though I would not want to hang out here for just a random beer or snack.

Although it smells like smokehouse heaven walking in, the bbq left me wanting more. Big space, cool scene, so a good place to drink, but food is mediocre.
Monday is apparently all you can eat rib night, for $ 20. Unfortunately the ribs were tough, and needed a few more hours to really be properly cooked. Sausage was terrible according to my Texas-​based colleague. Brisket was a 7/​10, with a good smoke and decent crust, but cut a bit too thick to have the perfect consistency. Chicken was also a 7/​10, with good skin but more pigeon-​sized than chicken.
Beer is solid, with 20oz glasses and a decent selection by Canada standards. Skip the wine.
I don’t have any other BBQ /​smokehouse experience in Canada to compare this to, so maybe it’s good by local standards. If that’s the case, get yourself to TX /​NC /​TN soon.

I’ve been to the Palomino about once a month. Service is always good. Food is consistent. And considering you’re about 1 block away from Stephen Ave, the prices are reasonable.
My picks: poutine, fried pickles, garlic fries with a side of aioli, caesar and the burger. My only qualm is that I don’t like any of the wines due to limited selection and they won’t do corkage. I’d be happy to pay $ 20 or $ 25 to BYOB, but instead, I have to chug down something I don’t like.

I have visited this establishment several times pre-​Yelp. It is hard to beat the character of this place — rusty nails holding a window in place, spider webs in the corners of same window, the aged (pronounced ay-​jed) furniture. Then there is the food! Our group of five enjoyed brisket, ribs and a philly sandwich. All awesome! Deep fried pickles were a treat. Our server was friendly and helpful. This is not a complaint, but I don’t quite get why it seemed to take a long time to get a beer. Regardless, they were cold and refreshing! Calgary has a couple BBQ places and this place is definitely one of the best! I recommend Big T’s and Holy Smoke as well.

While visiting YYC, friends suggested this place for some good ol BBQ in a very Calgarian atmosphere/​setting.
As a group, we ordered the ‘Palomino Fat Ass Platter’, full rack of ribs, deep dish mac and cheese and nachos.
The Fat Ass Platter is a must if you got a group. You get a little bit of everything. My favorite was the brisket. I could have had more of that. The mac and cheese was also very delicious. But, I could have gone without the Nachos, as it was only ok.
The bartender was awesome. He ended up making drinks for us that were not on the menu, including my first ‘Calgary Fire’!

Delicious southern bbq! Awesome wait staff greeted me and gave me recommendations whne I asked for takeout. Got the beef brisket and ribs, and had the bacon wrapped corn and yam potato mash as aides. Generous portions and tasty, the only thing that is missing to bump this up to a five star would he that the brisket was a little dry, but overall still very tasty. Would highly recommend the corn but might pass on the mash next time and go with another side. Will return!
Ps protip ask for extra bbq sauce to go if you’re ordering takeout. Pretty bomb sauce.