To commemorate summer and all the lovely patios (I’m probably going to be missing any additional Calgary patio weather because we’ll be travelling for the next couple of weeks), I wanted to do one last restaurant post. It has been a great summer for enjoying the outdoors especially with a glass or rather a bottle of wine. We found ourselves down by 17th Avenue the other day and moseyed in to Tilted Grill since they’ve got a nice big patio. Plus, with all the food truck craze in the city, I was intrigued by their take on street food, restaurant style.
Atmosphere: Bright indoor dining room with a casual steak house feel. Great open patio with loungers and open fireplaces to keep you cozy.
Price Range: Mid $10s - $20s
Food and Wine: The concept of tilted grill is really quite unique, take interesting street food (which is huge on the foodie scene right now) and turn it in to something that can be featured in a restaurant. Seeing as I’ve been chasing all the food trucks in Calgary, it was only a matter of time before I visited Tilted Grill to see what their take was on street food.
For our appetizer we ordered the Tiger Shrimp Cake, which was inspired by southern Thailand. It had chunky prawn pieces mixed with shallots, ginger, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass with a drizzle of spicy curry sauce on top. The shrimp was moist and perfectly cooked with a nice tangy sweetness. The sauce was a nice complement to the shrimp and we were very pleased with the first dish.
Next were our entrée dishes, each came with a choice of sides ranging from homecut or yam fries to salads and rice. I decided on the Gogi Burrito (I heard good things about their Gogi Sliders) with a side of seasonal vegetables. The burrito was stuffed with Korean BBQ bulgogi styled steak, lettuce and rice (lots of it). I felt there wasn’t enough flavour in the burrito and it was lacking a sauce of some sort, overall it was a bit bland and dry. I ended up taking all the rice out of the burrito and eating it with the meat itself. I was slightly disappointed since I’ve been looking for a place that served Korean Mexican fusion for a while now. The seasonal veggies were a nice side though, a little greasy but very flavourful and bright!
My husband got the Veggie Pad Thai with additional Shrimp (or you can add chicken) and a house salad on the side. The pad thai was pretty traditional, noodles, egg, tofu, bok choy, roasted peanuts, bell peppers and red onions all tossed with a tamarind sauce. I had a couple bites after my husband complained that it was a bit too sour, which it was. There was too much tamarind paste used overpowering the dish. The side hoisin dipping sauce made it a bit better but it was really hard to get over the high acidic flavours. The shrimp however was again cooked very well. I think next time we go we’d probably stick to ordering the appetizers and call it a meal.
We could never end a meal without ordering dessert and since our meal has been mediocre so far, we really weren’t expecting much. Boy were we wrong! You have to try the Glazed Donut Satay dessert! If anything we’d come back for nothing but the dessert. It was that good. When they bring out the dish, you see two skewers of baked banana mini donuts topped with caramelized banana slices and served with a side of dark chocolate dipping sauce (we also added a scoop of ice cream, it should be mandatory in my opinion). My husband bit in to them before I could even cut in to my first one and he was blown away. I quickly followed suit. The donut literally melted in my mouth along with the flavours of cinnamon sugar and bananas…matches made in heaven. We could barely wait to take the next bite, each one better than the one before. When we were all done, we almost ordered another one. Had we not been so stuffed we probably would have!
We were luckily enough to get to the restaurant before 6pm that evening so it was still happy hour, which features all their wines at a 50% discount. We ordered a bottle of the Terrazas Malbec 2008. It is a deep crimson red wine, with notes of blackberries and plums. Medium to full bodied, it required a bit of aeration, but tasted delicious none the less.
My Picks: Glazed Donut Satay
Overall: There are always new food trends, whether it is al fresco dining, tapas or street food, it never gets boring or one noted. It’s great to see restaurants in Calgary embracing all of them and at Tilted Grill they take it to a different level where all of the above are covered. You can enjoy small fusion plates outdoors (or in) depending on what you feel like. A great concept and with a bit more tweaking I believe they can truly bring something new and different to Calgary.
Tilted Grill
1800 4 Street SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 229-3366
Website: http://www.tiltedgrill.ca/
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