| If you’re looking to take your out-of-town guest to an expensive restaurant with an exquisite view of the city, then the Calgary Tower’s Panorama Room is the perfect place.
But the general criticisms of my 190.8-metre-high dinner are not unique to the Calgary Tower. The same can be said about Seattle’s Space Needle, Vancouver’s Harbour Centre Tower, Toronto’s CN Tower and Quebec City’s Loews Concorde Hotel. After you get over the initial motion sickness – the tower makes a full rotation every hour – you settle in to enjoy the sensational 360-degree view, but halfway through the meal, you realize you’re eating at the pinnacle of tourist traps.
I must admit I was surprised to find the restaurant packed at 7:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. In addition to tables filled with visiting friends and family, there was a large office party as well as a couple of birthday celebrations. Granted, because the narrow, circular floor space doesn’t allow for scattered seating, the restaurant tends to pack you in like cattle.
Our table was small and simple, while right beside us, as well as just around the corner, were two enviable – and empty – semi-circular, leather-cushioned booths. However, our request to move to these tables was denied for one reason or another. Admittedly, I’m a table snob (ask any of my friends, who repeatedly put up with me moving to a better table), so I wish I had been given the choice of booth or table when I made the reservation.
Chef Philip Gomes, formerly of La Caille, joined the Panorama Room in June 2003 and since then the restaurant has launched a promotional campaign heralding its new menu. Previously featuring continental cuisine, the menu now offers the best of Canada’s regional cuisine, notably steamed P.E.I. mussels, Atlantic salmon, pan-seared Quebec foie gras and Alberta prime rib. An enticing appetizer for two is the Rocky Mountain, Air and Sea ($19) with air-dried buffalo, chimney sticks (pork sausage), sliced prosciutto, wild berry chutney, Indian candied smoked salmon, and grilled shrimp and scallops with dill and mustard mayonnaise.
I selected baby mixed greens on herb-marinated Portobello mushrooms ($9). The mushrooms were cooked perfectly, not chewy, as they sometimes tend to be, and tasted lovely with fresh shavings of Parmesan in a peppery balsamic vinaigrette. My date ordered the grilled scallops ($12), a dish that proved rather disappointing, consisting as it did of a meagre serving of two lukewarm scallops that didn’t appear to have been grilled. But the accompanying smoked salmon was fresh, and the pea shoots were fun and crunchy.
For entrées, I chose the succulent, herb-basted rack of spring lamb ($38) in a chokecherry and chardonnay reduction. My date chose the very excellent pan-seared buffalo tenderloin glazed with fireweed honey ($35) in a lingonberry and port reduction. My side dish consisted of whipped gourmet potatoes and vegetables, which, while delicious, seemed unoriginal as they accompanied the other entrée, too.
I also have to mention that we weren’t given a wine list when we were seated and, when we requested one, it arrived in a most battered state. It was crumpled, ripped, boasted splashes of oil and wine, and was in much need of being placed inside a booklet, like the dinner and dessert menus.
The Calgary Tower’s dining room offers a fabulous view of the cityscape and good, but expensive, food – our meal came to $101 without wine or dessert, plus the cost of parking and the charge of $9.95 per person for the tower elevator. At those prices, joining the 190.8-metre-high club is something of a privilege. |
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