| After the Hawthorne Suites Hotel was purchased in 2004 to be reincarnated as the 5 Calgary Downtown Suites, the attached Fifth Avenue Grill had a revamp to their menu the following year. The restaurant had previously offered an expansive "everything" menu. According to their website, new chef Jose Milan had created a new South American-inspired menu described in delicious detail in both Spanish and English.
My dining companion and I arrived for our late Saturday dinner only to walk into an almost empty restaurant. Pop music blared from the lounge and half the dining room was already set for Sunday brunch. The dining room was pleasantly decorated, but didn’t sway at all from your basic hotel style, with a hunter-green and burgundy colour scheme and standard, sturdy furniture.
We were seated promptly, with a smile, and great service would prove to be the common thread for the evening. Our server was friendly, chatty and attentive — everything you want from your service. We were quite surprised when our menus arrived to find the delightful Spanish descriptions from the website gone and only the English translations remaining. The prices were quite high, as we had expected, but seemed inflated considering the accompanying décor and atmosphere.
The crab and corn salad ($9) sounded enticing and I had visions of roasted corn on the cob scraped onto mixed greens with chunks of fresh crab. What was brought out was canned baby corn and canned crab on iceberg lettuce swimming in a tart vinegar dressing. The deep fried squid ($9) was the highlight of the meal, coated in a light crispy batter served with a piquant habañera aoli dipping sauce.
I decided on the grilled Angus rib-eye steak with salsa roja ($22), only to have to cut off almost half the steak in gristle. And it was quite tough despite the medium-rare preparation. My companion ordered the grilled halibut, salmon and sea scallops with guacamole sauce ($22). The presentation was fabulous and the scallops were incredibly fresh, but absent of any spice or marinade. For a Latin-inspired menu, there wasn’t a lot of flavour.
When I chatted with food and beverage director Stephen Miles, I found out that the South American menu was being dropped due to low interest from hotel guests and diners. They’ve since created a brand new "contemporary casual" menu with more of an upscale focus on Canadian items like B.C. salmon, bison and Alberta beef, with appetizers still priced at $9 and entrée items slightly lower at $19.
Weekend brunch was a complete turnaround from our evening dinner. My girlfriends and I (brunch connoisseurs) arrived at noon on a Sunday to find the restaurant packed and bustling. The sun streamed through the windows, creating a warm and casual atmosphere. I hadn’t made a reservation this time. Big mistake. There wasn’t an empty table in the house for the weekend buffet-style brunch, offered Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Service continued to be impeccable as the hostess managed to squeeze us in quickly and our server happily chatted and refilled coffee and juice at a steady pace. Costing $12.49 per person (just recently increased to $15.95), the buffet featured fresh fruit, cheese and seafood trays, traditional hot breakfast and lunch items, as well as a carving station for tender beef and an omelette station.
We tried a little bit of everything and it was all extremely tasty. The salads were running a little scarce by the time we reached our middle courses, but it was later in the day and they were replenished in a reasonable amount of time. The real high point was the dessert area, which included a chocolate fountain with fresh fruit and a variety of cakes, pastries and mousses, all created from scratch in the restaurant kitchen.
The Fifth Avenue Grill clearly offers an impressive weekend brunch with lots of tasty choices at a very good price. Unfortunately, its evening menu doesn’t provide the same value for your (much higher) buck. Here’s hoping its newly refined menu will find focus and flavour.
The Fifth Avenue Grill is located at 618 - 5 Ave. S.W.; phone: 298-4886. |
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