Executive Summary: Pretty good food and comfortable surroundings. Service, however, is not to the standards one would expect from a place serving top-rate Alberta beef.
Spent the week up here with my honey planning our Banff wedding and decided to try an upscale place because we like good steaks. Several people recommended Saltlik so we gave it a shot. The place is comfortable, interesting, and not pretentious.
The steaks were good. I wasn't sure what to expect about Alberta beef but I had a Filet that, while not trimmed (which was weird), was still tender and tasty. My better half had the prime sirloin which was super lean and had great flavor. The veggies were fresh and nicely prepared.
The service, however, lacked polish. The staff was friendly and seemed eager but they either didn't have enough staff or Canadian timeliness is different because they're being courteous and don't want to remotely rush anyone. We waited almost ten minutes to order our drinks and wine. No mention of specials or whether we'd been there before or anything. Normally in places like this they try to assess your level of hillbilly-ness but not so here.
Little touches that I expect were lacking here. They didn't bring clean silverware to the table after our appetizers were cleared. No familiarity with the BC wine I ordered. No suggestions as to menu items. Again, the staff was friendly enough but service in a steakhouse really should be something other than "meh--it was ok."