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| - The menu consists of essentially seven items: four sandwiches, a soup, a salad, and a dessert. This is obviously a relatively low selection, so we were wondering if perhaps they rotate all four daily, but based on their website, it seems like three are fixtures with a rotating daily one. The soup and salad rotate daily. I am an indiscriminate eater, so this wasn't an issue for me, but admittedly if you're from out of town and just happen by, it may not end up being very appealing to you and your group.
I got an Alberta Beef, which was quite good. The meat was fresh and flavourful, definitely not cheap and obviously locally sourced. The arugala was fresh and crisp, and the pickled mushrooms and onions were a good compliment. In my opinion, I like my pickled stuff to be more potent, but it did allow for the meat to really come through as the dominant flavour, which is good; you don't want the most expensive component to be a secondary flavour. People will probably be split on the horseradish cream. It is not spicy in any fashion, which may then increase the appeal a bit, but it also lacks the same depth that horseradish proper has. I definitely noticed it and felt that it was a worthwhile inclusion, but it could have been argued that it was toned down too much.
Service is extremely fast; the sandwich will beat you to the cash register half the time. They seem to get a lot of traffic at lunchtime, so it makes sense. Seating for groups over pairs can be tough depending on the time of day that you go at. There was no seating at 12:45 on a weekday, but it cleared out by 1:30. Prices are reasonable for downtown Calgary, but I do think it's a bit overpriced, probably with a markup for using fancier-grade ingredients. I would argue that I should have paid $8, not $10, for my sandwich.
Overall, this is a good place, but it's difficult to see how it can attract a significant and consistent customer place when their options are always going to be so limited. The food was good, but not mindblowingly great in a way that would make you want to come back and eat one of the three staples on a daily basis.
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