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| - Weird location but awesome find.
A group of us went here for dinner Friday night. Like other Yelpers have said, reservations are important because the place fills fast. There were so many things I liked about Rea's.
First of all the mood of the place. Upbeat, friendly, warm, like going to an old friends for a dinner party. People around us were laughing, smiling and engaged in conversation. Sometimes you go out and you feel the need to be reserved, proper and calm. Rea's was so comfortable it was easy to relax and enjoy the evening.
The food. Oh the food. Simple Italian food made with real, tasty ingredients and care. Home-cooked goodness with restaurant feel. We had the homemade sausage appie to start. Basically sausage in a rich tomato sauce. It was quite good. I then had veal in a lemon wine sauce. It was very good too. I had it with the side pasta which, while simple, was cooked perfectly. Their tomato sauce is so good I could put it on anything. I found the portions to be quite reasonable. I was full at the end but not overwhelmingly. The man had veal in a mushroom cognac sauce. He quite enjoyed it and loved how homey everything tasted.
The decor was nice casual. My partner really liked the murals. He said often in Italian or Greek restaurants with murals he's though a high school art class did them. He commented that these seemed quite professional and well maintained. The restaurant had a cozy feeling without being too dark. It was loud but you could still hear everyone talk.
The service was good too. You can tell from photos around the place they are all family or have been there long enough to be family. Always nice to see that kind of employee engagement. Our waiter was also a great help in ordering wine, helping us decide as a group what would be the best value. I love that. Also, despite our group being 88 people, there was no 18% auto gratuity! Something SO many other Calgary establishments could learn from.
We didn't end up trying dessert which I'd like to do next time. They all sounded so good!
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