| rev:text
| - Food: 4.5/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Overall experience: 4/5
(1- Terrible; 3- decent; 5- Fantastic)
After reading positive reviews I finally decided to come here for their $15 lunch buffet. Definitely did not disappoint, some of the best Thai food I've had in Calgary for cheap! It may cost more than your average buffet but you get to try a variety of quality Thai dishes that you can decide to order on their menu another time. I highly suggest going early before the lunch rush (11:30 or even earlier is ideal) because:
1. the lineup gets pretty long (almost out the door)
2. and so you can try a bit of everything since they unfortunately are a little slow at restocking the buffet during the rush and there wasn't much left at the end of the rush.
If you decided to take a group of people here make reservations in advance because my friend and I ended up sitting at the bar to eat.
The restaurant is pretty tiny and cooky with buddha/cultural statues placed near the entrance and bunches of dried flowers hanging down from the ceiling. Nothing too classy. The service was nothing to rave about.
There are about 15 items for you to try including two cold salads (one with some spicy beef and the other was papaya), coconut rice, Thai fried rice, various fish and meat curries, pad thai, Thai styled meat skewers, Thai spring rolls, spicy chicken tom yum soup, and desserts including mango sticky rice, fried bananas and coconut jellies/pudding. Everything was packed with flavour! The coconut rice was light and fluffy with a strong coconut flavour and the curries had a well balanced, light coconut curry flavor. Not one pad thai is the same and although I thought Rose Garden did a good job in terms of flavour (it wasn't overly sweet like candy) i thought it was missing some oomf. I think it needed maybe a squeeze of lime, nuts or the addition of more veggies.
I especially love their tom yum soup! It's a little greasy but uber delicious! If you love spicy foods this is the dish to try since it has a nice kick of spice, yet just the right amount of sourness from the lemon grass. Only complaint is that they didn't strain out that hard chicken cartilage and lemongrass pieces you from the stock. Their desserts round off the meal and if you are like me who loves deep fried goodness, you have to try the deep fried bananas there which had a nice crunch and wasn't overly battered or soggy.
Overall, if you're working downtown and looking for something new to try, give Rose Garden a visit. I beware you though, you might need a long nap afterwards. This is also a great opportunity for people who haven't had Thai food to try a little bit of everything from the buffet. Definately will come back!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)