A couple years ago my friends and I came down to Calgary to see a musical. We stopped at the now closed Nectar for a late night dessert and started talking with our waiter. We asked him for a recommendation for a breakfast or brunch restaurant and he said Dairy Lane Cafe was the best place to go to in Calgary. The next day we drove down for brunch, but the place was packed. We couldn't wait for the time they needed (we had to drive back to Edmonton by the early afternoon) so we went somewhere else.
Flash forward to the present (well about a week ago). I'm in Calgary with another friend and for lunch I suggest trying Dairyland, because I've wanted to go for two years. It's about 2:30pm, but still in the mid-afternoon there's a 15 minute wait. I've come to learn that often if there's a wait for a restaurant it's because the food is really good, or service is really slow. Luckily for Dairy Lane it was because the food was really good.
My friend and I sat outside. I ordered a lemonade and the veggie burger. I love how the cafe uses locally produced food, and they even list the farms and suppliers where they get their food from on the menu. The lemonade was very nice, not too tart and not too sweet. My veggie burger was delicious. It was served on a pumpernickel bun with feta, spinach and a sundried tomato jam. All the flavours complimented each other rather quite well. For my side I went for the French Fries and they were they only slightly disappointing thing I had. They were rather thin, which is fine, but were not crisp. My friend ordered yam fries with her burger. I stole a couple and the yam fries were delicious. I'd definitely order those the next time instead of the fries.
Don't know when I'll be back in Calgary, but I'll definitely come back to the Dairy Lane cafe.