Ric’s Grill
1436 8th Street SW
403-269-7427
www.ricsgrill.com
Hours of operation: Mon/Tues (11 a.m.-10 p.m.), Wed/Thu (11 a.m.-11 p.m.), Fri (11 a.m.-1 a.m.), Sat (4 p.m.-1 a.m.), Sun (4 p.m.-10 p.m.)
Rating: ***
Price range: $$$
Reservations: Available
Client negotiations: Yes
Lunch w/co-workers: No
Social Lunch: Yes
Quick solo lunch: No
Time in: 12:55 p.m.
Ordered: 1:05 p.m.
Food arrived: 1:16 p.m.
Time out: 1:46 p.m.
Total time: 51 minutes
Low $: Organic Field Greens Salad, $10
High $: 10 oz New York Strip, $28
Lunch menu: Additional seasonal lunch menu
Licensed: Yes
I have, up to this point, committed a major lunch rush felony. I have been writing about my lunch experiences in Calgary for the past few months now and I have yet to visit one of our fine steak establishments. In the land of world-class Alberta beef I consider this a tragedy and it is now time to correct my mistake.
I opted to ease into this world by visiting Ric’s Grill, situated on the edge of the downtown core. Ric’s is large in size and looks like I had expected: Wood-grained and modern décor, serving staff dressed in black and seats full of suits. The menu was made up of the main dinner menu supplemented by a Winter Lunch Features Menu, with its six additional entrees. Both menus gave a nice variety of options including salads and sandwiches, pasta and stirfry, seafood and chicken and, of course, steaks.
I opted for the lunch menu and choose the Sirlion Steak Sandwich ($17) with the baked stuffed potato and veggies. The steak was cooked to perfection as ordered but I should have gone with the salad for the side.
Ric’s Grill is what you would expect from a restaurant of this nature: The food is excellent, the service is pleasant and the prices are, well, typical. What Ric’s Grill does offer is all of the above without the pretentiousness of being a downtown high-end restaurant, which I was half expecting.
It also proved that Calgary does have some of the best steaks around, making me salivate in anticipation for the next one.
