From March 7-16, Calgary foodies and food-newbies alike were able to discover restaurants around the city during The Big Taste. Essentially, The Big Taste is an event where participating restaurants have a set menu (often with a few options) of three courses for a fairly reasonable, set price. Dinners were generally $35, lunches $15, and some restaurants offered a gourmet five-course menu for $65. Prestigious restaurants like Teatro (Rated #2 in Calgary by Avenue Magazine), The River Cafe, and Blink (which was in Avenue Magazine’s Top 10, plus rated best dessert) participated.
I visited a little hidden gem called The Carmichael (formerly known as Jacqueline Suzanne’s Bistro). Located in Inglewood, this welcoming and elegant restaurant is full of quirks and overflows with charm. If you’re lucky enough to get a table on the upper floor, you’ll be told of the higher top step and the short (6’3″) ceiling, which are all part of the heritage of a building built in 1912.
Their standard menu is full of delicious-sounding choices, but since my family and I were there for The Big Taste, we had a couple options to chose from for each of three courses.
For course number one, I had Suzanne’s Salad Supreme, which was mixed greens with bacon, blue cheese, raisins, pecans, and a berry vinaigrette. It was a light yet pleasing start to my meal, and even the intimidating blue cheese was incorporated expertly.
Seafood isn’t exactly my cup of tea, so I went with the AAA Alberta Prime Rib for my entree, which came served with a vegetable medley and roasted potato. Everything on that plate was delicious, but oddly enough the roasted potatoes were probably my favourite, as their texture was uniquely perfect, roasted to perfection.
The dessert menu offered the most choices of all three courses, and so it was good that my parents were with me, as we then could sample each other’s desserts. I had a cheesecake, which sounds simple enough, but the flavours and crusts and layers were all special and all carefully prepared, making every bite amazing.
All in all, every dish that my family and I had was enjoyed thoroughly, and the atmosphere of the place tied the bow on the package. If I have to say anything critical, I guess the light was a bit too dim for my liking, but whatever. I could see my food, and that’s what matters, right?
The Carmichael is open for lunch as well as dinner (in fact brunch would be doable too), so all the more reason to head on over to Inglewood and indulge your tastebuds!
