Alberta's gateway to the Rockies, home of the Stampede and the best place to show off your cowboy boots, Calgary is also a bona fide foodie town. To get you started, here are our top tips for eating out in Calgary.
Tip #1: Sample Everything
Teatro Ristorante, one of Calgary's upscale eateries.
Beef? Yes. But there’s room for fusion, Spanish tapas, farmer’s market pot pies and haute cuisine too.
Tip #2: Eat Meat
Calgary is nicknamed Cowtown for a reason.
Tender, barley-fed beef has made Calgary Canada’s steakhouse capital—the city boasts 100. Or try that beef in a burger, served to share with duck-fat fries at one of many upscale burger bars.
Tip #3: Take Out from a Food Truck
Food trucks are a terrific dining option in Calgary.
Food trucks are today’s go-to for something authentic and innovative (and affordable). Calgary has plenty of them, plus regular pop-up dinners hosted by celebrity chefs.
Tip #4: Say Yes to Beans
Order some baked beans, the cowboy staple.
Don’t go to the Calgary Stampede without sampling this quintessential cowboy staple. Stampeders consume almost five tons of baked beans every year.
Tip #5: Try Twists on the Old
Calgary chefs are experimenting with all kinds of cuisine and ingredients.
A new generation of Calgary chefs is modernizing traditional meat-and-potatoes Prairie cuisine. The new guard is keen on things like pizza as art, artisan charcuterie, field-to-table heirloom root vegetables and cold-pressed canola oil. You’ll see dishes on menus like gourmet wild mushroom and local goat cheese perogies, Korean braised short ribs and bison carpaccio.
Tip #6: Sip the Signature Cocktail
Try some special Stampede cocktails while you're in Cowtown.
In the Stampede tradition, wash down your bacon-centric pancake breakfast with a spicy Caesar, invented at Calgary’s Westin Hotel.
Tip #7: Go Multicultural
You can find all the popular global cuisines in Calgary.
Calgary has it all: Chinese BBQ duck, Japanese ramen noodles and fresh salmon sushi, Polish smoky kielbasa, Neapolitan pizza, artisan Italian sausage and more.
Bonus Tip: Don’t Forget to Shop!
Don't leave Cowtown without some new boots.
If there’s a place to get your cowboy/girl on, it’s Calgary. Make time for shopping, too — especially for boots, hats and silver belt buckles.
You can work off dinner the Cowtown way — on the mechanical bull!
Get inspired
