The Bison Restaurant – Banff, Alberta

Banff has always been my favourite go to place, and I am always out there for whatever reason! This time, I was out there for Bon Appetite Banff which is their 3rd annual event, and we ventured out even with a snowfall warning! I made reservations at The Bison since it has been a place I’ve been meaning to go to, and this is the perfect time to try new places as they put out special 3 course meals at a set price. This restaurant is located on Bear Street, just off of Banff Avenue and it’s upstairs of The Bear Street Tavern.

We sat down and I ordered my usual drink of choice right now, I seem to have phased into a Virgin Cesars lately, I know, it’s just Spicy Clamato juice in a pretty cup – but who cares! I like it. It was still a tasty drink.

Once we got comfortable, a bread basket came and it was neat as the basket was tree bark! The bread wasn’t anything special, but I guess the butter was… she called it Butter with Olive Oil and Organic Sea Salt. I don’t have an opinion on it as it was kind of like greasy butter? I do appreciate flavoured butter, but I guess I don’t understand this one.

For starters, we had 2. The Bon Appetite menu offers a starter, a main and a dessert for each person… so we just ordered different things to share to get more variety. We had a bowl of Sweet Potato Soup which was absolutely fantastic, with roasted marshmallows on top and a strip of bacon! Everything is better with bacon and this soup needed the salt from the bacon as it’s a sweeter soup! I loved it and I think I will try to make something along the lines of this one day!

The other starter we got was their Seared Sea Scallops which was seared to perfection. It was as though they had one giant scallop and cut it in half on the plate, or they only seared the visual side. It was bare on the underside. Regardless, it was quite delicious and not over cooked or anything like that! It also had a strip of bacon!

Now that we’ve devoured the appetizers our main courses came out! I love seafood so I ordered their Maple Sake Seared Monkfish and it was a nice portioned sized monkfish perfectly cooked and seasoned on a bed of risotto. I love fish, so needless to say, I ate it all up!

The other entree we ordered, more for the husband was the Braised Bison Gnocchi and it had a TON of delicious braised bison on the dish. We weren’t use to the size of the gnocchi, but it was still delicious light pillows of soft potatoes, even though they were “king sized pillows”! This was a fantastic entree!

Now that we’re full and stuffed, we made room for dessert! I ordered their Milkshake with Cookie and it was good! I love any sorts of cookies and this one was pretty good! It was a cookie milkshake but it was quite runny of a shake with cookie crumbs in the bottom. It wasn’t my favourite milkshake as I like them thick and creamy!

The other dessert ordered was their creme Brulee which was a chai tea spiced creme brulee with a shortbread cookie. It was kind of funny as it looked like someone ate half of it! I guess I just would’ve used a shallower dish if I was going to only give the amount given. It was tasty, but I actually thought it was a pumpkin pie flavour, not chai!

Overall, we loved this place! The meal was delicious, the service was fantastic and we had a great window seat table where we over looked the parking lot across the street! It was very entertaining! It was a night to remember and hopefully we’ll be back for more dinners to come! This Bon Appetite dinner was $45 per person, but it was 3 courses – so it was quite alright! This dinner was worth the venture out during the snow storm for sure!

The Bison on Urbanspoon

The Bison

211 Bear St
Banff, AB
(403) 762-5550

Boogie’s Burgers – Calgary, Alberta

I guess one evening, my husband really wanted burgers for dinner. He ended up taking me out to Boogies Burger which was very interesting! I’ve seen the sign for it when we drive along Edmonton Trail, but oddly, I’ve never once thought about trying “boogie” burgers! But, we did it! The location can be a little tough to find as it’s tucked in a bit, and it’s not really lit up.

The interior is pretty neat, it’s kind of decorated retro style and it definitely brings you back into the past with arcade games, which my husband did try to play them… and reported one of the buttons was broken, so he stood no chance. I think he just had no chance and came up with the excuse. Regardless, I think he had fun!

I was browsing through the menu and I found a huge section on milkshakes! I love the good old fashion style milkshake, and I was curios to see if this place would hit a home run with it. I got their Strawberry Milkshake as it’s my favourite and it use to be the one I’d get in our old family restaurant. My husband ordered the Pina Colada Milkshake and I’m so happy to report these milkshakes are AWESOME! It’s thick, creamy, delicious and proper! I can’t wait to go back for another shake!

For the burger, I got the Fay’s Burger and it was a decent burger stuffed with a patty, some bacon, mushrooms, onion, lettuce and tomatoes. It almost sounds like a standard burger but the burger was huge, almost the size of my head. The patty wasn’t a well formed patty but it was still good! Being the person I am, I ordered some spicy fries with my meal and it was quite good! It wasn’t too spicy, but well seasoned! I enjoyed the fries!

My husband decided to order their Boog-Mac which is probably their take on a “Big Mac” with 2 patties, thousand island sauce, cheddar cheese, pickles, lettuce, onions and tomatoes. It was a gigantic burger and a messy one, but it as nice with more sauce in the burger! It was nice!

Overall, I fell in love with the milkshakes as it bright me back to my childhood! I would only have the straw to complain about as it seemed too flimsy for the milkshake. I’d suck the straw and it seems to collapse! That’s probably just an Elsie issue though. But, this was a great place to be!

Boogie's Burgers on Urbanspoon

Boogie’s Burgers

908 Edmonton Trl NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 230-7070