CharCut Roast House Calgary (Review)
I had heard that there were restaurants in Calgary that served bone marrow and was itching to give it a try. CharCut happened to be the restaurant that I chose to try based on the reviews. Turns out that CharCut was voted as Calgary’s top restaurant in 2011. Anyways, we booked our reservations via OpenTable on Wednesday and was able to get a table for Friday Feb 3rd, 8:00 pm. The time was perfect for us as we were driving down from Edmonton.
Their menu changes everyday so what is on their website might not actually be what you’ll be having when you get there. Our table was available on time and our waitress was knowledgeable.
Slow Roasted Heirloom Beets with house-made soft goats cheese, mint, basil which is a dish created by Connie on Top Chef Canada. Never really had beets before but this was quite good. The red ones you see in the picture aren’t tomatoes but beets as well. Their house-made goat cheese was delicious and the best part of the dish for me.
Bone Marrow & Escargot au Gratin with garlic brioche toast and parsley salad. I found there was not enough bone marrow and it was overly salty. The escargot was not bad with the toast however.
Spit Roasted Spring Creek Prime Rib. This is their must have dish as per our waitress. The prime rib was tender although I have yet to find a place who is able to give me a prime rib rare, it was more of a medium but because it is spit roasted it would not have been possible for it to be more rare. The horseradish was sublime. Just the right bite and perfect with the prime rib.
Spragg Farm’s Double Cut Pork Belly with aged cheddar grits & BC chantrelle mushrooms. First time trying grits and I have to say I liked it with the fragrant chantrelle mushrooms. I found the pork belly was a bit too salty to my liking but the skin was a very crispy.
We did try one side dish which is the Duck Fat fried poutine with cheese curds & truffle gravy. Our waitress said their sides were big enough to feed more than one person but my brother didn’t think so. I would have to agree that it’s a bit small to feed two. I have to say, this dish didn’t really stand out as it didn’t taste much different from regular poutine. As with the other dishes, I found it salty as well and not quite enough cheese for a poutine.
Desserts! We ordered the 3 kinds available that night so that we could try them all.
Peaches and cream cheesecake:
Valrhona chocolate pudding topped with Chatilly cream & sweet brioche croutons. The brioche croutons were very good and the chocolate rich.
Earl Grey Tea Creme Brulee with Orange Sugar Cookies. Not too sure about the Earl Grey Tea taste but it was good. Topping was a bit burnt tasting. Cookies were yummy.
Overall, I enjoyed my meal at CharCut. Disappointed with the bone marrow as it didn’t quite meet my expectations as I wanted more marrow. The things that stood out the most for me were the house-made soft goat cheese and the horseradish.
