For the Love of...: ...Charcut Roast House (Calgary)

Overall - 8.5/10
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Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance - 8/10


I don't know where our need to rank and order things comes from but after eating at Charcut I think I need to do some serious thinking about my own personal steakhouse rankings. Previously Vintage Chophouse was the undisputed champion in my books...now I'm not so sure anymore. On one hand Charcut offers a huge variety of inventive dishes outside of just steak, while on the other Vintage does classic steakhouse fare like no other. Take a look at both our reviews and let us know what you think.

To start we sampled the slow roasted heirloom beet salad with homemade goat cheese, pig head mortadella with pistachios and truffles, and lonzino (dried pork loin with fennel pollen and orange). The beets were sweet and a little bit smokey from being roasted while the cured meats were really unique and great to share.

Roasted heirloom beet salad

Pig Head mortadella

Lonzino

Our mains included a whole grilled arctic char with swiss chard and Spragg farm roasted pork belly with aged chedder grits. The whole grilled char was done really well with crispy skin and moist flesh. The pork belly was tender and rich and matched well with the sharp cheddar grits.

The real star of the show though was the beef and this evening we went for both the spit roasted Spring Creek prime rib and New York strip steak. Both cuts were aged in house and you can actually see them hanging in their aging room. If you haven't had properly dry aged beef, what you'll notice is that the meat is not only the most tender you've ever had but also the most flavourful. Our sides included the duck fat fried poutine served with truffle gravy and smashed Poplar Bluff potato with sour cream and house smoked bacon. Both were the ultimate side dishes to go with the amazing meat.

Overall when it comes to well prepared meat, you really can't go wrong with Charcut. In fact you might even want to forego dessert to save room for an extra few ounces of the prime rib!