For the Love of...: ...Rush Ocean Prime (Calgary)

Overall - 9.5/10
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Food - 9.5/10
Service - 9.5/10
Ambiance - 9/10

We don't know what took us so long to try Rush Ocean Prime, but we already cannot wait to go back.  Everything from the food, the service to the ambiance was near perfect.  We went to celebrate a birthday and now are looking for an excuse to go back.  The interior feels very spacious and each table has high backed chairs, which adds to the intimacy in spite of the large room.  

Darrin had a pint of the Creemore Springs, an amber ale which was refreshing but was still able to stand up to the red meat to come.  Instead of the typical bread and butter, house made, light and crisp, waffle potato chips were served with "puttanesca" salsa.  This was in our opinion, a creative and tasty way to get the appetite going without filling someone up before the actual food arrives.

For starters, we chose the grilled bacon and the snow crab claws.  The grilled bacon is more of a thick cut maple smoked crispy pork belly.  When it arrived we were surprised by the generous portions. The BBQ sauce that came with it was just the right accompaniment - not too salty or overpowering, as the bottled versions tend to be.

The snow crab claws were fresh, although slightly underwhelming compared to the bacon.  I would recommend them only if you love crab.  This was the only minor disappoint we experienced all evening, if you can even call it that.

For our mains, I had the scallops and short ribs with additional garlic prawns on the side.  The scallops were fresh and perfectly seared. They were placed on top of the tender and flavourful short ribs.  The scallops and short ribs were on a bed of asparagus, chard, tomatoes, root vegetables and mashed potatoes.  The mashed potatoes artfully contained the beef gravy/sauce and was rich and creamy, not overly thick.  I don't usually finish the mashed potatoes on my plate but I couldn't resist this time.  The garlic prawns were cooked just right and were exactly what I had wanted.

Darrin had the bone-in striploin which was thick cut.  The meat at medium rare was tender, flavourful and especially so near the bone.  The bone was probably the reason why the meat was nice and moist.  The scalloped potatoes were crisp on the top layer but creamy and soft underneath.  Rush knows how to make delicious potatoes!  The dish came with a side of olive oil green beans which were fresh and crisp.

For dessert we ordered the "Rush Buttercake". This is a butter cake topped with fresh berries and crème anglaise.  This is one of the very best desserts we've had in a long time.  The best part is the crispy baked outer crust on the cake and the almost molten, moist center.  It reminded us of a cross between a molten chocolate cake and sticky toffee pudding, without the chocolate.  We didn't know this in advance, but the server didn't charge us for the dessert after realizing we were celebrating a birthday, which was a nice surprise when the bill came at the end of the night.

Overall, we would highly recommend Rush and can't wait to go back.