Restaurant Review: Laurier Lounge

Platter
It’s only just November and I’ve already found myself reminiscing about summer. Just the other day I started to look through some of my summer picture folders, clicking through the BBQ parties and house party photos and then landing on some patio photos that I took early in the summer at Laurier Lounge. I guess with all the wedding planning happening this past summer I completely forgot about them, and so to buck the freezing cold weather that we’re experiencing right now in Calgary. Here’s my two cents about the food we enjoyed that one great summer night.

Atmosphere: Definitely elicits feelings of intimacy and comfort in this cozy environment.

Price: Mid $10s+ (Fondue dependent)

Garlic Prawns
Food and Wine Sangrias (sigh): It was early summer, so a group of us all decided it was a great idea to take advantage of the fantastic weather and hit up a patio (looking at the weather outside now, boy am I ever glad that we did). Since there were so many of us, we had a chance to sample pretty much every single item off of Laurier Lounge’s tapas menu and their yummy dessert menu as well.

The tapas were brought out to us in a nice big platter instead of individual serving dishes since we were all going to eat a bit of everything anyhow, which I thought was a nice touch. Some of my favorites’ were the bacon wrapped dates – interesting flavours, Moules – simple but fresh, French garlic prawns – succulent and flavourful. Of course this didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the rest of the tapas, but these were the ones that I seem to recall the most (and have inspired me to replicate them at home). The Baked Brie with raspberry and rosemary chutney was delicious as well, so was the Goat Cheese and Hazelnut Crusted Lamb because the cheese doesn't overpower but compliments and of course, one can never go wrong with Classic Bruschetta.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake
Of course we weren’t finished once all the tapas were inhaled, but moved right along to dessert, ordering one of each, leaving us with five different delights that we all rotated around the table. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to sample the chocolate fondue for two, since it didn’t seem right to do that between 8 people, which is really too bad because Laurier Lounge is supposedly known for their fondues, but I’m not going to complain about eating 5 different desserts either.

Maple Pudding
My favourite was definitely the Maple Pudding Chomeur, served along side with a scoop of vanilla gelato. The warmth and sweetness of the pudding mixed with the cooling flavours of gelato where magnificent, plus I’m a sucker for any type of pudding. The Molten Chocolate Lava Cake was right up there as well. Others at the table seemed to enjoy the Wild Berry Mille-Feuille, which is a puff pasty with berry and amaretto cream sauce. In the end, they were all consumed none the less.

My Picks: Bacon Wrapped Dates, Maple Pudding Chomeur

Crepes Suzettes
Overall: Nothing kicks starts summer off like a great patio outing, but unfortunately with the next couple months of winter upon us, the patio is nothing more then a memory of a great summer’s past. At least I have the delicious memories of a great meal at Laurier Lounge to help me through till the next time I find myself enjoying a meal again on the patio under the sun.

Laurier Lounge
1111 – 7th Street SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 228-3771
Website: laurierlounge.com

Laurier Lounge on Urbanspoon

Comments