Las Canarias

Well, I really wanted to taste the food, but I was unable to recieve any service. We were asked, when we came in, if we had a reservation. We did not, and let the woman seating us know that we only had 1 hour before we had to pick up my son. I would have understood if she kindly said there was no room, though the place was clearly only half full. She said she could fit us in, put us at a table and that was it.
15 minutes later with NO service, we left.
She walked by us over a dozen times (small place) and did not even come to take a drink order.
Wow. Worst, no non existent service. I get you are small, I get you are new. I get that you might have been «short staffed» but come on.
The food looked nice, but my husband and I surely will not be back.
We went to the pub instead. Ceilis. Good and quick service, and better then average pub food. Sorry, a pub was WAY better.

Las Canarias appears on John Gilchrist’s list of «Best New Restaurants of 2015», and being that Gilchrist is a respected food & restaurant critic I figured I could trust his recommendation.
Arriving just after 6PM for dinner with my girlfriends, we started to study the menu — the mussels sounded amazing and just our luck they were on special! I also really wanted to try the paella and it does clearly state «please allow 40 minutes» so we quickly put an order in as we figured out what else we’d order. Deciding to go tapas style, we got the following: mussels, sizzling prawns, seared scallops and chicken breast (stuffed with cream cheese and serrano ham).
Warm bread was brought out to us as we waited for our food (perfect since we were all starving!), and when the mussels came out we asked for another order of bread so we could soak up the delicious sauce. Our prawns and scallops came out shortly after. The prawns were great! Actually sizzling in the mini cast iron pan it came in, swimming in a shaved garlic & white wine sauce. Scallops are usually my fave, these ones unfortunately were not. When I read «seared», I’m expecting a a golden crust — and these barely looked like they touched a hot pan. The fig reduction’s sweetness was overwhelming — you didn’t get the true flavor of the scallops, which was disappointing.
Out came our paella (which tasted as amazing as it looked!) and our chicken entrée, still sitting there was our (now cold) bowl of mussel sauce and no bread. Our server informed us that the kitchen was really busy and she’d bring us more bread when it came available.
At this point, I realized that there was only two people waiting all the tables and it was considerably busy.
Finishing what we could of the paella, our server finally brings us bread (it is now, maybe 8:15 pm)
We decide to try to get our bill, and had the hardest time trying to flag down either server. Once placed on the table, we all quickly pulled out our CCs and waited. And waited. And waited. And all decided just to head up to the bar to settle our bill and our server comments «Oh, I could have taken care of these at the table!» WHEN?!
By the time we’d all paid, it was just after 9PM. How have I been at dinner for 3 hours? No bueno!
I think only the paella could draw me back, the exceptionally slow service killed my experience here.
Las Canarias — Do better! The common complaint on Unilocal your pace of the service.
John Gilchrist — Trust is gone, friends off

Terrific Spanish guitar play sets the mood as you walk in. The servers are well versed in everything on the menu. It definitely took me back to Spain except there they eat at 12:30 am. Here, we are in bed by 9:30.
Definitely would recommend for some wonderfully prepare tapas and I plan To check out ½ wine night with oysters so I can enjoy a bottle of Rioja wine.

The paella is amazing!!! The service very friendly and the restaurant is really beautiful! The Appetizers were just ok… And the sangria was normal as well… Not bad, but not really good … I would like to go back to try more dishes. If everything else is like the paella should be awesome, but if the rest of the menu is like pulpo a la Gallega or croquetas … I would only have paella every time I go there…

Excellent food, relaxed atmosphere and attentive service made for a marvelous evening. I recommend this restaurant for a couple or a group.

Won’t be here long, food and service leave a lot to be desired. Went once, thought it was a fluke. Tried again. Nope, say poor service and very over priced

Just like Cori B’s review… I would 100% agree on everything. This place really needs to get it together if they want satisfied customers and customers to return.
I went with a client and even though it wasn’t busy and not a weekend, the service was so SLOW. It was somewhat embarrassing only because I was with a client and when with clients you want everything to be great, even perfect. Kind of a nice steady flow of food and conversation. I found my client complaining allot to me on how slow things were and a place he wouldn’t visit again knowing how long service takes. Between arriving and leaving we were there for 2.5+ hours and left disappointed on all fronts.
Items ordered:
A couple glasses of wine.
Tapa: Olives
Appie: Calamari
Entrée’s: Ahi Tuna and Beef Tenderloin
*They have an option to order a side (potato, rice, bread) but at $ 4.00 each on top of a $ 30 entrée doesn’t make sense so skipped the «extras» ***
I am just glad my client suggested this place and is already a client, otherwise I am sure he wouldn’t be my client anymore ;)
It’s traditional Spanish cuisine and tapas, but the price point is really high for what you get. For these prices I would expect top notch service, food and most of all quantity. The food was good when it eventually showed up, but portions are small and for how long things took, not worth the wait. At times I felt bad for the staff, but when things take this long, the staff should be offering something free to tide you over while you wait for your food? Maybe more of those $ 6.00 Olive tapa’s? Or maybe the manager should come by and check on the tables? Maybe some free Sangria while you wait and wait? No idea but not a place I would try if you are in a hurry or have to be some where in a few hours.
Sorry Las Canarias, really wanted to love this place since I live in the community but it just didn’t do anything for me.

Amazing food and even better service. Tried multiple menu items and all are excellent! The owners are very hands on and provided excellent service. A rare find in Calgary.

Only a few months old and not long for this world unless someone listens up and pulls it together.
Las Canarias NEEDS a Food Expeditor. As tapas restaurant with a reasonably high price point this needs to be a no brainer. Without this, this place will fail.
We went in and were the last table seated on a Friday night. In all honestly, they should have turned us away as they couldn’t support the tables they had. I didn’t notice the growing discord in the room until after we ordered and I am kicking myself not surveying the room.
To our right we had the table that was silently fuming that were trying to get other of the ASAP and to the left we had the almost abusive to servers table that eventually confronted the owner/​manager by the kitchen. From other tables, I could hear dining mates apologize for such a poor choice or tease others about not being able to pick dinner next. Walking in didn’t even feel like eating yet so when I eventually clued into the growing discord I wasn’t overly upset and figured I could weather the delays and I did for a while. I was getting apologies from the service staff before I even started to worry about it. Eventually my chilled out, go with the flow attitude soured through.
We ordered a basket of bread — not only was it like $ 3 – 6 (I forget) compared to free most places it also took over an hour. This is one of those service items many many restaurants have service staff look after and it arrives in minutes. Most of the food arrived close to the two hour mark. I ordered one entrée and asked it to come with the tapas as I wasn’t sharing and it didn’t arrive until the 2.5 hour mark. I watched everyone else eat and finish completely and then waited another 20 minutes before I got to eat. I’m so glad i didn’t have an appetite when I walked in. I probably would have ordered more than my one tiny entrée had it shown up in a reasonable time frame but there was no chance of that 3 hours in and I went home and made dinner after dinner.
The owner/​manager was very apologetic and I genuinely felt bad for pretty much every staff member in the whole room and I hope they know what has to change there to get the ship righted.
All that being said the food was solid to good. The tapas here are probably more traditional than my favorite tapas which are a bit more new world than here. I would return but not for several months or until I have confirmation things have improved. The restaurant is very close to home and a nice place to go out for some wine and Spanish food and not have to worry too much about insane cab fares so it would be nice to have it as an available option. I welcome the owners reaching out and letting me know of any future logistical changes in the kitchen.