Salt & Pepper

In the heart of Bowness, this restaurant is kinda cool. I went on a Tuesday (all you can eat tacos) and tried every taco they had. To my beef eating surprise, the Veggies taco rocked it!!!
The waitress was slammed at lunch and she handled everything quite well.
What impressed me was when the owner walked up to our table and welcomed us to his place. He also took the time to educated us on the different hot sauces and was most professional.
Salt & Pepper in Bowness — — - I will be back on a Tuesday again. Thank you for the good experience.
5 Stars overall.

Went there for dinner late April. The service was great and so was the food. Look forward to going back

Found this cute little restaurant by accident. Walking in makes you feel like you’re in Mexico. The seating seems limited but they were handling the supper crowd without any waiting so must be more tables than it appears to have. The food was good and the server was great. Even charged my phone for me while we ate. The only real downside to this restaurant were the drinks. The tequila sunrise tasted like kool aid at first, then the slightly over poured tequila hit. So, food is good but drinks are at your own risk.

Went one time with my aunt and no one was there so we had great service & on top of that the waitress was a real gentlemen. Our order came fast, the food was so good. We ordered an appetizer before our main meal and it was my favourite! It was so incredibly delicious. The appetizer we ordered is called «Mexican chorizo» it brings 2 soft tortillas, a bowl in the middle of the plate with different types of cheeses and chorizos with homemade tortilla chips. I would go again, no complaints.

I have to agree whole-​heartedly with Jenny H.‘s earlier review. My girlfriend and I experienced much of the same. We were served by the owner on All You Can Eat Taco Tuesday, and we went because my girlfriend had been when she was younger and remembered good things.
We were seated and waited for someone to serve us, which took some time. When we were approached by the waiter, he spoke with us abruptly and glared at me whenever I spoke, eyebrows furrowed. Even though we are young, we were paying for our own meal and he treated us like less than paying customers. He was very nice to my girlfriend, but standoffish and stern with me. We both noted it once he left and looked for signs of it the rest of the night. He continued to do a full 180 when taking my orders, versus my girlfriend’s.
As we were waiting for our tacos, our conversation was interrupted by the waiter screaming «Stop that man,» in the middle of the restaurant at a man beginning to leave. He continued to yell that the man didn’t pay, interrupting everyone and shattering every inch of respectability that this establishment held. The man turned around, made a shy smile and greeted the waiter as a friend. The waiter laughed like it was the funniest thing in the entire world and chatted with his friend in the middle of the restaurant (mind you, it isn’t very large) while we were still waiting on our food. I could see our plates sitting, waiting to be delivered to us, being ignored until another staff took them to us.
The tacos themselves were dry, flavourless, and too much. Six massive tacos and «you can not take home if you have been [here] before.» It makes sense, if we had just ordered another full sized plate. We were maybe 4 tacos in to our first plate of 6, and asked if we could take the last two to go. He then proceeded to grill us on if we have been there before. Then after taking a minute to make a «executive decision» as to whether or not we could take them, he complied.
He perched over our table as we plugged our cards into the machine, and hitting «No Tip» was the most awkward experience of the night. Mind you, it was deserved for the service.
I would caution anyone to stay away. You could get better tacos from Taco Time. It isn’t even a matter of authenticity or freshness, because Salt & Pepper delivered neither.

The service is shockingly bad. We ordered our starters and a main. They forgot the starter and brought us out the mains. We had barely finished our meal when the server came over to ask us if she could bring us the bill. We said we’d like to see a dessert menu and she told us the kitchen was closed. This was just after nine and their website says they are open until 10. There were two other tables there that were eating so it wasn’t like we were the only ones. So we said give us a couple minutes as we all had full drinks and wanted to sit and talk. She came back 10 minutes later with a debit machine and the bill, and asked us if we’d like to pay cash or credit. I guess she was in a rush to get us out of there. On top of it, they charged us for the starter that we didn’t get. I can’t remember ever having such rude service– don’t go. The food is good but you’ll leave with a bad taste in your mouth.

A group of us came here for their All You Can Eat Taco Tuesday. Firstly I have to comment on our server. He was very abrupt with us during our time there. We had never been there for taco Tuesday and just wanted to know how it worked. He seemed impatient with our questions. When serving our food, he would abruptly place our plates on the table, almost slamming them down. At the end of our meal, he threw the bill with the standard chocolates they give after every meal on our table and walked away. When I say «threw» i mean he literally threw it on the table. He was clearly very irritated and it was seething through in his service to us. We are not a demanding bunch. We ordered politely, said our please and thank yous. We didn’t have any special dietary restrictions to make any of our orders complicated… but he made us feel as if it was so troublesome to serve us.
Now onto the food itself. I tried their beef, chicken and chorizo… all of which were lack luster in flavor. Chicken was my least favorite, extremely dry. Chorizo was neither bad or good. The beef was the best of the 3 but even then, not much to it other than browned ground beef that I could taste. The meal was just ok. There are many other restaurants that serve Mexican fare at similar prices but the food is distinctive, flavorful and made with care. Had we gotten better service, I would have rated Salt and Pepper a 3 star, food is neither bad or good, and price is not cheap or expensive.
Would I return to this location or recommend to others? Probably not.

We visited this restaurant on a Saturday evening, around dinner time. It wasn’t over-​the-​top busy, but we waited about 15 minutes for our table.
We ordered our drinks. The server went away for a few minutes, then returned to ask again what we had ordered.
We then ordered our food: chicken fajitas and fish tacos. We saw a table for seven come in. They were seated and served their drink orders. After about 20 minutes, we noticed that the table of seven were brought their food orders, while we were still waiting for ours. After another 5 minutes, our server returned and asked us what we had ordered. He claimed that the kitchen lost the order but wanted us to reorder, just so he could «make sure» it was right. We reordered: chicken fajitas and fish tacos. He apologized for the delay and mixup. He said, «We’ll make sure we take care of you guys.»
Our food arrived about 10 minutes later and was missing guacamole. We pointed this out and he said he would bring it to us. He stopped and chatted with the table of seven. A few minutes later, he brought out the guacamole.
The food was middling, at best. The flavours were quite bland. The refried beans seemed like a day-​old serving.
After our meals, our server asked if we would be interested in dessert. We were not; we just did not have room. He said, «Well, I tried.» We didn’t know what he meant by that. When he brought us the bill, no adjustment was made for the poor service, lost order, long wait for our food, etc. We realized that his dessert offering was his only feeble attempt to make good on the experience. «We’ll make sure we take care of you guys» was a promise that was left decidedly unfulfilled.
We paid the bill, left no tip, and will not return.

Tacos are tasty here

Tastey food but a little salty for our tastes. We ordered the Chef’s Platter for two, which was a lot of food! It was a great way to try a bunch of different things on your first visit, but three pork chops was a bit much!

This place blew my taste-​buds away!!!
We came on a Friday night, and there was about a 30 minute wait. We had been craving Mexican food all week, so we decided to wait.
Service: Service was great. Our server was friendly, and knowledgeable. It was a really busy night, and she still managed to provide awesome service despite the amount of people that were there. The only struggle we had was with the delay of food. That of course was out of her hands, but trust me… THE WAIT IS WORTH IT.
Food: YUM YUM YUM! The food is delicious. We started off with the chimichangas, and the chips and salsa. The chimichangas were tasty! Chips were made in house, and the salsa was so fresh!
I can’t remember what my meal was, but let me tell you. I ate the whole plate. The whole thing. And the plates are pretty dang big! SO SO SO GOOD. I do remember wanting to customize my plate with Shrimp, and she was able to do so with no hesitation (even if it wasn’t on the menu. My friend had something delicious too! I can’t remember what he had either… YUM YUM YUM!
Drinks: We only stuck with beer, but they had Dos Equis! All I needed to know!
Atmosphere: They had pretty awesome décor! You felt like you were in an authentic mexican restaurant, not like Chipotle (although, I love me some Chipotle!)
I would most definitely go again! Have a craving for Mexican? This is the place to go!

Service is beyond slow. Too bad, food is pretty good. But not enough to outweigh service.

Sangria was good.
Food was exactly what we wanted. Split the taco platter to fill two people comfortably.

Just had one of the worst service experiences of my life. (Second only to the crappy service I received at the Salt & Pepper Inglewood location a couple years ago.)
I called this morning and reserved a table of 6 for myself and my co-​workers for a Christmas treat. (First demerit, phone etiquette. Would have been nice to hear «Salt & Pepper Bowness, how can I help you?» rather than «Yeah?»)
We reserved a table for after the lunch rush — at 1:15pm. When we arrived they had no record of our reservation and told us we needed to wait for a table. We waited for just under 10 minutes and were somewhat confused because there were only two deuces occupied in the entire restaurant — and two servers working.)
It took about 10 minutes to get water, and then another 10 for our server (an overly tanned, bald man) to come and take our order. With the two deuces finishing up and leaving, I’m not sure what the hold up was. The order process was painfully slow and it was obvious our waiter wasn’t paying any attention at all to what was being ordered. He got confused when one of us ordered a pepsi and another ordered and iced tea — that had to be repeated several times so he could write it down. 4 out of the 6 of us ordered tacos — this wasn’t a complicated order. It was bizarre. When he left the table we honestly wondered if he had been drinking or on some kind of drug, he was so vacant and inattentive.
After taking our orders he and the other server working got into a yelling match about 10 feet away from us — just over by the bar — completely inappropriate.
3 of my co-​workers and I had gotten a pitcher of margaritas — instead of asking us how many glasses we needed when we ordered, he threw a little spaz when he brought the pitcher to the table because he didn’t know who was having the margaritas. He never brought the iced tea or pepsi we had spent so much time ordering. And when I asked him to bring them during the meal, he looked straight at me, and walked away with saying a word. Or bringing the drinks.
We got our food — which was today’s only saving grace. I love the food at Salt & Pepper, but their service has always been mediocre at best. Especially so today. Our waiter wouldn’t give of one our group his meal unless he pronounced it correctly — he just stood there dangling the plate over the table. I honestly thought he was just going to drop it on the table.
He came to check on us and started complaining about the music because he doesn’t know Spanish. We were trying to eat and enjoy our meal, we didn’t really need a diatribe on not understanding the music that’s being played.
While we had been eating, the two deuces left, and another came in. We were all finished eating and had been sitting at the table for about ten minutes trying to get his attention to clear our food and get us our bill (this was to be a quick lunch out, we didn’t have a lot of time — that’s why I had called ahead, and why I booked after the lunch rush) but instead he stood there with the debit machine in his hand with the two other patrons yacking about how busy it was and how he was the only one working, and how he didn’t expect so many people to be coming in today. All the while not taking their payment or moving the process along in any way, shape or form. We watched this for about another 10 minutes and I was honestly ready to grab the spare debit machine from the bar and a menu and put through our payments ourselves. Instead I approached him at the two-​top and mentioned that this was a work lunch and we really had to get going — could he please bring our bill and the debit machine as soon as possible? He just stared at me. Again. Didn’t say a word. Totally bizarre.
He FINALLY came to our table with the bill and we pointed out that we were being charged for the Pepsi and the Iced Tea that he never served us, and his response was «Oh yeah! That’s why those two drinks were sitting on the bar!» We hadn’t asked for separate checks because again, our orders were so simple that we could do the math ourselves, and there’s no way to split a pitcher of margaritas, so no problem, we just need to use the debit machine separately. (Plus it might have taken our waiter another hour to figure it out.) But after asking him several times for the debit machine because that’s how we all were paying, he was totally stunned when we each gave him our total and our cards. He just stared for a minute again. («This will take me to the end of shift to ring in!») And then he informed us that instead of tipping him we could shovel the walk in front of the restaurant. Yeah… sorry pal, there won’t be a tip for you today.
Bottom line, great food, worst servers ever.

For what it is — Mexican food in Calgary, sure, 4 stars. Not much to complain about and I rate it equally to the one we tried in Inglewood last year.
Some thought went into the décor here and I love the orange wall colour. The restaurant was clean and it was not too busy on a Monday night. Free parking out front — bonus. (2 hour limit until 6pm, then unlimited)
Service was. ok. The waiter did his job, no more, no less. Our water glasses were never refilled once but that could have been an oversight. The music was alright, I have heard better Latin music but did not really impact the evening one way or the other.
My 2oz marg was on sale for the «Margarita Mondays» special. It was tasty but I felt it a bit weak — maybe I just had a hard day! These took a while to arrive to our table.
I had a coupon for a free taquito appy — it was heavenly. We were so hungry, it was just devoured. The food came out quickly, the mains as well. I had my usual, the enchiladas and I had one of each meat filling. Very good, extremely filling. Hubby got the chicken burrito and it was yummy! A little extra sour cream on each plate would have amounted to perfection but as it was, neither of us could really move afterwards which made our going to a crowded Mall after, a bit much.
I would recommend if you have an appy, even a shared one, to also share a main, like the taco platter or the fajitas. The food is very good but very heavy. Be prepared to pay $ 16 — $ 22 a plate for a main dish.
TIP — go onto the website and print off your free appy coupon before heading over, valid at Inglewood or Bowness locations.
TIP 2 — the salsa verde on the table is delicious. The heat will sneak up on you though so use caution!
Enjoy!

EPIC! We’ve wanted to come here forever and never think about it. So Monday we decide let’s check it out, I mean it’s margarita Monday!
The owner/​manager was phenomenal. He was funny, he was pleasant and made the experience that much more. I said I was gluten free, so he gave me his pick of GF appies. The chef actually came out and talked to us to make sure everything was good and tell me what was in the meals. Then I had chicken quesdilla for my meal, which was delish! Went great with our two pitchers of pineapple margaritas!
After the meal, he gave us this wonderful shot and eve drew me a picture on my take out container. I can’t wait to go sit on the patio when it’s warmer.

Every time we are in Calgary from Edmonton we make a point of dining here. The staff have always been very friendly and the food is mm mm good! And the pitcher of lime margaritas is delicious and shaken, not the slushy type. We always get the chips, fresh salsa, fresh guacamole and pickled pepper mix and we usually order seconds. Our favorite dish is a toss between enchiladas and carne asada. Now compared to mexican food in the US, I agree that’s its not the same but it’s pretty darn good for being in the Canadian prairies!

I’m from Arizona so I feel like I know a thing or two about Mexican food. That being said, I really like Salt & Pepper when I’m craving some tacos and beans! It’s not the sloppy greasy Mexican style cuisine (which I happen to be a huge fan of) but rather a clean and simple menu that is very traditional in some parts of Mexico.
They have a coupon for some free taquitos on their website, which is a nice appetizer to start with. The service has been great the few times I’ve been there and I consider it one of the better Mexican food places I’ve had in Calgary.

First and foremost, I would like to point out that I do NOT eat a lot of Mexican food (my stomach just doesn’t handle it that well normally). But, this place was alright.
My friend brought me here with another one of his close friends and her toddler. The atmosphere was noisy, and busy, but its more like that of a huge family dinner, rather than that of a busy restaurant. Personally, didn’t bother me that much.
The girl who seated us seemed a little nervous, frazzled and jumpy. Possibly on a caffeine high, but I’m not really one to judge. Either way, she was polite, and efficient at what she did. In the end, we had four servers help us, which threw me off a bit, but they pulled it off quite well. Not often you see teamwork in an environment like this.
I had a Pina Colada to drink. I think they may have added the alcohol after, cause that first sip was super strong. After a quick stir though, it sweetened out and tasted how it should have.
We had calamari and some sort of chip+dip for starters. The calamari was a bit lackluster, but aside from that, no complaints.
I honestly don’t remember the name of what I had (some of those menu items are a touch difficult to pronounce =P). It was some sort of layered chip nacho type dish. The chips had become a wee bit soggy during the cooking process, but it tasted pretty good. It was served with beans and rice (both decent). None of us went for dessert, as we had our fill of food by then.
The pricing was a bit high for what it was (as other reviewers have mentioned). Only three full meals were ordered and two appetizers, plus one alcohol beverage, and it came to about $ 85.
I personally would eat here again, but it will be only once every few months I think. As I said, Mexican food rarely does well with me, but this place wasn’t bad, and I didn’t get any food poisoning. But the food is a bit heavy, and sits with you for a while afterwards.
As always though, try it sometime, and draw your own conclusions =)
Live well, rest well, be well.

Good quality Mexican food in Calgary!
I was told by others that is was a bit overpriced and they were correct. The atmosphere matched the price, but the food was about 20% overpriced for what it was.
The sauces are very nice and the my food was cooked perfectly. If you’re familiar with Chevy’s, it was exactly like that. Hence my thinking it was a tad overpriced. My friend had a large pice of beef that seemed to have been overcooked.
I also. Had a Mojito and it was perfectly made.