Loved this place! Best time to go is during happy hour!! The sliders are soooo good and the cocktails are delicious. Definitely will come back and recommend to friends ^_^
10/10 recommend to a friend. Love this place. Great service great drinks. Landon was super fun! And I can't wait to come back for a lamb slider
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I don’t know why Cleaver is only rated 4.1/5 on google - it’s one of my favourite restaurants in the city. I come here a lot .... maybe once per week or every second week. I come here on dates, I come here with groups of friends, even with my adventurous 70 year old dad. I’ve never had bad service once - not sure if Camilo still works here but he used to greet me with a hug each time I came in.
Cocktails are amazing, original and fun. Whole menu is great, I’ve tried everything save for a couple of items and never once had any complaints.
While I do enjoy the duck, lamb, and tempura fish and chips sliders, I think the rest of the menu is where they shine. The bone marrow with the whiskey luge is delicious, creative and a fun experience I’ve never seen anywhere else. Arguably the best Mac and cheese in the city. Wonderful bucatini and a beef tartare that can stand up nicely to my ultimate favourite at the living room.
Every time I come here it’s a wonderful experience - food, drinks and service.
For anyone out there who has had less than a wonderful time, I urge you to go back and engage with your server - ask them about the new cocktails, ask what they recommend, joke around with them. It will surely become a favourite restaurant for you in no time
Went to Cleaver for the first time weekend, was seated at the bar, which was great because we got to watch all of the cocktails being made, they all look delicious, there was three of us, I tried three sliders, the matcha mushroom (which was my favourite), the crab slider and the tempura fish and chips slider, my friend had one of the pizzettes, which was delicious and my other friend had the mac and cheese, which I didn't get a picture of, she said it was the best mac and cheese she'd ever had, we also tried a bunch of the cocktails, everyone was excellent, my favourite were the Original Sin and the Turning Japanese. It was a small restaurant with only 50 seats, but it had a cool vibe, and all of the staff was so friendly. I can't wait to go back abd try more.
My boyfriend and I love coming back here! We went for brunch this weekend and got the lobster Bennie, blueberry pancakes and the staff hash. We had an awesome server and it was overall an amazing experience!
We came with a group and tried several appetizers, mains and drinks (including my fave, the Super Soft Birthday!), but the main event at Cleaver is definitely their extensive slider menu. I plan to return soon for drinks and shared snacks or really any meal when I have time in my schedule for a sodium-induced blood pressure spike afterwards. I do get grumpy when food is served on big, sliding platters like this that clutter the table, but that was a small price to pay for such creative dishes and drinks at what felt like reasonable prices considering the quality and selection. Service was friendly and helpful from when I made the reservation until it was time to get the bill, the attention to detail for our friend’s allergies was reassuring and the bustling, energetic atmosphere really made our dinner with friends feel like a big night out. I highly recommend Cleaver for your next night out – just remember to wear your stretchy pants!
Cleaver is one of my favorite restaurants! I love their tartare and bucatini. Their happy hour is probably one of the best I’ve seen! Love the cozy atmosphere and I actually enjoy sitting at the bar here and watching the bartenders work their magic
Good stuff omg 140 characters... food was good service was really nice and the atmosphere was cosy. Be good to try at least once. Btw I love Maegan she made my night by far.
I love coming here for their Happy Hour! $5 for a cocktail and they've got lots of delicious cocktails on their menu. The $3 sliders are alright, it's mostly on the dry side. Nothing special except the soft shell crab is definitely a really good deal for $3.
Customer service isn't the greatest. The owner is quite snobby and we were once late for 5mins for our reservation and he cancelled it. I told him it was tough looking for parking on 17th and he made us wait another 20mins for a table afterwards. Some of the servers are very forgetful as well and doesn't attend to your needs, like getting you water and utensils, taking your orders and such.
Came here once on a pretty chilly evening. They were busy that day so the only seats available were outside on the patio, although it was freezing cold our server offered us blankets as we sat outside which was a nice. The food was pretty good, nothing too special. I think it's overpriced in my opinion simply because the portions are small.
GREAT for Happy Hour specials (Sun-Thurs from 4-7)! Sliders for $3 and 2oz cocktails for $5. I prefer the spider crab slider. You'll have to book a reservation or wait an hour to get a table during happy hour, even if you show up at 5 like we did. I would recommend all the cocktails as they each have a different spin, I've tried enough of them *hicc*. The rest of the menu I've yet to try.
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I honestly went into this meal expecting to be unimpressed. Cleaver was picked by another couple as the spot for our double date night and after reading a lot of the reviews I expected the food to be meh, the restaurant to be overcrowded, and the service to be rushed. I was completely 100% wrong! I'm so glad we decided to go because we ended up having such a delicious meal with really great service!
We had a reservation for 4 at 7:30 on Friday night and we were seated promptly. Although the restaurant is not very big, we didn't feel that our table was squished too close to the table beside us. We started looking at the drink menu and got a tiny bit overwhelmed! There were just so many different cocktails to choose from and they all had unusual names so you had to read the entire description of each drink to figure out what it was. I personally don't really have patience for that and prefer drink menus to be grouped a bit more into categories to make it appear less daunting, however the other three people in my party had fun choosing a few different drinks to try! I asked our server if I could just have a spicy Caesar (my fave) and she was super nice about it even though it was considered "off menu", my fiancé had Mighty Craic, the others had Randy Granny and Dose of Original Sin and everyone enjoyed their drinks (my Caesar was fantastic).
We started with the Pork and Chorizo Sausage Rolls and they were amaaaaazing!!! Seriously so good, I could have eaten them as my main and been perfectly satisfied. Everyone agreed they were the highlight for sure. Then we had the Baked Breads with Chicken Drippings and Bacon Butter. The bread was great, nice and warm. Dipping it in the chicken drippings was sooo good! We tried spreading the bacon butter on as well and it just tasted like butter, didn't notice the bacon. Next each couple chose 1 slider to share. We got the lamb, our friends got the Chipotle Cheeseburger. The lamb was delicious!! I think it was a lamb meatball, and it was cooked medium rare (which is fine by me) and it had mint leaves on it instead of just having mint sauce and it was soooo good! If you like the combo of mint and lamb you should definitely try this. Our friends said theirs was really good too.
For our second round of drinks I got another Caesar, my fiancé got Turning Japanese (which was pretty good), my friend got Culture Shock which was like a raspberry mojito and she said it was good, her husband got Farewell to Sober which was supposed to be White Rum, Maraschino, Lime, Grapefruit and while he was expecting it to be rum mixed in assorted juices it was actually more like rum with a few garnished so he said it just tasted like straight rum and wasn't enjoyable at all (she tasted it and agreed).
For our main we got the cock for 2 which was an entire roasted chicken with stuffing, bread sauce and duck fat fries. I don't know about you but I've never been able to eat half a chicken before so it should probably be called cock for 4. It was a pretty big chicken too and we ended up with about 1/3 of the chicken leftover. First off I'll say that the chicken was fantastic! Super moist and very flavourful! The fries were fine, I only had a few and they weren't anything spectacular. I forgot to try the stuffing and the bread sauce so I can't really comment on that part. The only problem I had with this dish (and the reason I'm giving Cleaver 4.5 instead of 5) is that when the chicken comes out it's plated in the "beer can chicken" style where it's whole and standing upright, and after you take in the fancy presentation (it even has its feet still attached) you realize that it came with a giant knife and a roast fork and you have to cut it yourself. It was a bit awkward and slightly messy trying to cut this thing into pieces and we ended up using one of our dinner plates as a platter for the chicken pieces and there were fries all over the place because the chicken kept spinning around its plate while we were trying to cut it and the roast fork was a bit difficult to use so we ended up using our hands a bit. Thankfully this was a casual meal with good friends so we just laughed about it, but if it was a first date or a meal with a client or something it would be a bit awkward. And besides the awkwardness it just felt like we had to work for our meal and I got out for dinner so that I don't have to do any work! I get that presentation is important but maybe after they brought it out whole for us to look at they could give us the choice of "butcher DIY" or having it cut for us. Or just plate a big pile of chicken parts surrounded by fries?
I almost forgot, we also got the mac and Cheese as our side and it was really good. Not the best I've ever had but definitely satisfying!
Our server, who I believe is named Grace, was awesome! She was very casual and laid back but was very knowledgeable and gave great recommendations. Our order was timed perfectly and the entire night flowed very smoothly!
Overall our meal was fantastic! We did order a little bit too much, in hindsight we probably should have gotten the 1/2 Cock instead of the Cock for 2, but everything was delicious so it didn't matter. The price was a bit on the high side (our bill was split by couple so each couple paid for their own drinks and all the food was split) and our bill was around 96.00 before tip, and I assume our friends' bill was pretty close to that as well. If you consider how many drinks we had (2 per person) then it makes sense though and we're not really bothered by the price. We are definitely looking forward to returning to Cleaver!
If you are in search for the best cocktails in town, look no where. Thanks to the special half price cocktail promo, my friends and I were able to try out at least 25 different kinds of cocktails from the menu. And most of them were so good that we had to order twice!!! The vibe of the restaurant is super cool. Server was very friendly. Overall 10/10 👏👏👏
Super interesting cocktail menu! Unique tastes and delicious. Also have a vegan option (pizza) which was small but delicious. It seemed that portions for all dishes were small. They also charge for tap water which was strange to us.
Came here back in March for my 23rd birthday. Super cool restaurant with a unique menu and cocktails. Our waitress was lovely and was spot on with drink recommendations. Everything was delicious and I still think about the cheesecake I had there to this day. The online reservation system was straightforward and I enjoyed the reminder texts leading up to our reso. Can't wait to visit again next time I'm in Calgary 😊
Cocktails some of the best in the city. Food was decent but didn't make up for the weak service.
Lamb slider was good but tiny for $7.
We were charged for drinking water (told they don't serve tap water and got 'filtered water' instead) and also charged for getting ketchup with our fries. One of the servers was very short too.
Beef tartare was very nice. Crab chili linguini was good but pretty spicy.
Omg, where do I even start??!! From the first contact at the door to finishing up our tab our experience was top quality. Love the people, the atmosphere, the food, the drinks….it’s all 100% 👌🏼 I cannot wait to go back!!
So we randomly walked in there, the food was suprisingly good, would say that their calamari is the best I’ve ever eaten. Take off 1 star because they charged $2 for just tap water and seems to be short of staff, we had to wait for a while between 2 dishes.
Had a very pleasant experience! They have a great menu that would cater to different people. Definitely coming back.
We had a great time at Cleaver! The food and drinks were amazing. Each one of their cocktails is crafted to perfection. In terms of food, the had an option for everyone (vegan, vegetarian). It was a very busy night but the service was still amazing. They were kind enough to check in our bulky winter coats once we got in which was a nice bonus! We will definitely be returning soon.
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