Unbelievable. This is the kind of place you discover a few times in your lifetime. The Mai Tais are a religious experience. The service is what service should be but so rarely is. The food manages to be both fun, authentic, and over the top delicious all at the same time. And this is one of the few places that even though it isn't trying to be one is an actual speakeasy in the way most places try way too hard to be. If you're not a little lost and maybe even a little trepidatious as you try to find the way in, it's not a speakeasy. If there were 10 stars I'd give them all.
Amazing cocktail bar with delicious snacks and lots of vegetarian options.Service was amazing and the prices are reasonable. We made a reservation and were glad that we did because the place filled up at one point. From the outside you wouldn't know that this speakeasy-style restaurant is there but once you find your way inside you will be transported into another world. The interior decor is spellbinding and whimsical. Overall great experience. Thank you
The fresh, authentic food comes in second only to the out of this world cocktails. amazing
Amazing Cocktails - Great ambiance & serviceThis place was really fun There’s a very unassuming speak easy doorway to enter and then an exceptionally fun ambiance inside. We had lots of small plates including salmon spring rolls, wings, pork belly banh mi, pineapple stir fry, crispy crepes, dried squid and satay chicken vermicelli. They were all really good and perfect for Vietnamese food lovers. I would highly recommend the spring rolls, banh mi and crispy crepes. These were unique items and were so tasty. The dried squid was a little fishy but authentically Asian - I would stay away from this if you are maybe not used to this kind of dish. The cocktails were on a different level. There’s a huge menu and everything looks amazing. Most cocktails are tiki style and served in fancy glasses. There were plenty of food items on this menu that I wanted to try and I will need to return multiple times to work my way through the huge selection of drinks on the menu. Our server, Tatiana, was very nice and spent a lot of her time at the table giving recommendations and chatting. We really enjoyed the experience here and will absolutely go back. 100% would recommend.
A cool, hidden place to visit. We ordered some drinks and loved the Saturn cocktail the best. Everything we ate was very tasty, small plates. I would have liked bigger portions, as the price was a bit higher in comparison to the amount of food provided.We ordered the beef carpaccio, bánh xèo, pork and pineapple stir fry, cured pork belly, smoked pork belly skewers, and pork spring rolls. My favourite was the carpaccio and skewers, but everything was really great.The service is grand. Your table is tended to by anyone working, which feels homey and social. They won't let you go without regular water refills, which I love at any place with strong cocktails. They will happily tell you the origins of the bar and the lovely people running it, which makes the experience even more singular.
This is neat hidden location in the middle of Chinatown. The atmosphere and decorations in the restaurant are really cool. The food tastes great but the portion sizes given its price are not ideal. The cocktails are quite refreshing and they have a good variety of drinks.
Everything about this place was amazing. The family owned and operated hidden speakeasy style restaurant and bar was my favorite place in Calgary so far. The food was amazing, drinks were incredible, and the Affagato with a Vietnamese twist was the perfect ending. Highly recommend!!
It's as good as they say it is. And better. Go here. Try everything you can. Taste every cocktail you can. They put so much thought, heart, and expertise into everything they make. The owners are delightful. The staff are super helpful. You get the delightful duality between feeling like you're in a fancy cocktail bar, while simultaneously feeling like you're in someone's home - everyone is so friendly.
Shoutout to IG: nevaa_full for suggesting this place. Heard a lot about this place and finally decided to try it. The service was great. We got crepes, papaya salad and “what’s kitchen having”. The last item we got was a delicious and flavourful soup with perfect spicy ness. We also got cocktails which were good if that’s your thing. My only issue was the seating was very congested and the tables were small. Makes sense given the location but would have liked a better seating arrangement.
I had a chance to visit Paper Lantern's a little while ago. I'll start by saying the service was really good. There were lots of servers happy to help and the family dynamic they presented was really unique (all the staff seem to be related.) The drinks were also creative and interesting. The reason I didn't rate Paper Lantern's higher was the food. The dishes were tasty, but the portion sizes and the price for what you got wasn't at all worth it. The value for money just didn't seem to be there. A few examples of this were that you got half a sub instead of a full sub, or a tiny bowl of rice with a bit of meat priced at a full serving, or a very minuscule portion of dried squid as an apitizer, etc. Each of these dishes were also charged separately and it was very easy to spend a lot of money without getting full. Overall I think Paper Lantern's has a lot of potential. Once they fix the food part of their restaurant I think the place could be really great.