Chew with your crew: Best family restaurants in Calgary

The term “family-style dining” of course refers to restaurant meals that are suitable not only for mom and dad, but for the kids and grandparents as well. But it has also come to suggest group dining and shared plates that reflect the latest food trends. Togetherness never tasted so good!

Selkirk Grille

1
1900 Heritage Dr SW, Calgary, AB T2V 2X3

Open year round outside the Heritage Park Historical Village main gate, elegant Selkirk Grill serves updated classic Canadian cuisine that includes a nicely priced family-style Sunday supper. Beyond the great food, the best thing about this delectable three-course prime rib meal may be that you don’t have to cook it.

Model Milk

2
307 17 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2S 0A8

One of the country’s most critically acclaimed contemporary Canadian restaurants, Model Milk serves an evolving, four-course Sunday supper that’s hard to beat for taste and price. Located in a converted dairy, its two-level, open-concept layout lends a vibrant, if noisy atmosphere.

Double Zero

3
1133-6455 MacLeod Trail SW, Calgary, AB T2H 0K8

This pizza parlour’s Chinook Centre location is big, bright and family friendly, serving exactingly prepared pie that’s edgy enough for foodie folks and familiar enough to suit fussy pre-adolescent appetites.

Mercato West

4
5000-873 85 St SW, Calgary, AB T3H 0J5

A bigger but equally boisterous second location of Fourth Street Southwest’s much-loved Mercato, Mercato West on 85th Street SW serves big, bold and sharable Italian dishes including house-made pastas in a fun and sociable setting.

Big T's BBQ & Smoke House Co

5
2138 Crowchild Trail NW, Calgary, AB T2M 3Y7

Succulent, messy barbecue with multiple sauces and sides are the order of the day at Big T’s. Sharing is a natural impulse whatever dishes arrive at the table, though the restaurant’s two sampler platters are stacked high with a finger-lickin’ selection of everything from pulled pork and chicken to Andouille Sausage and cornbread.

The quintessential Mexican meal, tacos are also a relatively scarce commodity in Calgary. However, we’ve done some digging and unearthed the select few restaurants that make truly marvelous versions of these hand-held snacks.
The city’s summer season features a delicious dance card of culinary festivals and events. Many, such as Stampede-time pancake breakfasts, are easy to access the day of, but the various tasting and tippling shindigs listed here can fill up quickly, so purchasing tickets sooner than later for these foodie festivities is recommended. Image credit: iStock.com/kasto80.
The city’s pathway system is one of the longest in North America. Given its lengthy stretches, the occasional rest and snack stop, though few and far between, are a welcome sight when walking, biking and inline skating. Here are a few restaurants, cafés and snack shacks located on or near our scenic cycling system. Image credit: iStock.com/mihailomilovanovic.
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