Best Restaurants for Outdoor Dining in Banff

Fantastic food and wonderful service The Chefs Plate is excellent value.

I am a regular diner at this restaurant having eaten here at least 6 times. The booth I reserved was not available, after some negotiation with a hostess that didn’t care we were seated at a much better table. The bill was $700 for 3. The server was Simon, a very accomplished and professional waitstaff, who seemed overwhelmed by his workload, assisting with a larger party. Our water glasses were never refilled, drinks were AWOL, two of the three steaks were mixed up one medium cook dry age steak and a rare Wagyu. The wagyu came medium and the dry age came rare. The Wagyu was replaced as unacceptable and the rare dry age was reluctantly consumed as is, to some disappointment. Simon did his best but there was no one to cover backload, and he was obviously upset at the performance of the service. The entrees were delayed long before the delivery of the mixed up steaks. Overall I was disappointed in the performance of this restaurant. The food quality always top notch. I did notice the waitstaff at prime hours consuming their own meals at the bar, which may contribute to the problems, of missing cocktails and no water service. Simon apologized for what we all knew was a complete dogs breakfast of service. There was simply not enough staff to deal with the private party. Shame on Chucks management who gross 2% of the staffs gratuity and give them poor resources unable to serve patrons. I tipped Simon well regardless but I felt, it was undeserved at some level. Sincerely SA

This was the perfect place for dinner on a Wednesday evening – it wasn't busy and we were seated right away, even though we were early for our reservation. We ordered the Sawback (spicy pineapple) and hard root beer cocktails and they were great. For dinner, we had the rotisserie chicken sandwich and the bison burger, and the portions were huge and the food was amazing. The fries are super crispy. Highly recommend!

We are locals from Canmore and have been eager to try The Fat Ox as we love Italian. Molly took Excellent care of of us from great Menu recommendations to great service. Stuart who is one of the owners was also very helpful explaining various dishes. The Menu has so many great items our friends and ourselves decided to share Applies, Mains and Desert which worked out perfect. Appies of Venison Carpaccio, Elk Meatballs and the Shrimp “Scampi” were outstanding. The “New” Lamp Sirloin was melt in your mouth and our favourite, and we also had the Bison Tagliatelle. The signature Desert “Sticky Toffee Pudding” was delicious. We were all Very Impressed and definitely will be back soon. The Fat Ox is a Fabulous addition to the Bow Valley Dining Scene and a Must Do !

Absolutely delicious food. We split the Benny trio and could not get over how delicious the bread and hollandaise sauce were. They may have been short staffed as the service was quite slow but they were lovely gentlemen.