Las Canarias - Calgary

I am always looking for a new place to go to for paella. Ever since the restaurant, Paella, went out of business I have been looking for a replacement.Las Canarias gets good reviews for its Spanish dishes and my son, who lives a couple of blocks away, and I decided to give it a try.They do have about a half dozen paella varieties on the menu, but we were attracted by their tapas menu as soon as we sat down. Ordering several tapas dishes is a good way to test the limits of the menu and the restaurant's abilities. So, we ordered the montaditos, small individual dishes placed on top of little rondelles of bread. There are six varieties and you can get all six for $14. So, we ordered this twice, once on regular bread and once on gluten free bread. If you wish to share this, do so since the portions are small, but need to be cut into halves or thirds to eat anyway and are good for sharing. And, yes, they were very good and a nice variety of flavours. Also, if you get this dish, eat the ham with salsa first since the salsa soaks in the bread and makes it soggy pretty quickly.Continuing with the tapas ideas, we ordered a tempura octopus and a mushroom and garlic dish. The octopus consisted of large chunks of thick octopus meat coated in tempura batter, fried and cooked well, firm but not chewy. The mushrooms were superb with lots of garlic butter and several slices of bread to soak it all up.I had a coffee and we shared a crema catalina, their version of creme brulee, also superb, one of the best that we have ever had.Great meal, great menu and super service, what more can you ask for?The bill, before tip, was $67.

Tried Las Canarias on a random whim last week while looking for a restaurant on 17th Ave, and we were very impressed! We shared a variety of appetizers, including the mussels and chorizo, and then shared the Paella Mixta for our main. Everything was delicious, and we were already planning our next visit while we were enjoying the meal. The atmosphere inside is quite casual, but enjoyable, and you get to enjoy the wonderful aroma of the Spanish food. The patio on 17th Ave is very nice for people watching. The dessert menu didn't impress me and I wasn't tempted by any dessert offered, but another in our group was tempted to try everything, so obviously your mileage may vary!Service was friendly and helpful - she didn't know the answers to all our questions, but tried to find them out for us. Also having the owner on hand, dropping by our table, was a huge plus. We were very pleased overall, and we will definitely be back again!

We have been to the Canary Islands and thought it would be great to experience some of that in Calgary. We were disappointed. For an appetizer, we ordered the Calamares which were soft and chewy. Not very tasty. For the main, we ordered a 12" seafood Paella dish. There was definitely enough there for 2 people, but the seafood was few and far between and there was a ton of rice. Also, I'm not sure what the seafood was, but it was difficult to get out of the shell and hard to eat. The beer and wine the server recommended was great and reasonably priced and the overall service was good.

Missed the Paella that we had in Spain and decided to try out this restaurant in the new location.Service was friendly but slow especially there were only 2-3 tables. We had 2 appetizers and three mains. Both the appetizers was under average. Paella was oily and very average. Only bright dish was the beef which was prepared quite nicely.

I went for the tapas and a couple drinks on a Saturday evening. They had a live flamenco guitarist and the patio was open. The tapas were fantastic! We had the red and white sangrias and both were delicious, although I preferred the red. I even got dessert, which was also very good. The staff was friendly and the prices are affordable. I'd recommend going with some friends and splitting the tapas, although they have regular mains as well if you don't want to share.