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!

Chew with your crew: Best family restaurants in Calgary
Ian Doig By

Model Milk

1
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.

This business is featured in the following Smart Lists:

Double Zero

2
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

3
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.

This business is featured in the following Smart Lists:

Big T's BBQ & Smoke House Co

4
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.

This business is featured in the following Smart Lists:
More from Ian Doig Ian Doig
Ian Doig’s week may include dim sum lunch with friends, rummaging through indie bookstore shelves as well as scribbling in his notepad at Calgary shops and farmers’ markets. It most often concludes with a relaxing Friday evening pint of locally brewed craft beer.
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