Un souper décontracté à Calgary, AB

Ordering takeout Chinese food is convenient, but not a top date strategy. Calgary has no greater concentration of date-night-worthy Asian restaurants than in Chinatown. These eateries combine attractive atmosphere with varied menus that feature Chinese-Western faves (ginger beef, salt-and-pepper squid), stellar Old-Country cuisine (mapo tufu, Peking duck) as well as Japanese and Korean spots.

It’s OK to go out and dine alone, on purpose. Really! Sometimes you’re out and about on your own, and you’re hankering for a decent nosh, so you pop into a place and plunk down. Sometimes you’re in that headspace where you want a good meal with just a book or tablet for companionship. You need no excuses, no apologies. Treat yourself. Here are some restaurants that fit the bill.

A surprising number of Calgary restaurants specialize in fish and chips as well as a good number of eateries that serve especially good takes on this staple comfort dish. The following spots serve especially good fish and chips.

Calgary’s first inhabitants settled here more than 11,000 years ago, but the first European settlers didn’t arrive until 1873, two years before it became a North-West Mounted Police post. Over the decades, Calgary’s historic buildings have faced fires, floods and demolition, but we’ve managed to maintain some gems – some of which house top restaurants. Here is a handful of eateries that dwell in heritage digs.

While international flourishes are the norm on the city’s casual-contemporary menus, new restaurants are specializing in global food and fusion mash-ups not previously available here. From African and Asian to European and South American, the flavours of world’s far-flung corners are yours for the feasting. This list features some of Calgary's top global-cuisine stops.

Savoury pies are the best kind of comfort food. There’s something so deeply satisfying about noshing out on a hot and fluffy meat-and-veggie-stuffed pastry. These include European classics such as creamy chicken pot pie and golden mashed-potato-topped shepherd’s pie as well as Mediterranean fatayers, doughy Latin American empanadas and golden stuffed Jamaican patties. Here are the places to get your fix.

In many cultures, people fill flattened dough with delicious fillings. In Asia, there are dumplings. Italians love tortellini, ravioli and agnolotti. In Russia, there are pelmeni and in Georgia, khinkali. The most popular form on the Canadian Prairies is the perogy (pierogi, pirogi, varenyky), which came to Canada from Eastern Europe. If you don’t have a baba to make them for you, here are a few places you can find perogies.

Feeling a little peckish during happy hour? Nothing in the world complements that glass of wine quite as well as a chic cheese selection! Explore the world of cheese within reach of home at these restaurants offering top-notch cheese boards.

When Calgarians want healthy, tasty restaurant food that’s priced to move, they choose Vietnamese. While there are many, many Vietnamese restaurants in the city, they’re not so plentiful in the central core. The following Vietnamese restaurants are located between the Bow River and 17th Avenue Southwest.

There’s a tidy handful of restaurants orbiting the Calgary International Airport – you just need to know where to look. This list will take you from the tarmac to Canadian-contemporary, Chinese and Mediterranean spots in and around nearby hotels as well as in the immediately adjacent neighbourhoods of Falconridge, Country Hills and Castleridge.

Nothing beats a warm, flaky serving of sweet pie topped with a mountainous scoop of vanilla ice cream or a heaping cloud of rich whipped cream. A select few city restaurant serve just such sweet slices. Whether you’re looking to feed a traditional apple pie craving or want to get more adventurous with a French-toast pie or pie milkshake, here are the places to go to get your fill of crust and filling.

While the bacon phenomenon is still going strong (long live bacon!), the other parts of the pig are best utilized when cooked low and slow, with some kind of sauce to hold everything together. The second that tender meat hits the plate and falls apart, mouths start watering and a fork frenzy follows. Here is a list of some of the best places in Calgary that serve this slow-cooked wonder on a bun, in breakfast hash and beyond.