The days are getting cooler, and we’re spending more time indoors cuddling up and enjoying comfort food. We were invited to Halo Bar & Bistro, located in the Renaissance Hotel to try the new fall menu that just launched. Our family has enjoyed a few delicious meals here so we were excited to see what the new menu had to offer.
Halo Bar & Bistro is a casual yet chic restaurant that serves bistro style comfort food within a vibrant atmosphere. Their menu is farm to table inspired, using locally grown and sourced ingredients. We love the modern decor and warm inviting atmosphere, we’ve also always had the best service when eating here!
We started with a bottle of red wine, chosen by the staff to pair with our meal. The Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery we had is exclusive to the Renaissance Hotel! The 2012 Vintner’s Private Reserve Merlot comes from the Niagara Peninsula right here in Canada. We loved the flavour and it paired well with our meal, including dessert!
Halo Bar & Bistro offers a new feature cocktail every week to enjoy. This is something we haven’t seen at many restaurants, and we love that it allows the bartenders to showcase their creativity in coming up with a weekly feature!
We decided to try a variety of dishes off the new dinner menu and they did not disappoint. Denny and I like to share dishes so we can try a little bit of everything! We started with the Tuna Tataki (wakame salad, sesame, watermelon radish, ponzu, topped with ginger drizzle). The flavour was amazing! Next we had the Tandoori Flatbread (Tandoori chicken, butter chicken sauce, mozzarella cheese, red onion, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, raita drizzle). The flatbread was thin and crispy and it was loaded with toppings and flavour. This is by far one of our favourite flatbreads we have ever tried!
The Renaissance Power Salad was bright, colourful and full of flavour (quinoa, arugula, roasted red peppers, candied acorn squash, sunflower seeds, almonds, hemp hearts, watermelon radish, mint citrus dressing). This dish is a great vegetarian and gluten free offer for those who have dietary restrictions. The Mushroom Ravioli (Grana Padano, sautéed mushrooms, sundried tomato cream sauce, garlic baguette) is made with locally sourced mushrooms from Family Fungi located in Leduc Alberta. The sundried tomato cream sauce accented the flavour of the mushrooms and the garlic baguette was perfect for dipping in the sauce.
We’ve always loved that Halo Bar & Bistro is family friendly! Our kids love having dinner here, our son says they are his favourite mini burgers ever! The chef makes the patties in house and they are full of flavour and served with fries (Logan asked them to leave off the lettuce and tomato on the mini burgers). Our picky daughter had a giant bowl of pasta made to her request, topped with just butter and parmesan cheese (she asked them to leave off the sauce and meatballs lol). It’s great to find a restaurant that we can all enjoy as a family and their kids menu offers a wide variety of choices from a double decker grilled cheese to chicken noodle soup. They also offer a variety of ice cream flavours and sauces so they can customize their own sundae!
We finished off our meal with a selection of desserts. We all love sweets so we were excited to try some of the new items on the menu. The Trio of Sorbet had some delicious seasonal flavours with a scoop of Lemon, Berry and Mango. Our kids gobbled this one up! Denny had the White Chocolate and Baileys Crème Brule topped off with chocolate dipped biscotti and berry coulis. He didn’t make one peep while he ate it so I know he loved it! I tried the Rich Chocolate Ganache Cake that had a hazelnut crust and strawberry ice cream which is a new menu item this season. The chocolate garnish is hand folded in house, we enjoyed listening to the process that went into the presentation of this dessert! I loved the rich chocolate flavour, it paired well with the red wine at the table.
The food and service were excellent during our visit! It is a bit of a drive from the city but totally worth it for the experience and the menu!
