Melrose Cafe & Bar

Melrose, contrary to what other reviews have said, isn’t the only dinning option in Cowboys Casino. You can also eat at Zen 8 and the Center Bar, which offers you both Zen 8 and Melroses menu and is normally where I choose to eat. I work next door to Cowboys and often need to have a quick meal. Grasslands used to be in the corner where Zen 8 now occupies and was a cheap and fast food option that being the close neighbor of both The Stampede and The Saddledome offered somewhere you can get a fast meal before your event or for employee’s who have a tight schedule.
I normally eat at Center bar for lunch when looking for a fast meal as I can order off Zen 8 menu or order something like ½ order of Nachos off the Melrose menu, which shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes even when busy. The last time I will ever order anything from Melrose happened when granted the restaurant and Center Bar were busy, but I ordered before many of the other people around me. I prepaid at the Center Bar and most of the staff there are awesome, there are some exceptions but that is normal for anywhere. After seeing people served who still had menus when I ordered and it was approaching 35 minutes later I had to cancel as my lunch time was up. Luckily I was given Cowboy staff discount as I think they knew it was going to be a long haul, so didn’t get screwed as bad as could of been. I wanted to look the cooks in the eye so went up to where cooks were and told them to cancel my order, I doubt he will care but I didn’t have time to wait for a manager as they already wasted enough of my time. The money they made off me will be paid off by my telling countless customers who are looking for somewhere to eat that Melrose doesn’t deserve a one star, you can’t see the negative sign.
If you have time to waste, Melrose might actually be a good choice as two fellow employees got their drinks, 2 beers each, for free this past Friday due to lengthy service time. I value my time more than anything else so I won’t order from them again and will negative advertise as much as I can to dissuade others from having their time wasted as well. I can remember when Melrose used to be a fun place to go and was the heart of the Red Mile, boy have they gone down hill.

The staff here were great the other night before the Motley Crue concert. Our server was right at our table when we arrived, got our drinks to us promptly, took our food order in a timely fashion, and got refills at just the right time.
They had a good selection of beers, though the special for the evening was Canadian which was sad. I went with a Swing Span… well a couple of them. For dinner I tried the mac and cheese. It was alright. The sauce was a little thin but the noodles were cooked nicely and the garlic toast was tasty.

Stampede Parking Lot was a mess with Cirque ending & Flames game starting (April 19,2013) so walked over to Cowboys Casino for a bite.
Melrose only eating establishment, so sat and ordered Draft beer Specials & Hawaiian Pizza … was Good. Waitress was exceptionally friendly and helpful.
Atmosphere was great too!

Before the Calgary Car show, we decided to grab lunch at the casino. I haven’t been to the Cowboy’s casino since they opened so I thought it’d be nice to check it out.
Melrose is your only dining option at this casino so we walked over and seated ourselves. We grabbed a booth facing the bar which was plastered with flat screen TVs (pretty sweet set up)
Although the daily special listed on the table said «Pulled Pork sliders — $ 2 (and on their website!), I asked our server and was informed it’s not until after 4PM. Maybe you should include that when advertising the specials!
I went with the fish and chips and my boyfriend got the Melrose burger. The food didn’t take to long to come out, and it looked appetizing. The fries came in a small deep fryer basket which I thought was pretty cute — but I later realized how little fries you actually got with your meal.
I noticed the tables are lower than standard tables because we were crouched over our food trying to eat. Kinda annoying.
My first few bites were kinda off, I had to figure out if it was the fish or the tartar sauce that tasted sour — my boyfriend confirmed it was the tartar sauce. I notified the server and she brought me another sauce. Even by comparison of color and smell, you could tell they were completely different. Clearly the first sauce had been sitting out or gone bad — disgusting!
They really take advantage of the fact that they monopolize the casino because our bill was around $ 40 and we didn’t even drink! I wasn’t expecting over the top amazing food, but for those prices I would. Next time, I’ll just grab some hot dogs and nachos at the BMO center.

Last time. At this location. Swear. Or you can tar and feather me.
Every time I have eaten here lately I get sick and tonight was no exception.
The hamburgers have to be safe to eat right? Nope. Cannot be cooked to order either — I think they come frozen. BAD. You cannot toast a stale bun people — the outcome is that they are still STALE! The yam fries, weird and goopy/​chewy in the middle, they ran out of their normal house ones and they are still charging a premium for this crap that they said they had to bring in from elsewhere.
$ 50 tab for 1 small drink each and one «event menu» snack item each whereby the yam fries were practically all returned on BOTH. It was brought the staff’s attention that they were horrible who could care less.
Bring in the $, get the patrons out quickly as we are Calgary, we can charge crazy-​high prices for product and we hope you will still tip BIG even though our service lacks basic principles of caring, efficiency and food knowledge.
This restaurant almost cost me my night out as I felt so rotten after eating there.
Zero stars. If I could give it.

Are you kidding me? Our order took 50 minutes from order to table, and then I got the wrong FOOD?! Waited another 20 minutes to get my order, meantime my party finished their meal while I gulped mine down. I was disappointed, especially when I’ve heard so many great things about their original location. I’ll have to try the original Melrose Café and get back to you all.