Nest Taphouse Grill

I’m not sure why this place is so highly rated.
We went there and waited 15 minutes for the waitress to appear for our drink order. Then, we waited about 15 minutes for her to come back and take our food order. Then 10 minutes later the kitchen came out to tell us they ran out of steaks. We told her we would need a minute to pick something else. Meanwhile 20 more minutes pass before our table decided it wasn’t worth the risk anymore.
In the end 65 minutes later we left. And, that’s after we paid $ 5 to park and check out this highly rated place on Zomato!
No thanks…

My first and only visit here was for a special event, so my perception of the place may be coloured by this fact. That said, I do like the fact that tea with unlimited hot water is reasonably priced, the fact that the waitstaff seemed to check on my table relatively frequently, and the fact that the daily special the night I went (a Wednesday) was the wonton purses, which made my bill much cheaper.
They have a decent sized venue for special events, and a number of different seating areas. The washrooms are well maintained and include different hand drying options which is nice. The menu has a good amount of variety for a campus pub/​bar, so that’s nice. I’m not sure about the alcoholic drinks menu, mostly as I wasn’t planning on drinking, but the non-​alcoholic beverages were plentiful and a fair number of these included unlimited refills.

What a great place to eat! The food is all hand made (even the chicken fingers!) and the venue itself looks great.
It mostly caters to students but it’s great if you’re in the area and looking for something new!

So NAIT has one of the best culinary programs and that means that the resto-​bar should be fabulous right? Right!
It is your typical gastro-​pub setup and décor. Newly renovated. Very cozy, with some pool tables and dart boards. Your menus are already at the table and you seat yourself.
I am a huge beer fanatic and along with some local micro-​breweries (Alley Kat) they had one of my favourites on tap which is a Belgian White that pairs well with just about anything, Shock Top.
The menu is imaginative and innovative. I had the Crawfish Corndog which was shrimp and crawfish sausage in a sweet corn batter served with fiery mustard dip. I had a side of soup (potato bacon chowder). Very tasty!
The only drawback to going to The Nest on a regular basis is that there is no free parking. What you pay will vary on the time of day that you are at the restaurant.

The first thing you need to know about The Nest, which is awesome, is that it’s not just a student bar. No student ID? No problem. This place is open to the public. Very cool, especially because this place isn’t just a bar, but a popular concert venue, too. Bands like Mother Mother (one of my absolute favourite Canadian bands) come through here to play shows to enthusiastic crowds. How sweet is that?
Décor-​wise, it’s a typical student-​like bar. Nothing really wrong with it, nothing’s fall apart, but a little dated. Still, the tables are big enough to hold a few pitchers, the seats are comfortable enough, the bar is really big, the stage is pretty cool, and there’s even a few pool tables. I found the staff to be really friendly when I went for a pint. The hockey game was on, as expected, but it wasn’t so loud that I couldn’t hear my own conversation (that’s a big bonus point, because it’s actually pretty rare ’round these «Oil Country» parts).
I didn’t try the food, but my pint of Amber’s (YAY for a local brew!) was nice and cold. There was a great selection of beers on tap (all listed in the menu), pretty impressive for, again, what just seems like a student bar.
The only point that RATT has on The Nest: the view. This place is underground, so you don’t get a spectacular view like at RATT. Still — food, drink, events and live music, and staff that actually seem happy to be working there make it worth while. Three cheers to a newly-​discovered place for a pint!