Shark Club

Shark Club Calgary
7995 11 St SE

So I decided to do something a bit random, and join a Meetups.com group - this one was due to a friend who'd joined already, and I'd met a couple of the members at the Kingsland Farmers' Market Food Truck thing a couple weeks ago.  I hadn't had time to actually talk to most of the members, but I had a bit of time on Tuesday so I said, what the heck.


As I walked in, I was struck by how upscale this 'sports' bar was, compared to pretty much any other in the city, other than the downstairs area at Melrose.   It's not downtown either, so it really didn't need all its accoutrements, including a winding staircase, huge multiple-screen TV, and attention to detail in its decor - most of us guys are just happy to find somewhere we can watch the game with our buddies.

The basic principle of this sports bar appears to be flogging their wait staff, namely, young women with ample cleavage, not unlike a Hooters, but with less obviousness about it.   Generally I don't mind, but to be honest, I'd much prefer a friendlier waitress, than one who just appears to want to help, and grimaces at every request.   Granted, this didn't exactly happen, but I didn't ever feel that the waitress that was serving us was all that interested in our little group.

As an aside, it didn't take me long to find the meetup group, oddly enough, as I'd met two prior, and I seemed to recognize them.  I did take the opportunity however to wander around in the facility first to gauge my environs, finding a large patio area upstairs, along with another secondary bar area.

 As the pizzas were on special, pretty much everyone at the table ordered one - around individual sized, though almost all of us boxed about half of it to go afterwards, but essentially, there were only three choices:   the mediterranean, whose ingredients didn't evoke any sense of mediterranean to me, a bbq chicken pizza, of which I tend to avoid, since I don't care for bbq sauce on pizzas, and the meat lovers, which I ended up ordering, due to the lack of choice.   The good thing about it, was the price - a little over half of the price off, so 7.99 for said pizza. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm generally very much a meatatarian, but I tend to actually like a balance, and I think I've mentioned it before - the 2/3 meat, 1/3 vegetable.   On pizzas, sometimes I even do 2/3 veggie, 1/3 meat.   (Crazy, I know!)   This one was fairly loaded with sausage, salami, pepperoni, and ham, and topped with 4 cheeses.   I can't say I was a huge fan, though the others at the table seemed to like it.   I'd just have preferred a bit of variety in the flavour. 

Anyways, at least the conversation and company were fairly interesting, and as mentioned, the service was a bit 'superficial', and not always seemingly friendly towards the females of the group, though I am betting they didn't notice it.  

Would I go back?   Maybe for an important game I wanted to catch with friends, but I had a hard time hearing people, due to the noise.   For the food...  probably not, as not much else on the menu really jumped out at me either.   I have heard that I need to go back to try the baked cheese baguettes, so I may do that, but it's not a place that I'll frequent often.

Taste:   6.0 - to be honest, BPs has much better pizza...  not a bad price though

Presentation: 6.0 - pizza on a plate, nothing special, but I'd have to judge based on other dishes

Ambiance:   8.5 - dark, noisy, but I can see its appeal for their target market segment

Service:   6.5 - none too friendly, but I think it might have been just that one waitress.  

Prices:   14.99 for regular pizzas, 7.99 on Tuesdays for the pizza special.