Review: Änkôr

Yay! Restaurants are finally open! A little bit of normality coming back to our lives after what has been an extremely abnormal event.

I am very lucky to have a close group of like-minded girlfriends here in Canmore that all love good food, good drinks and good conversation. I work with most of these ladies on a day-to-day basis, but we very much keep business and pleasure separate. Once a month we like to meet up and try out local food and basically spend the evening talking about food. It’s the best.

Last year in the Autumn a few places were open, then all the restaurants closed and we resorted to take out. Which is still equally as fun trying out the local take-aways. Canmore has a big selection of restaurants and take-out so I would like to share with you our findings as we work our way through them.

Any restaurants out there who want to invite us to come along and test you wares… we are VERY open to invites and tasters! 😉

So, this week we tested out one of Canmores newest Restaurants. Ankor.

The chef of this restaurant knows one of our “supper club” group really well so we have all been dying to try it out. He has struggled to get it up and running because of the lock downs so we were delighted to be able to support him as restaurants open back up.

And I think it is safe to say that we were not disappointed!

The restaurant is fairly small, based on Bow Valley trail I would say they could probably fit a maximum of 30 people in there. As expected, all the tables are separated by flexy glass, but they have done such a nice job of it you barely noticed, and didn’t feel like you were being sectioned off like some kind of zombie outbreak victim.

On arrival we were presented with a delicious little Amuse-bouche of pickled beetroot with a little cheese and other flavours (Part of the fun of the evening is always guessing what is in things) Served on a stunning oyster spoon on some beautiful rustic plates that had us all googling where we could get our own set.

As it was one of our group’s birthday, we started the evening with the Don Miguel cocktail – A fabulous spicy tequila cocktails mixed with orange flavors and other Mexican goodies. Served in a beautiful martini glass with a spicy rim. The perfect little cocktail to toast our new found freedom.

As a group we love to share food, that way we get to try everything on the menu. Ankor was really accommodating to this. Although the dishes are small and “fancy” there was enough for us all to have at least one bit of every dish.

Dany – the head chef came to our table and told us about these delicious Oysters he had in. Now Alberta is totally land locked and pretty damn far from the sea but these Oysters were STUNNING. From Vancouver, and so fresh! They were topped with a little pickle and spice which complemented the flavour with out over powering it. So delicious and a real treat. We had two each!

For our starters we shared house sourdough with honey butter. – whoever had the idea to put honey with butter deserves a bloody medal. Total food-gasam. The Tartare accompanied the house sourdough perfectly. Tartare can be a little polarizing; raw meat can take a little getting used to but we are bunch of meat eaters who work for the local butchers so it takes a lot to scare us. It was stunning, just enough added flavoring with aioli, capers and sugar pea. We all debated ordering a second but knew we had more delights to come. We should have!

For the main course we shared the duck, the seafood and the tortellini. The Tortellini was smoked pumpkin, sugar pea and ricotta in a brown butter consommé. The tortellini it ‘self was delicious, very light and well made, for me the consommé was a little watery, but with the flavors of all the other dishes it did keep it light. The duck was a duo of duck confit and dry aged duck breast which was the highlight of the whole meal for me. So delicious and interesting to have the two flavours together of the same meat. A little parsnip on the side was a lovely reminder of home and not something you often see on a Canadian menu and the fruity raisin gel added the extra kick to tie it all together. And then the seafood…well… we all fought over this. Amazing and fresh and tasty. So many treats on one dish with the scallop, shrimp, salmon, squid and god knows what else. Fabulous! I could have happily eaten the whole plate to myself. One of the more expensive dishes on the menu, but you can certainly see why as the thought that went in to this really showed.

We all broke up the meal with another cocktail off the menu. I went for the Dizzy Mule – A gingery rye cocktail that was refreshing and tasty. Ginger is a strong flavour but it didn’t ruin my meal. Served in a fish bowl sized glass – perfect treat for the tired mum on a girls night out. That was it for me. I’ve severely cut my alcohol intake down this year which I am very proud off, and it certainly was better getting up for work the next day without the foggy head. I’m sticking to a two-drink rule when I go out, so I chose my cocktails VERY carefully!

Dessert was a honey whisky toddy – warm ginger and whisky mouse with some honey cake. Very light and tasty, although for me I can’t really get excited about too creamy a dessert. The Chocolate tart wasdelicious! I am a big chocolate fan and deeply begrudged sharing this with the girls. 😊 Beautifully presented, you can’t go wrong with chocolate!

When the bill came, we were all extremely surprised how low it was.

BUT! I did go home still feeling hungry. The dishes are single sized and we shared between the 5 of us. Next time it would probably suggest to the girls to order more (I doubt there will be much of an argument there), or if I go with Henry we will order a meal each. When I got home, I did have a quick piece of toast but it was a nice excuse to sit and chat with Henry and tell him about the meal and the evenings gossip.

All in all a great little spot in town. It’s not on the high street, its on Bow Valley Trail and not hugely obvious. Probably worth booking as it is pretty small and with restrictions still in place they have to limit their numbers. But defiantly worth a visit.

The staff were great, very knowledgeable and fun to be around. Life felt a little normal for a minute.

To book or just check out the rest of the menu visit their website here.