Fortuna's Row: New Latin American restaurant opens today in Calgary

@orchard.yyc | @shelter.yyc/Instagram

Fortuna’s Row is the next exciting spot coming to the already-thriving Calgary dining scene.

From the people that brought YYC Orchard Restaurant and Shelter Cocktail Bar, this new concept features an upscale menu of modern Latin American food and drinks.

Opening today, July 21, this massive riverfront restaurant has a visually stunning dining room that perfectly compliments the colourful and dazzling food on every plate.

Fortuna’s Row mission was to bring an experience larger and unlike any other Latin American in western Canada and Dished got the chance to check it out early.

In many ways, the restaurant feels tucked away, between the hustle and bustle of the city and the calming rush of the Bow River. As soon as we walked inside, it was obvious this was going to be a special addition to the Calgary dining scene.

Right when you walk in, there’s an intimate cocktail lounge you must walk through before entering the dining room. It teases a number of great spots at the bar or corners of the room to have a date, grab a drink, or order a few small plates, but once you enter the enormous dining room, that’s where you’ll want to be.

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The room has impossible high ceilings, side rooms, and wide pillars throughout, with unpainted walls that leave the grey cement structure exposed. Every light, table, booth, frame, and more make the entire restaurant feel warm and lively. It feels like a restaurant that has been lost to time, with nature having slowly crept its way inside over decades.

From the food to the drinks that comes from the open kitchen concept to the hip bar feature a menu of traditional comfort food dishes created to be upscale and plated in fun and imaginative ways. Each one lights up the room just as much as the many sunlights on the roof.

Starting off, we hoped to try a few drinks that had the same spirit as the decor that we couldn’t find anywhere else, and that’s all there was.

We had the wasabi cocktail, made with gin, soju, watermelon, MSG, and wasabi. We tried one of the tequila-based honeydew drinks, which also had avocado and cilantro for a crisp creaminess to it. Our favourite had to be the yuzu, shaken with Japanese whiskey, sesame rice vinegar shrub, apple brandy, and lapsang souchong.

Diving into the food, we started with the taco, which came with braised pork belly, hibiscus, and black pepper. It was perfectly balanced with salt, sweetness, acidity, and fat.

The pincho, perfect for the steak lover at the table, was a charcoal grilled sirloin topped with shoestring potato and Morita salsa on the side.

The best vegetarian dish we tried was the cauliflower that was served with grilled florets, poblano cream, and a clever pistachio chimichurri.

The most beautiful dish we tried was the colourful Hokkaido scallop ceviche, with Leche de Tigre, octopus jerky, and potato chips.

The arepa was a whole softshell crab, and the massive plate of Pato came with green rice, confit duck legs, roasted duck breast, grilled carrots, and a sunnyside duck egg to mix with it all.

Orchard recently placed #87 on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list and Shelter has one of the coolest hidden rooms in Calgary, so another spot opening up has us incredibly excited.

See for yourself and check this impressive new restaurant out yourself the next time you need a culinary escape.

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Fortuna’s Row

Address: 421 Riverfront Avenue SE, Calgary

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