Christmas in Banff is just beautiful. Lights in almost every tree, snow on the ground and a festive atmosphere in side the hotel. Canada doesn't really seem to put much emphasis on Christmas lunch like we do back in Australia, so our Christmas Day was really just relaxing around the hotel in preparation for Christmas Dinner which seems to be the bigger deal. We had Christmas dinner at Eden, one of Banff's most sort after restaurants and it just so happens its in our hotel.
We booked in for 8pm. The dress in Eden is formal so we donned our finest shirts, tie and tailored pants. Its warm in the hotel so a suite jacket was all that was needed. Upon arriving at Eden we were welcomed with real enthusiasm and the night just kept getting better.
The meal was absolutely amazing and absolutely fitting for Christmas night celebrations. The wine choices are out of this world with the sommelier telling us about his adventures travelling through different parts of the world sampling the finest to bring back to the restaurant.
The atmosphere in Eden is dark and gentlemanly, it really does have the feeling of an old gentleman club with big leather armchairs, dark timber finishes and warm dimmed lighting.
We ducked out half way through to enjoy an after dinner mint (yes a cigarette) and the guy at reception thought we were leaving and asked us to wait as he didn't have our gift ready. We said were just ducking outside for a moment and would be back, but he let the cat out of the bag.... yay we are getting a gift.
Just before we finished up around 10:30 pm we thought we would have a night cap. A nice glass of port to finish the evening. It turns out that Eden has a wide selection of port imported from Portugal and of course we couldn't pass up the 1977 port as this was Damons birth year and he was celebrating his 40th. Two glasses each down, and the manager Kindly shouted us a third. Needless to say we were feeling a little uneasy on our legs on the way out to collect our gift.
So the gift... my hopes were hight but turns out our gift was a rich piece of cake that somewhat resembled wedding cake. A little too rich but made a good snake the next night.
If you are ever in Banff, Eden at the Rimrock Hotel is a must. It is not cheap, in fact it was quite pricey but for Christmas dinner at least, it was worth every penny.
