One of the walls when you enter the restaurant.

Housed in the Jasper Block, built in 1909, and located on 105 Street and Jasper Avenue, Rocky Mountain Icehouse took the place of what used to be Fantasia Noodle House before that restaurant had to move in order to accommodate building renovations. Having ventured out on a walk during our coffee break on a sunny summer day, my co-workers and I stumbled upon the new eatery, and I made note that I would have to go back another time.

In September, on a particularly gorgeous afternoon, I grabbed a friend for lunch and the two of us started wandering with no idea of where to go until the memory of Rocky Mountain Icehouse popped into my head. They have a small sidewalk patio situated just outside the doors, but we opted to sit inside by the front windows, so we’d get the sunshine as well as some air conditioning. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical of the establishment. For the longest time they didn’t even have a working website despite having been open for a couple of months (rest assured, they have one now and it’s quite nice), so it didn’t seem like the owners were all that organized. Regardless, I was willing to give it a try.

One of the two entrances to the space.

The large interior of Rocky Mountain Icehouse.

The space is quite a bit larger than I expected. There’s even a large, private room called The Ski Lodge that can be used for smaller events or functions of up to 90 people. We were there for a later lunch, so I shouldn’t have been too surprised to see that only a few other tables were occupied. There was only one server on staff who indicated that we could seat ourselves wherever we wanted. She dropped off a couple of menus at our table and let us mull over the options. It’s a fairly succinct list of appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, dips, mains and dessert.

The two of us opted to share an order of the Cajun Chicken Three Cheese Dip to start. My friend decided on a bowl of the Southern Gumbo as her entree and I went with the Crab Cakes.

The Cream Cheese Tapenade that we didn’t order.

The Cajun Chicken Three Cheese Dip that we did order.

A plate of dip and warm pita bread arrived soon after we ordered. My first thought was that it tasted delicious, my second was that it wasn’t very spicy and my third was that I was impressed with how they managed to get something that was supposed to have chicken in it to such a smooth consistency. That’s when I thought I should check the photo I took of the menu, and we realized that we were given the wrong dip. Instead of the one we chose, our server brought us the Cream Cheese Tapenade – a blend of olives and cream cheese with a hint of spinach. Honestly, I was surprised at how much I was enjoying that dip before we figured out their mistake. I usually dislike olives with a passion (olive oil doesn’t count though), but I could barely taste them in this dip. I would have eaten the whole thing, but it wasn’t what we had wanted, so as soon as our server came back, I let her know, and she took it back to the kitchen and had a batch of the Cajun Chicken dip whipped up for us. Our second go round with dip was also tasty. This time, it was much chunkier with pieces of chicken breast, peppers, onions and jalapeno coming together with the cheese to pleasantly top off our soft slices of pita. Between the two dips, I’m not sure which I’d be more likely to eat again. I might actually be leaning more towards the tapenade, which is a slightly lighter dip. The cajun chicken dip can almost pass for a meal with the meat, cheese, veggies and starch…almost.

Southern Gumbo

Unfortunately, I did not sample the Southern Gumbo as my friend was battling a cold, but she was raving about it. The portion size looked quite large and was filled with chicken, chorizo sausage, peppers, onions, corn and rice. In particular, the sausage looked like it was housemade because, rather than the sliced cylinders of sausage often found in dishes, it was more irregular in shape, which made my friend think it wasn’t pre-prepared. If that truly is the case, I would be impressed.

My order of crab cakes with aioli.

My crab cakes were fairly run-of-the-mill. However, it’s not to say there was anything wrong with them. On the contrary, they were what I expected. Nicely breaded and crisp on the outside, there was a good crunch to them that gave way to a mixture of crab claw meat, boursin, feta and cream cheese. The crab cakes were then drizzled with roast tomato and garlic aioli, which helped to finish off the flavour profile of the dish. Come to think of it, I really should have squeezed some lemon juice on them to give it a better balance. I’m not sure why I didn’t do that.

In any case, I did enjoy our meal there. It’s a great space with a welcoming atmosphere that, at least during a late lunch hour, is a quiet place to sit and chat. The food is sort of what you can find in any general pub, but they do an okay job with it (other reviews I’ve read have been mixed as well), and I hope that with time, as the restaurant builds on its identity, that it’ll continue to improve.