The Gateway: A.K.A my second home while at SAIT. One of my favourite places to be. It was hard to justify going anywhere else at lunch. Why spend five dollars on an expensive coffee when you can spend that and have a nice lunch, a beer, and an actual place to sit. The music is nice and service is great. Not to mention one of the best venues for music in the city. Note to students: Get the dollar nachos, great for those of us on a budget. read more

The Gateway - 2011/08/12-USS plays the Gateway at SAIT. Photo By: Brittany McEachern - Bars Near Me - Calgary, Alberta

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As a venue, the Gateway gets 4 stars. Good sound, lots of space, nice stage. Well worth checking out a band here. Intimate (close enough to be near the performers), while not TOO intimate (like seeing a band in some guy's low-ceilinged basement). Now as a food establishment and bar, the Gateway gets TWO stars at best. The servers and bartenders are unhelpful, rude, and condescending. They act as if you are SO greatly inconveniencing them by your existence. The food is mediocre. Pizza seemed like a microwaved pizza, nachos were alright. Just average. I will likely be back to the Gateway to take in a show or two in the future, but it is very unlikely that I will be ordering food or interacting with the service staff. read more

The good: excellent location, beautiful view, and lots of space. Great place for live music with good sound, lighting, and stage. The bad: Service was pathetic. There was no clear sign stating where to order food/drinks and the bartenders weren't exactly nice about telling us where to stand. When I went back for another drink the bartenders ignored me for a few minutes. A friend and I ordered the same pizza, they came forty minutes apart. I've only been here once, therefore I don't know if this is just a rare occurrence, but I definitely am not tempted for a return visit. read more

When going for lunch at the Gateway involves first get past the lurking and lurching security guy who checks everyone's id's (I'm sure not all of them are creepy but one of them really is.) And then you have to find a seat which shouldn't be difficult since the place is built like a food-court. And gentlemen, if you're looking to pick up, I'm sorry but this is not the place -the girl to guy ratio is not in our favor. But, surprisingly, the food is really good. Most places offer one type of veggie burger, here you can get every type of burger they sell but with a veggie patty -It's a refreshing change from the norm. The canned music is bad but not offensively so and the live music they play is generally pretty unheard of which means a lot of mediocrity with a few hidden gems. read more

The Gateway is one of my favourite venues in Calgary, not least of all because they bring in great acts. I love that this campus bar is small enough to fill with music and atmosphere, while also big enough to attract musicians like Mother Mother, Two Hours Traffic, and Yukon Blonde, and way, way more! Because it is on SAIT campus, the crowd is fairly young but if you're there for the music, who cares? I've only had lunch here but the service is great and if you're worried about a mass of students (or getting a specific table), planning lunch after 12:30 never fails. The food is what you would expect for pub fare: tasty, reasonably priced and with just enough variety to be interesting. The lunch special is a great deal, you can get lunch and a beer for under $15. The Gate is also a great place for a post-work beer, though it can be busier and louder at some times of years that others. Such is life with a campus bar! I've only had great service at the Gate and it really helps that the servers are attentive regardless of customer gender, something I don't always experience in Calgary. The location, the service, the music, the food and the general atmosphere of The Gateway make it a fantastic place, whether you're a student or not. Take advantage of the patio if you can, the view of downtown Calgary is badass. read more

Gonna have to reiterate what my good friend Dan wrote: as a music venue, the Gateway is quite nice. As a food place, it is subpar. Note to musicians: try to avoid the poutine with extra Montreal smoked meat if you are about to hit the stage. It's much more like YOU will hit the stage from the overload. It is a nice space - being in a school, it is very like a cafeteria: wide open, big inviting windows, with the added bonus of a bar. However, you do have to put up with the surly line-cook shoveling slop onto your tray. Kind of an aside, but the green room behind the stage...pretty sure the drunk guy in there pooped his pants as we were changing into our tights. Pretty sure. read more

This review is based on my concert experience. I attended the Abandon All Ships and Palisades concert. The place was maybe 1/3 full, but it was a Thursday. Both of the bartenders were friendly and efficient. The facility was very clean and prices were about average. The loss of one star is because the numerous bouncers failed to remove two guys who were "dancing" by taking swings at the back of people's heads. Otherwise it was great. I am planning to attend another concert soon and will update based on that one. read more

I'm pretty fond of the Gateway as a campus bar. The big windows let in a lot of sunlight, the open layout makes it easy to track down your buddies and the food is surprisingly good. Like, really, really good. It's true that you always, always get ID'd, but then I've noticed that Calgary is cracking down more in general. There are TVs all over the place, so it's a good place to sit down and watch the game. They've got pool tables and some nice bathrooms in the back. The sound system is great for shows. It has all the elements of a great campus bar. There's always groups of friends crowded around, enjoying the specials. I feel like the Den gets rowdier but the Gateway gets points for usability. read more

As a SAIT alumni, I really enjoyed going to The Gate on my down time. Its usually pretty quiet during the day, so its nice to get together with friends and chat and have some grub. Like the others have said, the food is not the best, but its not awful by any means. The servers are a little slow but have always been friendly when I was there. As a venue, its not one of my favorites, as its not that big, but its good for small events where less people would attend. Its nice that they also still have seating during the shows, so you dont feel like you have to stand around in between sets. No coat check, which really sucks, but its sheltered right from the C-Train station and the underground parking is steps away from the entrance. (not 100% sure if you can access the underground parking through the center as I have never used it) read more

The gateway is a nice venue for sure! Sweet sound system with a good open space. The Stage is a nice size and easy to navigate. Any show I have seen here has looked and sounded quite good. I wouldn't recommend eating here as the food is sub par, menu needs to go to rehab and get a job, as well as the servers because if they consider what they do work, well I won't go their... Extremely easy to get to by LRT as the venue is located on sait campus. For me its good strictly as decent space to watch a small act that comes through town. Check it out next time you can! Eat and drink before you come! read more

They've got a great view at least. Sound at concerts is usually poor read more

One thing Calgary is in dire need of is a great venue for audiences between 250-500. Commonwealth is currently the only venue that is even worth anyone ones time venue-wise. Gateway isn't anything to write home about, been to numerous shows there. I am never like "oh my god, ra ra riot is playing the gateway... We have to go." In fact it can be a deal breaker. Ron Sexsmith and Jen Grant played there Oct 3rd, loved the show, but the venue takes away from the performance. The venue encourages people to sit far from the stage, and it's hard to get people up to watch a show. Personally one of my least favorite venues in Calgary (Mac hall might be the number one). We need to start using some of great venues we have commonwealth, Hifi, junction grand, legion, and Jack singer. On top of that a pitcher of Pabst Blue Ribbon is $18 bucks and so is a pitcher of Big Rock Rock Creek. Not sure how that math pans out. On a positive note they have buck hunter. read more

This used to be a favourite of mine throughout my 4 years of attendance at sait. But It was made very clear too me by the manger and staff. That they will happily circumvent the law of Ensuring that IDs are properly checked for "everyone under 40". I Was sitting across from a table that were openly talking about not getting ID an had one minor in the bar. I had forgotten my ID an stated I could fetch it and return later in a few mins.. but that was far too unacceptable too the management an I was promptly kicked out. However before I left I had mentioned that the table across from our group had not been ID'ed and the sever that was serving us and their table had told me directly she knew they we underage. But he also seemed to be completely aware of it, and just stated "I've seen him before" however for a bar that doesn't allow minors seem absolutely ridiculous too me ..."unless you know the manager". Sad too say, but I definitely won't be recommending this bar too anyone again, you get more respect at loco lus an earls.. an those are only a North block away?! read more

came here for a delhi to dublin concert and it was a pretty solid experience. this place is quite large with a fair number of tables. this setup is quite handy when you want to eat / not be super close to the dance floor / main stage. drinks were cheap // however, as a college bar, I'd hope they are. Only thing - they wouldn't let me start a tab, which can be a pain if you want to have a big night... decent acoustics, friendly staff, super close to transit options...gateway wins read more

Everytime I am dragged here (as its the only bar on campus therefore convenient) I regret not convincing other to go to Lou's. The food is mediocre, as is the pricing; the service however is almost always terrible and to a degree that's amazing. the wait for service is always unreasonably long. Last time i was here it was more then 25 mins for service. read more

I bought tickets to see a show at The Gateway. On the ticket purchasing website, it said the show started at 8:00 PM. On the tickets, it said the show started at 8 PM. When we arrived there, the doors were not open and there was a long line-up. There was a guy sitting at a table who didn't acknowledge anybody. So everyone was standing around thinking: "Well... do we just stand here? Can we just walk in? Is someone going to come out and take our tickets?" It would have been nice if he could have at least said "Hi guys, doors open at ____, and we're just waiting for our ticket staff to be set up" or something just to be courteous. Then, they finally tell us that the show does not start at 8:00 PM, like it says on the ticket, but that it starts at 9:30 PM. This was a little disappointing to find out at the last minute. It was a Wednesday night - and we really weren't planning on being out so late (the show would now probably go to about 11 or 11:30 PM due to the late start). I mean, the show was Fred Penner; not really a show where you expect to be at until midnight. ;P Anyway, the let us in finally. Now we had to kill an hour an a half of time, so we asked to see the menu for some food. This particular night they informed us that they were only offering pizza. The pizza was $6.00 per slice, which we thought was a little expensive as it wasn't that high quality of pizza. So that was a waste of money and pretty disappointing. The audience all took this extra time and got incredibly drunk, so we ended up kind of stuck in a room full of really loud drunk people who kind of took away from the experience of the show. The positive things I can say about this place is that the servers we encountered were polite / nice, and checked up on us a few times over the course of the night. The space is kind of nice, well laid out. Feels comfortable and relaxed. But overall, we just didn't enjoy the apathetic and unstructured approach to the show, and the venue or staff not informing us about the hour and a half start time difference from what was on the ticket! read more