松鶴樓

Sōng Hè Lóu · Pine Crane Pavilion

Hawkwood
Palace

Peking & Cantonese Cuisine

The restaurant's illuminated white fascia photographed at night: a small green roundel, three red Chinese characters, then HAWKWOOD PALACE in red capitals, with a lamp post crossing the lettering.
The fascia at #63, after dark

#63 · 555 Hawkwood Blvd NW
Hawkwood Village, northwest Calgary

Order online 403 241 1888

3.9 ★ · 322 Google reviews
Order for pickup · $10 minimum · about 25 minutes

What the sign has been saying

松鶴延年

Sōng hè yán nián
Pine and crane prolong the years

Painted red on the fascia, to the left of the English, are three characters: 松鶴樓 — Pine Crane Pavilion. The small green roundel beside them is a pine tree, which makes the emblem a quiet pun on the first character.

In Chinese, pine and crane belong together. They are the standard emblem of long life, from the phrase 松鶴延年 — pine and crane prolong the years.

People have been eating at this address for over thirty years. The name above the door says why — and nobody has ever said it out loud, because this restaurant has never had a website, a designer, or a single line of press.

松sōngpine
鶴hècrane
樓lóupavilion
The crane, in one line

Over thirty years
on Hawkwood Boulevard

A pine puts on a ring a year and never hurries about it. That is why it stands for long life in the first place, and it is the tree in the roundel on this restaurant's sign.

The school sits across the parking lot; the plaza parks the whole neighbourhood in front of the door. The room has been repainted since. The regulars keep coming, and a good number of them stop, mid‑review, to work out how long it has been.

  • 3.9stars, from 322 Google reviews
  • 38of 266 written reviews stop to say how long they have been coming
  • 78of them mention takeout — the strongest theme in the corpus
  • 161dishes on the menu, in twenty-three sections
Truly, we’ve gone here for take out for 35 years. Google review

Inside

The room

An empty dining room with white-clothed tables, peach napkins folded into fans, pale wood chairs, teal wainscoting and banquettes, framed Chinese brush paintings, and a backlit stained-glass-style panel in the ceiling.
The long room: set, and empty.

White linen. Peach napkins folded into fans. Teal banquettes, pale maple, brush paintings on the wall and a backlit panel in the ceiling. Round tables with lazy susans in the second area, for the orders that need them.

It has been repainted since the regulars first started coming, and it still reads like the room it has always been — which is exactly what they want from it. Reviewers still call the decor dated, and they mean it kindly.

  • Licensed
  • Dine-in
  • Reservations by phone
  • Wheelchair accessible
  • High chairs
  • Free parking, plenty of it
This is a little neighborhood gem. TripAdvisor, 2012

What people order

Ginger beef, first
and by a distance

Ginger beef was invented in Calgary. The dish this kitchen is best known for is the city's own — and across two hundred and sixty-six written reviews, it is named more often than any other dish on the menu.

  • P42

    Ginger Fried Beef

    $17.95

    The signature, by a distance: thirty-five of those reviews name it.

  • P54

    Sweet & Sour Pork With Pineapple

    $16.95

    Second, in twenty-two of them.

  • P71

    Salt & Pepper Squid

    $18.95

    Third, in fifteen.

  • P13

    Grilled Pork Dumplings

    $15.50

    Ten pieces, with chili oil and vinegar.

  • L

    Special Chow Mein

    $16.95

    BBQ pork, shrimp, chicken and beansprouts, stir fried with egg noodles.

Five pan-fried dumplings sitting close together on a red-and-floral china plate.
Every photograph on this page comes from the restaurant's own Google listing. Nothing here is a stock photo.
The portions are absolutely HUGE, it could have fed 12 people instead of 6.Yelp, 2026
Glazed tofu cubes with mushrooms, snow peas and sliced vegetables filling a worn black clay pot on a white tablecloth.
Tofu and vegetables have a section of their own on the Peking side — five dishes, and of one of them the menu says, in its own words, that it can be made without the meat if you ask.

Ordering

Fifty people
at the door

Every Christmas Eve, something like fifty people stand at that entrance waiting for their bags. Six separate reviews describe the same scene: the whole neighbourhood has had the same idea on the same night, and the queue runs out of the door.

It is the best compliment a kitchen ever gets, and it is the hardest hour of the year to be holding a telephone. Ordering online puts the name in the queue before anybody leaves the house.

  • HowPickup, ordered on their own site
  • Minimum$10.00
  • Usual waitAbout 25 minutes
  • TimingAs soon as possible — there is no scheduling
  • Or simply403 241 1888, which is how the neighbourhood has always done it
Four round takeout containers holding fried rice, mixed vegetables and two glazed dishes, on a steel counter.
Order online Call instead

Find it

Evenings, from four

The lit storefront at night: a long white sign band glowing above dark windows, warm light showing inside, and an empty black parking lot in front.
The end unit of the plaza. Free parking, right at the door.
Opening hours · America/Edmonton
Monday4:00 pm – 10:30 pm
TuesdayClosed
Wednesday4:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Thursday4:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Friday4:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Saturday4:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Sunday4:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Address
#63, 555 Hawkwood Blvd NW
Calgary, Alberta T3G 3K2
Telephone
403 241 1888
Order online
hawkwoodpalace.com
Parking
Free private lot, directly in front. It is one of the things people mention most.
Getting there
Hawkwood Village Shopping Plaza, in the end unit — across the parking lot from Hawkwood School.