FOOD: Southeast Asian home cooking in the houses
If you’re a diner-outer who wants to feel like you’re going over to someone’s home for a nice meal – albeit one you have to pay for – there are no shortage of choices in Edmonton. Take, for example, the enclave of fancy manses just off High Street (Manor Café, Violino) or the Ethiopian eateries [...]
Dining downtown not what it used to be – and thank goodness for that
There was a time not that long ago when dining downtown meant having a clubhouse with fries at Hawkeye’s before a movie at the Paramount Theatre. Not anymore. While I would give just about anything to have the Paramount back, it’s hard to argue with the allure of 27 top-flight restaurants showcasing their virtues with [...]
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Vegan Vietnamese delights at Veggie Garden
Right next door to where Oriental Veggie House once hung out its cruelty-free shingle as pioneer purveyors of mock meat cuisine in a Chinese style, the Veggie Garden Restaurant (10582 100 Street, 780.757.9060) has now set up shop. The place vends Vietnamese and Chinese delights in which the feature roles are assayed by stunt doubles [...]
DUB’S PUB: Alberta Hotel bar will also be restored
Edmonton architect Gene Dub is so keen to preserve the bar in the newly reconstructed Alberta Hotel on Jasper Avenue that he’s made it a condition for his sale of the building to CKUA that he can lease the bar space from the radio station. The bar, which Dub says he hopes will be open [...]
OPINION: A tale of two hospitality laws
In Edmonton, it is now illegal to drive a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .05. As of this year, it is also illegal in Edmonton to drive while eating a sandwich. One of these laws has science and some common sense behind it. The other doesn’t. Can you guess which is which? This [...]
SURREAL SATURDAY: Organic produce, protest rally in downtown Edmonton
Finally, a good use for City Hall – a farmer’s market. That’s the obvious joke after attending the City Market’s winter season opening inside our city’s headquarters. The next step will be to use all that space and natural light for a hydroponic greenhouse to raise money for the new arena. Home grown. Open markets [...]
FOOD: Thanh Thanh’s break elicits mournful sighs
Vietnamese spring rolls, barbecue beef satay, spicy Thai soup, lemongrass chicken with coconut and hot peppers, better make that two orders, cubes of beef, shrimp in black bean sauce – and Vietnamese iced coffees all around. You order the coffee first so the espresso can have a chance to drip into the sweet cream by [...]
For Edmonton restaurants, is imitation the sincerest form of fattening?
In less-prosperous corners of the planet, where trademark laws aren’t among the legal system’s uppermost priorities, you may have noticed things like a knockoff McDonald’s with three golden arches, a 6-Eleven corner store, or a Hard Rock Cafe which lacks celebrity memorabilia and that you enter through a hole in a wall. That rarely happens [...]
REVIEW: Fun like a two-star hotel in Ulan Bator
The Mongolie Grill 10104 109 Street 780.420.0037 The concept of the “fast casual” restaurant seems to have really taken off lately. We reviewed two similar restaurants, Famoso Neapolitan pizza and Mucho Burrito, a few weeks ago with decidedly different results. On the other hand, though it only has two locations, The Mongolie Grill is sort [...]
Rock ‘n’ roll on tap at Edmonton’s International Beerfest – also, beer
Too many beer festivals? Not enough beer festivals! These are two schools of thought coming into the Edmonton’s International Beerfest, continuing today at the Shaw Conference Centre. There once were none. Then there were three. And now we’re down to about two, give or take – but this particular beer festival is the biggest beer [...]
REVIEW: Wildflower Grill pretentious, overrated
When one blows $300 on a dinner for four (including wine), it’s the little things that matter. It was a once-a-year dinner with friends from out of town, so we decided to go to the Wildflower Grill – where the first portent of impending culinary doom was something called a “amuse bouche.” The complimentary amusement [...]
REVIEW: Consistently underwhelmingly, quintessentially Canadian
Hap’s Hungry House 16060 Stony Plain Road 780. 483.2288 Hap’s Hungry House on a Sunday is like the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange – if everyone had been sedated by over-sized portions of pancakes and French toast. The Stony Plain Road Diner is so busy on weekends, there’s usually a healthy [...]
