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 […]
REVIEW: Food so good, it’s almost rare
Safron’s Caribbean 8307 118 Avenue 780.474.9005 At 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, just two blocks from the infamously sleazy old Cromdale Hotel, 118 Avenue feels about as far from the Caribbean as you could get. In the middle of March, of the sun, the surf and the poverty, the adjacent neighbourhood offers only the […]
REVIEW: Blue bayou
Dadeo New Orleans Diner and Bar 10548 82 Ave. (780) 433-0930 Edmonton’s foodie community, it has been noted, can be somewhat fervent. I’d like to think this is a natural extension of their shared passion for all things gastronomic. But the reality is that communities tend to just be fervent. Sometimes, the focus of that […]
REVIEW: If they’re not Famoso yet, they should be
FAMOSO NEAPOLITAN PIZZERIA 11750 Jasper Avenue , Edmonton (and two other city locations) 780.732.0700 Over the last 40 years or so, I have been fortunate enough to eat pizza in all manner of places, and in all manner of styles. Served by an aquaphobic Flemish engineer in west Africa, with his lovely wife coating a […]
Pampered at Pampa … but that was the upside
Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse 9929 – 109 Street 780.756.7030 Expectations were high for a trip to Pampa, Edmonton’s new Brazilian steakhouse. A week after its opening, it has received overwhelmingly positive buzz online. Unfortunately – particularly given the high sticker price – that buzz seems somewhat premature. Perhaps it was simply one of those occasions when […]
REVIEW: The sun never sets on decent fish ‘n chips
BRITS FISH ‘N CHIPS, 11603 104 Ave NW Edmonton, AB T5K 2R1 780.452.7000 $$ For a country in which celebrity chefs seem as common as bad weather and football fans, England is the perennial whipping boy when it comes to haute cuisine. Long-standing aspersions: English food is bland, boiled, grey and stodgy. If it is […]
Snooki and the cult of the suitably vacant
What: Snooki Polizzi hosts a long weekend party Where: Union Hall, 6240 99 St. Tickets are $20 at the door, $40 for VIP access. There’s little doubt that, had Nicole Polizzi hit the airwaves of a U.S. Network in 1985, protests would’ve formed outside the station, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission would’ve been hauled in […]
THOMSON: Like a Souper Trooper
There’s much to be said for the most recent use of Canadian classic rock band Trooper’s anthem “Raise A Little Hell.” Doubtless, the mere suggestion that a television commercial can represent art rankles some. And yet, when the cumulative effect of good graphic design and foot-pounding sound is this naughtily impressive, what else can you […]
REVIEW: Feast from the east
Midnight Sun Restaurant 11023 124 Street 780.452.2282 An ode to ginger beef: I think that I shall never like you, err you crunch when I should bite you and if your spice is tame a bland, it would be more than I could stand, but please don’t be too limp or weak, with too much […]
MUSIC: The ever-reliable Boogie Patrol kicking in the smoking harp and electrics at Blues on Whyte? The Stefan Kijek Quartet at Jeffrey’s Cafe and Wine Bar? One of 1,600 bands named Radioflyer at Brixx? Over to you on this one, folks. TELEVISION: If you can rip your eyes away from the Habs laying the smackdown […]
