Consistency lacking at Von's Steakhouse: Weekly Dish originally published in Edmonton Sun May 22, 2013

Von's Steakhouse and Oyster Bar Food: 3.5 suns of 5 Ambience: 3.5 of 5 Service: 4 of 5 Dinner for two excluding drinks: Basic, $60. Multi-course, $120. Steakhouses — especially the high-priced ones — tread a fine line. On the one hand, they must stick with the tried and true, the rib eyes and tenderloins covered in molten butter that an older, monied crowd expects. On the other, the next generation(s) has less appetite for acres of red meat, expects dishes with more zest, expects casual elegance and has higher standards. If it’s a $28 chicken plate, it’d better be really good chicken in a really good recipe. The steakhouse chains, hard-wired to convention, only change their menus with the greatest of reluctance. Independents have more room to find that ever-evolving balance. Von’s Steakhouse and Oyster Bar is as independent a restaurant as you’ll find in Edmonton, at its Gateway and 81 Avenue location for some 30 years. Kudo ... Read the rest of entry »

A Taste of 118th Avenue, El Rancho and Battista's Calzone Co.: Weekly Dish originally published in Edmonton Sun, Wed. March 27, 2013

Battista’s Calzone Co.Corner 118 Ave. and 84 St.780 758 1808@battistacalzone►Food: 4 of 5►Ambience: 3.5 of 5►Service: 3.5 of 5►Lunch for two: $10 to $20El Rancho11810 87 St.780 471 4930►Food: 4 of 5►Ambience: 3 of 5►Service: 3 of 5►Dinner for two: $20 to $30There’s something about 118 Avenue’s restaurants and bakeries. From The Barbecue House at 97 Street to Uncle Ed’s past 50 Street are dozens of restaurants of every ethnic variation. The bakery cluster, from the Popular to the Handy to the Italian, creates more fresh bread choices than anywhere else in the city.The 118th Avenue blend of ethnic, artist and community has a small-town feel. But its low-income nature is a brake on gentrification, keeping rents affordable for family-run restaurants.These family restaurants are usually friendly, unpretentious and economy-priced. Trendy flatbreads or sliders don’t show up in these parts.Their village-style food, as typified by Battista Vecchio’s Calzone Co. at 118th and 84 Street and Dora Arevalo’s El Rancho Spani ... Read the rest of entry »

Select is a treat: Weekly Dish review originally published in Edmonton Sun, Wed. March 20, 2013

Select10018-106 St.780 428 1629www.selectrestaurant.caFood: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 4 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 stars(gluten-free options)Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $50; Multi-course, $90——How exciting to witness re-birth.Just over a year ago, the Packrat Louie group, led by managing partner Jodh Singh, purchased Café Select.Café Select … in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, this café/bistro on 106 Street just around the corner from the Avord Arms was one popular space. Its signature dishes are remembered by many - a vodka-spiked tomato soup, mussels, steak tartare and coquilles St. Jacques.From the outside, it wasn’t much. And it still isn’t today.But to enter then, as now, is to walk into a cosy Brussels or Prague café, with beautiful dark wood, gilded mirrors and antique light fixtures.Over the last decade, the café had deteriorated. Discerning diners lost interest. Things were fading to black.Enter the Packrat Louie gang. “I knew the restaurant was for sale,” says Jodh. “I went to dine. It was ripe f ... Read the rest of entry »

Cafe Crepe Symphony shouldn't be so secret: Weekly Dish originally published in the Edmonton Sun March 13, 2012

Café Crepe Symphony 10115 100A Ave. (Rice-Howard Way) 587-520-7111 Call for reservations Food: 4 of 5 stars Ambience: 3 of 5 stars Service: 4 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $20; Multi-course, $40 (Gluten-free available) ——— It’s tucked away in a Rice-Howard Way nook, beside the popular Tres Carnales, with a construction depot for the LRT Jasper Avenue overhaul right outside its doors. But the Café Crepe Symphony should not be such a secret. It ought to be as busy as Tres Carnales next door, Sugarbowl in the Bridge District or DaDeO in Old Strathcona. Its crepes – for that is what the Crepe Symphony does – are that good. So often, all one wants from a restaurant is something grease-free, light, refreshing and inexpensive. Yet the options are so limited. Enter, at least for those close to downtown, the Crepe Symphony. The menu is straightforward. Savoury c ... Read the rest of entry »

Original Joe's a quiet winner: Weekly Dish review originally published Feb. 27, 2013

Original Joe’s 8404 109 St. (Six other locations in Edmonton) 780 988 5600 www.originaljoes.ca Food: 4 of 5 stars Ambience: 3 of 5 stars Service: 3.5 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $25; Multi-course, $50 —— Way to go, Original Joe’s. These guys like to lurk under the radar, with minimal advertising. Original Joe’s started in Calgary in 1997, shortly thereafter snuck into Edmonton and has since quietly expanded to seven Original Joe’s in Edmonton, 55 across Western Canada. The original city outlet is still on 102 Avenue west of 124 Street. My memory of Original Joe’s from years ago was of a not-bad burger bar with good beers. But I’d been hearing good things. Going back to an Original Joe’s – on 109 Street in the Bridge District north of Whyte Avenue – was truly positive. Today, Original Joe’s is like Toyota – offering excellent value for you ... Read the rest of entry »

Makk Restaurant falls short: Weekly Dish review in Edmonton Sun, originally published Feb. 20, 2013

The Makk on 124  10418 124 St. 780-705-3710 www.themakkon124.ca  Food: 3 of 5 stars Ambience: 3 of 5 stars Service: 2.5 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $70; Multi-course, $110 Where was our bread, my wife gently queried at the meal’s end … having observed bread baskets on nearby tables. “Well,” explained the waitress, “we serve bread between the appetizers and main courses. But your entrees were ready soon after your appetizers, so we didn’t serve you bread.” ?????????? The Makk on 124th Street, I’m afraid, fell short of expectations, especially when proclaimed (by Where Magazine) as Edmonton’s Best New Restaurant of 2012. It’s a little thing, this bread business, but indicative of the evening’s less-than-satisfactory experience. Service was mildly indifferent. There was no visible sign of a maître d’. Before the Saturday dinner rush ... Read the rest of entry »

Century Grill Comes Up Roses: Weekly Dish originally published in Edmonton Sun February 13, 2013

Century Grill3975 Calgary Trail 780-431-0303 www.centuryhospitality.comFood: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 3.5 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 starsDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $50; Multi-course, $120——Chef Paul Shufelt, who writes in the Edmonton Sun about food creation while I talk about eating it, has reason to be proud.The Century Grill, the flagship of the Century Hospitality restaurant group over which Paul presides, will be 13 years old come April.I have dined at the Century Grill dozens of times, in formal occasions, business luncheons, even grabbing a burger with a beer in the adjoining bar.But this is the first time I have approached the Century Grill with a critical eye.It came up roses, as it has so often in the past.One has to establish context.The Century Grill is not in competition with the top-end Hardware Grill or the Harvest Room, nor with chef-centred bistros.Its target customer would be at home in an Earl’s or Cactus Club – upscale, but not too upscale, something different ... Read the rest of entry »

Three Boars Eatery is for those who seek the unusual: Weekly Dish restaurant review, originally published in the Edmonton Sun Feb. 6, 2013

Three Boars Eatery  8424 109 St.             780-757-2600       www.threeboars.ca Food: 4 of 5 stars Ambience: 4 of 5 stars Service: 4 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $30; Multi-course, $60 If you’re looking for a full-blown European dining experience, it’s here at the Three Boars … in a truly Canadian kind of way. It might take imagination, shrinking 109th Street down to an alley for starters, but the Three Boars Eatery could be a hole-in-the-wall in London’s Soho district or the Montparnasse in Paris. It’s tiny — 26 seats upstairs, a 13 stool bar on the main floor — full of quirky personality in an old townhouse a few blocks north of 82nd Avenue in the Bridge District. The décor is wood-plank rustic, contemporary in fixtures and chairs, European in its sense of space (i.e. not much). Where the Canadian comes crashing through is in Ch ... Read the rest of entry »

Royal Pizza, still making it right: Weekly Dish restaurant review originally published in the Edmonton Sun, Jan. 30, 2013

Royal Pizza  10433 80 Ave. (and other locations)             780-432-7720       www.royalpizza.ca  Food: 3.5 of 5 stars Ambience: 3 of 5 stars Service: 3.5 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $20; Multi-course, $40  Graham Hicks             780.707.6379       graham.hicks@hicksbiz.com www.hicksbiz.com @hicksbiz There’s nothing like a familiar advertising jingle to settle the nerves. You’ve heard the Royal Pizza “brand” song a few thousand times on the radio — Royal Pizza, still making it right!! Believe it or not, Royal still … does make it right. This is a restaurant originally opened in Old Strathcona in 1969. It was bought by Mike and Cynthia Hanley in 1995, and since has been carefully franchised with six more locations in Greater Edmonton, each following the letter of ... Read the rest of entry »

Rice Paper Vietnamese Fine Cuisine really is fine: Weekly Dish column, originally published in Edmonton Sun, Jan. 9, 2013

Rice Paper Vietnamese Fine Cuisine10080 178 St. (780) 483 8198 ——Food: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 3.5 of 5 starsService: 3.5 of 5 stars——The first impression is how clean the restaurant is.Rice Paper, out in the west end among the cluster of hotels supplying West Edmonton Mall with tourists, is spotless.It helps that Van Phan’s eatery is in a stand-alone building that’s only a few years old. Still, somebody is shining the door knobs every day.If Van Phan’s name looks familiar, it is. With his sister’s family, he opened and ran the city’s best known Vietnamese restaurant, Thanh Thanh on 101 Street, for some 16 years. Tiring of the trade, he sold his share to his sister, and took a well-earned sabbatical.But when son Christopher’s interest in the restaurant business wouldn’t go away, Van plunged back in.Already it’s been two years since Van, Christopher and the rest of the immediate family opened Rice Bowl.I’m not going to say it’s better than Thanh Thanh — I have no interest in provoking family disp ... Read the rest of entry »