Category: Weekly Dish columns from The Edmonton Sun
Weekly Dish columns from The Edmonton Sun
Hardware Grill 9698 Jasper Avenue 780-423-0969 www.hardwaregrill.comFood: 4.75 of 5 starsAmbience: 4 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 starsDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $90; fully loaded, $150For 16 years, The Hardware Grill has dominated the city's restaurant landscape. It no longer posts its outstanding reviews, its awards or the local, provincial, national and international restaurant-of-the-year notifications. There are just so many.Others have briefly challenged this king of upscale dining. They have come and gone. Or settled back into a niche a degree or two below the Hardware Grill.Why did it take 18 months for the Weekly Dish to review the Hardware Grill? Partly because I wanted context, to have sampled most of the other aspirants to the Hardware's crown. And partly because the Weekly Dish tries to find the best of the ethnic eateries, the hole-in-the-walls and the best hot dogs, not just the best lobster-truffled this-or-that.But if you're going all-out — our bill was $137 for t ...
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Dadeo New Orleans Diner & Bar 10548A Whyte Ave. 780-433-0930 www.dadeo.comFood: 3.75 of 5 starsAmbience: 4 of 5 starsService: 3.5 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $30; fully loaded, $70Tucked in next to Avenue Guitars on Whyte Avenue, you've likely driven by Dadeo hundreds of times.Or walked by without noticing. The Cajun cookery is literally a hole in the wall. If you're not looking, you don't find.Which hasn't stopped Dadeo from becoming, by word-of-mouth alone, one of our city's most popular eateries.Word-of-mouth, over 21 years, has created a repeat clientele which sees the 60-seat, long and narrow classic diner full by 6:30 p.m. every evening of the week, except Wednesdays when it's closed.It's not hard to understand the attraction. The Cajun cooking is addictively good, the price is right, the staff are attentive and friendly, the atmosphere is charmingly casual, the decor the most unique in the city.To walk into Dadeo is to step back 50 years in time. This is no just-built fake '60 ...
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Grub Med 17 Fairway Drive 780-436-1988 www.grubmed.caFood: 2.75 of 5 starsAmbience: 2.5 of 5 starsService: 2.5 of 5 starsDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $70; fully loaded, $110You'd think, with the Food Network, Gordon Ramsay, Restaurant Makeover etc. that restaurants getting long in the tooth would know when to reinvent themselves.Grub Med has always been a southwest Edmonton secret, a Greek restaurant in a strip mall off 119 Street south of Whitemud Drive.The locals — from Blue Quill to Riverbend, knew it could provide a pleasant evening in a decent ambience with darned good food.Its word-of-mouth reputation was such that it filled up on Friday and Saturday evenings with diners from across the city, who'd heard of its specialty lamb and fish dishes.But that was years ago. Alas, Grub Med no longer lives up to that reputation.Grub Med had been off the radar — a tell-tale sign — when up popped a Grub Med half-off coupon ($70 worth of food for $35 on a week night), so why not check ou ...
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Langano Skies Ethiopian Restaurant 9920 82 Ave. 780-432-3334 www.langanoskies.comDinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $25; fully loaded, $40Ethiopians are comparative newcomers to the city's culinary scene. But in a long-standing tradition of recent ethnic arrivals, Ethiopian entrepreneurs have taken over inexpensive restaurants in the 118 Avenue and 97 Street area to introduce the country's unique foods to the rest of us.The Sumamo family realized Old Strathcona would also be an neighbourhood where ethnic variations are sought after.Their dining room on 82 Avenue near 99 Street is now one of the more established Ethiopian restaurants in town.Ethiopian — think spicy, meaty "wots" or stews, legumes, and, most of all, injera, a honeycombed easily-rolled crepe with a unique sourdough taste.Think of similarities to South Asian (samosas, spice) or Middle Eastern (the mashed fava bean, tomato and feta cheese mix known as foul).Langano Skies — the reference is to Lake Langano in Ethiopia's Grea ...
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Normand's Fine Regional Cuisine 11639A Jasper Ave. 780-482-2600 www.normands.comIt's mainly because of the meat.Normand's Fine Regional Cuisine has become an Edmonton institution — in the same tucked-away, Oliver end of Jasper Avenue location, with the same hands-on owner Normand Campbell, for 23 years. Chef Cui Kouch rivals Normand for longevity.Just about everybody at Normand's is a repeat customer. Restaurants don't flourish for 23 years without being on a plethora of favourite restaurant lists.And they go for the meat. As the late, great judge Ed Wachowich used to say, "I love animals — right beside the mashed potatoes."Other restaurants have dabbled in wild, exotic and unusual meats — bison, venison, elk, duck, pheasant, wild boar, ostrich, kangaroo.Normand's has made such meats an enduring speciality. Campbell knows what to look for in his purchasing, Cui has decades of experience in optimal preparation. Every entree on the wild game side of the menu is a good bet.In most restaurants, bi ...
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Characters Fine Dining, 10257 105 St. 780 421-4100 www.characters.ca It is delightful to head to a restaurant where the chef is in full control, is a true master of the kitchen, and likes to have fun.When an extremely young Shonn Oborowsky returned from European and Asian chef apprenticeships, he opened Characters on 105 Street.It’ll never work, scoffed skeptical foodies. The kid’s just been given a toy by his parents. (Dad Don Oborowsky owns Waiward Steel, both Don and Shonn’s mom Judy are community leaders.) Edmonton’s not ready for another high-end restaurant, they said.Well. 13 years later, Characters is not only still here, it’s thriving.And certainly, after our fine-dining experience last week, Characters must be included in any list of Edmonton’s Top 10 restaurants.Characters is in its own stand-alone building, a single-story former warehouse on 105 Street a few blocks north of Jasper. The 50-something crowd may remember Night Fever dancing here, when it was the Sugar Tree discotheque. ...
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There’s going out for dinner.Then there’s dining out.Violino Gastronomica Italiana should be an all-evening affair, best experienced with those whose company one truly enjoys, whose culinary expectations equal one’s own.The atmosphere in the beautiful old mansion on High Street lends itself to the spirit of dining out. It once housed La Spiga, before Vince and Connie Cultraro uprooted to Palm Springs.The tables are set for classical dining, with linen tablecloths and napkins, multi-course cutlery, sparkling wine glasses and discreet waiters in suits or tuxedos.As is so often the case in Edmonton, fine dining at Violino’s is Italian. The menu moves from primi piatti (first plates) to zuppa e insalata (soups and salads), pasta e risotto (pastas and risotto-style rice), manzo e pesce (meat and fish), finishing with dolci (dessert).Our party of four is at Violino’s to eat well.And we do.The beginning is auspicious, with one of the finest antipasto misto platters I have ever sampled. In formal Italian cuisine, ant ...
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By Graham HicksNobody really knows how many people wander through the Fringe in Old Strathcona for these fading days of summer, from last Thursday to this coming Sunday. The daily attendance figures are an “educated guess.”But enough growly stomachs traipse through to attract 21 on-site food venders, shelling out up to $6,000 for the right to sell at the Fringe. Most of the vendors return, despite the competition both at the Fringe and off-site in Old Strathcona.I, for one, hate wasting money on lousy street food – the greasy, lukewarm stuff that leaves you with a big lump in your tummy and follow-up problems of passage. So here’s a quick guide to the good, the great and the to-be-avoided on the Fringe food front.Forget the myth. Decent green onion cakes cannot be had at the Fringe. Green onion cakes were an Edmonton festival legend when Siu To, currently running Noodlemaker, and his family made them from scratch. The task became too daunting for Siu once his kids had their own careers.The current green onion ...
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By Graham HicksThe Melting Pot of Edmonton, 2920 Calgary Trail NW780-465-4DIP (4347)www.meltingpot.com Food: 4 of 5 starsAmbience: 2.5 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 stars Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $50; fully loaded, $90The Melting Pot has earned a fine reputation in this town since opening about two years ago, the first Canadian outlet of a successful American fondue restaurant group.No wonder!Unlike so many chains, the Melting Pot does not scrimp on quality, not in the least.The fondues use real cheeses, Fontina, Butterkase, Gruyere and Emmenthaler that cost an arm and a leg in local delis.Cost-cutting isn't happening in the meat and fish selections cooked at the table. The initial preparation is first-rate.The concept, on first glance, looks preposterous.People pay to sit around pots of either melted cheese or broth, stick chunks of bread (for the cheese) or raw meat on skewers and joist for cooking space in the central hot pot? Right!If grandma doesn't accidentally stab herself with the skewer ...
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By Graham HicksMKT Fresh Food + Beer Market8101 Gateway Boulevard, corner of Gateway and Whyte Avenue780-439-BEER (2337)www.mktbeermarket.com Dinner for two (without beverages): Basic, $30; fully loaded, $70Food: 4 of 5 stars(Pub) Ambience: 4 of 5 starsService: 4 of 5 stars——Marvellous!As far as pub grub and atmosphere goes, the new MRT Fresh Food & Beer Market raises the bar to Olympian standards.Century Hospitality is just over a decade old, with Century Grill, Lux Steakhouse, the DeLux Burger Bars and One Hundred – all thriving – under its belt.In his latest move, Century’s Chris LaChance took on the defunct Iron Horse Pub space in the original, historical CP Rail train station building in Old Strathcona. The building, with its vast open floor, glows with historical character and has one of the best locations in Edmonton with plenty of parking within walking distance.Century Hospitality’s expertise shines through.The décor is old-time casual, with an enormous oval up the middle, enclosing a modern central ...
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