I am now so far behind in my restaurant reviews I despair of ever catching up. So I decided to give the Readers' Digest condensed version.
Blue Nile
Insanely good Ethiopian food and super cheap too. Cakes and I can gorge ourselves there on the sort of food that you are compelled to eat until there’s no more left, ignoring the fact that your pants popped open two fork-fulls (or in this case, finger-fulls) ago. Choose the tasting platter. Everything on it is so yummy. If you run out of the delicious Ethiopian flatbread, more just magically appears at your table.
Savoy
This little gem is the closest Edmonton has got to a St. Kilda bistro-bar, décor-wise anyway. The menu is pseudo tapas-y and the food was reasonably good, but not outstanding and certainly not original. The décor is swanky and homey at the same time. We went in August and nearly froze, while sitting beside the fire. For dessert I had what purported to be a dessert spring roll and which was, in actual fact, a schizophrenic mix of deep fried Vietnamese pastry, mushy fruit filling, cream, chocolate and caramel sauce. The textures were wrong (the pastry was too tough for the squishy filling) and, with the retarded choice of sauces, I was almost embarrassed to eat it. It absolutely epitomized my favourite way to describe this sort of food: It doesn’t know what it wants to be.
Dadeo
All I have to say about this place is: YUM. Their itty bitty (warm!) baking soda biscuits with homemade jalapeno jelly are a delight. I can’t seem to move past the barbeque pork po’boy. I love that sandwich as much as I love my husband. Tangy, meaty, saucy, squishy perfection. Mmmmm….po’boy. Boo Atkins. This restaurant delivers great food in a quirky, delightful; 1950’s diner atmosphere, with charming staff for an unbelievably low price. All good.
L’Azia
I haven’t had a meal here, but have had après work snackies. I’ve gotta say, they were soooooooo…. Yummy (if somewhat heavy on the deep fried), and, if you go during happy hour (4 – 6) they are half price. CW and I pigged out there for about $25, and it was all pretty yummy. CW thought the waiter’s bum was pretty nice too. Their cocktails list is pretty good. The décor it pretty uptown and quite nice. I could envision this place in Melbourne, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s in a shopping mall and its “patio” is actually inside the mall folks!
Boulouanthai
The best Thai/Lao food I’ve had since Bangkok. Yummy. Cheap. Am drooling just thinking about it. Try the spicy Lao chicken salad. Yum
Maria’s Place
Great home style Ukrainian food! Excellent basic breakfasts and the weekend waitress is adorable. Their perogies are small, thinly doughed and delicious and come in the best varieties: cheese & potato, cottage cheese, sauerkraut and, to have with sweet cream and a little sugar, blueberry. You can also buy the perogies frozen to take home with you. The Ukrainian Plate special is $12 and you get perogies, holubtsi, nachynka (I don’t know why my Grandma’s nachynka was never this good!), nalysyki, creamed sauerkraut, garlic sausage and more! It is fantastic. Everything is so good. My favourite place for breakfast too as their breakfasts are served with a choice between hasbrowns and perogies!
101 Noodle House
Quick, reasonably good. Not exceptional. Is basically Vietnamese fast food.
Sorrentino’s 95 Street
Yummy modern Italian. Not too pricey.
Outback Steakhouse
Nothing outback about it folks. They do a pretty good steak, and their bread is nice, but for a couple of fair dinkum Aussies (one through marriage) it was a bizarre mix of annoying and daggy-cute. No Aussie burger even! Sheesh. Just labeling your ladies toilet “Sheilas” does not an authentic Australian restaurant make. It’s best described as Crocodile Dundee meets TGI Fridays.
New Asian Village
Quite possibly the best Indian food I’ve had in years. Better than Bala’s in Melbourne. Possibly better than I’ve had in Vancouver, but that was so long ago I’m not sure any more. The décor was very Turkish brothel, but charming.
Happy Lucky 97 Good Fortune Long Life Joy Mart
Okay, so it’s not, strictly speaking, really called that. Its actual name is the Lucky 97 Market. Also, it’s not, strictly speaking, a restaurant. However, their take-away five-spice barbeque chicken is insanely good. Also, they are the only place in town I’ve found that sells frozen Edamame beans in the pod. So they count in my books.
Great list.. now where do I find these restaurants?
Contact information please...
Posted by: CB | April 27, 2008 at 05:21 PM