Edmonton’s Standout Restaurants Offer the Best of Canadian Cuisines
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Choosing from among the hundreds of restaurants in Edmonton can be a daunting task. There are bistros, cafés, delis, vegetarian, seafood – whatever you want, you can get.
But when it comes to white tablecloths and impeccable fine dining, three restaurants stand out in the city of about 1 million.
Characters, Hardware Grill and Jack’s Grill are known among local foodies for their use of local game and produce, serving Canadian cuisine with flair.
“All three restaurants are high-end, well-appointed, suitable for business and celebratory dinners as well as romance,” says Mary Bailey, editor of City Palate magazine.
Located in a historic building, Hardware Grill sets the scene in Edmonton’s Arts District with diners surrounding the open kitchen. “This is contemporary Canadian rustic cooking with exceptional service,” Bailey says.
Chef Larry Stewart, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Melinda, takes local ingredients and turns them into dishes like mocha crusted venison with chocolate-balsamic syrup, paired with bison meatloaf and a barbecue glaze, all with russet potato gnocchi and sun-dried cherries.
Characters seats 110 in their main dining room, with four private dining rooms. Reservations are a must. “Characters serves contemporary, sophisticated meat and potatoes,” says Bailey.
Chef Shonn Oborowsky is known for dishes like grilled red snapper with pinot gris braised root vegetables and squash or a juicy Alberta Black Angus beef tenderloin and short rib with morel sauce and buttered carrots.
The atmosphere at Jack’s Grill may appear a little more casual, but the cuisine is not.
Sure, the white tablecloths are there, but so is white butcher-block paper that covers them. The length of one wall of the restaurant was replaced with a window showing off a lush courtyard, where fresh herbs for the kitchen are grown.
“We serve homemade smoked duck sausage,” says Peter Jackson, chef and restaurant owner. “We make all our own ice creams, cure our own bacon and make our own pancetta. Everything is lovingly prepared.”
And that can include a smoked lamb carpaccio, crusted in rosemary with arugula and apple salad with a Dijon aioli or Quebec fois gras torchon on a Yukon gold blini with plum compote and pomegranate syrup.
“We are a place to go for good food, good wine and good service,” says Jackson. “If you want a waiter to fawn all over you and give you the white glove treatment, you aren’t going to get that here.”
What you will get at all three spots is impeccable cuisine that utilizes all the best Canada has to offer, knowledgeable wine service and an ideal location to make some romantic memories, if only to be seduced by the menu.
Story by Hollie Deese
Photo by Jeff Adkins
