Modern Sushi at Japonais Bistro

We're back with a brand new review, and this time we headed downtown for some Japanese delights at Japonais Bistro! A relatively new restaurant on Jasper Avenue, Japonais (meaning Japanese in French) bills itself as "modern Japanese cuisine" and offers a sake bar and kaiten dining, where plated dishes travel around on a moving belt. In addition to the sake bar and traditional cooked dishes, an intriguing assortment of unique sushi offerings, new twists on classic cocktails, and tempting desserts round out the large menu. We invited sushi fanatic Becky along for lunch to try some tasty food and see if we could find a new go-to sushi joint! Keep reading to find out what we thought!

#yegCupcakeChallenge: Fuss Cupcakes

Alright folks, it's time for round two of our #yegCupcakeChallenge!

For our second cupcake shop, we headed to Fuss Cupcakes with Meat Vs Veg reader Taylor, who is a big fan of Fuss (follow her on Twitter: @whatthedeuce23)

Fuss Cupcakes is proud to be the first gourmet cupcake shop in Edmonton, and have two locations in the city. We visited their Whyte Ave store, right next to the awesome Funky Pickle Pizza Co.
One of the great things about Fuss is that they offer ample seating for those wishing to enjoy their sugary snack right away. They also offer a large beverage menu of coffees, teas, and sodas to make your treat complete. Every week Fuss offers six standard cupcake flavors and six different weekly specials. Unique options such as "Salted Caramel", "Cloud 9" and "Creamsicle" make for a difficult decision!

Bonjour Café Bicyclette

While on the south side and looking for a simple, peaceful lunch we decided to try Café Bicyclette. This quaint little café nestled next to the Campus St. Jean in Edmonton is a great place to find fresh food at a reasonable price. While the menu is entirely in French, the staff are helpful, friendly, and willing to assist with translation. Though, for anyone with basic French language skills (we’re talking elementary school) it should be easy enough. 

The Inaugural #yegCupcakeChallenge...Crave!

In our endeavor to bring the best eats in Edmonton to our readers, we've tasked ourselves with the challenge of finding the best cupcake bakery in the city. With the help of readers and friends, we've narrowed our challengers down to these seven selections:

Crave Cookies and Cupcakes
Fuss Cupcakes
Once Upon A Cupcake
Flirt Cupcakes
Hey Cupcake
Big City Cupcakes
Whimsical Cake Studio

(If there's a bakery you love that we left off the list, let us know in the comments!)

To keep it fair, we will both order a cupcake at each location, and rate it out of five in three areas: taste, presentation, and the all important icing-to-cake ratio. The bakery with the highest overall score will be declared the champion and become our go-to location for delicious cupcakes*!

The #yeg Cupcake Challenge!

Hello dear readers!

We've been reviewing restaurants around Edmonton since November 2013, and we think it's high time we branch out from our usual format and try something a little different. So today we officially announce the launch of our new series: The #yeg Cupcake Challenge!

Our fair city is flush with awesome cupcake bakeries, but not all pastries are created equal, so we are on a mission to find the very best cupcake in Edmonton. Pitting tasty treats head to head, we'll evaluate their flavor, appearance, pricing, and of course the all important cake-to-icing ratio. It will all be very scientific of course ;)

Watch this space, follow the hashtag #yegcupcakechallenge and Tweet us your favorites!

We can't wait to try some awesome cupcakes and find the very best for our awesome readers!

Cheers,

Jackie & Steph

Don't Be Square!

We here at Meat VS Veg are always looking to try new places, and one of the newest on the local food scene is Square One in Sherwood Park. Following the trend of locally-sourced food, they call themselves "meticulously casual", although we agreed that term is rather vague and perhaps slightly pretentious! They offer a varied food menu, a large selection of unique drinks, and even a brunch where each dish is named after the country that inspired it. Keep reading to find out how our first experience was at Square One!

Burgers at The Burg

Sometimes you just need a good burger. In order to satisfy this craving, we decided to check out a somewhat new burger joint in downtown Edmonton: The Burg. Located on the refreshed and modern 104 St Promenade, The Burg- Burger and Bar is establishing itself as a "beautiful, casual & social setting" serving up great burgers, fries, and drinks. Read on to find out if we agree!

Mini Review: Food Blogger Meetup at The Common

A couple of weeks ago Steph, Jackie, and her fiancee Becky, embarked on an adventure: our first food blogger meetup! Organized by Marianne and Maki (of Loosen Your Belt and In My Element respectively) this would be our first chance to meet and eat with fellow Edmonton food bloggers. Naturally we were very excited (and maybe a teensy bit nervous) to meet everyone, especially since it was being held at The Common which we had never been to!

Una Visita A Tres Carnales

On a frigid winter day in Edmonton, what could be better than some tasty Mexican food to warm you up? This was exactly our thought pattern when we headed to Tres Carnales Taqueria for a late lunch on a blustery Monday. Located in a revitalized section of downtown, Tres Carnales burst on to the Edmonton food scene in 2011 and have been feeding the good people of Edmonton amazing tacos ever since!
They pride themselves on serving locally sourced food, with many items being made in-house or sourced from bakeries and greenhouses around the city. Even all their meat (except fish of course) comes from within two hours of Edmonton. This commitment to creating authentic Mexican flavours from local ingredients is one of the main reasons they have become a beloved downtown eatery!

Mini Review: Mini Mango

Deciding where to go for a quick lunch that satisfies both meat and vegetarian cravings can be difficult, but this past week we found a great little spot that we both loved! Mini Mango is a small, casual Vietnamese restaurant located deep in the south side, on Ellerslie Road and 91st St. The inside is bright and inviting, with orange and red chairs, Vietnamese themed art, and colorful accents.

The Pourhouse Leaves Us Poor

After our last review of the scrumptious Duchess bakery, we thought we would head somewhere completely different this time around, and settled on the Pourhouse Bier Bistro. Located on Whyte Ave across from the Princess Theatre, an easy-to-miss storefront hides a long, narrow modern pub, with cheeky decor and plenty of brews. Boasting a brand new menu, and brandishing the title of "gastropub", they are working to join the ranks of awesome casual eats on Whyte Ave. A perennial favorite of ours for their amazing soft pretzels and ample beer offerings, we decided to cash in a Groupon and invite our friends Jeff and Becky to join us for a full meal at the Pourhouse.

A Trip to Paris... er Duchess Bake Shop

While planning which restaurants we want to review for this blog, one of the names that kept coming up was Duchess Bake Shop. This gorgeous little shop, located on the revitalized 124 Street, is incredibly popular and for good reason. Specializing in French pastries and also serving a light lunch, they pride themselves on making all of their products from scratch daily in their onsite kitchen. The attention to detail, wide variety of items, and simply delicious food brings their customers back again and again!