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!

Warm up with Curry Corner

On a freezing Edmonton day in late December, we headed to a little hidden spot on the south side for some tasty Indian food with our first Meat VS Veg special guest, Becky. Curry Corner, located in Riverbend Square, is a small but cozy restaurant serving up authentic East Indian cuisine in a casual setting. Like many ethnic restaurants there are numerous vegetarian and vegan options, and in fact the menu categorizes their food as "vegetarian" and "non-vegetarian" which was a novelty for Steph, our resident veggie girl!

Saturday Brunch at Creole Envie

After almost a year of wanting to visit Creole Envie without actually getting there, we finally made our way to this great little spot on 112 Avenue. What started out as a catering service has blossomed into a sweet little 40-seat cafe serving up traditional Cajun and Creole food, with an emphasis on local, organic fare. They offer everything from ribs, fried chicken, and grits to gluten free options and a full vegan dinner menu. Since the menu appealed to both of us, we knew this had to be one of our first reviews!

Food For the Soul at DaDeO

Edmonton's own Whyte Ave was recently named one of the best streets in the country, and we here at Meat VS Veg definitely agree! Located in historic Old Strathcona, Whyte Ave has a wonderful eclectic feel and an abundance of great cafes, restaurants and bars in addition to unique shops and exciting theatre. So it's no wonder that when deciding on where to go for our next review, several Whyte Ave spots were at the top of our list.

On a frigid December day this past week, we felt some Southern comfort was in order (and I don't mean the liquor!) so off we went to DaDeO, a Whyte Ave institution.

A Quick Bite at Local Goes Raw

This past Friday we stopped by Local Public Eatery in South Edmonton Common for some pre-movie grub. We had planned to do a proper review of Local, as it's our favourite unique spot in South Common, but spoiler alert: that plan went off the rails.

It all started out well, a 45 minute wait turned into 10, and our server was quick and attentive despite the heavy crowds. For our appetizer we shared Yam Fries ($8), which are a contender for best in the city (truffle lemon mayo! Pecorino cheese!) and they were fantastic as always. For entrees Steph ordered the Huevos Rancheros ($12), which she quite liked although the salsa was spicer than expected. Jackie ordered the Crispy Chicken Sandwich ($14), which has been a perennial favorite of hers. Initially it was delicious, but then about halfway through she discovered that the chicken was not cooked all the way through. Not just undercooked, but dark pink almost raw. Obviously she felt sick at the discovery and called our server over.

The manager on duty came by right away, apologizing profusely, and comped not only her meal but both meals. We felt that they handled the situation very well, and can assume that an overtaxed kitchen was to blame, but we lost any appetite we had left. We made the decision to not complete our review or assign any ratings as this was an unusual situation and unfair to a restaurant with a great past track record.

Rest assured we will be back at a later date for a true review!

Casual Lunch at the Highlevel Diner

This past Tuesday November 26, we both had the afternoon off and decided to get together for a quick, casual lunch at the Highlevel Diner. Steph had never been, but Jackie recommended it highly and the vegetarian options looked promising so off we went. The diner boasts a great location just off the west end of Whyte Ave near the University of Alberta with a view of downtown, and is proud of its local cuisine, daily specials and 29 year history.

Mini Review: A Veggie Visits The Keg

This past weekend I celebrated my younger brother's birthday with my family. As per tradition, he got to choose the restaurant and out of all the restaurants in Edmonton, he chose The Keg in South Common. Now I have nothing against the Keg, it's a lovely establishment, but as a vegetarian I took one look at the menu and inwardly groaned. There are no vegetarian entrees, as could be expected, but even the salads and appetizers were a challenge. As everyone in my party excitedly picked their cut of beef, I mulled over the few choices available to me.

For salads, the Caesar is out (anchovies in the sauce) as well as the Iceberg Wedge, which if I removed the bacon would just be a slice of lettuce sprinkled with tomatoes. I ended up choosing the Mixed Greens salad ($6.95) to start, which was surprisingly tasty despite the bland description. The house vinaigrette had a lovely, complex flavour and there were plenty of veggies hiding under the lettuce. The soft, warm complimentary bread they brought out was also quite welcome.

For my entree I wanted protein and for that my only choices were in the Starter menu: Baked Goat Cheese ($8.95) or the Garlic Cheese Toast ($5.95). Deciding I didn't need any more white bread this evening, I opted for the goat cheese despite not being a big fan of goat's milk products in general. I also asked for a side of garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables to round out my meal.

The small pat of goat cheese was crusted with sliced almonds and served with tiny toast crisps (so much for no more white bread!) and a "tomato basil salsa" which was more bruschetta than salsa. The cheese was hot and creamy and didn't have the strong flavour I associate with most goat cheeses so I was pleased but could only finish half as it was so rich. The mashed potatoes and veggies were standard but tasty.

Overall I was happy with the food I received, but unless you go there willing to eat a steak, The Keg's menu makes it a poor choice for vegetarians.

~Steph

Hello Edmonton and welcome to our new blog!

In the posts to come, follow us as we trek around Edmonton and Alberta reviewing the best (and worst) restaurants from the perspective of a vegetarian and an omnivore.

We met over 13 years ago in Grade 7, and have been friends ever since. Since so many social interactions revolve around food and eating out, and we have been college students for the past few years, we've tried our share of Edmonton eateries. However we've both grown tired of the same mediocre dishes at the same chain restaurants, so when Steph decided to transition into vegetarianism, we decided to branch out and make it our mission to find great, local food that would satisfy both of our eating styles.

There are so many different diets out there, from vegan to all-fast-food-all-the-time and everything in between, but we wanted to focus on the two most common and share our personal experiences. Finding restaurants we both can and want to eat at while enjoying unique dishes and discovering hidden gems around Edmonton is the challenge, and we are ready to take it on!

Happy eating!

Jackie and Steph