Edmonton’s food culture has never been stronger or more vibrant than it is right now. But the only way to truly understand the restaurant scene in the City of Champions is to eat your way through it. These five chefs are happy to lead the way.
Your Perfect Meal is Waiting at Five of Edmonton’s Best Restaurants
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In Edmonton, it’s always time to eat. Meet five chefs whose talents are only matched by their ambitions, and where Alberta’s signature ingredients are taken to the next level.
- Find delightful twists on comfort food at Pip and Farrow.
- At Bernadette’s, Indigenous cuisine is rooted in a connection to family.
- Embrace the wow factor at Fu’s Repair Shop and RGE RD.
Pip: Classic comfort food, elevated
The plan wasn’t for Pip to become one of the very best brunch spots in Edmonton.
In fact, when it first opened in Old Strathcona in 2017, Pip was meant to be an intimate cocktail and wine bar.
“But we asked ourselves a question,” says co-owner Saylish Haas. “‘What does the neighbourhood want? And what do we want?’ Well, we wanted breakfast seven days per week. So why don’t we come up with our own eggs-and-toast place?”
The new concept was so popular that Pip had to relocate to a larger space across the street a few years later, just to accommodate all those hungry customers.
A versatile space where “bennies” are always in style
The new and improved Pip is a warm, inviting space that’s perfect for just about any occasion, from first dates to catching up with friends.
Any brunch order at Pip must include their celebrated eggs benedict. The short-rib version combines ten-hour braised beef with caramelized onions, sourdough bread and dill hollandaise sauce. Other variations include shaved ham, blue crab and oyster mushrooms, each more mouth-watering than the last.
Night-time visitors, meanwhile, are no less spoiled for choice.
“People would have riots in the streets if we took the gnocchi off the dinner menu,” Haas says.
Farrow: Grab-and-go sandwiches with an attitude
“My whole life I’ve been obsessed with sandwiches,” says chef Laine Cherkewick.
For the past ten years, that obsession has become Edmonton’s, too, thanks to Farrow: a series of mini-restaurants where the music is loud, the merch is fun and the sandwiches are next-level.
“A lot of us grew up in that DIY, punk-rock aesthetic,” Cherkewick says. “Do it yourself and try to make things work. We got that vibe, right from the beginning."
A rotating menu bound to delight
Like any great punk song, Farrow’s menu is short and to the point: four sandwiches, a handful of fresh baked goods and great coffee.
Their flagship sandwich, the Grick Middle, is a breakfast dish so good they had to sell it all day long. It packs bacon, smoked gouda, tomato jam and arugula—plus of course a fried egg—onto a Portuguese crostinha bun. Another fan favourite, the Chief Beef—whose key ingredients include horseradish aioli and crushed-up potato chips—has also recently graduated to permanent status.
Farrow’s baked goods are also made in-house and are similarly creative. Their Saskatoon-berry cronut is a clever twist on one of Alberta’s seven signature foods, mixing the sweetness of the berries with layer upon layer of buttery dough.
With rapid-fire service and four locations around central Edmonton, you’re never far from Farrow’s door.
Bernadette’s: Indigenous cuisine with family at heart
Scott Iserhoff, chef and owner of Bernadette’s, believes that food is medicine. Originally from the Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario, he’s now bringing his knowledge of and passion for Indigenous cuisine right into the heart of downtown Edmonton.
“Food can bring you back to a happy state of mind,” Iserhoff says.
As proof, look no further than his signature barbeque brisket sandwich, which is slow braised for 12 hours and topped with a Saskatoon berry–infused barbeque sauce. An immediate sensation, this sandwich was quickly dubbed one of the top five sandwiches in the country by Air Canada’s En Route magazine.
A commemoration of grandmothers
Bernadette’s is run by Iserhoff and his wife, Svitlana Kravchuk, and is named after Iserhoff’s grandmother. This was a natural decision, he says, but also an emotional one.
“My grandmother was an inspiration to me,” Iserhoff says. “When she cooked for me, I felt loved and cared for.”
That inspiration carries through to the décor of the restaurant, which centres on a huge, colourful mural of edible plants like strawberries and dandelions—all things the real-life Bernadette loved.
When customers step into his restaurant, Iserhoff hopes that they experience it as a commemoration not just of his grandmother, but of all grandmothers, everywhere.
“They’re important in our lives,” he says. “They nourish us, they love us, they protect us.”
RGE RD: Farm-to-table dining with an adventurous twist
Personal connections with Alberta farms. Whole-animal butchery. Dishes that evolve and grow based on seasonal local ingredients.
At RGE RD, everything is on the menu.
“Over the years we’ve consistently had a beef dish, a pork dish and a bison dish—but they change so often,” says chef Blair Lebsack. In fact, that’s precisely the appeal. “It’s what people look forward to. They don’t come here looking for the exact same thing; they come here to see what the flavours of the moment are.”
Ask questions, eat widely
RGE RD has been one of Edmonton’s most acclaimed restaurants since first opening its doors in 2013. While individual menu items may have changed in the interim, the restaurant’s overall philosophy has remained the same: prairie flavours executed with style.
Their bison flat iron, a perennial favourite, comes with a hazelnut spatzle and is garnished with roasted root vegetables and sunflower seeds. Delectable potato and grizzle gouda perogies are another year-round offering. And if you’re up for something unique and unforgettable, look no further than the “questionable bits”: an ever-changing dish made from unusual and leftover parts of the animal. Your taste buds will thank you.
And with so much knowledge on display, don’t be afraid to indulge your curiosity.
“Our dining time is actually a little longer than other restaurants,” Lebsack says, “because people are asking a lot of questions, which is great. That means they’re connected with what we’re doing.”
Fu’s Repair Shop: Chinese food with a wow factor
When you first show up to Fu’s Repair Shop, you might think you’re in the wrong place. Did you go to an actual repair shop by mistake?
Don’t worry: as your host opens up a secret door behind a vintage vending machine, revealing a stunning dining room filled with more than a hundred paper lanterns, you’ll realize you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.
“It’s a unique concept,” says chef Winnie Chen. “It’s meant to get people talking.”
Childhood recipes and simplified classics
The vibes at Fu’s may be speakeasy, but the food is so good you’ll want to shout it from the rooftops.
Chen’s menu speaks to her background in fine dining, as well as her childhood. Her beloved braised-beef noodle soup, with daikon, carrots and preserved mustard greens, is the actual recipe Chen’s father cooked for her as a child. The hoisin-glazed duck tacos, meanwhile, is her riff on Peking duck—minus the pomp and circumstance that accompanies the dish at a typical Chinese banquet restaurant.
“This way you can just have my favourite course,” she says.
Following her nose has clearly served Chen well.
“People ask me how I come up with the menu. It’s just food I like to eat.”
How to get around central Edmonton
It’s even easier to restaurant-hop around Edmonton thanks to these transportation options:
- Hop on the High Level Bridge Streetcar, which connects Whyte Avenue to downtown from May to October.
- Rent an e-scooter from private providers like Bird or Lime, and zoom away with just a few taps on an app.
- Catch a ride on Edmonton’s LRT system, with a half-dozen stations servicing downtown alone.
