When we launched our annual Best Restaurants issue back in 2012, we dovetailed with a tasting event, featuring creations from the chefs featured in our best-of lists.
And, then, came COVID. And, you know. We had to cancel our Best Restaurants event in 2020. In 2021, we decided against doing a list, because so many restaurants had been reduced to doing take-out and had stripped down their menus. In 2022, the list was back, but we still didn’t have the wherewithal and the necessary green lights to make an event work.
But, in 2023, finally, we were back. On Monday at the Edmonton Convention Centre, 15 of our Best Restaurants winners served tasting plates to hundreds of passionate food lovers; we had beer on hand from Blindman Brewing and SYC, ciders from Broken Spoke, plus spirits from Rig Hand. Non-alcoholic cocktails were served by Mock-Ups Mocktails. From elk tartare to Dungeness crab to curry chicken to pickle soup, we got to sample some of the best the city’s restaurants had to offer.
We have a truly supportive restaurant community. What we saw at Best Restaurants is camaraderie between chefs; we’re a large city — we can fill a lot of tables at a lot of different places. So why not support each other and create a more vibrant food scene?
“Edmonton deserves something nice, and I think that’s what Edmonton restaurants are really all about,” RGE RD chef Blair Lebsack told Ryan Jespersen on Real Talk in the lead-up to the event. “Let’s not make people go to Las Vegas for dinner.”
And, on Monday, we could say: “Vegas, eat your heart out.” Wait, we were the ones doing the eating.
Of course, if you couldn’t make it out to our event, you can try some of these outstanding dishes by visiting these restaurants.
