Downtown Dining Week invites Edmontonians to explore downtown and find new favourites.
New kids on the block like Solar and Bar Trove, as well as downtown stalwarts like Dorinku and Black Pearl (and Edify’s top pick for Best New Restaurant 2025, Bernadette’s) are all offering pre-set menus at $15, $25, $35 and $65 tiers to give diners a chance to try new dishes for brunch, lunch or dinner.
Liza Zymovets, of the newly opened Zymo restaurant, is excited to participate in her restaurant’s first Downtown Dining Week. Since opening in October, Zymovets and her husband have enjoyed getting to know the customers who come through their doors for modern European cuisine with a Ukrainian twist.
Many Edmontonians’ knowledge of Ukrainian food is based on the food brought over by earlier Ukrainian immigrants. The modern Ukrainian cuisine looks a little different — although Zymovets notes that there are dishes that Edmontonians will recognize.
“We have borscht, varenyky, cottage cheese pancakes, comfort food from childhood,” she says. “The idea is to show something new, but familiar.”
On the menu for Downtown Dining Week Zymo serves classic dinners, like caesar salad and steak, served with a Ukrainian signature sauce, and paired with a special cocktail. Zymo is also offering a lunch special with stew or varenyky and salad. Zymovets is excited to serve new customers and introduce them to modern Ukrainian cuisine — but just as important is the opportunity to uplift the local food scene and encourage diners to come downtown.
“Downtown needs people. Laughter, conversation, this is something downtown needs badly,” Zymovets says. “Downtown Dining Week adds vibrancy to this corner of the city, and we want to be part of this, uplifting the hospitality community together.”
“It’s such a great opportunity to try something new and, at the end of the day, a healthy downtown means a healthy city. When our downtown businesses thrive, the city does,” says Quinn Phillips, the Downtown Business Association’s marketing and communications director. “The economy of the city is driven by downtown.”
Downtown Dining Week runs from March 11 to 22, 2026.
