Eating at the 'Canteen'

Canteen - 10522 124st, Edmonton AB

It was around 130 in the afternoon, and I decided to grab some lunch with a friend. I've thought of going down to 124 Street for a while to try out all the restaurants I heard about, and although it wasn't my original decision, I left Canteen happily with a full stomach. 

When I stepped into the restaurant, it gave a nice local restaurant vibe; it wasn't too big, and overall there was a nice pleasant atmosphere despite the gloomy weather outside.

The menu itself didn't have too much to choose from, but there were enough choices that it took me a bit of time to decide what to order. For an appetizer we ordered the Corn Fritters with Maple Syrup ($8). The Corn Fritters had a mildly salty taste, and when dipped into the maple syrup, gave a nice balance of sweetness and saltiness.

For the mains, they all come with a soup or fries. As for what we had, my friend had the Buttermilk Chicken with Veggie Slaw and Fries ($17). The boneless chicken was nice and tender, although after a few bites (well the few that I had) the taste became quite plain. The fries were quite tasty; they weren't too soft nor too crispy and the ketchup that was given was custom-made and wasn't the typical Heinz ketchup you would get elsewhere (it tasted a lot like chili actually). I didn't get a chance to try the Veggie Slaw but by eye it didn't look too bad.

As for myself, I had the Hot Pastrami with Kimchee Kraut, Emmental, Cornichons and Fontina on Country Rye and the Soup ($18). The soup is different everyday, and the one I was given was a Connut Curry (with chicken, mushrooms, green onions, and noodles). The sandwich I got was probably my favorite out of them all. It had a nice balance of taste, with the salty pastrami and the soury (no idea if that's a word) veggies, nothing was overpowering. The soup was a bit plain, and wasn't very spicy.

In the end, I would recommend trying out Canteen if you're into trying out new dishes that mix different things together (having kimchee and pastrami was an interesting mix to be honest). However, nothing really stood out or blew my mind and got me hooked to the restaurant.

Side Note: I think my grammar is really bad...