Food Notes for May 4, 2026

Openings

• Congratulations to Brio Bakery who has opened its second location. Find it in the French Quarter, 9614 82 Avenue NW.
• Dirty soda shop Sip Soda Co. opened its second location in the Edmonton region, this time in St. Albert (#110, 840 St. Albert Trail).
• Always Coffee will open its second location in Windermere on May 5, at 6070 Andrews Way SW.
• North American chain Punjabi Chaap Corner has opened a location in Edmonton at 1075 Parsons Road SW. All dishes are made with plant-based protein.
• Indian bakery Shree is opening a second location downtown at Edmonton City Centre Mall (10025 102A Avenue NW).
• Dickey’s Barbecue Pit will open its fourth location in the Edmonton area at 5250 Ellerslie Road SW.

Closures

• Transit Smokehouse has been forthcoming about how challenging it has been to stay afloat. They closed that location on May 3, but will be opening at 10732 Whyte Avenue NW soon.
• Canadian chain Basil Box is shutting down all its locations, including its lone Edmonton shop in Edmonton City Centre Mall. Their final day is May 14.

Upcoming Events

• The Old Red Barn’s farm dinners return in June and run to September on select Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
• Save the date for the return of Burger Fest in Downtown Edmonton, running July 2-11.

Local News

• It’s great to see patios open up all over the city, including PlayWright’s (they had to forego patio season last year due to the parkade/street construction)!
• Seasonal restaurants such as smash burger purveyor Shortees at the Rundle Park Golf Course, has also opened for the summer.
• Canada’s 100 Best list was released, and while no Edmonton restaurant made the cut on the restaurant side, Next of Kin landed at #46 on the Best Bars list. Baijiu and Little Hong Kong were recognized with a Best Patio Award, and the Journal interviewed the folks behind that year-round patio.
• On the heels of Woodwork re-opening for lunch earlier this year, The Common has done so too, from Wednesday to Friday. Great to see more lunches coming online downtown!
• The owners of Coast Lunch Box have sold the food truck to focus on Toast Culture and Birch and Bear Pizza.
• Sharon checked out BB2’s all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ.
• Erika checked out CQ Noodle (thanks also for the shout-out of Edmonton Food Faves We Crave!).
• Edify rounds up five sandwiches to try in Edmonton.

What I Ate

• The season of al fresco dining has begun! Mack picked up some Splash Poke for us to enjoy at our local park on Friday. It’s likely there will be many a picnic here with the kids this summer.

Splash Poke in the park

• I met up with a friend at Mr. Bun for lunch on the weekend. It might be a good candidate to satisfy my dumpling and noodle cravings given the unexpected closure of BaoBao (RIP). The xiaolong bao were good, but my favourite of the dishes we tried were the chili oil wontons. I’ll be back.

Chili oil wontons

• Saturday was a spectacular weather day so we took advantage. It felt like half of Edmonton had the same idea to visit the newly re-opened Hawrelak Park that day! After enjoying our Van Loc subs, we walked past Lift Me Up On the Lake to check it out – the line was easily 20 deep for both take-out and separately for indoor seating. It definitely feels like Edmontonians are ready to embrace summer.

Van Loc in the park

• We ended the day with some ice cream from Made by Marcus. That lemon curd blueberry really is something.

Made by Marcus