Food Notes for June 8, 2026

Openings

• Station Park is playing host to another food hall, this time curated by its developers, Beljan. It will coalesce around a limited time theme which will change again in the future. The first theme is Japan, and will involve five local restaurants: Dorinku, Japonais, Menya Mori, Pablo Cheese Tart, and Hello Mochi. It opens on June 11 at 8115 Gateway Blvd NW.
• Middle Child Burger, a pop-up burger shop open until September, is now open at 12618 152 Avenue NW.
• Edmonton has another sushi omakase restaurant, called Sushi Bar Goshen, at 2846 James Mowatt Trail SW.
• EMRLD is a new restaurant and cocktail bar downtown, at 11026 Jasper Avenue NW.
• Off the Record Cafe opened June 1 at 10011 102 Avenue NW. It’s been a challenging location for previous tenants, so hopefully they can make it work.
• Ayco’s second location is nearly open at 14213 103 Avenue.
• House of Fork, a new restaurant in Chapelle, is now open at 6439 Cartmell Place SW.
• The Heart & Plate opened back in March in the Stadium area, at 8157 112 Avenue NW.
• Zaab Thai is now open at 9142 23 Avenue NW (formerly Loma House).
• BC-based chain Yummy Slice will be opening its first Edmonton-area location in Fort Saskatchewan.

Closures

• Long-time Indian restaurant Khazana announced its permanent closure last week, of both its downtown and Windermere locations. The owners say the years-long construction around the downtown location was the ultimate cause of their closure.

Upcoming Events

• Don’ya Ukraine’s Kitchen is honouring the connections between Indigenous and Ukrainian communities with a celebration on June 18 in Beaver Hills House Park.
• Vagabond’s next pop-up will feature sourdough pizza on June 27-28.

Local News

• Congratulations to the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative’s Dragon Tours, which won the culinary tourism award at the 2026 Edmonton Tourism Awards.
• The Alberta Food Processors Association also recognized winners last week at the 2026 Alberta Food & Beverage Awards. Edmonton winners included Green Onion Cake Man, Bae Food Group, Crust Craft, and Uncle Hemmy BBQ.
• Whisked is no longer serving at Kommune, because its founder will be heading to Japan to learn more about matcha. Whisked will partner with local coffee shops for their matcha in the meantime.
• Edify profiled Patricia Street Deli.
• Upper Crust is commemorating 40 years in business!
• Happy 5th birthday to Candid Coffee Roasters (and 1st birthday to its Highlands location).
• Bar Trove is also celebrating its first birthday.
• Flat Boy Burger is expanding to Calgary!
• West Block in Glenora is offering digital offers to redeem during the summer, including at all of their food and drink purveyors.
• Modern Luxuria is currently soliciting nominations for its Awards of Excellence, which include categories of cuisine and drinks.

What I Ate

• It was my final #banhmionthebus last week, as my Calgary travels have now come to an end. It was a good excuse to try a sub from Banh Mi Diddy. The bread was great (they bake it in-house), and I liked the fillings, but the relatively small size compared to its Chinatown compatriots was jarring.

Classic cold cut from Banh Mi Diddy

• I continued my Vietnamese cuisine theme into dinner, where I returned to Lai Rai for some comfort food. The banh kuot were so crispy and delicious, and almost worth a trip to Calgary on their own.

Banh kuot and pho from Lai Rai

• We’ve been so spoiled with our group dinners that it sounds ungrateful to complain about our meal at Centini’s in Calgary. But after so many amazing small plates restaurants, the old school nature of the meal (down to the warm chocolate lava cake for dessert), was a bit disappointing. That said, I am so grateful for a program that allowed me to meet so many smart and passionate leaders (you know who you are!).

Spinach and ricotta ravioli from Centini’s

• My family joined me in Calgary to celebrate – we had to revisit a long-time favourite in Blue Star Diner.

Breakfast burrito from Blue Star Diner

• Mack had tried Connie and John’s Pizza before, but it was a first for me. They make a solid NY-style pie (though I wouldn’t expect anything less from the duo).

Half John’s pepperoni & half formaggio the grate pizza

• And we promised the kids ice cream before we departed the city, and ice cream they got – I think I converted Emily to the salted caramel at Village Ice Cream.

We love ice cream