Let's see, Ukrainian food comes to mind (perogies, holubtse--aka cabbage rolls), Mundare sausage is famous, and perhaps there are Franco-Albertan specialties?

Maybe I'd better leave this question to the Edmontonians before I get myself in trouble...

(The Calgary-Edmonton rivalry is notorious :-)

Bison is a good local delicacy. So are saskatoon berries.

How much do you want to spend? The Blue Pear and Unheard Of have set menus and concentrate on local foods, but are pricy (you should also reserve). If you just want to sample Ukrainian sausage, Marchyshyn's is the best, smoked over birch wood. You can find it at their market, the Home Meat Market 10756 101 St. The Tanh Tanh, though not local (Vietnamese) is just down the block and is also excellent. Not the best part of town, but it is safe until early evening.

You could also go to many of the farmer's markets (if you're downtown, there is one on 104 Street, and (big one in Strathcona, in the university area) where you can sample many locally grown products, depending on when you're here (now to Labour Day is the best time).

I always loved the donairs when I lived in Edmonton. I lived in Castledows, and really loved a place called Donair and Sub Delights. There were a couple of good ones on Whyte Ave as well (one of them was Queen Donair I believe).

I miss a good donair, since I am hard pressed to find a decent one in Calgary.

Okay, I'm not sure if this is served in Edmonton, but it was in Calgary and other parts of Alberta, so I'm assuming it might be. Poutine is the name of the dish and it is french fries served with cheese curds and gravy over them. Definitely not something I've every eaten in the U.S. We tried it once on our trip and it was not bad, although a tad heavy on the stomach.

Not fine cuisine, for sure, but thought I'd mention it. :)

You can find poutine at Burger King, Harvey's, and New York Fries (look in mall food courts for the latter).

>>I miss a good donair, since I am hard pressed to find a decent one in Calgary.<<

Have you tried Desert Pita, on 52 St, just south of 17 Ave SE?

Sorry to hijack this Edmonton thread. Please resume discussing food in Edmonton. :)

^ The donair place in Shawnessy in the same area as the Zellers. He makes the best garlic sauce.

Elaina.

Oh, and in Edmonton my two favorite places to go are Buna Thai near Jasper (Their roast chicken is frikkin awesome!) and OPM in southside common. Its kind of like a Joeys Tomatos. Neither are expensive and both are quite good.

Two restaurant ideas for locally sourced food are The Copper Pot (nice view of the river valley, wonderful menu with locally sourced food, classy) and Bacon (very tiny, cool, funky place with awesome food - and lots of local stuff like locally made "church lady" perogies - they even have a map showing where in Alberta their ingredients come from).

Best Local Pizza Place (may start a war here) the original Capital Pizza, Londondale, and Best Donair, Swiss Donair, both on 144 Ave close to 82 Street (both have great poutine too).

Poutine is actually from Quebec, Eset, but we all love it (those of us that will admit it):)

I don't know if it's your first trip to Canada, but some local/Canadian chains you could try are: The Keg (steakhouse), Boston Pizza (casual dining/pizza), Tim Horton's (our famous national treasure - coffee/donuts/casual lunch), Harvey's (burgers)...any others?

In the middle of my fourth trip to Edmonton - so I've had a chance to make a few mis-steaks (Earls).

For Italian I would go with Il Pasticcio (11520 100 Avenue NW) EXCELLENT! Not to be confused with Il Portico, which I have yet to try - maybe sometime I feel like Italian twice in one visit.

We went to Louisian Purchase for the first time on this trip and absolutley loved it. Service and food was great and not too expensive. I highly recommend the Alligator appetizer. While not authentic Cajun / Creole cooking, it was about 75% as spicy which suited me and my acid reflux stomach quite well. The house beer was a hit too.

We'll try Lux Steakhouse tonight.

Lux is okay, but if you're at that level, I'd suggest the Blue Pear, Red Ox Inn, Jack's Grill or The Unheard Of, or for something less pricey but outstanding, Wild Tangerine or Sofra.