** This restaurant is now closed. **
Chef-driven brunch. It's a thing. And I'm a fan.
In the restaurant business, brunch can be quite lucrative. Although there's been an increasing trend with people staying in and having food delivered (a la Skip the Dishes, Uber Eats, etc.), nothing brings millennials out of their houses (that they can't afford) and into restaurants quite like brunch can.
With chef-driven brunch, you can expect the classics, reinvented. It's an opportunity for chefs to flex their culinary muscle so to speak. "Look what I can do with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce!" For customers, it's also a win -- a taste of the chef's skills at a usually more affordable price tag.
Jumping on the chef-driven brunch bandwagon is a relative newcomer to Edmonton's dining scene. Aarde (Dutch for 'earth') opened last November on 4th Street Promenade.
Headed by Chef Guru Singh, Aarde offers "regional European" food, inspired by his travels across Europe. By not honing in on a specific country or cuisine, he's able to play around with the menu, focusing instead on the seasonality of local ingredients.
Half of the dinner menu is vegetarian, but to build a full meal, you're meant to order a few plates and share (because sharing is caring). Brunch is also a new adjunct of the restaurant, served on weekends from 10am-2pm.
With only two other parties seated in the restaurant when we arrived, we were given our pick of tables. Our server did warn us beforehand that sitting by the window would be a bit chilly, but KN is all about that *natural light* for photos.
As per usual, we decided to order a couple of plates to share. First up, the classic eggs Benedict. Done the Aarde way, the fried chicken benny ($15.00) starts with a base of thyme and crushed pepper biscuits. Crispy chicken thighs and poached eggs (soft, medium, or hard) are dressed with Grand Marnier hollandaise and yellow chimichurri. The dish also comes with a side of house potatoes and fresh fruit (in our case, slices of honeydew).
It was a bit of a wait for our food, but only because they ran out of biscuits and had to bake some on the fly. Good textures, good flavours. Potatoes were seasoned well, with a peppery finish. I don't know why I was briefly reminded of KFC seasoning, but I was. (That's not a bad thing.)
Our second plate was the Canadian Dutch baby ($12.00) with house-cured gravlax, spinach cream, confit tomatoes, pickled onions, and two eggs (any style). The kitchen ran out of confit tomatoes, so just imagine that they're there.
A Dutch baby pancake is pretty much a popover on steroids. It's a neutral canvas that lends itself well to both sweet and savoury preparations. The Dutch baby was fluffy, with an almost fried exterior. Loved the salmon with the pancake, but I didn't think the spinach cream added much to it as it was already creamy from the eggs.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by the brunch offerings at Aarde. The menu is small but focused and concise. It's chill and laidback, perfect for when you want a reprieve from the wait at OEB. Considering you're dining downtown, it's also a very affordable way to start your weekend morning right.
Aarde
10184 104 St NW
Edmonton, AB
(587) 881-7891
P.S. Their freshly squeezed orange juice is pretty fantastic.
- CT
- CT
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