Off the Beaten Poll: Lots of places, like Vihalay, get overlooked when it comes to Best Of time

As you no doubt know from the document you hold in your hands, the people have spoken again, sending their suggestions for the best this or that in Edmonton. Being a Professional Reviewer, as well as a Motiveless Man About Town, I’ve stuck my nose into a fair few of this city’s eateries. Therefore, I feel it incumbent on me to offer up a few subjective observations about some of Edmonton’s Best things to eat in a scattering of categories of my own devising, revealing in particular a profound Asian bias. Sample at will.
Best new: MOR Mediterranean Turkish Cuisine (15620-95 Ave.)
After suffering a little Greek taverna burnout—not least because of the pounding bellydancing music one is often forced to withstand at such venues—I was relieved to find an unpretentiously attractive dining spot with a distinctive spin on the art of Mediterranean grilled meats, mezze, and homemade flatbread. They also have a unique wine list, with vintages from Israel and Lebanon. Having just been there once, this one is high on my “Go Back Soon” list.
Best new (Asian): Viphalay (10724-95 St.)
With the vast preponderance of new Asian restaurants opening their doors, they sort of need their own category. I haven’t been to every new Thai place that’s opened in the last year, but I’ve tried enough to know that Viphalay puts up an extensive menu with some of the best Thai and Lao cuisine I’ve tried recently, at very reasonable prices. Plus it’s really nice inside (despite the drab strip-mall setting) and the Singha is served with mugs straight from the freezer to slake the spicy burn of their green papaya salad, tom yum, and delicious, coconutty curries.
Best pho: Tau Bay Restaurant (10660-98 St.)
Pho is Vietnamese rice noodle soup, usually made with seasoned beef stock and thin slices of beef that are cooked by dropping them into the steaming broth, and served with fried shallots, sprigs of basil, lime wedges, chili peppers, and hoisin sauce. Tau Bay’s greatness is predicated on the fact that they serve nothing but authentic pho (vegetarians stay home)—lots of it, with all fixin’s—at around $6 for a huge portion. Cash only.
Best cheap lunch: Commodore Restaurant (10712 Jasper Ave.)
Come on, people—where else can you get a clubhouse sandwich (made with real roasted chicken) and fries for under $6? Only at the Commodore, that’s where. Straight-ahead breakfasts, Chinese food, cheeseburgers like grandma made—you can get ‘em all at low, low prices, served by genuinely friendly people who have every right to call you “dear.”
Best fake meat dish: Oriental Veggie House’s mock lamb curry hotpot (10586-100 St.)
The point of fake meat is not to provide a convincing flesh facsimile, but to insert a toothsome substitute to carry the flavours of the dish and add something more substantial to all those veggies. The Oriental Veggie House’s lamb curry hotpot is impressive not because they’ve done a good job of replicating lamb out of mushroom protein or textured gluten or whatever it is, but how deliciously those chunks of non-flesh work with the creamy curry sauce, chunks of carrot and potato and tender-crisp stalks of broccoli.
Best sashimi: Wasabi (5715-111 St.)
For succulent slabs of raw fish—especially those perennial faves tuna belly and salmon—this little Japanese restaurant (which started its life as a food kiosk in the now defunct Strathcona Chinatown Mall) has never failed to deliver fresh, two-bite portions with just the right touch of the eponymous green stuff to set your nose a-tingling.
Best guilty pleasure: Lee House’s gam poong gi (7904-104 St.)
There was a time when Sam Wok’s bizarre, sleazy, and entirely delicious rice roll long donut would have snapped up this category, but they’ve removed that tasty heart-clogger from the menu with their relocation to new digs that won’t accommodate a steamer for the rice wrappers. Lee House, the little Korean restaurant just south of Whyte Ave.’s drunkest stretch, jumps into the breach with these addictive morsels of crisp-fried chicken drenched in a livid red, sweet, spicy sauce, deposits of which have begun to collect on my lower back.
Best midday treat: TIE! Handy Bakery’s pastel de nata (8660-118 Ave.)/ Sunterra Market’s chocolate chip oatmeal cookie (Manulife Place)
If you don’t have time to slip away to a quiet public park or parkade stairwell for a furtive quickie with that special someone (or that special whatever), you can always slake a different appetite with a pastel de nata—a flaky pastry cup filled with sweet baked custard—from the Handy Bakery or Sunterra’s saucer-sized chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Both are much, much cheaper than a citation for public indecency.