Apr

Brasserie Kensington, Calgary

Dan

Brasserie Kensington is located in (you guessed it!) the Kensington business district of Calgary, and is the 4th restaurant from a duo of successful local business partners: Cam Dobranski, and Chris Hurlburt. I headed down to the fine establishment for brunch on the first day of The Big Taste. A dine-out festival that features great restaurants all over the city. Select lunch and dinner options are offered at a reasonable prices to encourage people to expand their culinary horizons.

This restaurant was pretty much brand new at the time, having soft opened the week prior, I had heard good rumblings, and really enjoy their sister establishments Muse and Winebar: Kensington located to the left, and below of it, respectively, and AKA Winebar (in Calgary’s Bridgeland area).

So..it was time to try this one out.

To put it in perspective: Winebar: Kensington would be a place I would go on a first date or with friends. Muse would be my ‘ok, we’ve lasted a few months’ (anniversary) location. Brasserie Kensington is a good in-between-er, like a good suit jacket, you could dress it up or down.

We were seated right by the huge north-facing windows that looked down onto Kensington Road (For those of you unfamiliar with this area, it’s an awesome people watching street). From the brunch menu, my date and I went for their Breakfast Poutine (share), Crab Cake Cobb Salad (her), and their Veggie Burger with bacon, obviously, and a side house salad (myself). The only thing breakfast about the poutine was the fried egg on top, yolk still runny. It added to the richness of the duck fat gravy. We both found the fry to gravy ratio to be perfect, and the fries themselves were well-seasoned and crisp.

I’ve got to give this place props for having the little details down pat. The lettuce in both the cobb and my side salad with perfectly tossed with vinaigrette, nothing worse than a dressing soaked wilt-y green. Also, it melted my heart a bit when I realized the generous tomato slices on each of our salads were individually seasoned. Nothing quite brings out the awesome-ness of a tomato like a little sprinkle of salt and pepper. Am I right people?

The Cobb Salad was on the ‘deconstructed’ side of the fence, with large pieces of tomatoes, egg, bacon, avocado, spring greens and two home-made crab cakes resting on top. I’m a sucker for crab cakes, but so was my date, so all I got was a bite. Better than no bite though…