My husband and I went out for lunch during Edmonton Dining Week. The Silk Hat, I believe is the oldest continuous running restaurant in Edmonton. It is charming; the place you would go to after a night on the town in the 50's. Long benches compile the length of the restaurant, and a shiny chrome bar is on the opposite side. I only glanced at the regular menu because for Edmonton Dining week, there was a choice between two meals - homemade soup of the day followed by the buttermilk and panko crust crunchy sandwich served with fries. The second was a spring mix salad topped with balsamic reduction and parmesan cheese followed with two sausages from Irving farms on a bed of caramelized onions and fennel. Looking at the regular menu, there was nothing particularly standoutish described. A lot of the basic appetizers and burgers and typical sandwiches. However, our Edmonton Dining menu looked more interesting to me. This experience was really a hit and miss. Definitely the highlight was the sausages and fennel with onion. Moist and flavourful with a lovely complement of sweet onions and fennel. Definitely a dish worth having. The soup and salad were fine, but nothing special to note. The crispy sandwich was disappointing. I don't think that the deep fryer was hot enough, so what occurred was a really greasy condensed chicken in between a bun. I definitely would try it again to see what is on their usual menu and perhaps go for after work cocktails. What I see is a lot of loss potential for this restaurant. It is a gorgeous and unique building, and if they took that and went with a menu of retro classics perhaps it would be more than 1/4 full at any given time. I hope this restaurant turns itself around, because I would love it to become and "old classic standbye" for Edmonton. read more

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