The Hardware Grill
Warm Bread and Olive Oil
Crispy Duck Confit – Yukon Gold Sweet Potato Hash, Twice Smoked Bacon, Mushrooms, Sage Cream, Veal Jus
Bacon-Wrapped Elk & Slow Braised Beef Rib – Potato- Bacon Pie, Butternut Squash, Beet Chutney, Cabbage, Raspberry-Ermite Reduction
Warm Prairie Gingerbread Cake – Rhubarb-Saskatoon Berry Compote, Mango Ice Cream, Warm Caramel Sauce
Celebrating twenty years amidst the top tier of Restaurants in Western Canada The Hardware Grill from Chef Larry Stewart is a veritable institution for locals and visitors to Edmonton, the progressive Canadian Cuisine with a focus on roast Meats contributing to a theme of hammers and other toolbox items that neither contributes nor detracts from the upscale dining environment.
Clearly taking notes from similar restaurants throughout North America, the lighting muted and woods heavy with a sizable display kitchen, diners at The Hardware Grill will promptly find themselves greeted by servers that are rapid-fire and almost a bit ‘shticky,’ the Peter Luger style of selling guests on their opinion of what is ‘best’ treated as more important than personal preferences.
Priced commiserate to other Steakhouses throughout the area, a three-course meal without wine just under $100CAD including tax & tip, it was after some debate over Foie Gras vs a heavier entrée that decisions were made to begin with Confit Duck, the sizable Leg and Thigh crisp and succulent over a pile of crispy Potatoes studded with Bacon, the salt-content further concentrated by Veal Jus with only a touch of levity added by way of the seared Mushrooms and smooth Sage Cream.
Tempted by Duck once again as an entrée, but opting instead to go with the ‘signature,’ Chef Stewart’s Bacon-Wrapped Elk & Slow Braised Beef Rib continued the trend established earlier by way of a layered wedge of Potatoes and Bacon served as a supplement to the lean Loin and meltingly-tender Rib, the Chutney and Cabbage helping to refresh the palate between bites as the salting is, again, quite heavy.
Talked out of Butter Cake by the word ‘dry,’ something one would usually not associate with a dish regularly proceeded by the ‘gooey’ descriptor, it was on the recommendation of the server that Warm Prairie Gingerbread Cake was selected as an alternative, the thick wedge certainly not lacking for moisture but slipshod in its plating next to a pile of Rhubarb-Saskatoon Berry Compote with Mango Ice Cream that seemed completely out of place perched atop a now-frozen Sugar Cookie.
www.hardwaregrill.com
