Pricy Perogy Boyz

Perogy Boyz

With a growing and diverse food truck scene in Calgary, we knew we would have the daunting task of picking just one to visit since we already had dining plans for almost all the meals we were in town for. We wound up deciding to hit Perogy Boyz whose menu is far from the ordinary Ukrainian fare. Although they do have a traditional perogy or potato and cottage cheese, kielbasa and borscht, the also have more unusual perogy flavors such as Mexi-Cali and ground duck with Saskatoon berry, as well as different types of sausage such as Knackwurst and Tijuana.

Borsch

The combination plate at $11 will get you perogies and your choice of either sausage or soup, regardless of the type of perogy you choose. We opted to go with two different combinations, one with the traditional perogy and borscht, the other with the duck perogy and the Tijuana Baba.

Their borscht is not the one you grew up with, although delicious, it resembled more of a vegetable soup in taste and texture. The dilly broth was thin, brown, and filled with a variety of chunky vegetables. The traditional perogies appeared to be finished on the flat top, and adorned with an overwhelming mound of caramelized onions, bacon and sour cream. Unfortunately these didn’t live up to what we were used to. The perogies we were used to, both homemade and store bought from Edmonton staple, Mundare Sausage House, are normally filled until they are plump, boiled, and served with onions cooked in butter, simple yet delicious. These perogies didn’t seem to benefit from being placed on a flat top as it didn’t crisp them, the bacon was chewy, and the whole thing was swimming old tasting grease.

Duck and Saskatoon berry perogies with chive ponzu, Tijuana Baba

The duck perogies resembled Chinese dumplings upon first glance, only much thinner in comparison. There was very little filling, and what little there was could have benefited from more seasoning as the Saskatoon berries were not detectable. It did help a bit when dipped in the accompanying chive ponzu sauce, however I would have liked if the perogies could stand on their own without accoutrements. The Tijuana Baba sausage was the best thing we ate from this meal, plump, juicy and flavorful.

Traditional perogies with sour cream, caramelized onions and bacon

Overall, I felt the Perogy Boyz were over hyped and over priced. I’d understand a cost premium on an ingredient like duck, but being charged the same price for the traditional perogies and borscht felt like we weren’t getting the same bang for our buck as a combination with duck perogies and sausage. I admit that I might be a bit biased as I’m used to eating a lot of good Ukrainian food, having a human whose family makes Ukranian food for every big family supper, as well as easily available at Highlands Kitchen as I discovered. However they could clearly put more filling in their perogies as I found their thin and flat perogies had disproportionately high dough to filling ratio. As well as either cutting the bacon from the toppings from the traditional if they’re going to get soggy and chewy over time, or keeping the bacon separate from the onions so they don’t absorb the grease which I believe might’ve cause them to become chewy. I applaud them on trying to be innovate with the time honored and classic perogy, but would suggest that they re-evaluate pricing and also consider making efforts to improve the quality of their perogies and accompaniments.

Perogy Boyz
Location Varies
Twitter: @perogyboyz