Missing the Boat at Culina Millcreek

I’d heard that Culina Millcreek was a good place to go for brunch, and their food was fairly solid regardless of the meal. So on one sunny Sunday morning, I ventured out there with my bovine bodyguard, @thepolishviking of Dine and Write.

The restaurant itself is fairly small, but the menu was quite extensive and everything looked good. After perusing and debating, we managed to narrow down our choices, even though we could’ve easily ordered almost every item. We began with grilled cornbread, accompanied with Saskatoon berry butter. The cornbread is dense, and slightly sweet, a good start to our morning, while the Saskatoon berry flavor doesn’t quite manage to break through the butter taste.

Eggs Benedict

The eggs benedict is served with sweet potato toast, and is bed fellows with a potato hash. The egg is soft and runny, with the yolk acting as a secondary sauce for the toast. The toast is heavier than normal bread, yet tastes light, the bacon is perfectly cooked and smoky tasting, while the hollandaise sauce is nice and thick, and has some kick to it. The potato hash has the perfect balance of crispiness and saltiness, making them irresistible. Accompanied by slightly spicy ketchup, I devour them quickly.

"Bacon" and ggs

If only everyone elses dishes were as good as mine. Alas, it turned out I had the best dish of the day. The bacon and eggs consisted of no bacon at all, a bit of a misleading name for a dish. The frittata was moist and light, however the “bacon” consisted of a bland and dry mound of pulled pork. The potatoes accompanying the dish were also very dry.

The eggs and toast that @thepolishviking ordered looked promising, with two bright yellow yokes surrounded by a lake of mushroom sauce. But upon digging in, it turned out the eggs were overcooked, and there would be no creamy, oozy yoke to dip the sweet potato toast in. Thankfully the mushroom sauce was creamy with an earthy taste, but slightly too thick.

Eggs and Toast

As elaborated by @thepolishviking’s blog post, Culina Millcreek missed the boat on this brunch. Although most items tasted good, the textures were not right either being overly dry or overcooked, and the components were not brought together properly. Had they cooked the eggs less, and had a slightly thinner mushroom sauce, it would have been ideal for dipping toast in. For the bacon and eggs dish, I would recommend renaming it so it more accurately reflects the contents.

Although their menu did have a lot of interesting looking items, I doubt any of us would be rushing to return.

Culina Millcreek

9914 89 Avenue NW

Edmonton, AB  T6E 2S5
780-437-5588

Twitter: @MillcreekCulina