The Common is not new but it was my first time going so I thought I’d blog about my food adventure for the day! Quick review of my visit to The Common – friendly staff, intimate atmosphere and pub style comfort food that seems promising but unfortuntely, didn’t completely win me over.
I came here with friends on a Tuesday evening, during happy hour. Upon coming in, the sign said “please seat yourselves” so my first impression was that the place was more casual. After the downtown rush hour, the place was packed and it was basically a full house. Obviously, this was a positive sign. A full house always suggests that the place must be good right?!
The Common has booth and high table seating as well as seating at the bar, available. The dinner menu has some variety. From my first impression of the menu, it seems that they offered casual pub-style eats – fries, burgers, etc. and specialized on some good comfort food (ahem, chicken and waffles).
So, we started off with calamari. During happy hour, the Calamari is only ($8). However, we only ordered the half order so that we could save our appetites for the main dishes.
When the calamari came out, my first thought was that it was the lightest looking fried calamari I had ever seen.. No golden color! The calamari itself was a little disappointing as it was really bland. So, thank goodness it came with a dipping sauce. On the menu, the dipping sauce was called a Tahini Remoulade, it added the perfect amount of flavour to the plain calamari.
My friend and I decided to share some dishes as we were not overly hungry. We ordered the Broccoli and Polenta Gnocchi ($12) and the Chicken and Waffles ($17).
The Broccoli and Polenta Gnocchi was not my favourite, to say the least. There is actually no gnocchi (potato pasta) on the dish at all, from what I saw and ate anyways. There was broccoli, pumpkin seeds and potato..? I am not really sure, but I wasn’t the biggest fan. The green curry sauce was too sweet for my liking and the dish was just not that tied together. I probably would not order this again.
My favourite dish of the night was the Chicken and Waffles. I have actually never tried the infamous chicken and waffles dish, anywhere (fail, i know). So I was looking forward to trying this dish because I am a waffles typa gal! The chicken was listed as “bake and shake chicken” on the menu, it was seasoned pretty well but the batter did not stick and broke off easily. The waffles are supposed to be “bacon waffles” but they just tasted like regular waffles to me. Nonetheless, I always love a crisp waffle and luckily, it was just that. The dish came with goat cheese butter and a cranberry sauce – both complimented the chicken and waffles very well. Overall, I really enjoyed this dish.. I just wish that the batter on the chicken stuck a little more for some extra crunch.
Our other friend ordered the Umami Burger ($16). It was described as having “house ground flank steak, jack cheese, spicy mayo, butter leaf and tempura apple ring”. I didn’t get a chance to try this dish so can’t say much about it but it looked great and he said it tasted good, so I’ll take his word for it.
The restaurant space itself is quite modern with ‘retro’ or ‘antique’ touches – like this photo wall (below) that featured photos of #yeg landscapes and famous artists “back in the day”. The overall service was very friendly and attentive – the server checked on us multiple times. Even when we stayed long after paying for the bill, she still came back to check on our table 🙂
All in all, I wasn’t completely won over by The Common. I am glad that I went but I’m not sure if I will be making a return anytime soon. Only one dish excited me and the space is a bit too “intimate” for my liking. However, I know that they offer some Hip Hop brunches and events so I’d definitely love to check one of those out sometime. I’d say that if you are looking for a casual place to find simple soul food, then give this place a try! They are an easy find, located on 109th street, next to their sister restaurant of Grandin Fish n Chips (ps. read my review for it here).
Also.. The restaurant is an 18+ only establishment so make sure you are bringing your ID with you.
The Common
9910 109 St, Edmonton
Eat with Sharon 