Ampersand | 27 — Restaurant in Edmonton

Long but honest

This was a surprisingly disappointing meal. We ordered the brunchuterie board and first off it’s labeled as being the most instagramable brunch on whyte ave but we couldn’t find any pictures online of the board and what to expect. But we figured at $49 it would be good. We made a reservation and showed up and got put in the darkest corner in the place. Thankfully we knew what we wanted so we didn’t need to look at the Menu too much.

The tables are made of laminated click floor boards and lots of the corners are peeling off. The boards are also curling up so the age is definitely showing. The room honestly feels closer to a hotel restaurant than a fine dining experience.

Ordered our food and the coffee came with nice little cream and sugar dispensers that i really enjoyed but there was no spoon to stir my coffee and i was stuck using my knife. Sure i could’ve asked for a spoon but a spoon should be expected with coffee/tea, cream, and sugar

Once the board arrived it was very pretty to look at but that’s where the goodness ends. The individual items were mediocre at best and it was all overly bland for such a fancy restaurant.

The bacon was Smokey but still bland. The pulled pork was salty in flavour and didn’t meld well with the board. The pulled pork should be replaced with a sausage to maintain the pork aspect of the board.

The “smashed” potatoes were closer to poked with a fork than smashed. The potato flavour was decent but definitely is more of a dinner entree taste.

The eggs were served in a little pan and looked nice. They ended up being watery and bland. There was a sprig of pea shoot or alfalfa on them that was to add detail but it took taste focus away from the egg.

There was 2 types toast that was both not warm and dry. The butter provided was whipped and dispensed in a cute little florets but the butter was very sweet. So sweet butter on dry cold toast was pretty disappointing because it didn’t spread or melt.

The waffles were i think cinnamon but very dense and heavy. The waffle tasted like the cinnamon was only in the same room as the waffle while it w as being made. Oh also they were cold as well. Maybe if they were warm it would’ve been better but also made the sweet butter pointless to try and spread. I can understand what they were going for with the waffles but it just felt poorly executed.

The strawberry jam and whipped cream that was meant to go on top was unbelievably bland as well. The whipped cream was simply whipped cream with no sweetener added. The jam was like someone’s homemade attempt to make jam but used only 1/4 of the sugar required in the recipe.

I didn’t try the Nutella on the board but i can only assume it was from a jar.

Finally there was a little dish of fruit. Honeydew, cantaloupe, orange slice, and a single blackberry. I can understand the seasonal fruit aspect but the honeydew had zero flavour and the cantaloupe tasted bad.

All in all the only thing i actually enjoyed here was the coffee and the dispensers for cream and sugar.

Maybe supper would’ve been better but this “most instagramable board” was a total let down and disappointment in terms of flavour and execution. The board felt like it was trying to be something wonderful but got lost along the way and just gave up once it realized it needed to forced into a brunch item.

Not worth $49. They should revisit the items and flavours and improve them and charge $60 to make it worthwhile.

I’m giving 2 stars because literally the coffee was worth...

Our experience at this restaurant was nothing short of a disaster. The first red flag was that the place was a ghost town on a Friday night — a clear sign we should’ve walked out then and there. Our server, Angel, was the only positive part of the evening. She was attentive and professional throughout, but unfortunately, that was where the positives ended. We walked in during happy hour and saw highballs (doubles) listed at $9 on the menu. We ordered four doubles for the table, and Angel took our order without issue. Moments later, she returned to inform us that the bartender, Jeremey Philips, claimed the price was actually $16, not $9. Confused, I pointed out that the menu clearly stated otherwise. Angel took our side and placed the order for the doubles at the advertised price. We assumed it was an honest mistake and continued on with the night. When our drinks arrived, they were clearly watered down — there was no alcohol to be found. Now, we don’t drink often, but even we know that doubles should taste strong, not like a Coca-Cola. I asked Angel to confirm that these were indeed doubles, and she assured me they were. By this point, it was obvious something was wrong, so I requested to speak directly to Jeremey. When he came to the table, he not only confirmed that the drinks were doubles but then had the audacity to blame Angel for the price confusion — even though she was simply repeating what he had initially said. His energy was off from the start, but this is when we all knew something wasn’t right.. I decided to watch him make the next round of drinks, just to verify if the doubles were really as weak as they seemed. Instead of addressing the issue, he started calling me "gangster" and accusing me of threatening him. All I did was ask to watch him pour the drinks for clarity. He then went on to call me a "drunk" even though I had only had one drink and said I was "cut off." His bizarre behavior made the situation incredibly uncomfortable. At that point, I asked for the bill immediately, and Jeremey escalated, threatening both me and my friends. During his last attempt to defend his actions he accused me of being racist towards him (even thought we are the same race and this had nothing to do with that lol).His own staff had to physically intervene to hold him back. I paid the bill and left, but as I walked out, the staff confirmed that this type of behavior was common for Jeremey. The rest of the staff, especially Angel were visibly embarrassed by Jeremey’s behaviour and were sincerely apologetic, I feel sorry that they have to work alongside such an aggressive personality. Frankly, Jeremey needs anger management. His behavior was completely unprofessional, and he should not be working in a customer-facing role. I will never return to this restaurant. The safety of my friends and I was compromised, and the entire experience was...

I made a reservation for brunch and we had the worst experience. When we arrived the restaurant was half empty and there appeared to be a lot of available seating in the restaurant, but for some reason we were seated in some private room in the back. It was confusing to us because the room wasn’t even open. We had to wait for the hostess to open up the this room and turn on the lights and set up a table for us. When we saw where she wanted to seat us and how empty the restaurant was, we politely asked if we could please be seated at one of the open tables in the actual restaurant, preferable the open tables by the window. She informed us that all those empty tables were reserved and unavailable. I asked her why those tables are reserved for other people but us who did make a reservation are being seated isolated from everyone in a private room at a table that hasn’t even been prepared. She did not have an an answer for us. I let it go and we sat in this room alone. I watched those tables during our bunch and they remained empty the entire duration of our brunch, so I cannot understand why we couldn’t sit there. Additionally, when our server was brining us our coffee, she ended up dropping one of the mugs of hot coffee and it spilt all over me. I had fresh coffee spilt all over my jeans and white scarf. She obviously was humiliated. I was extremely nice about it and we tried to comfort her and let her know it’s fine but at the end of the day it was fresh hot coffee and my outfit that I had to wear all that day was ruined. Trying to move past it after that situation, she asks us what we are celebrating and I tell her it’s my moms birthday and we were treating her to a birthday brunch. I was waiting to see if she would bring us out something to compensate for everything that had happened thus far and she didn’t. The whole reason I even made the reservation at your restaurant was to order the infamous brunch charcuterie board. I was really excited to try it and that was also a disappointment. It came out cold and dried out and was not worth $50 our opinion. We ask for the bill and to my surprise after that entire experience, she did not cover anything or take anything off the bill. I didn’t want to make a scene so I paid it. I was left with such a bad taste in my mouth I felt like I could not leave without saying something so I talked to one of the staff. He gave me your card and offered me a free brunch board for the next time I come in. But to be completely honest, after that experience, I don’t see any reason why I would even want to come back to the restaurant, let alone order that brunch board again. I emailed the manager and he said he would call me to discuss what happened and then never did. This place doesn’t care about their...