The Butternut Tree — Restaurant in Edmonton

On the Facebook page “Edmonton, You’ve got to eat here!!” I always read the reviews of the restaurants that pique my interest and jot them down into my phone. My sister-in-law’s birthday was the next day, so I suggested to my wife that we take her sister for a birthday breakfast. After several minutes of looking through my list of places to go, I decided that “The Butternut Tree” would fit the occasion. I then used their online reservation service to book a table for the next day, which was a Saturday Brunch. In their process, it asked if there was a special occasion and I stated it was a birthday, believing the staff or management would possibly mention it to my guest, which would have been a great touch to her special day. When we arrived the next morning, we noticed only 2 tables had customers so I guess reservations were not necessary. Before we even looked at the menu, our waitress suggested the mimosas and because it was a special day, I said we’d take 3. There were several flavors, so I ordered the apple, my wife had orange and our guest had pineapple. We also ordered 3 Americano coffees. After looking over the menu, our guest decided on the Beef Wellington and I chose the same. My wife being the vegetarian of the group, unfortunately had few options available. She wanted The Fjord Toast with salmon, but it wasn’t available. With limited options, my wife picked Mushroom Toast. When the Americanos came to the table, they didn’t have cream or half-and-half but only milk. As soon as I tasted the Americano, I looked at my wife and said quietly “This is horrible”. My wife’s comment was a whisper “It’s not even hot”. When you have a guest, you want to keep your complaints to yourself so I just told the waitress “I think I would rather have tea instead”. At that same moment, our guest pushed her coffee to the waitress and said “I’ll have tea as well”. My wife said, “Make that 3”. Our guest commented quietly “I think there is something wrong with the coffee”. Anyway, while we were waiting for our tea, I tasted my apple mimosa, but it had no apple flavor. And what made it worse was that for $8 each, all of our small Champagne glasses were only half full. For goodness sake why not give your guests at least a ¾ glass, but again I said nothing. We then got our tea and chatted for a while before our food came to the table. When she put the plate down, I asked the waitress, “Is the Beef Wellington a Filet?” She didn’t know the answer, so she went to the kitchen to ask. She came back and stated it wasn’t. Beef Wellington is always made with Beef Tenderloin, but they had no problem charging $30 for (literally) a 4 oz steak wrapped in puff pastry (see picture). The main part of the dinner was very small…too small for my liking. The plate had a small amount of Arugula salad with 4 cherry tomatoes and one poached egg with Hollandaise sauce. I have to say that the Hollandaise sauce was some of the best I’ve ever had, but it shouldn’t have been my highlight of the brunch. My wife liked her Mushroom Toast but remarked it should have been called Eggs Benny with Mushrooms. During the last part of our dinner, the manager finally came to our table. I was expecting her to ask if someone was celebrating a birthday today, or to ask us how our brunch was, but instead, she just took our plates and walked off. What is the use of asking “Is there a celebration” when reserving a table then? It was a wonderful opportunity lost. Managers should always get a consensus from each group that comes in to spend their hard-earned money. If you don’t, you’ll never know what they liked or didn't like. Our guest liked her brunch but only gave it 7 out of 10. The reason…the portion was too small. There are too many places that would love for the 3 of us to be seated at their establishment instead. I always wish restaurants well for their future because I know how hard it is to run one, but after our conversation in the car, we won’t be coming back any time soon. A disappointment, that won’t...

Anyone looking to host an event here please rethink. As others have said, they are not accommodating, very difficult to work with and rigid. Because I questioned them on the extra rentals and hidden costs and policies that came out of nowhere I received an email response 5 days later with an excuse about Covid that they wouldn’t allow us to book our 80 person private event unless we lowered to 50 guests and therefor wouldn’t require rentals. I had said we owned banquet tables so didn’t need the rentals of tables and would prefer a different style chair and that was the response 5 days later. Not happy they couldn’t nickel and dime us I guess. So buyout cost still the same but limited our guest list which they knew was to be 80 guests. Their wedding brochure and contract clearly states that the guest can choose to coordinate rentals on their own and when I pointed that out they glazed over without accepting any responsibility for their oversight. They did not acknowledge that the contract or wedding brochure should be more clear and were perfectly happy allowing that miscommunication to leave potential clients unhappy. In fact they chose to double down on the issue. They do not let you choose the style of table or chairs or table cloths but they make sure to charge you the more expensive delivery and pickup rate of 99$ each way instead of 79$. Then they charge you their own 15% service fee for coordinating the rentals (as if you even have a choice) when you already pay 1750$ for their private event services off the top and automatic gratuity on the whole bill. So let me tell you upfront that they will charge you almost 900$ to add rentals to accommodate 22 additional guests. They initially agreed to a grazing table and although no restrictions changed to allow buffet style service they refused in subsequent meetings. We dodged a bullet by not booking with this venue. I imagine they would have not allowed the bride and groom to even toast each table or dance without a mask on. Would have been horrendous experience and photos. If you think any sort of practicality and rationality should be used in this current world, you should avoid this place more than the plague itself. Would give zero if I could. I agree with others that the staff come across as...

We did the tasting menu, and it was a unique experience to be sure. Some of the dishes were out of the world good (the beef tartar, the bacon infused friend brussel sprouts, and especially the panna cotta were absolute stand outs). The cocktails are great. And the service was friendly and enjoyable, and they were very knowledgeable. The ambience is excellent. And I liked the concept of Canadian sourced food. The cost for the food was comparable to other fine-dining experiences.

However, there were some nit-pick things:

1. We had reservations, and the couple in front of us didn't. When the place opened, they were seated at the nicer view seats of the leg, and we got the not as nice view near the bar. Like I wasn't going in expecting to get a nice view of the legislature, but a couple without a reservation shouldn't get it above someone who did make one, especially for a special celebration stated ahead of time. Since there was only two of us who had reservations, that should have been factored in.

2. The appetizers and dessert part of the tasting menu was incredible. But the mains were good but not great. Sometime's I felt like the four main dishes were a bit too forward with the use of salt. The duo of beef course was borderline inedible because of the heavy use of salt, but it was tender. And while some veggies were great charred, I didn't need every veggie to be. Some non-charred veg would have been nice for balance for the salmon and beef dishes.

3. Some of the tasting menu options were just too large. A bit less would have been preferred because I could barely make it to dessert.

4. It would have been nice for the waiter to ask if we wanted another bottle of sparkling water. He kept refilling our glass without asking, which was great. So we assumed it was complimentary (even though we were prepared to pay for a bottle). But then we got charged for three bottles at $20.

It was still a great experience. But just a bit more deft of hand with regards to the salt and vegetable situation, and a bit more consideration given to those who made reservations, then this would have been a top-tier experience.

I plan to try it again someday, but just...