Stop by the Manor Cafe in Edmonton and fuel up with delicious, home cooked dishes. Whether you fancy trying out our brunch menu or you're just after a quick business lunch with friends, our menu will satisfy you and your guests. Give us a call for more details or stop by soon.
When The Manor Casual Bistro's owner and executive chef Cyrilles Koppert hung his shingle on the redeveloped home in the High Street area back in 1989 (originally under the name Emery's until it was changed in 1992), the restaurant scene was nowhere near as eclectic as it is now. Back then, most Edmontonians probably hadn't heard of fusion cuisine, or maybe they were too busy chowing down on steaks from Alberta bovines, which were all the rage.
"When I started, the choices were not so great," says Cyrilles. "It used to be very limited."
How times have changed. A more ethnically diverse population, a drive for healthier eating and greater demand for local ingredients have generated a more competitive hospitality industry. In turn, restaurants have relied on their chef's ingenuity to come up with dishes that satisfy these changing tastes and create menu items that distance themselves from the rest of the pack. While Cyrilles has embraced the changes, he remembers the adjustment wasn't easy.
"You have more restaurants now and the changes are for the better," he says, adding that steaks aren't consumed in his establishment as much as they used to be. "It was hard for us to grow with it and stay on top of things with all these new restaurants opening up."
Each brunch at this historic mansion-turned restaurant starts with complimentary fresh fruit. Then, guests can dive into the extensive brunch menu, which includes everything from decadent banana bread with pecan maple butter and fresh crepes to a hearty spinach salad with pancetta, leeks, mushrooms, goat cheese, hard-boiled egg and warm honey mustard dressing. If you’re feeling particularly hungry, try the Heart Stop. It’s a striploin burger with maple bacon, a fried egg, roasted garlic aioli, lettuce and tomato.
I love this place – we always have the same friendly server, I always order the same steak with salad and it is always, always excellent. Basically, it is consistently great and I am never disappointed with what I find here. If it ever changed too much – the menu, the chalkboard with the specials written on it above the fireplace, the tray of dessert prototypes to show you exactly what your cheesecake will look like – I would likely die of a broken heart.
There’s a private room adjacent to the main floor of the dining room. It seats six people, so it’s ideal for small but sensitive meetings. The menu is also an incentive – it changes seasonally but the schnitzel sandwich, steak frites and nasi goring seem to be mainstays (and are super tasty).