the common

love it !!!!. so i happened by the common for lunch and i am impressed with everything!! the decor is awesome, thefoodis devine and i have now found a regular eatery!!! if you happen to love music, greatfoodin an awesome atmosphere than you need to check them out

the common is not new but it was my first time going so i thought i’d blog about myfoodadventure for the day! quick review of my visit to the common – friendly staff, intimate atmosphere and pub style comfortfoodthat seems promising but unfortuntely, didn’t completely win me over.

the menu includes the range of traditional pubfood(think fish and chips) to more refined fare (confit duck, anyone?). many dishes, such as their rabbit bangers and mash or lobster pot pie filled with chanterelle mushrooms and artichokes, manage to straddle both realms.

loved it. there were 7 of us. we arrived at 9pm. we had a great table, the service was wonderful, thefooddelicious, drinks so good, the music was funky and fun, and the crowd diverse and laid back.
i would highly recommend.

the common has two main strengths: the atmosphere on a weekend and their servers. thefoodis solid, but a little inconsistent. good flavors and presentation, but sometimes the dishes come out just warm, rather than hot. the service has always been friendly, with good humor, and their selection of beers and wine pairs well with their menu. it's a place to see and be seen, and is a bit of a social hub of the who's who of the indie crowd.

upscale yet down to earth atmosphere, hearty comfortfoodwith a modern twist.

had lunch here today with mrs.bubbasezso and a friend! surprisingly good! we arrived at 11:30 and were basically alone for about 20 minutes, then all of a sudden the place was packed to the rafters!!! despite it being quite noisy, the service and thefoodwas great! my poutine bowl was a unique & tasty experience! they were very willing to modify dishes for our friend who is a keto maniac. i’d do that again!!

went there for supper, music was cranked way too loud, could barely have a conversation with the person sitting next to me without shouting. had chicken and waffles which was ok but there are lots of places in the city with better chicken and waffles in my opinion. other dishes we ordered were pretty forgetable for the money that they charge. service was slow and staff ignored us most of the time. had to flag staff down for water several times. for the money spent, we could have honestly gone to many other places in the city for betterfoodand service. not worth the hype. wouldn't go back.

travelled for the poutine and left with somewhat of a broken heart. expectations ran high as i walked through the bustling rooms during the lunch rush. notably both rooms were packed and almost every table had the fish and chips, but i was naive and didn’t waver from my heart's decision to devour this poutine.

dramatic enough? caught your attention? good,foodwasn’t great.

poutine a la king ($13) (⅖) gravy was good. mushrooms were yummy. peas were a nice touch. chicken karaage was too salty, wasn’t part of the poutine more like addition. lemme tell you why, everything was covered in gravy, except the couple of pieces of karaage were sprinkled on top. but why. there wasn’t enough gravy either which was grand.
daily pasta ($16)⅕ i don’t know. it sounded good, the pasta was well done, meat sauce was full of flavor and had a nice bites of meat, everything else thrown in was unnecessary. green olives and the random blobs of mystery cheese playing a big roll on why neither of us enjoyed this dish.

would i come again? nope. i’m sure there are a bunch of other dishes that would blow me away but this experience was bad enough to scare me off forever. at leastfoodwise, hip hop nights here are awesome. service was also great, wait forfoodwas barely 10 minutes too! but no, did not enjoy.

i was here a while ago for dinner. i found that theirfoodmenu doesn't have a lot of options but definitely easy to find something to enjoy. we had poutine a la king which i found to be ok.. gravy a little salty and quite liquidy, fries are not thick cut, but the chicken karaage and cheese curds were good so i'd say this was decent. chicken and waffles was only decent as well - waffles weren't crispy and didn't seem fresh as they were only lukewarm, but i liked how it had bacon bits inside and the butter was so good! the chicken was only decent as well - they're chicken tenders and not as crispy and i'd hoped. umami burger (no spinach) was decent, nothing special except for the tempura apples? it was something different. i liked the side of goulash soup that it came with more than the burger itself.  
the atmosphere here was a little loud, it's hard to have conversations haha but it's lively if you're in the mood for that!

came here last night for a christmas party, great atmosphere, greatfoodand extremely friendly staff! i would highly recommend this place to everyone.

hii! i'm anita~ i'm from/living in edmonton, ab, canada. i love to eat, eat, & eat, & travel, kpop/kdramas, & art~ this is a personal blog about myfood& travel stories~ i hope you'll enjoy reading my posts, & visit some of the places i post about. pls give me some feedback, or other comments/questions: missguomeiyun@gmail.com. thankyouu :)

many mixed thoughts about this place.  first of all let's get this out of the way.  the common is a very, very loud place.  i'm not talking about typical restaurant like meat or even bar level noise, but next level noise where even if they shout you still might not be able to hear the person two seats down from you.

my friend had his birthday here on a thursday evening, and were promptly seated when our reservation time came up.  we were given our drinks, but then after ordering and eating our appetizers our server disappeared.  for a good 15-20 minutes after we were all ready to order our mains, our server was missing.  finally, after that he took our orders and about another 20-30 minutes later we all got ourfood(a reasonable time, considering how busy the restaurant was).  having sampled many dishes and gotten various opinions from others on the stuff that they got, i found that in general people loved the truffle popcorn, liked the umami burger but found it too well done (not juicy enough and one part of it i almost chipped a tooth biting down on the meat since it was burnt) and fries were super salty (though the tandoori fries were fantastic).  after getting ourfoodand finishing, it took a good while before we finally received the bill.  another negative that i found about this is that the server after splitting our bills had misinterpreted what we had said and told us to work it out ourselves since he didn't want to reprint the bill again after splitting two dishes.  like what?  what type of server says that to a table that has been seated for over 2.5 hours because we were sitting around waiting for you to come take our order?  even if it's true, you don't say that to the customer in that direct a manner.  very unprofessional in my opinion.  however, besides that he was friendly and gave somewhat frequent visits afterfoodwas delivered to refill drinks.  on the plus side they didn't seem to include the 18% gratuity that they said for parties of 8 or more (we had 8) which was nice, saved a bit on my tip that i didn't give.

i feel the common has the lighting and (somewhat) pricing of a fine dining restaurant, but at the same time has way too loud music, some sub-par portions of dishes on their menu, and poor service.  thefoodportions are slightly smaller than regular restaurants but larger than fine dining.  all in all, unless if i go there on a quiet day and get some stuff like truffle popcorn, i will take a pass on the common.  not recommended.

stopped in for a pint and a small meal after leaving the conservatory. i'd heard mixed reviews so i figured this would be a good test before committing to a meal. we arrived it was half full and our server came up right as we sat down. she let us know it was $4 draft night. i had to ask her again because it is so unbelievably loud in there, but i finally heard her scream it over the blaring hipster tracks. possibly vinyl. i'd like to state i am in no way an old man, but the level of noise almost drove me out. but once you get over the music the place is decorated pretty cool and i happened to love $4 pints. especially when they have sapporo on tap. my enthusiasm quickly drained when she delivered my frosty beer in a mug that came strait out of the dishwasher. almost too hot to handle and i had to watch in horror as my beautiful glass of sapporo reached well above room temperature. i get it, its cheap beer night the glasses are being used more than normal, but it does not excuse it. buy more glasses or whatever. you wouldn't pour coffee into a frozen glass, this is the same principle.ourfoodcame out in just the right amount of time and smelled great. the little mcdonalds style fries they serve are juicy, crunchy and just all around delicious. the umami burger it came with was no slouch either. big flavor and the burger to bun ratio was on point. other then washing it down with a glass of warm beer.the artichokes with the miso aioli was also a nice dish, however they decided to throw a bunch of half dead parsley on the plate for garnish. why? it was a good dish but that sloppy idgaf attitude took most of my enjoyment out of it. overall thefoodis on point and its a decent spot. but it is literally way too loud in there for me. that alone will be the reason i don't go back. the other issues i had may have just been one offs and i wouldn't write a place off for that. but if you prefer your meals to be served by a gentleman with a impossibly groomed beard and a semi fitted plaid shirt then look no further, because you wont find another spot that puts so much emphasis onfoodand culture at the same time. generally its one or the other. i cannot emphasize enough how loud it is though, if you even think this might be an issue for you then steer clear.

before it was the common it was martini's, a little hole in the wall pub that served free popcorn and some decent food. when i lived downtown, i was a regular at martini's so i was pretty shattered when it shut down. however, it's replacement, the common, has done a beautiful job with the space's new vintage modern décor and really amped up thefoodwith creative take on gourmet pub and comfort food.