three boars eatery

i was really impressed with the food at threeboarseatery. not only did each and every plate look beautiful, but they all tasted just as good as they looked. without question, my favourite was the bison tartar, i think i could very happily eat that dish quite a few more times.

it took me three tries to get into threeboarseatery but i finally made it. after being foiled by lengthy lineups on two occasions, we got smart and went early on a tuesday at 5 p.m. (an hour after they opened). if you're into craft beer or single malt scotch or bourbon, this is the place to be. you'll have to fight for one of the seats at the bar though; the place is tiny. however, now that summer is here (more or less) the patio out front has lots more seating and its a great place to sit, sip and people watch along 109 street.  upstairs in the old house is where you dine. the decor is simple and rustic and you feel like you're sitting down to a good ol' feast in a country farmhouse. very cool.  theboarsare chuck elves,  brayden kozak and brian welch --  three young men with the right stuff: thoughtful libations, and dishes made from locally sourced food in small plate style to share amongst friends. the menu changes often depending on what they find at the farmers' market or get

great food!. i'd heard a lot of mixed things about threeboarsbefore deciding to try it out myself. all i can say is that my experience was 100% positive, which i think had a lot to do with my doing some research and knowing what to expect from the menu and atmosphere. rather than force threeboarsto match my vision of what a restaurant should be, i adapted myself to what it had to offer and had a great meal as a result.

i started off with a drink, the pimm's #1 cup, which was so insanely delicious, i spent the following weekend trying to perfect it at home (i think i came close a couple of time). after that i enjoyed the smoked pork jowl, which was a truly tasty one person plate that made me eager for more. in this case, more came in the form of the brussels sprouts, which were sweet and wonderful, and the steelhead trout, which was perfectly cooked and combined with sunchoke and celeriac foam. i wanted to end the meal with a dessert, so i ordered the coffee cake--the only dessert item on the menu--even though i tend to find them dry and tasteless. it turned out to be one of the best i've ever had.

i heartily recommend threeboarswith the proviso that you go in there knowing what to expect. the area is small, the portions are tapas sized and served in that style, the high prices reflect the use of fresh and local produce and they will refuse substitutions. if any of those are deal breakers then look elsewhere, but if it sounds intriguing you're in for a great meal.

underwhelmed. although i appreciated what the people behind the 3boarsare trying to offer. i cannot see past the glaring pretentiousness of this operation. the food was good, but definitely not great. the frittata was nothing more than a glorified omelette and the smoked olives were synthetic tasting. the seating arrangement was awkward and the wait staff seemed disorganized.

horrible experience - will never go back. with the full realization that this place doesn't take reservations, we went threeboarsunderstanding that there would be a bit of a wait. on arrival i tried several times to give my name to the disorganized staff - who assured me that no name was needed that they had a good system to know who was next and the order in which they arrived. we were told a wait time of approx 30 min. after over an hour, i noticed a party of 4 (same size as ours) being told their table was ready. these people had clearly arrived well after we had. when i pointed this out to the staff, they simply shrugged and glibly told me "too bad", and that we would have to wait "another 30 minutes". i don't appreciate having my time wasted or being dismissed by staff who clearly don't have a proper or organized system to seat their patrons. don't bother with this place, unless you want to stand around in a cramped bar, ordering drinks you can get anywhere else, waiting for a table that you may or may not get.

there are days when i crave something new and exciting, perhaps the trending restaurant of that week. other times, i’m perfectly happy with visiting old favorites. but what’s to say that an old favorite still isn’t “new”? if they change their menu often, as threeboarseatery does, is it not essentially a “new” restaurant every time you visit?

#fullpost{display:inline;} amanda and i love it when complete strangers write in with their gluten free restaurant reviews in edmonton .  it's nice to know that people are not shy, and know that we are approachable and answer all our emails!  this review for threeboarseatery is from holly: i'm just writing to share an amazing gluten free experience i had last night at the threeboarseatery on 109 street and 84 ave.  it's a new pub with a menu designed by culinary experts, and a selection of gluten free beers (including mongozo and estrella) and gluten free cocktails. the menu is unique and changes on a daily basis, and when i requested a gluten free menu, i was pleased to see that 9 out of the 17 daily items were gluten free.  any questions i asked were answered by the very informed wait staff, and if they didn't know, my questions were forwarded to the chef, who was extremely knowledgeable.  i had meals of such high quality (even better than anything i ate before being celiac) - ox

 prime people watching from this quaint, wood filled patio!  enjoy the sights and sounds of bustling 109st while enjoying a drink.  
we were doing a little patio hopping last week and stopped in for a pint. 
hipster vibe.  small menu and limited craft beer selection seemed overpriced compared to other patio spots.
patio was busy and that probably explains the slow service.  cigar smoke blowing in from next door adds to the atmosphere that threeboarsseems to be trying to create.  
 
atmosphere: 6/10
food and drink: 5/10
staff and service: 6/10

worked my way backwards by falling for farrow before even thinking of trying the house next door. with my frequent visits to farrow, i never thought to even think of looking beside. thankfully i’ve been steered into a new direction of restaurants that only open after 5. *eyeroll*
with the culture of small plates growing more and more popular in the food scene, threeboarsis no stranger to that fact, with continuous praises and recognition since opening their doors. this eatery did not disappoint.

this quaint little space is situated on 109st. walking through the doors, you enter into the entrance where you’re immediately welcomed by friendly faces. with bar seating on the main level and stairs that lead into the dining room. it’s by far the most intimate restaurant i’ve been to.
the dining room is split into two separate rooms, perfect for small group gatherings if needed. service was pretty casual, he was in and out to check up on us, very passionate about the food as you can tell once we asked for recommendations and suggestions. he kept his distance which was much appreciated and expected as the atmosphere was really the “winding down- have a conversation” kind of place.

mushroom and toast ($13) 5/5 simplest dish ever but the execution was beyond impeccable. i’m salivating as i write this and it’s entirely all thanks to the mushrooms. the yolk mixed with the mushrooms on top of this baguette was life. must order.

filipino pork bun ($5 ea) ⅘ i liked the bun alone, i didn’t think it needed the extra mayo to dip. the pork was very flavorful while the sweet milk bun had a slight bit of crust on the outside which went well with how moist and juicy the filling was. a very savory/sweet bite.

okonomiyaki potatoes ($11) 5/5 as our server placed this on our table he described the bulldog sauce as a japanese version of bbq sauce. love it. the bonito flakes along with the nori gave a nice umami flavor but the bulldog sauce with the mayo, bomb.

pork loin chop ($25) 2/5 the underdog of the night. the miso maple butter sauce mixed with the banana squash did not sit very well with our taste buds. it had a sweet/sour after taste that was not pleasing. the pork was delicious though..wouldn’t order this again.

from the first to last bite, you will be able to taste the care and thought that goes into each dish. i really enjoyed how versatile the atmosphere was and how cozy and calm the night went. would i come again? absolutely.

threeboarseatery is a small restaurant two blocks off whyte avenue on 109st. it’s relatively small, and the outside kind of looks like a small house. they have a little bar on the main floor, a little eating area upstairs, and a little patio during the summer. i’ve been here a couple of times now and one thing that i really like about this place is that their menu changes very frequently. a lot of their ingredients are local, and therefore changes with the season, hence the dynamic menu. another thing i like about threeboarsis...

not enough bang for your buck... i recently ate at the threeboarsfor the first time and won't be returning, at least not for food. for anyone squeamish about eating the 'awful' of an animal (by this i mean the organs) i would say that 90% of the "bar snacks" and "small plates" that night were things along the lines of chicken hearts and sheep's tongue, and that this is not the restaurant for you.

i must admit that i was pleasantly surprised by the service. my girlfriend and i were seated promptly, even without a reservation, and our water glasses were never empty.

i will just list some problems we had:

- restaurant was so dark, we had to strain to read the menu.
- food that was on the menu, was not actually being served by the kitchen. it seems as though the food changes so frequently, they sometimes forget to change the menu.
- the menu is extremely limited for my vegetarian girlfriend, meaning that we could not share anything outside of the "rabbit food" section. because of this i asked if it would be possible to bring two dishes at once so we wouldn't be eating alone. the waitress didn't even ask the kitchen, she just kept telling me it was served tapas style.
- some of what we ordered, they had run out of. instead of telling us right away, they put in our order and told us afterward. i was about to tell the waitress not to put in our order as we wouldn't be staying but our first dish came to the table as we were getting up to leave.
- the first dish was a salad and the second, the poutine. the salad was pretty big and could easily have been shared between the two of us. however, i didn't eat any of it because i was expecting a similar portion of poutine and my girlfriend wouldn't eat any because of the bacon and gravy. to my disappointment, the poutine was not a size i would consider shareable by any standards. it was the size of an appetizer but cost as much as a meal at any run of the mill restaurant.

bottom line for me is that the food is way too overpriced for what it is: chicken hearts aren't exactly an expensive protein after all. we ended up going to boston pizza down 109th street after for dessert because we were both still hungry and dissatisfied with our meal at three boars. this is the kind of restaurant i would go to solely for drinks with my friends, and honestly both the underground and mkt are much better in my opinion. i would not recommend this restaurant to anyone, unless you're okay wasting money.

i love coming to threeboarsfor killer cocktails and tasting some adventurous and delicious food! a truly unique and great addition to edmonton's food and drink scene.

9 out of 10. don't get me wrong, i really want to like threeboars- it was certainly something different and i take my hat off to them for trying to do something different with local in-season ingredients, which isn't always easy in a place like edmonton (i've tried!). first, let's talk about the good points - the food was really really tasty, well presented and very unique...and there were so many varieties of tasty beers!

we ordered -
smoked pork jowl (very interesting - too much mustard though)
panzanella salad (nothing special really)
carrots & beets (very very good, vegetables were cooked to perfection, loved the goat's cheese foam!)
foie gras (loved the tomato kimchi, but there's not enough of the foie gras to be substantial)
lamb sirloin (the lamb was perfectly cooked, but just not enough of it)
lamb croquette (absolutely loved this dish, great combination of components)
scallop carpaccio (interesting texture, but waaaayyyy too fishy, needed something acidic to cut through the fishiness)
pork belly (loved this, meat was tender, the combo of oats and poached egg really worked)

now, let's move on to the one thing that bothered me about threeboars- and it's actually a major thing - my problem is the satisfaction factor. there just wasn't enough on the plates and the food took a looooooong time to arrive. i understand that the concept of the place is for people to share the dishes and food this good takes time to cook, but it really left a bad impression with me because my friends and i left the place hungry, considering how much we paid we expect to be full. i can't remember any time that i went to a restaurant and left hungry, we always joked about going to a nice restaurant and going home to cook instant noodles - saddest thing is that we actually had to do it this time.

after the 6 dishes between the 4 of us, we left still hungry and unsatisfied. although threeboarshas very intricate dishes with a lot of attention to detail, the only dish that impressed our palates was the oyster braised beef chuck. the rest of their dishes did not taste special to me. in addition, their service and decor was average. apart from a few beautifully presented dishes, threeboarsis an average tapas restaurant with nothing special to boast.

will be back - too much good stuff for one visit. three of us ended up at threeboarsbecause belgravia hub, which we had planned to try out for the first time, was closed over the august long weekend. we arrived around 6.30pm, and after checking out a couple of open spots in the upstairs room, we opted for the patio overlooking scenic 109th street. that turned out to be a great spot for people watching while sipping drinks and perusing the eclectic menu. first of all, just a note about drinks - they have a great selection of spirits as well as wines by the glass. the beers are probably good too, but since i tend to favour grapes rather than grains, i didn't even look. our server was attentive without being overbearing, and was very graceful even when i tried to start the evening off by ordering 6oz of gin (having somehow mixed up 1oz with the price of $6). i can only put this oversight down to being used to ordering 1 'measure' and not thinking about spirits in terms of volume (or something like that anyway!). the 1oz of gin with tonic made in house was just the right balance of botanics and citrus, and maybe i might have managed 6oz after all!

anyway, on to the food. if you are going out looking for an appetizer, followed by an entree, followed by a dessert, all accompanied by fine linens and tinkly panio music, go somewhere else. the concept here is very casual - the food comes when it is ready, and it is meant for sharing. go with good friends, and be prepared to dig into all of the dishes of food as they arrive. between the three of us we ordered the pork bomb (1 each), patatas bravas, brussels sprouts, broccoli/cauliflower with jalapeno biscuit, pork belly and the whitefish banh mi. there was neither rhyme nor reason to the order of presentation, but if you have your mind tuned to the frequency of casual 'go with the flow', it all works out beautifully. i'm not going to review the dishes separately, but i will say that we enjoyed every bite, and came away comfortably sated. my only regret is that we didn't get to try everything on the menu.