Pip - Review
Hash Heaven
Been super hyped to visit Pip after they had moved from their original small location to their current one which is just across the street. It’s such a big space that they crammed in Pal’s sandwich shop. Sidebar, I haven’t been to Pal’s but am pretty hyped to try its Pastrami, it looks fucking sick. Anyways, I’ve been to Pip twice in their new location.
On my first visit, I ordered the Short Rib Eggs Benedict that had braised beef, caramelized onion & dill hollandaise with house hash. This was a solid benny. I think the hollandaise really sealed the deal for me on this dish as it went so well with the short rib. I wasn’t a fan of the sourdough used as the carb but it brought an interesting flavor to this benny. The house hash at Pip is fucking lit though. It just feels like a warm hug in my mouth and there’s no other way I could describe it. Amazing.
The second dish for brunch was the Farmer’s Breakfast. Two eggs, fennel sausage, bacon with toast, and house hash. The toast was thiccc. The sausage was thiccc and boy was it tasty. That hash as well. Great version for a standard brunch dish.
Now for our dinner experience, it was a little different. Had started with the Whipped Ricotta & Prosciutto Crostini that included chili honey and toasted pistachios. This was a decent-tasting crostini. The chili honey overpowered any flavor of the ricotta. The crostini was so tough to chew as it wasn’t very tender on the inside and the crust was so hard to cut. Yes, I was cutting it cause who wants honey on their fingers? Winnie the Pooh. I”m not Pooh.
My main course was Gnocchi with added Roasted Chicken. This had garlic cream, pesto, sun dried tomato, and crispy basil. The gnocchi had a pillowy texture with a little crispiness on the outside. The grated cheese on top was perfect and the pesto was tasty. The chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked. Just a solid dish.
The second dinner dish was the Pork Schnitzel that had lemon spaetzle, butter-braised cabbage & mushroom gravy. I thought the Schnitzel was perfectly tender all around and paired with that mushroom gravy…ughhhh. So good.
Although both mains were quite decent. They took way too long to come to our table. I had conversed with Pip on IG and they had said our main courses came out in a “timely manner.” Which I think is BS. We waited 40 minutes for our main course after we had received our only appetizer. Our server didn’t really check on us either so I was just looking around constantly wondering why no one came by to tell us what was taking so long. Kind of ruined a great meal tbh.
I’d say Pip is one of the best places if not the best place for brunch in Edmonton. Now that it’s a larger restaurant, there aren’t any atrociously long wait times (hopefully). I’d give brunch 3.5/5. The dinner food is surprisingly delicious and it’s rare to have both brunch and dinner slap so hard. For dinner, I have mixed feelings as I had to enjoy 3/4 of my main course on my couch 4 hours later. But the first few bites were still good but will wait before going again until they improve their timing of entrees. So I’d give their dinner a 3.3/5.
Sal says: Just try it (3.2/5)
Krystyn says: The food was good but the wait time was ridiculous.
EDIT - Upon further thought. Pip telling me I was wrong for thinking 40 minutes is the right amount of time to receive main course after the appetizer. I don’t like how they handled that interaction and i’m bumping their dinner to a 2.8. So now a 3.2.
