Johnson’s Cafe

Fort Edmonton Park played a huge role in my childhood. From attending their summer camps to going on a yearly field trip with school, the park holds many memories for me and I make a point to visit once a year. The park offers Edmonton’s most unique Sunday Brunch setting, as Johnson’s Café is inside the 1920’s style Hotel Selkirk. Brunch at Fort Edmonton has been on my to-​do list for a while, so my boyfriend and I were excited to give it a try when we were invited by the park.
Johnson’s Café can accommodate up to 96 guests, and we were surprised to see how quickly the room filled up with tables of two and large family groups. Sunday Brunch runs from 10:30AM-1PM with seatings available every 30 minutes. Tickets for brunch are purchased online in advance at a cost of $ 32.95 for adults (13+), $ 27.95 for seniors, and $ 19.95 for children aged 4 – 12. For a buffet-​style brunch the pricing is similar to others around the city, but there is even better value when the park is open since park admission ($ 26.20 for adults, $ 20.90 for children/​youth/​seniors) is included in your brunch price!
In terms of food there is a wide variety available and the serving stations literally take over the entire lobby of the hotel. The stations are grouped into morning pastries, cold plates and salad, signature hot plates, a chef-​attended omelette station, a chef-​attended carving station, and a specialty dessert selection.
My first stop was at the made-​to-​order omelette station, where you could choose between an assortment of eight toppings. If the line was any indication, this was one of the most popular stations for brunch.
The cold section featured a fresh salad bar, assorted cold cuts and cured meats, pickled vegetables, fresh vegetables, and ready-​to-​eat salads like a traditional potato salad, corn and chickpea salad, and country-​style coleslaw.
From the hot side was a variety of breakfast and lunch options. Breakfast must-​haves included crispy bacon, plump breakfast sausages, and crispy hashbrowns, but I particularly enjoyed the parmesan grilled tomatoes. The signature lunch dishes change from time to time, but the ones available during my visit included grilled chicken, pasta, vegetable paella, and seared salmon, among other dishes. The chef-​attended carving station was featuring a beautiful prime rib with a peppercorn jus.
If there was one thing I was saving room in my stomach for, it was for the jaw-​dropping selection of desserts! With sweets like red velvet cake, cream puffs, blueberry cobbler, watermelon tequila shooters, cupcakes and other plates, I didn’t know where to start. The desserts change from one week to the next but the milk chocolate fountain is a staple, and when I saw the flowing chocolate I was done for!
After dipping numerous skewers of fresh fruit, marshmallows and rice krispies into milk chocolate, the other dessert that caught my eye was the rosemary crème brûlée. The smooth custard with earthy rosemary was a perfect flavour combination that I’m going to have to replicate at home!
The Sunday Brunch experience at the Johnson’s Café was lovely. Our server was constantly checking in and made sure our water glasses and coffee mugs were never empty. Food quality was great and there was enough selection to ensure there was something for everyone. While having brunch in a 1920’s style hotel is an experience in itself, take advantage of the brunch price during Fort Edmonton Park’s operational season and explore the park after brunch! With admission included in your brunch price, it really is a no-​brainer.

We went there for a Sunday brunch when my kids are going to the birthday party in Fort Edmonton Park. Their brunch menus has everything you can think of — egg benedict, omelette, roasted beef, salad bar, dessert, fish, chicken, home fries, sausage, assorted bread and pastries. The selection is good, however, the quality is varied. We found the salmon is yummy, however, the roasted beef is overcooked which we are hoping to have medium rare, but they are cooked as medium well to well done. The bread doesn’t seem like fresh enough. I used to love desserts in a buffet setting, but don’t know why their dessert choices are not that appearing to me. I would still give three stars because of the good services, and nice place and environment for dining.

If you’ve read my reviews for The Bothy and Syphay you’ll know that Johnson’s Café was a third and final stop on a restaurant hop my friends and I were doing. Restaurant hopping you go for appetizers at one restaurant, main course at another, and dessert at a third. The Bothy was were we had appetizers, and Syphay was were we had our main course. Johnson’s Café, inside The Hotel Selkirk in Fort Edmonton Park, was our third and final stop for dessert.
I chose Johnson’s Café for several reasons, one of which was strategy (we were seeing a show next door at The Capitol Theatre). Even with that inconsideration I also chose Johnson’s Café because their dessert menu looked good. Sometimes a restaurant will only have one or two dessert choices, but there were 5 or 6 different reasonably priced desserts.
We were greeted by a hostess (in period costume too… as were the other servers, part of the fun of being in Fort Edmonton Park) asking if we had a reservation. We hadn’t made a reservation, but we also got to Johnson’s at 7pm on a Thursday night so I had figured it wouldn’t be too busy (and if the restaurant was full I would have been just as happy to have a drink at The Mahogany Bar).
We got seated quickly, and our server gave us menus, at which point we realized we should have explained we were just having drinks at dessert. When we did we were given dessert menus right away. I ordered a Spanish coffee and the vanilla bean and white chocolate bread pudding with maple Bourbon anglaise. The bread pudding portion wasn’t huge, but it was a nice taste, a little sweet, but not too much so. The raisins in the bread pudding were nice a plump (not a fan of dried raisins).
Funny enough before the dessert menus were brought out another server came by with the standard bread rolls and butter that many restaurants serve. So we technically had four courses, but to be fair the bread and butter (whipped and topped with paprika) was good.
My dessert was great, perhaps not mind blowing, but good enough to make me want to come back for a full meal or perhaps high tea (something I would have done if it was the right day). I think coming back to Johnson’s Café for a full meal would be a lot of fun, and it’s always nice to go to Fort Edmonton Park in the evening when it isn’t as busy.

Roast… on the corner of 104 st & 104 ave. Most Marvellous Muffins.
If you can find the door, you’re in for a treat. Roast offers an ambience that makes the over designed coffee place chains pale in comparison. The moment you walk in you feel at home in what is a unusually large shoppe. They do things differently, and better than most. They even have a curtain walled area available for meetings. Nice touch.
Ah, but I digress. The best feature of this place is the food and bev offerings. Now they do a whole lot more than coffee and muffins, but that’s what I want to brag about. I have been in the search for the perfect muffin and coffee place since I lived in BC. I found it.
I asked for a large dark roast coffee and a blueberry bran muffin, my go to breakfast. After I was ignored for a short time — the barista was concentrating on making one of those fancy coffees for the guy in front of me– a cheerful, not phoney, cheerful guy took my order.
He served me what has to be the largest cup of coffee ever in a real cup, that I’ve ever been served. I ordered one for my buddy who was joining me and his comment was «geez, that thing looks more like a serving bowl than coffee cup». (We are both serial coffee hounds and this bode well for the yap fest we always get in to).
And now for the Muffin, I capitalize it because it deserves the honour… I am the most picky guy in the world when it comes to muffins and this one rates four stars. I guess that’s for hotel and movies but I’m adding muffins. This muffin was huge, moist, flavourful, had a overflowing firm top and burst with goodness from first bite to last.
This place has it all… but mostly, for me, it does the morning nosh of java and muffin like no other.

The strongest asset of Johnson’s Café is that it’s in Fort Edmonton Park. I’ve eaten several meals there and the wine list trumped the food in terms of flavour and intrigue. The baked brie on flatbread with balsamic drizzle is easily the best appetizer on the menu. Luscious and rich, and the balsamic added the right amount of acidity. The curry spring rolls needed a bit more curry, but they weren’t too greasy. The lobster cakes sounded good on paper, but in actuality they were dreadfully dry and chewy. The wine list, however, was superb. One option is to to the «vinter’s tour» which allows you two ounces each of three different wines. I tried the Snapdragon Chardonnay, the Las Acequias Malbec, and the Château Camplazens Syrah. The Château Camplazens was un-​freakin-​believable. The vineyard itself was founded several thousand years ago by Julius Caesar’s troupes and the wine was smoky, sultry and smooth. Breakfast was decent; the scones were fluffy but the butter came straight from the fridge so it was impossible to spread properly. Within the context of the park, the restaurant works well, but some of the dishes need fine-​tuning. The wine… don’t change a thing!

Johnson’s Café is one of the dining establishments within the Hotel Selkirk at Fort Edmonton Park. It serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The décor is 1920’s but otherwise rather plain. Breakfast is a continental buffet, and lunch is a variety of salads, sandwiches, and main courses such as pasta and fish and chips.
I went there for lunch while visiting Fort Edmonton with two friends. One of the interpreters at the Fort highly recommended we have lunch there. The menu was a lot smaller than I anticipated, but there was still something for all of us. I had a roast beef sandwich, which was served on marble bread. The roast beef was served cold, sliced thinly off a roast, and was lean, accented with mustard and horseradish sauce. I chose a bowl of soup to accompany, which that day was cream of celery. The soup was obviously homemade as it was very thick and creamy. I could not finish my meal, and at $ 9 the value was not bad.
My companions were not as happy with their food. One person had an avacado havarti melt, which was good but not spectacular. The fries that she ordered with it were average. Our other party member ordered corn chowder soup — he was brought cream of celery instead but seemed to enjoy it, so did not make an issue out of it. He also ordered a basket of sweet potato fries, which came with creamy dill dip. I thought the fries were crunchy and sweet, but he did not care for them.
The dinner menu is very upscale — most entrees are upwards of $ 30 — and also of limited selection. As I have not had dinner there, I cannot comment on whether or not there is value for the prices.
The café is only open from late May until the end of August. While it was nice to be able to have our lunch in a quieter atmosphere than the fast-​food serving Masonic Hall, the food was rather average for a place as highly-​touted as the Hotel Selkirk.