BITE-SIZED BLURBS: THE VARSITY - KITCHEN BAR BURGERS

Our Bite-Sized Blurbs are our honest opinions about a local restaurant, bakery or café that aren’t part of a larger Gracilianca series! Bon appétit!

The focus of this bite-sized blurb is The Varsity - Kitchen Bar Burgers, a newly-opened family restaurant that has taken over the spot that was once Red Robin (which closed permanently in Alberta in 2019) - and their menu is inspired by Red Robin!

Location: 4211 106 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T6J 6L7 (Whitemud Crossing)

Items on the menu:

• Large Pina Colada milkshake, $7.99

• The BIG Onion (massive helping of golden onion rings served with ranch and Kentucky Bourbon BBQ sauce), $9.99

• Shroom & Swiss burger (sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese on their signature 6oz patty with garlic and Parmesan aioli sauce), $16.99

• Spicy Pepper Jack burger (signature 6oz beef patty and pepper jack cheese with fresh lettuce, tomato, crispy shoestring onions, and house made spicy aioli and two pickle planks) - note: it also comes with bacon, $17.99

Tell me more: The Varsity was opened by a group of friends who wanted to create a kid-friendly space with fresh food and reasonable prices! Brandi Craner is the Varsity’s director of operations, and the idea behind the restaurant was inspired by Brandi’s own children and how it was difficult to find a place for their entire family to sit down and have a meal together, especially during COVID. The Varsity also aims to be involved in the community, with initiatives to provide educational assistance through scholarships and bursaries.

So, how was it? C is a huge fan of Red Robin, and remembers fondly many great times there with their bottomless fries and bottomless lemonade! So, I was super pumped to find out that the Varsity had opened! At the time that we visited, reservations were not available, so our table waited over an hour for a table (granted, there were a lot of us - we had 8 adults and 3 kids!). Was it worth the wait?! Well, the food definitely was… but the service, was not! We had quite the experience with a server who came off as a little brusque. Let’s just put it this way: there’s a restaurant pop-up (Karen’s Diner) coming up in May 2023 in Edmonton, where you can pay for inattentive and sloppy service, by a Karen-type waitress…. We felt like we had a Karen-type waitress when we were at Varsity, but not by choice!

I don’t like to say things without giving solid examples, so here we are: we would ask for recommendations or have questions about the menu, and get answers like “I don’t know”. One of my friends asked which beers they have on tap, and the answer was “lots… Molson, Coors” and he eventually had to ask for a menu. When the food came out, none of the servers knew which milkshake was which, and kept shouting out random flavors that none of us ordered. The Spicy Pepper Jack burger came with bacon on it which was not advertised on their menu, and one of my friends cannot eat pork. A gentleman who we presumed was a manager did rectify this and apologized that it was a misprint on their menu (which hopefully gets fixed soon!). I understand that the restaurant was extremely busy that night and a big table like ours may be overwhelming, but the service is an extremely vital part to the restaurant experience, and when it is lacking or when it is subpar - it puts a damper on the night.

For our rankings, I will be looking at a few categories, taste, presentation, and value!

TASTE:

4/5 - I really enjoyed the burgers! The Shroom & Swiss was delicious and had just the right ratio of mushrooms and cheese to burger! The Spicy Pepper Jack was a good, solid burger, but I would probably skip this one next time to try a different type of burger on their menu. The forever fries that it comes with (imitating the bottomless fries at Red Robin) were pretty tasty, although they did not have the Buzz Sauce that Red Robin used to serve. The onion rings were decent, although the portion size was not as large as I was expecting.

I did really enjoy the milkshake though, and would definitely recommend getting one and splurging for the larger size. However, our milkshakes did not come with a whipped cream topping, which we were told by our server that it was because the kitchen had made 1400+ milkshakes that day and were out of whipped cream…. (but at the end of the night, we spotted another table who DID get whipped cream with their milkshakes…. hmmm…)

PRESENTATION:

3.5/5 - Fairly standard presentation and it was a good reflection of “diner style”! I don’t have any complaints, but it wasn’t anything to write home about or particularly photograph-worthy. It does the job though! And it works for their casual, family-friendly atmosphere!

VALUE:

3.75/5 - Honestly, I found this to be a bit on the pricier side especially for something that is supposed to be kid and family friendly. But, with that being said, we do all know that prices of everything are going up, so such is life! I do like how it comes with forever fries though, so if you are still hungry after your meal, you can always load up on that potato goodness! One thing to be aware of though, is that the prices on the menu provided in-restaurant weren’t always accurate! I found out at the time of paying that my large Pina Colada milkshake had an extra charge ($1.49) which is clear on their website, but not as clear on their physical menu. All of these things add up!

FINAL THOUGHTS: Would you order from the Varsity again?

Yes! I would. Now that we can make reservations, I think the wait time will be less of an issue, and I did enjoy the food! I will give the service another try. It did have a casual come-as-you-are vibe if that is what you are looking for! It would be a fun place to take the kids for a night out, or a good place to hang out with friends to watch the game while munching on forever fries.

Disclaimer: This review is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Varsity - views expressed are solely our opinions!