Parkallen Restaurant
7018 109 Street
People often say that living in Edmonton is no-good unless you own a car, with the standard argument being that The Town is too spread-out and that our transit system is shit. While both of these things are true, I never bought into the mentality. Instead, I bought a bike, got a pass, and generally tried to ‘get it where I lived’. However, ‘where I live’ is nowhere near my favorite roti joint, my favorite pizza joint, or my favorite jook joint. So, last month I put the call out that I was looking for a car.
A few weeks into my search, I received a tip on a used car from my friend Julie’s mother. The price was right and it had a baby of an engine, so I bought it. As a ‘thank-you’ to Julie’s family – who, besides the tip on the car, have successfully taken me under their wing as of late, teaching me life skills that my ‘pack-of-wolves’ upbringing failed to provide – I decided to treat them to a pizza dinner at Parkallen Restaurant. I chose Parkallen because a) I had heard that their pizza was really good and b) I was under the impression that they ate there on a regular basis. Neither turned out to be true.
Parkallen used to be a pizza restaurant with a single Lebanese dish on the menu. Over the years, the Lebanese portion of the menu grew and the restaurant’s decor got fancier. In order to deal with the demand for delivery and to control the intake of pizza-loving riff raff, they opened two satellite locations. Nothing illustrates the restaurant’s pizza personality crisis more than their website (also where i found these lovely pictures of typical Parkallen customers):
Our order: Grape leaf rolls and Fatouch salad to start, a single-x L Greek pizza and an L vegetarian pizza to finish.
My Thoughts: The Grape leaf rolls and Fatouch salad were great.
Parkallen pizza is decent, I guess. It is no better or worse than any other mediocre pizza joint, but it is certainly not the “award-winning” pie it claims to be (also worth noting: pizza awards exist). Sauce is bland, too much cheese, and the vegetables weren’t particularly fresh. Not fresh at all. In fact, 2 of my 5 dinning partners insisted they tasted mold on the green peppers. Unfadeable, I continued eating, making it pretty awkward trying to send an empty tray back claiming bad pizza.
I was expecting original and tasty, but got generic and mediocre. The Lebanese food is probably good, but steer clear of the pizza. Thankfully I now have a car that can take me to places far from my home. I would tell you about our leisurely bike ride and dessert-run after dinner, but this blog is quickly turning into a personal one. Maybe next post will be all about my postponed trip to Texas.
