Blue Chair Cafe
2/5
Location
Information
Reviews
Details

Cuisine type

  • American Cuisine,
  • Fusion,

Dishes

  • Hamburger,

Features

  • Extensive Wine List,

Products and Services

  • Restaurants,
  • Breakfast,
  • Lunch,
  • Brunch,
  • Dinner Menu,
  • Homemade Desserts,
    • Live Music,
    • Reservations Accepted,
  • more...
  • less...

Languages Spoken

  • English,
  • German,
  • French,
Location
9624 76 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6C 0K3
Useful Information

Opening Hours *Holiday hours

Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Verify with Merchant

Rates:

  • $11 To $25,

Methods of Payment:

Meet the owner

In 1972, Harold Wollin was travelling the world when a tapas bar in the Canary Islands changed his life. In particular, an open faced green pepper sandwich. It was so delicious it made him come back to Edmonton and enroll in cooking school. Eventually, Harold became a Red Seal chef. That led to more travelling, cooking on charter boats, cruise ships and in hotels around the world. After brief career changes into journalism and graphic design, the kitchen called him back and he opened the Blue Chair Cafe in 2004. “Since I started in the food business, I wanted my own place,” says Harold. “Having a restaurant is, in most cases, a dream and very difficult to bring to fruition and difficult to succeed in. You have to do it all yourself.”

That was true at the Blue Chair Cafe.  It was a one-man show at first. “The first five years were really difficult. I did everything,” says Harold. “I would come and take your order, go in the back and cook it and then bring it to you.” But he got some help and hired more staff and, slowly, it’s become a successful restaurant featuring cuisine from around the globe, inspired by the different tastes Harold tried during his travels.

Ratings & Reviews - Blue Chair Cafe

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ewor3299
By

Really want to like this place but cant. Gave it multiple tries but its overpriced and not good enough service, music, or quality of ingredients to make the high prices worth it. I dont even know where to start with the specific offenses with regard to cold, poorly prepared, or tiny-portioned foods. The last straw was that I got three cold, overcooked baby potatoes with my $20 sandwich. THREE.

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yellowpagesaccount1
By

I made reservations 6 weeks! prior to the performance of a daughter of a good friend. Reservations for 6 people who are also good friends of the performer's family. I was not told the reservation was to be held by credit card. If I was told, I would have done just that. I want asked for my credit card info. The man took down my name and confirmed my reservation. Now, day of, NO reservation! And of course sold out and no accommodation. Very disappointed.

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Caranney
By

Our little nieghborhood Pub

Even though we did not eat,we had excellent entertainment and would recommend this place to everyone including young people.Very good!

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Restaurantica12
By

We went to see some live music and have dinner at this restaurant and the experience was horrible!! We had to wait half an hour for a drink and then wait over a hour for our meals to be served. When the meals finally arrived they were terrible. I had the Pad Thai because the menu stated that this was their "most popular" dish. It didn't taste great or look great. There were hardly any of the ingredients in it that the menu said there would be (eg. vegetables, peanuts, chicken, shrimp.) It looked like they put two tiny pieces of meat in a bowl with noodles and cover it with a pound of bean sprouts in order to disguise the lack of ingredients. The service was terrible! Not only in waiting for our meals but our server was rude and we hardly saw her at all. The live music was the only positive experience here. Also - no point talking to the owner about any of this as he doesn't seem to care about or respect his clientele. Save yourself and DO NOT EAT HERE!!

Atmosphere: 1/5
Food: 1/5
Service: 1/5
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Restaurantica12
By

Recently I attended The Blue Chair Cafe in Edmonton, along with my wife and 9 other friends. Two of our friends were telling stories that night as the Blue Chair was hosting another monthly edition of “Story Slam”. We enjoyed a wonderful evening of laughs and great stories with one of our two friends winning the Story Slam pot of money. We were enjoying ourselves until it came time to pay the bill. Rather abruptly, it became clear to us that the restaurant was expecting us to pay $15.00/person for those who had not ordered anything and only came to enjoy themselves. We were outraged and asked to speak with the owner. I can fully understand the justification of this charge, as the Blue Plate has been hosting Story Slam for 4 years now and were obviously losing money at some point; hence the service charge. My issue, however, was the fact that this charge was not clearly stated to me nor my table, and the first we heard of it was on our way out. The owner pointed out that the menu stated there would be a minimum service charge for patrons who do not order anything. This would have been great information had I looked at a menu in the first place, as I only ordered a beer and nothing from the menu. My wife took particular offense to the situation when she tried to argue her case to the owner only to have him turn to me and disregard her presence. We were only trying to make the owner aware that if he intended to charge people who only came to enjoy the provided entertainment then he needed to make that clear to his costumers as they came in the door, either verbally or by charging cover. I was incredibly dissappointed with the way this was handled by the owner especially the way he treated my wife as a human being. The final result included my wife storming off and the owner conceding that he would, quote, “take it off the bill, and I guess not make any money that night”. For a business that has attracted the likes of Air Canada's Enroute Magazine, I would like to see the owner learn a lesson in building costumer relationships if he intends to uphold his grand reputation as “one of Canada's top restaurants”. This may not come as a surprise but I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone in the city of Edmonton for the simple fact that I do not want anyone to be treated with the same disrespect my wife and I received on Wednesday night.

Atmosphere: 1/5
Food: 1/5
Service: 1/5
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Restaurantica12
By

Nice atmosphere; Quite often have folk music and...

Nice atmosphere; Quite often have folk music and other similar entertainment. Very quiet when there is no entertainment so it made our visit quite enjoyable. Staff was very attentive.

Atmosphere: 3/5
Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
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