Central Social Hall

I had the pleasure of being invited to Central Social Hall’s new menu launch event a few weeks ago. Central is a gastropub located on the heart of Jasper Ave with an intent on adjusting their menu to appeal to tastier senses. They opened in 2012 by 2 Edmontonians – Jesse Kupina and Jerry Rota. These 2 men wanted to change the menu up to introduce more local and fresher options that would make dining at a gastropub enjoyable. With the help of Chef Reuben Major being flown in from Vancouver, a new menu was created and it certainly was outstanding for a gastropub!

Guests of the event were each welcomed with a glass of Glera sparkling wine. Offered as one of the 12 wines on tap at Central, the Glera sparkling wine tasted mainly of fresh peach with added floral hints. Crisp and clean.

Note: please don’t mind my photography skills, I decided to take my DSLR camera out of hiding for the night but I still need a bit more practice with it!

The night started with a plate of kettle chips and dip. I seriously couldn’t stop eating these chips!The crispy cut potato chips were housemade and they weren’t too crispy or soft. The sour cream and caramelized onion dip was inspired by sour cream and onion but it didn’t have an overwhelmingly strong taste. The onions weren’t as detectable in the dip as I wish it could’ve been. 

The (mini-sized) ball park pretzel was buttery and soft – exactly what a soft pretzel should be! It came with 2 sauces, spicy mustard and stout cheddar sauce. I wasn’t a fan of the spicy mustard sauce because it was too strong for me. The stout cheddar sauce had the right amount of cheesiness though. I actually came back last week and ordered the regular size pretzel off the menu. The pretzel was actually bigger than my face! Just a little side note hehe.

The spicy chicken taco was filled with serrano lime marinated shredded chicken, slaw, pico de gallo, and valentina hot sauce. Unfortunately, the hot sauce came on too strongly because all I really tasted was spiciness and not chicken! It was my least favorite offering of the night.

Central was tired of the average salads being offered at pubs and restaurants so they wanted to change things up. They came up with a crispy prawn thai noodle salad. The salad can either be an appetizer or sit like a full meal. Vermicelli rice noodles, cabbage, cilantro, mint, carrot, cucumber, and pickled onions were thrown together with a chili lime dressing. It may seem like a lot but the veggies didn’t really have a distinctive taste. The crispy fried prawn was a great touch though!

This wasn’t a part of the new menu launch but I ordered the chocolate bacon martini while awaiting the last dish of the night. It was creamy and very different! The alcohol in the martini wasn’t too strong and it was surprisingly refreshing. The martini came with a piece of chocolate covered bacon as well – weirdly good. 

The last dish to be served was seafood linguini. I’m not sure why Central decided to serve the heaviest dish as the last one because we were certainly feeling the fullness! The creamy rose sauce linguini was served family style, meaning it was shareable (yup, that’s how big the portion was). It was the right dish to bring out the restaurant quality that they wanted to serve in a gastropub.

Apple and cranberry crumble served in a small mason jar was the sweet ending to the night. Central made the transition to serving in-house desserts and this was one of their newest creations. The sweetness of the apple and cranberry combined with maple and bacon crumble. It was finished with a little bit of vanilla bean gelato that just wasn’t enough! If only there was more gelato..

Central Social Hall has certainly shown an improvement to pub food and I’ll be back for another round. It’s worth checking out to try out the new menu or even just some drinks and appetizers! They will also be opening a second location soon in St. Albert.