5 food favourites: PEI 2025
The island's food scene is greatly boosted by cuisines from around the world
I was on CBC Radio in Prince Edward Island this week (sorry, no direct link to share from CBC website) to share my five favourite dishes on the island this summer — with a clear bent toward new (or not so new) restaurants opened by immigrant families from around the world.
This influx of immigration has transformed an island food scene that had long been reliably traditional (lots of delicious seafood) but otherwise pedestrian (lots of hot-hamburger sandwiches and fast food). Now there’s a world of cuisine on PEI, and the island is the better for it.
Below are my five favourites from this summer. It pays no heed to location. For scenery you can try Finn in Tracadie, where I had excellent, crispy fried fish, though the chips with it were ordinary. Or try the Chowder House in Point Prim, where The Missus and I had a mostly lovely plate of fried fish with fresh local potatoes and beans, though the fish on both our plates was regrettably overcooked. (Several friends have told me they’ve had the same plate on other days and their fish was nicely cooked.)
There are other delicious dishes I’ve had on the island this summer — a lobster roll at Vicinato served in a soft, pita-like pizza dough comes to mind, as do a small but crispy plate of fried clams during a boozy, late-evening visit to the Claddagh Oyster House, and fresh dumplings at Jane’s Dumplings — but the five below are the ones I’ll want to have again before I leave PEI at summer’s end. I’ve included a couple of phone photos that I snapped between mouthfuls.
In no particular order.
Sumaq
Sumaq is perhaps the first Peruvian restaurant in PEI? It opened recently in downtown Charlottetown. I had their Arroz con Pollo, a classic Peruvian dish of sautéd onion, garlic and spices slowly cooked, then boosted in colour and flavour and aroma with fresh cilantro. The chicken is cooked in the stew, then mixed with the green rice and veg and served with what I believe were pickled red onions. The owner told me it’s “a whole lot of Peru in every bite.”
Gallants and Co. Island Food to Go
It’s a catering company with a small dining room. It’s not a fancy part of town but the food shines.
Whereas po boy sandwiches are, in my experience, too often greasy, Gallants’ fried oyster sandwich is light and fresh. The oysters are shucked to order, lightly dredged in flour and corn starch and fried, then served on a house-made sesame seed bun that — and this is a lesson that too many sandwich shops need to learn — is not so huge that everything inside is overwhelmed.
Easily one of the very best seafood sandwiches I’ve ever had.
Devlin
I’ve been going to Devlin for a couple of years. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, tucked behind a gas station by the race track, but I had a bahn mi that was delicious. (I borrowed this small photo from Devlin’s web page.)
The fresh bun is served with pate, sliced char siu pork & Vietnamese meat ball, with pickled veg and fresh cilantro.
Bahn mi is probably my favourite type of sandwich, as it’s so full of distinct flavours and textures. It’s a real treat.
Azteca
Mole is a pillar of Mexican cuisine, more than 4,000 years old. I’ve never been to Mexico but I say without reservation that the mole at Azteca is the best I’ve ever had. The chef’s family recipe is from Michoacán, and passed through generations. It has more than 20 ingredients — including walnuts, almonds, peanuts, sesame seeds and just a little bit of chocolate.
I had the enchilada mole, with chicken tucked into lightly fried tortillas and covered in this deep, dark sauce. Most mole in Canada, at least, is too sweet. Azteca mole is intensely savoury, with a great depth of flavour. I scooped in all my rice to soak up as much of that perfect sauce as possible.
Shaddy’s
Shaddys has been around for years, and I’m a bit embarrassed that I hadn’t been until this summer.
The Missus and I went for lunch recently on our 27th wedding anniversary. We had kibbie (spiced minced meat with onions and pine nuts in a shell made from bulgar wheat) tabouli (parsley salad with bulgar, mint, tomato, onion, lemon) and their Beirut hummus, which is fresh, smooth hummus with a layer of well-seasoned ground beef on top. Scoop it up with a piece of pita and marvel at the complexity of such a seemingly simple dish.
It’s also so nice to sit out back in their covered and vined seating area. It’s like a private garden right downtown.
If you want to read more about food down east, follow Edible Maritimes magazine, as I’ll be writing features on Gallants and Sumaq for upcoming issues.
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