Blue Star Diner

The Diner That Reads Labels

3.5 of 5

A diner used to be a promise of grease, coffee and no questions. Blue Star, on 1st Avenue in Bridgeland, keeps the coffee and the no questions and asks a few of its own about where the food comes from. It is committed to local suppliers, and you can feel it in a menu that takes a vegan or a celiac as seriously as a man who wants his eggs Benedict and wants it now.

Get the Benedict if you came for comfort. If you came curious, order the warm journey bowl, Thai green curry over brown rice, which is not what you expect from a room called a diner and is better for it. The jackfruit carnitas hash bowl is the vegetarian play: pulled jackfruit, roasted sweet potato, mushrooms, peppers and cherry tomatoes under avocado cream. I grew up around cooks who could make a feast out of a vegetable and a grudge. This kitchen would have impressed them.

The house rules are clear and fair. They take a few reservations and leave most of the room for walk-ins. Weekend brunch is walk-in only, there is an online waitlist when it fills, and a table is yours for about seventy five minutes. That is not rude. That is a busy kitchen being honest with you. Put your name down, walk Bridgeland for a bit, and come back hungry.

Order this: An eggs Benedict, Warm journey bowl with Thai green curry, Jackfruit carnitas hash bowl
The damage: $$
Go: A weekday morning; weekends are walk-in only with an online waitlist
Find it: 809 1 Ave NE, Calgary, AB T2E 0C2