Continental Treat Fine Bistro

I have never given 5 stars but the dill pickle soup had me at the first bite!!! I would go back just for the soup. Also had the rainbow trout which was wonderful. Our waitress was efficient and hard working. I would highly recommend this restaurant, make the trip, it’s worth it.

This was her first time going to this place and it was amazing :-) no question the dill soup was over-​the-​top as well as the beet soup which is a wonderful Borsch.
Great atmosphere great people I guess they still have the original cook that they’ve had for 30 years! Keep up the great work we will be back.

Chicken Schnitzel is so, so good. So good that every time I tell myself I’ll try something new but I never can because the idea of missing out on the schitzel is too much to handle. It’s as good as schnitzel I’ve had in Austria.
I would have never tried the pickle soup because well, to be honest, I’m not that adventurous with my food and since I’ve never heard of it anywhere else… anywho they brought out a litte sample once and it was super tasty. So of course, I now get the pickle soup to start.
I’ve had their desserts once or twice and I think if they fall down in any area, it’s the desserts. The quality was ok but not spectacular and the prices were a bit high in my mind.
Service is always really good and professional.

A hearty thank you to Christoph, our server for dinner at Continental Treat and an equal thank you to everyone in the kitchen that contributed to a wonderful evening. Our hostess also seemed to have a permanent smile and was beyond friendly. I realize others have commented that the décor is outdated but I would encourage those reviewers to consider that unlike trendy restaurants, some establishments are meant to reflect a certain atmosphere, this one being that of an Eastern European bistro. True there is no chipolte or sriracha to be found anywhere here but this does not mean the fare should be considered bland. It is anything but. This particular evening our dill pickle soup, which is divine, came out before the escargot starter. Christoph was kind enough to bring a small sample of the soup for those that had not ordered it so that they would not be left out. Our appetizers and entrees were superb and tasted just as they should from an excellent old world restaurant. Of all things I highly recommend the Williams potatoes. They are a side, but are a delicious compliment to any of the main dishes.
As a last note, some may disagree with the mandatory gratuity that is added to groups of four or more, but in addition to being stated on the menu and clearly printed on the bill, Christoph clearly pointed it out and even returned to our table to double check after realizing he was tipped over and above the 15%.

As always, excellent food, excellant service.

Although we haven’t been in a couple years I simply can’t imagine that CT has changed so dramatically to receive such ungracious comments. I admit it’s not for the chichi clientele looking for nouveau cuisine. I’m not certain what their lunch offerings are like so no comment except on evening service and meals.
Krzysztof at Continental Treat made our experience consistently top notch. Every single time. He has a wonderful old world style of service and made us feel like we were very special clients. If he’s no longer there I could see the quality of service and standards suffering, but we found all the servers very good.
The food quality has always been solid, consistent and satisfying. It’s not flashy. It’s not innovative. It’s basic, quality comfort food. The schnitzel never disappoints. The polish cutlets are marvellous. Delightful goulash.
Its slightly dated and eclectic in décor, but like the original Bistro Praha, it was always the ambience, not the wallpaper design or the bathroom layout that set it apart. All the flash in new chain clubs that pride themselves on décor but come up short on satisfying food bore me now.
We used to go to CT all the time, for every special occasion. We have done birthdays, anniversaries and our wedding dinner here. We’ve taken guests from overseas many times.
Their Flaczki soup in the best in the city. Okay, it has next to no curb appeal, but it still has a charm about it.

There are numerous bizarre issues plaguing the Continental Treat Fine Bistro, the least of which is the lengthy name, one begging for a comma or a dash. I mean is it «Continental – Treat Fine Bistro, «Continental Treat – Fine Bistro», or «Continental Treat Fine – Bistro»?
Despite being in the top twenty restaurants in Edmonton according to certain websites, and the highest rated within ten kilometers of oaur location, I found the experience somewhat disheartening, forcing me to question how much of an anomaly our meal really was. But let’s skip to the end, spoil the climax if you will, by asserting that the food at Continental – okay, you know what, I’m going to run out the word budget typing it out each time, so I’m just going to call it Sean from now on, okay? Sean’s food was actually good. Offered with really no flair in presentation, the heaping portions unquestionably satisfied us. The menu, despite being rooted in traditional recipes, is well laid out. But such a climax felt like the ending of Terminator 3.
What, did I lose you? Look, Terminator 3 was a bad movie, just… bad, but it had a great ending. Suddenly bleak, a twist slightly telegraphed though still appreciated given the previous lackluster two hours. Hardly worth it but obviously planned from the start. Another comparison would be a martial arts film with all the action lumped at the end – you know the acting will be terrible and you’ll end up fast forwarding to the good parts. I would’ve killed for a culinary remote control at Sean.

Firstly, being asked if we had a reservation and then being forced to wait can be expected, but when the restaurant is nearly empty, it tastes as condescending. Secondly, our server apparently forgot she was in the service profession, or if she did, it was in an auto repair garage. I know some places gain a positive reputation for rude service – Sean is not that clever. They actually tried to prohibit me from taking photos; apparently, it’s a policy. That may be the craziest thing since Pythagoras.
I’m serious; Pythagoras was bonkers, flat out nuts. He was afraid of beans, hated the square root of two, and had a guy killed over a disagreement about a triangle. Anyways, apparently if I wanted to take photos, I needed to call ahead, informing them that a blogger was coming (I guess). Forget the Greeks, that’s Gary Busey level of crazy. Honestly, by this point, I thought we were intruding. So, photos and bloggers need to announce themselves… yeah, not going to happen. Only a place paranoid about their failing reputation would be unreasonable. Then came the subject of their so called «celebrity wall». Yes, they had one, but funny thing, I always believed the tradition involved the head chef or owner posing with said celebrity inside the restaurant. Sean apparently only asks a celebrity send them a signed publicity photo, meaning the wall is populated by headshots of people with no evidence they were ever in the restaurant. Robert Goulet, Elliot Gould, and others, photos when they were younger, you know, before I was born, signed and easily acquirable from the internet. And I know what you’ll say, but I asked and they verified the assumed claims the celebrities had visited the restaurant. I did manage to find a couple photos taken in front of the bar, one of a woman with the logo for «Goldeneye Reloaded» taped under it. Firstly, it wasn’t Famke, perhaps Izabella Scorupco, and secondly, «GoldenEye Reloaded» was a video game.
This place is so disingenuous, virtually every image on their official website is stolen from Google. I haven’t found a single image that’s actually from their restaurant. Not that I wanted to be on their website very long… I honestly thought people stopped inserting background music on their webpages ten years ago. What the hell is this, a Myspace page? And you can’t turn it off; there are buttons, but they don’t work.
It seems to me Sean is surfing a reputation it had earned decades earlier. I have memories of an old Germen restaurant in my hometown called the Vienna Schnitzel. I used to remember it fondly… now not so much. It was respectable for the 70’s, but fine dining has evolved in the intervening decades. I don’t mind the dated menu offerings, and there are some newer twists to be found that I appreciated. And to reiterate from 586 words prior, the dishes that arrived were delicious, meaning whomever runs the kitchen knows is proficient in their trade. But I also said they lacked a certain flare, the kind you’d expect in a top-​end bistro like this one claims to be. You’d expect a level of panache given how much they charge. Not a single appetizer was less than $ 12 with most around $ 16. Every lunch soup and sandwich combination was over $ 17. As for the mains, only one was $ 20 with many over $ 30. Admittedly, I’ve paid that much and more for meals, but in a better environment, with better presentations, and served by better staff.

We arrived around 5:45pm. It was the hottest of the day. The air conditioning was not working at all and the place smells like an ancient dungeon.
Food tastes OK. One of our steak is burnt. The other lamb chop is ok.

For anyone looking to enjoy quality European cuisine in a bit of a fancier location, this place is for you. The restaurant is clean, quiet, and nicely decorated. The service is very good. The price is a little higher than other places in the city, but the quality of the food is definitely reflected in that price. This place is great. Definitely try the dill pickle soup!

Great european food. Okay service. No more lunch specials. There is only full price lunch combos with no discount. Pricey. Easy online reservation system.
Ive come to continental treat for years. Its always impressed me. The great food always brought me back. But it seems to be changing. Not foodwise but service and price. Seems like the recession may be affecting this place. Ive noticed lots of groupons available to this place. So maybe the waitstaff are sour about this.
First off theres easy online reservation available. I was having lunch for one but it wouldnt allow me to reserve unless i inputed two. This was slightly annoying. Sometimes people eat lunch alone! I reserved for 2 but showed up by myself. Easily fixed.
Theres like 6 parking stalls in the back and about 80% of the time they r full. So if you snag a spot… lucky you. Once inside, the restaurant is dark and creaky. Like the door creaks when its opened and the carpet is like your grandmas carpet from the 30’s. Theres pictures and stuff adorning the walls. A mismatched oldies room. Its extremely dated but maybe the old charm is what they are going for. Its a small restaurant that seats about 35ish people. Theres 2 big windows which have a great view of whyte ave. Champagne bottles stuffed with candles with wax dripping down that give it a bit of a romantic feeling.
Food is great here. I highly enjoy the pickle soup. Its sour and salty and really good. Kind of like how dill pickles are highly addictive once you start eating them. The rye bread is delicous. The best fresh bread ive had served at a restaurant. They provide overly chilled little packets of butter that are hard to spread though.
The snitzel whether chicken or veal or cod is amazing. Thin and crisp its delicious. Made the best ive had in edmonton. The potato salad is excellent. I dont even like potatoes but this stuff is delicious! The perogies are good but overpriced in my books as its not worth the price for what u get. The food is always fabulous.
My vices are the servers. They are snotty and pretentious. Ive come before with my son and got looks for bringing my kid here. (Theres no minors allowed after 4pm). They are borderline rude too. Like after ordering the waitress states: do you have a groupon? Bc you cant order the lunch special if you do! Im like no. I just want the lunch special. No groupon. Its ok to ask but the way she asked was as if im too cheap and its annoying that youre ordering the special. The bias was awkward. Maybe next time ill buy that groupon. Minus a star.
Also a note the lunch specials are not discounted anymore. Its the regular price. They mislead you to think its a special but its not. I had the cod and a cup of pickle soup for $ 24.95. On its own the soup is $ 4.95 and the cod is $ 19.95. Mmmm. I dont like places that claim its a special but really its not. So for this i minused a star. And for lunch this is pricey. Most high end joints have a two course luncheon for less than $ 20. So this did not impress me at all.
Ive had friends eat here and complain about the snotty service too. Although the food is fabulous i can safely say ill only come here with a deep hankering for pickle soup or snitzel. I would not venture here for special occassions as servers are consistently borderline awful. But at least i never can complain about the great food! Overall i hope they straighten up their servers as this could easily kill a business! It has turned me off to this place quite a bit!

I tried this place recently for the first time and was disappointed. I found the food to be bland and mediocre, as well as overpriced. I also found the restaurant to be sort of dark and dingy. Service was OK.

I went to this restaurant today for lunch. The décor is really nice and appealing but the food is mediocre and overpriced for the quality and design. I ordered pickle soup and veal schnitzel. The pickle soup was good but the veal schnitzel was nothing special. I could have food with the same quality at a much lower price somewhere else. Also, the waiter was unfriendly and a bit rude! All in all, I did not enjoy my meal at this restaurant and I don’t think I will go back again.

The waitress Christina, is possibly one of the best waitresses I have come across iny many years of both dining and industry experience. She is attentive, kind and professional!
The veal schnitzel is light and a fried piece of heaven. The dill pickle soup is Devine !
A must for a cozy lunch or supper.

A classic and consistently great choice of restaurant in Edmonton!
Service is always very good and the food is always on point. I could stuff myself silly with just the delicious rye bread and butter they serve you when you sit down. I do not think you could choose a «wrong» dish here. My husband chooses the duck breast every single time, and each time he says it has been prepared perfectly. I have tried more of the dishes, and they have all been great, from the Polish cutlet to the beef stroganoff.
If you want to try this restaurant definitely make a reservation, and also make sure you leave yourself ample time to find parking as there are only about 5 spots available immediately behind the restaurant.

I took my sweetie here for a special night out, we where not disappointed. The food was great and so where the staff.
We had the Vienna schnitzel and the Polish cutlet.
We will definatly go back.

As part of a big birthday celebration, I experience Continental Treat with a group of 8 on a fully booked night. Clearly, it is important to book in advance here, as it is quite popular. What we appreciated the most was that although the place was packed and we had an early seating, we were never rushed at any point, which allowed us to have a really lovely and special birthday dinner.
I’m not as familiar with German (or Polish, as other reviewers suggest) food, but I really enjoyed the meal I had. The staff were very helpful, and they were awesome at dealing with my need for gluten-​free. (I didn’t have any bread and therefore cannot comment on it, although they do offer it).
The only strange element is the washroom, and without talking at length about it, it just needs an upgrade so it doesn’t seem so out of place with the rest of the experience customers get here.

A group of four went to this restaurant the other day, had to get a reservation for 5pm and they continuously were turning people away from a mostly empty restaurant all night. Not a great business practice! But the food was very good. Fairly over priced for what you get, but that’s life. When we got our bill though we paid by credit card and trusted our server with the amount, only after we paid did we look at the bill to see a 15% gratuity had been added, for FOUR people! So we had tipped our server 20% on top of the 15%! It wasn’t bad service, but almost 40% is not necessary. Suffice it to say the server did not mention the gratuity was added. Great food but maybe being a bit more open with silly unusual policies would be good. We won’t be back because of it which is too bad!

On our staycation, we needed a place to have lunch after sleeping in and missing our complimentary breakfast at our hotel so we popped next door to the Continental Treat Fine Bistro.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we were on an adventure so what the heck!
I ordered the peirogies and my friend ordered the mushroom and spinach crepes. My meal was delicious, with the potato and cheese filling almost melting out of the fried dough. My friend really enjoyed her crêpe as it had a lot of spinach in it and the small pickled, shredded vegetables that accompanied it were very good as well.
We had a couple of designer martinis with our meal (it was 5 o’clock somewhere!) and they were delicious as well.
The only issue we had was my friend, who has some allergies, was a bit alarmed when a waitress (not ours) stopped by our table to see if my friend liked her drink. She informed her that she had made the drink and that she makes them «special» and substitutes her own ingredients that were not listed on the menu. Ummmm not very wise. A lawsuit waiting to happen if she did that with someone that was allergic to that ingredient!
Overall, a very nice place for lunch, a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere and interesting European selection of food.

The food was very tasty, with a focus on regional cuisine from in and around Germany.
We were there for a rather slow (3 – 4 tables occupied, of the ~20 total) lunch hour, and found the noise level to be very high. I would not recommend this place if you want a quiet, romantic dinner, as it is reportedly very busy in the evenings.
Additionally, the décor was sub-​par — decorations did not seem to follow any theme, and the old-​school «photos with famous people» wall was very tacky, partly because the frames were all out of alignment.
The service was very good — the wait staff exceptional, but the maitre d’ could have been more friendly and thoughtful. We were seated right by the under-​construction door, after he left the stand to check our reservation.

Went here on a Tuesday for an early lunch. First time eating at Continental Treat but I’ve been passing it for years. Must be the «fine bistro» part of the restaurant’s name that kept me away. They are going for a classic French style atmosphere with several interesting German dishes.
What can I say, basically, the food is pretty tasty but the place is expensive! For lunch, the average entrée price is $ 20. I don’t mind paying more but for that price, it better be amazing.
Anyways, they start you out with a basket of cold bread and butter. Three plain and pretty tasteless slices. Don’t bother eating.
For entrees, I ordered the wild mushroom and sauerkraut pierogi ($ 22). You get 8 pierogis (6 if you order the small for $ 17). I like that they are homemade and definitely were tasty but would I get it again for that price? Probably not. Pierogis were stuffed with mushroom, fried onion and the sour cabbage and comes with a side of sour cream.
My dad ordered the lamb chop ($ 21) which came with spetzle and some vegetables. You get two small lamb chops in a brown, burgundy type sauce. Didn’t try it but my dad said it was good.
Food was good but I just can’t get over the high prices when there are other good and cheaper options. Probably a good place for a date! Like how they have live jazz at nights. Get a seat by the window so you can people watch the Whyte Ave scene. Verdict — 3.5 stars if I could them that.

Great as ever. Lovely chicken schnitzel, mit ein Warsteiner.