Calgary (Almost) Under $10 Lunch: Community Natural Foods

Leave a reply
Imaginative, reasonably affordable salads at refurbished Community Natural Foods

You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find a decent restaurant salad in Calgary for less than $10. After all, there’s no necessity to add chicken or some other pricy protein to your greens.

But you’d be wrong. I’ve spent hours of online research, perusing local restaurant menus in search of imaginative salads at decent price points. And I’ve largely failed.

Salads in this city generally fall into two categories: uninspired and overpriced, sometimes both.

I recently purchased, for about $9, a takeout Greek salad at a Calgary market. This was your typical, tired Greek salad, lowlighted by insipid, orange, Roma tomatoes. Vine-ripened tomatoes, bursting with flavour, have been widely available for more than a decade. They can be used to enliven a Greek salad.

On the other hand, there’s the sprouting of national power-salad chains. Their bowls typically feature aspirational ingredients like mesclun, quinoa, roasted yam, pita chips, kale (of course) and a ginger sesame vinaigrette. Good stuff, I’m sure, but at, say, $15, a little outside my lunchtime budget.

Enough ranting. I finally found a salad, at Community Natural Foods, which satisfies my quest for interesting and affordable. The Veg Head is a lively mix of baby greens, cherry tomatoes, roasted chickpeas, red quinoa, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast and preserved lemon dressing. At $10.39, it’s just slightly above my $10 bar, though adding extra toppings can quickly increase the price.

The new cafe at Community Natural Foods; no prices listed on the menu board

My salad purchase marked the reopening of a reimagined cafe at Community Foods, following a long pandemic closure. But instead of loading my salad plate buffet style, I now have to order at an electronic kiosk, similar to the self-checkouts at grocery stores. Not sure how that will work on busy days with neophytes trying to figure out the system.

Not sure how well the self-ordering kiosks will work

The food court continues the long-time health food store’s tradition of offering fine burgers, burritos, smoothies, pizzas and power bowls at affordable prices. Plus they know how to put together a salad.

Community Natural Foods
1304 10 Avenue SW and two other Calgary locations
Monday to Saturday 9 am-9 pm, Sunday 9 am-7 pm

Calgary Under $10 Lunch: Boogie’s Burgers

Leave a reply
Local beef, generous size, great fixings, affordable: What’s not to like at Boogie’s Burgers?

It’s not hard to find a budget burger in most cities and towns. Just head to an old-school drive-in and, for $6 or $7, order a nondescript patty disguised by the usual fixings in a fall-apart bun.

The real challenge is discovering a bargain burger that stands out. Which is why Boogie’s Burgers is my go-to under-$10 burger joint in Calgary.

Yes, in some ways it fits the classic description of old-school burger barn. It’s been around since 1969, and has the standard menu of burgers every which way and an equally long list of milkshakes.

Spartan settings, with the focus firmly on the food

What’s different is the quality and imagination of ingredients. The patties are 100% Alberta beef and the toppings generous, including fried mushrooms and fried onions on even the most basic burger.

The other thing that impresses me is the heft. I often judge food by its weight, and Boogie’s doesn’t cut corners here. My bag of single-patty Fay’s Burger ($7.50, featuring two slices of bacon) and “small” fries ($2.60, hand cut from Hutterite colony potatoes) easily weighs two pounds and takes a hearty appetite to demolish.

A honking big bag of burger and fries

Finally, I’m told my order will take 10 minutes to prepare, even though the place is all but empty. That’s okay. It means everything is being made to order, not sliding off a warming tray.

Boogie’s Burgers
908 Edmonton Trail NE and one other Calgary location
Monday to Saturday 11 am-9 pm, Sunday noon to 9 pm
403-230-7070

Calgary Under $10 Lunch: Tool Shed Brewing

1 Reply
Tool Shed Brewing primarily makes beer

Can you go to a craft brewery taproom just for the food? You can if you’re trying to spend less than $10. And you can if said taproom is serving some of the best smoked meat in the city.

Of course, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to sample some fine brews. But my primary motivation for visiting Tool Shed Brewing, in an industrial section of northeast Calgary, was to check out the house-smoked barbecue.

It turns out co-owner Graham Sherman is a world-class competition BBQer from many forays to the shrine of Memphis. And he’s brought that experience to the Tool Shed taproom and an outside food truck operating under the name Notorious P.I.G.

But it also makes great, Memphis-style BBQ

In honour of my cheap-eats series, I ordered a pulled-pork sandwich ($10), a lovely, three-napkin mess of slow-cooked meat, coleslaw and stinging Memphis red barbecue sauce. Other full-flavour menu items include BBQ pork tostados ($10), smoked pork belly banh mi sandwiches ($11) and side ribs ($12, hickory smoked for six hours). They await future visits.

A pulled pork sandwich for only $10

Fortunately, I was able to sample a flight of four fine beers, including a Belgian IPA and a kveik ale.

The beers are pretty darn good, too

To celebrate the lifting of restaurant restrictions in Alberta, I’m accelerating my under-$15 Calgary lunch series to twice a week. Besides, I’ve got a lot of great places to cover. And you can help me by suggesting your own cheap-eats discoveries through the “reply” button on the upper left.

Tool Shed Brewing
801 30 Street NE
Tuesday to Saturday 11 am-9 pm, Sunday noon-5 pm
403-775-1749

Calgary Under $10 Lunch: To Me Vietnamese Submarine

1 Reply
Blink and you’ll miss it To Me Vietnamese Submarine

As the old saying goes, just reaching To Me Vietnamese Submarine is almost half the fun.

Yes, the hefty Vietnamese sub is probably the best I’ve eaten in Calgary. And the $6 price is one of the best lunch deals in the city.

But you do earn your pleasure just getting to the drive-through kiosk window. To Me is almost literally on busy Macleod Trail southwest.

It can really only be reached by traveling northbound. And if you blink, you’ll be past it before you see the little exit ramp that doubles as the lineup. It can be a bit intimidating if that line spills onto Macleod, which seems to happen more frequently as this wee gem gets discovered.

Second in line!

My strategy is to show up just when the place opens, at 11 am. Happily, I’m second in line and in a few minutes have moved to a small parking area to enjoy my made-to-order coconut curry sub.

In many respects, it’s a standard Vietnamese sub, with chunks of chicken, shredded carrot and coconut, cucumber and cilantro inside a crusty baguette. What puts it over the top is the coconut curry and the special sauce. Great flavour.

Get the coconut chicken sub

The only problem with this two-napkin meal is keeping all the saucy goodness off my pants and car seats.

Everything’s under $10

To Me Vietnamese Submarine
5250 Macleod Trail SW
Daily 11 am-10 pm
825-882-2828

Calgary Lunch Under $10: Peppino Gourmet Foods

Leave a reply
Nick is part of the two-generation family behind Peppino Gourmet Foods

There’s nothing like a family-run restaurant, especially one that spans a couple of generations.

Such is definitely the case at Peppino Gourmet Foods, in Calgary’s near-downtown Kensington district. Joe Lecce launched the business in 1993, offering nine Italian-style sandwiches and a smattering of groceries.

Peppino is a combination Italian grocery store and sandwich shop

Today, with the help of his family, it’s a multi-location operation offering more than 40 made-to-order sandwiches, fresh pasta dishes and frozen and packaged Italian groceries. The relaxed, family ambience is on full display during a recent visit, with padre Joe and figlio Nick kibitzing about who truly runs the business.

I know a guy who picks up a Peppino sandwich every week, always ordering the Da Nico—a vibrant piling of capicollo, calabrese salami, mortadella, meatballs, hot peppers, cheese and lettuce. This carnivore combo costs $10.75, but most of Peppino’s sandwiches are well under $10, such as a succulent hot Italian meatball sando for $8.50.

Joe’s Special features three Italian meats for only $9.75

All the loaded sandwiches are served on a foot-long baguette, sliced in half, guaranteeing you won’t leave hungry. When food is this fresh, abundant and affordable, I can see it becoming a regular habit.

Peppino is on busy Kensington Road in Calgary’s northwest

Peppino Gourmet Foods
101, 1240 Kensington Road NW and other Calgary locations
Weekdays 8 am-6 pm, Saturday 10 am-4 pm. Closed Sunday
403-283-3882

Calgary Lunch Under $10: Beirut Street Food

1 Reply

Fresh-baked pitas at Beirut Street Foods

Beirut Street Food is perhaps my favourite of the many shawarma restaurants in Calgary. Its marinated chicken and beef are slow roasted over charcoal and then served inside a freshly baked, blistered, chewy pita wrap. It’s fabulous stuff, enhanced by the warm, welcoming vibe of this family-owned place in the city’s southeast.

Shawarma meats slow roasted over charcoal

The only problem, for the purposes of this cheap-eats lunch series, is the meat shawarmas slightly exceed my $10 threshold, by $1 for the regular size and by $3 for the large. One solution is to opt for a fresh falafel shawarma, starting at $9.

But I decide to pivot to something I’d never considered till I saw it on the menu. Call it Middle East meets eastern Canada. A shawarma combined with, you guessed it, poutine ($8 regular, $10 large), meaning those marinated meats are mixed with fries, gravy and cheese curds.

A pie plate full of shawarma and poutine

Sound ghastly? I kind of thought so, too, especially when my server recommended adding all the usual toppings such as marinated veggies, tahini and hot sauce.

But he was right. It was damn delicious, and I could hardly refrain from digging into this loaded pie plate to see what my fork would deliver with each bite: fries and gravy one mouthful, chicken and tahini the next.

My large size was a two-meal deal, one of the best lunch bargains in the city. This is one cross-cultural mashup I can definitely get behind.

a

A family business

Beirut Street Food
7220 Fairmount Drive SE
Monday to Thursday 11 am-4:30 pm. Friday-Saturday 11 am-7 pm. Closed Sunday
403-512-7772