At least they're trying...
I live in Bridgeland so I'm always interested in finding a new shop or restaurant to check out that I can walk to... AKA is in the space on Edmonton Trail that was formerly 'Noon' (which itself was a place that I never actually made it to - in part because to this day I still have no idea what it was... was it a bar? was it a restaurant? There was just absolutely no clue... but I digress). The good news is that they're trying! From the same folks that brought you Muse and the Kensington Wine Bar, AKA is yet another wine bar/restro-lounge concept that tries to be funky-slick-cosmo. In some ways it reminds me of a very (read VERY) small Ming (the lounge on 17th Ave) with food service. Service was fine; food was decent (the former Sous Chef at Muse is the Executive Chef here - which self proclaimed title, frankly, sounds a bit pretentious given that there are MAYBE 25 seats - if you all squeeze in and use some lubricant you could possibly get 30... did I mention it was small??). I had the lamb ribs and a bacon and carmelized onion tart and they were ok (the lamb ribs could have been so much more though if they ditched the breading and punched up the heat... the tart was decent but a bit overboard with the onion and the bacon - less is really more sometimes). As a previous reviewer mentioned, the location is a bit difficult... it's right beside a porn shop, a coin laundry and a sketchy pub (albeit a pub that's presently getting a complete make over that I'm pretty reved up about - Bridgeland sooooo needs a pub!)... part of inner city Bridgeland that's still in 'transition'... if AKA is any indication of where the area is heading, I'm certain that things will turn out just fine. I look forward to checking out AKA again some time but for now I'm going to give them 3 stars.