by Chef Sarah Bennetto O'Brien, Founder of the Handpie Company
If you’re coming to Prince Edward Island hungry, you’re doing it right.
PEI may be Canada’s smallest province, but we take food very seriously. We grow some of the best potatoes in the world, pull oysters and mussels from the water around us, raise incredible beef, make excellent cheese, bake very good bread and generally believe that feeding people well is one of the very best ways you can spend your life.
We would know. We built an entire company around it.
The Handpie Company has been making chef-made comfort food on Prince Edward Island for more than a decade. Along the way, we’ve eaten an awful lot of Island food, worked with local producers and learned that some of the best things you’ll eat here won't necessarily come with white tablecloths.
So if you're wondering what food PEI is famous for, or if you're honestly just wondering what exactly IS a handpie, consider this your starting point.
1. PEI Potatoes
Let's get the obvious one out of the way.
Yes, the potatoes really are that good.
Prince Edward Island's red soil and growing conditions have made potatoes one of the foods most closely associated with the province. You'll encounter them everywhere, from very good French fries to potato salads, chowders and restaurant plates where nobody felt the need to disguise the fact that a beautifully cooked potato is already an excellent food.
Our recommendation? Don't overthink it.
Eat the fries. Order the potato side. Buy the bag of PEI potatoes.
We certainly do. PEI potatoes have been going into our handpies for years, including our PEI Pasty, where they're tucked into buttery pastry with Atlantic beef, turnip and rosemary.
Turns out putting potatoes inside pastry is also an excellent use of a potato.
2. PEI Oysters
If there is one PEI food experience we'd insist seafood lovers have while they're here, this might be it.
Prince Edward Island produces some extraordinary oysters, and eating them close to where they're grown is an entirely different experience from encountering them after they've travelled halfway across the country.
You'll find PEI oysters on menus all over the Island, and different bays and growing areas produce oysters with their own character. Try a few. Ask where they're from. Compare them. This is research we strongly support.
Chef's pick: Landmark Oyster House, Victoria-by-the-Sea
For an oyster stop we genuinely love, head to Landmark Oyster House in Victoria.
And here's the real pro tip: if you're travelling solo, grab a seat at the little bar.
The bar staff are full of charisma and know their oysters, so you're likely to leave both entertained and considerably more educated about whatever delicious, briny things you've just eaten.
Add a glass of something good from their very solid wine list and you're having an excellent day.
Honourable mention: Raspberry Point Oysters
If you'd rather get right to the source, Raspberry Point Oysters now offers oyster experiences at their Bayview location near Cavendish. Their Shuck & Learn experience takes you through oyster farming and shucking before the important part: eating them. Or go all-in with Shuck & Sea and head out onto a working oyster farm to see them harvested straight from the water.
There's an Oyster Bar and Fish Market on site too, making this a particularly good stop for the oyster-curious.
3. Mussels
If oysters are PEI's glamorous little ocean jewels, mussels are their wonderfully unfussy cousin.
PEI mussels are shipped all over North America, but this is where they're grown, and you won't have trouble finding a steaming bowl of them while you're here.
They're often served simply because they don't need much help: broth, aromatics, something good to drink and enough bread to deal with what's left at the bottom of the bowl.
Do not waste the broth.
This is important.
4. Lobster
Yes, you should eat lobster on Prince Edward Island.
But here's our pro tip: buy a couple of cooked canner lobsters from a local seafood shop and eat them yourself.
"Canners" are smaller lobsters, and for a casual PEI lobster feed they're exactly what we're looking for. Head somewhere like JMK Fish Mart in Summerside, pick up your lobsters already cooked and take them back to the cottage, picnic table or wherever you're staying. JMK will steam fresh lobster to order, so the difficult part has already been handled for you.
Then you just need to learn how to get into the thing.
Never cracked a lobster before? Gordon Ramsay will show you how. His three-minute demonstration of how to break down a whole lobster and get every last bit of meat out of the shell is strangely satisfying, genuinely useful, and has been watched millions of times.
Watch Gordon Ramsay demonstrate how to break down a lobster →
This is useful Maritime knowledge. Consider it part of your education.
Want it easier?
JMK also makes a seriously good lobster roll, a local favourite that skips the whole shell-cracking situation. Their lobster rolls are absolutely loaded, so come hungry.
Want the Instagram-worthy lobster roll experience?
Go to Richard's Fresh Seafood.
Their lobster roll is one of those PEI summer experiences people line up for: loads of lobster on a toasted bun, with fries and coleslaw.
Our favourite is the Victoria-by-the-Sea location. The lines tend to be a little shorter than at their famous Covehead location, and, admittedly, it's also conveniently close to home for us.
Victoria is an exceptionally pretty little village anyway, so grab your lobster roll, find somewhere lovely to sit and accept that you've probably peaked for the afternoon.
5. Really, Really Good Bread
This one doesn't always make the official “foods PEI is famous for” lists, but it should.
There are some exceptionally talented bakers working on this Island, and if you appreciate proper bread, make room in the itinerary.
Chef's pick: Simon's Snack Shoppe, Bedeque
Less than ten minutes down the road from Handpie Headquarters in Albany is Simon's Snack Shoppe in Bedeque, run by two culinary pros who know exactly what they're doing.
Their sourdough loaves regularly sell out, which should tell you something.
Their sandwiches, built on their own focaccia, are out-of-this-world good.
But here's the move:
Get the buckwheat chocolate chip cookie.
You can thank us later.
If you're heading between the Confederation Bridge and the rest of PEI, this part of the Island is worth slowing down for. Stop for bread in Bedeque, come see us in Albany and suddenly you've created a mini foodie tour of the greater Borden-Carleton area.
Funny how that happens.
6. PEI Beef
The seafood gets a lot of attention around here, but don't overlook the beef.
Prince Edward Island has a strong agricultural tradition that goes well beyond potatoes, and excellent local beef shows up everywhere from burgers and steaks to hearty comfort food.
It's also one of our favourite ingredients to work with.
Our PEI Pasty is probably the purest expression of that idea at Handpie Headquarters: Atlantic beef, PEI potatoes and turnip tucked into our buttery pastry with rosemary.
It's our Island take on the traditional Cornish pasty.
Britain had a very good idea.
We just gave it a PEI address.
7. Chocolate Worth Making a Detour For
There is chocolate.
And then there is Jane & Sue Chocolate.
Sisters Jane and Sue handcraft spectacular bonbons and confections in Stanley Bridge, and calling them beautiful almost undersells them because everything they make tastes every bit as good as it looks.
Everything they do is thoughtful, precise and, frankly, kind of perfect.
They now have two PEI shops, their original Stanley Bridge location and a newer location right in Kensington, which gives you twice as many excuses to visit.
If you're the kind of person who brings edible souvenirs home from vacation, this is an extremely good place to start.
Although whether the chocolates actually survive the drive home is between you and your conscience.
8. Seafood Chowder
Few foods make more sense on Prince Edward Island than seafood chowder.
Every kitchen seems to have its own opinion about how it should be made, which is part of the fun. Some are thick and rich. Others let the seafood do most of the talking. What goes into the pot changes depending on who's cooking and what's available.
If you see a chowder made with local seafood on a menu, particularly somewhere that takes pride in where its ingredients come from, order it.
9. Handpies
We admit to a slight conflict of interest here.
But you didn't think we were going to write an entire guide to Prince Edward Island food and leave out the food we've spent more than a decade making, did you?
A handpie is exactly what it sounds like: a complete meal wrapped in buttery pastry that you can hold in your hand.
No plate required. No cutlery required. No reservations required.
We make ours here on Prince Edward Island using chef-made fillings and plenty of local ingredients, then wrap them in pastry and crimp them by hand.
The result is particularly useful when your PEI plans involve beaches, road trips, cottages, campfires, breweries, hungry children or the realization that every restaurant in Cavendish appears to have the same dinner reservation time.
Pick up a hot one and eat it now, or grab frozen handpies for the cottage and bake them when everyone gets hungry.
That's kind of the point.
10. Whatever Is Growing, Baking, Brewing or Being Made Right Now
Here's perhaps our best piece of advice about eating on Prince Edward Island:
Leave some room in your plans.
PEI has an extraordinary community of farmers, fishers, chefs, bakers, brewers, makers and food entrepreneurs. Some operate beautiful restaurants. Others work from farm stands, markets and tiny rural shops you could easily drive straight past.
Stop.
Ask what's good.
Ask what's local.
Buy the thing you've never tried before.
Some of the best food memories you'll take home from PEI probably won't be the ones you planned six months in advance.
Come Hungry
You could spend an entire vacation eating your way around Prince Edward Island and barely scratch the surface.
Actually, we recommend it.
Start with the potatoes. Eat things from the ocean. Find some good bread. Support the small producers doing remarkable things in rural communities. Buy the chocolates. Definitely buy the cookie.
And somewhere along the way, come find a handpie.
We're The Handpie Company, a chef-led PEI food company making handheld comfort food right here on Prince Edward Island. You can visit us at Handpie Headquarters in Albany, stop by our seasonal Cavendish shop, or find our frozen handpies at retailers across PEI and beyond.
Looking for handpies near you? Check our Where to Buy page to find your closest stash.
Come hungry.
PEI will take care of the rest.
