With its rich creamy combination of cheddar and carbs, it's the ultimate comfort food: mac and cheese.

After keeping generations of students and lousy cooks satiated on the cheap, the hearty noodle dish is experiencing a bit of a renaissance in Edmonton.

Even some of the city's finest restaurants offer gourmet versions of the humble dish, but who does it best?

In search of the most delectable dish, the CBC's Edmonton AM enlisted the expertise of two local foodies, Postmedia food critic Liane Faulder and Phil Wilson, the food writer behind Baconhound.

They gathered Thursday at the City Centre Mall studios for a blind taste test of six worthy contenders: Urban Diner, Northern Chicken, Noorish, The Next Act, MEAT, and Blue Plate Diner.

"A nice gooey sauce is really important," Faulder said.

"I also have a particular penchant for noodles that hold the sauce nicely so when you take a bite in your mouth you get a nice little puddle of sauce and noodle together."

It's clear Faulder's and Wilson's love for mac and cheese is mutual, but there are things that will turn them cold on this hot dish.

"It really comes to creaminess and cheesy for me," said Wilson. "If there's not enough cheese, it's an instant fail.

"And sometimes with mac and cheese, the macaroni soaks up too much of the sauce and it becomes kind of gummy. I'm not crazy about that either."

After chowing down on a groaning board of palatable pasta, the Next Act in Old Strathcona came out on top for its rich sauce and spicy hints of jalapeno.

"For me, it was a bit of a runaway," said Wilson. "That flavour, that jalapeno, just woke up my whole mouth. I really liked that one."

To really get a taste of the competition, be sure to watch the drool-inducing video above.