Friday, July 29, 2016

L'Gros Luxe

I wanted to write another restaurant review. Ah, it always starts like that. Whenever I only have one review left on the back burner, I start feeling antsy and feel like I should have another one goin'. Why L'Gros Luxe? Easy: open late on Sunday evenings, close to my place, and cheap food that one would eat when wanting to pig out. OK, I didn't totally want to pig out but, since I hadn't had dessert in a couple weeks, I was planning on doing just that. Oink oink.

L'Gros Luxe is located where Limòn used to be. I loved that restaurant and I still, to this day, do not understand why it closed. Especially to be replaced by a l'Gros Luxe. It's very sad, really. Let's all hold hands and cry. Aaaaand we're good! But seriously, even if you serve awesome food and you have 8 billion clients, your restaurant is always at risk of closing. Yep, this is what I retained from my stint as an ITHQ student: 'Your restaurant WILL close. Do NOT open a restaurant. You will NOT succeed'. And all that jazz. Props to my friends who actually have opened restaurants and are still successful (read: surviving) to this day.

L'Gros Luxe kind of feels like a saloon. 'Hey, meet me at the saloon', I'll say. OK, no. No one ever says that. Forest green walls, wooden everything, chandeliers hanging. Alright, does that even sound like a saloon? What IS a saloon? Maybe I was a bit off. Hey, I was comin' off a 12 and a half hour work shift so I might have been a bit woozy. Bob Marley was playing and everything was irie man.

I was seated very quickly by the window. Great little spot so close to the sidewalk that I was afraid to leave my phone on that side of the table. I had already looked at the menu and knew what I wanted: a grilled cheese with pork and a pickle. Or pickled pork? Hum, ew. Side note: apparently they make awesome caesars with lots of stuff in there AND out (i.e.: a burger on a stick WHAT!!) but I'm still doing my month-without-alcohol business.
Grilled cheese Cubano and sweet potato fries. Lets start with the fries. Think about the most perfect fries you've ever tasted. Got it? Well, these were it. Crunchy, yet soft on the inside and seasoned to the t. Perfect. This, paired with that tangy dijonnaise type of mayo was a great match. The grilled cheese had 3 cheeses: mozarella, cheddar and suisse. Should be good right? Wrong. The cheese actually tasted like nothing and the only way I knew there was cheese in there is that it was all stringy and shizzle. They could have put water in there and it would have tasted the same. It would have been a bit soggy though. The pork was nearly nonexistent and the existent part was dry. The pickle was nice and briny but a pickle-only grilled cheese? Not a huge fan. On the menu it mentioned that the bread was artisanal (hehe, anal!--yes, I am 5) and from my point of view, this was white bread bought at Maxi. Nothing artisanal 'bout that!
Not sure I mentioned it, but I hadn't had a 'real' dessert in over 2 weeks. I deserved my dessert. I picked this: fried cookie dough, vanilla ice cream, lemon, white and dark chocolate. Before I say anything else, let me just mention that having known it was gonna be like dat, I would have waited to have a different dessert somewhere else. First off, it tasted nothing like the cookie dough I had been dreaming about. Yes, I have weird food dreams. It just tasted like a ball of fried dough. Bah. And it was quite hard to get through with my spoon. I would have needed a fork AND a knife! The ice cream had transformed into soup within a couple minutes and the white chocolate and the lemon were no where to be found. I looked, I swear! All in all, a very disappointing dessert.

Service was ... normal, for a lack of a better word. Got seated right away and mentioned that I was going to start by my lonesome but probably would be joined by a friend in a bit. They took that as 'I am waiting for a friend and am absolutely not hungry or thirsty right now so don't come to my table for 10 minutes'. I may be exaggerating. It was at least 6 minutes. Actually, I had to wave him down so that I could order and get some agua. I hate waving, it makes me feel like the Queen. Ha! At least he came and asked if we wanted anything from the kitchen when it was about to close. Many places don't do that and then you are still hungry and annoyed.

And now, the scores!

Food: 6 (potatoes can't always save the day)
Service: 7.5

On account of the flat grilled cheese and the uber dough-y dessert, I shant go back.

L'Gros Luxe Sud-Ouest Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Nozy

I go to restaurants a lot. Like, a LOT! With this blog and all, I feel like it's a second (unpaid) job. That I love. I usually try to go to budget friendly restos, but once in a blue moon, I wanna splurge. Splurging is good. It cleanses the soul. Or some shit.
Nozy had been on my radar for a little while so when Lea mentioned we should hit it up, I was totes down. BTW, for those of you wondering why it's called 'Nozy', it is for chef Nozomu Takeuchi. The restaurant is quite small with about 30 seats, and mostly everything is white. I kinda liked it, it looked very pure. White walls, white chairs and white pieces of cloth hanging from the ceiling made for a nice and calm ambiance. As a contrast, the tables were black and there were tiny wooden things hanging on the walls that kind of looked like pasta portioners. 
There were seats at the bar and a table located at the front of the restaurant that made for such a cute little nook. Jazz music was quietly playing, and at some point, it totally became awesome with some old 90's Janet Jackson! Hahaha! Weird, but awesome.
As per usual, I knew what I was having: the Omakase menu: a series of dishes selected by the chef. According to the internet (the whole internet, yes!), it was about 6 courses. We told the waitress we wanted it to be a surprise. On their FB page (side note: I'm not uber fond of the fact that many restaurants now don't have actual websites, only FB pages), it said that it was 50$ but when we got there, we noticed that it was 60$. OK, not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless. I still had to go for it though. And Lea followed suit. Just a little note here: the drinks could be more original. I mean, litchi martini, cucumber cooler, bloody caesar? Been there, done that.
Miso soup. A nice little starter in any Japanese restaurant. This costs about minus 5$ to make. Seriously. It was good and simple and effin hot. I think I burnt my tongue to the second degree with this bad boy. Of course, Lea waited until it wasn't as hot. Wise girl.
The appetizer. It looked just beautiful and very colourful. I love colours on my plate. It makes me want to eat it more (the dish, not the plate!).  Fresh snapper sashimi. Get IN ma mouth! Now. It had finely shaved dikon, radish and ponzu sauce, which, for anyone interested, is a citrus-based sauce. Not a seafood based sauce like the waitress informed us. Citrus. Her brain may have made a wrong connection like ponzu-citrus-seafood... or something :) There was a hint of sesame oil in there, which was a bit too heavy for such a light dish. The ponzu was nice but there was a missing element, like salt perhaps. The fish was awesomely fresh though and absolutely and irrevocably melted in my mouth. 
Our waitress then arrived with 2 rectangular boxes, one on top of the other. I found that really cool. She placed them one in front of the other and opened the first one. A+ for presentation. My first thought was 'f*ck, I should've told them I am not a fan of wakame'. Shizzle. I just really am not fond of that texture. The taste is OK, but the texture is not. I know a lot of people like it. I am not one of those peeps. Anyway, I'm a good [food] sport, so I tasted it and apart from that stoopid texture, I can tell you for sure that this was one of the best wakame around. You know, around. It had a lovely sesame taste and wasn't as hard to chew than others (I REALLY have a problem with weird textures, I do realize this!). 
In the middle, a trio of three sashimi: snapper, red tuna and white tuna or hamachi as it should also be called. All super duper uber fresh. I'm pretty sure they were caught out at sea about one hour before our arrival. It's possible, right? Right? They all just pretty much dissolved when they hit my tongue. Man, that was fresh fish. This may just have been THE freshest and best sashimi I've ever eva tasted. The white tuna was my favourite. Perhaps because i rarely have any. F*ck me that was good. I'm sorry about the cursing but this deserves it :) It was accompanied  by fresh wasabi from the freaking root. The rooooot! This is a very rare occurrence. And one I oh so appreciated. It was hot as all hell but a little bit on each piece of sashimi made it even better! Right under, there was a nice little not overly dressed salad with a great big shiso leaf. Mmmmmmshisooooo. If I'd be a Kung Fu master, my name would totes be Shiso. Oh wait, I just stole that from Kung Fu Panda, didn't I?

In the third bowl, beef tataki in ponzu sauce + secret ingredients. I like secret ingredients. It was so tasty, again with the raw meat just melting away on my palate. I thought that the use of ponzu was good here, but that it was a bit of a repeat from the appetizer and lacked seasoning. 
Yuk, bad lighting. Sorry.
Second box! This is exciting! Lets start on the right with the karaage chicken. I've had karaage before. Many a times, it can be dry and many a times it can have an amount of fat on there that is... unflattering AND many a times, it lacks in spices. Well, this one was purrrrfect. No, it's not a cat people, it's chicken. I'm getting off track here. First of all, usually (OK, MY 'usually'), you have white meat in there. This was brown meat. Much much moistier. Is that a word? I think SO. The spices were a mix of ginger, garlic and hot pepper. A winning team, I'd like to say. With a bit of soya sauce, that chicken won every chicken contest. Crunchy, moist, spiced just right, seasoned correctly. 

In the middle, mashed potatoes with pork. I like to say that it was a cloud of heaven, those potatoes. Wow! So soft, I think they put it through a fine sieve about 8 times. The dish kind of looked very Christmasy to me. Not Japanese. Christmas. Japanese Christmas? Anyway, the braised (I presume for many hours) pork needed no cutting because it broke down as soon as I touched it. So damn good. A bite of potato mousse + pork transported me back to, you guessed it, Christmas! i don't even know why. It was really tasty and well executed but I don't know how well it fit in with the other dishes.

Miso marinated salmon. Miso? Yes. Salmon? Yes. Put em' together man! The salmon was so tender and it was oozing miso. Yes, oozing. Just by looking at it, it was flaking off. Is that a thing? Anyway, it was simple, yet very tasty. Just like most things should be.
Salmon X 3. Salmon tataki, salmon sashimi and salmon tartare. On rice. Although the rice was perfectly cooked to perfection (did I say that twice?), I don't know how I feel about eating cold fish atop hot rice. I'm not sure I'm fond of it. It feels weird to me for some reason. The tartare had a miso and tomato sauce and was really spot on. The naked sashimi (hihi, naked) was as on the ball and as fresh as the ones we had in the first place and the tataki was tatakied (new verb guys!--put it in yo dictionary) with nanami, an Asian spice that is akin to chili powder but with sesame seeds and other spices in there. Iz hot yo. AND good. AND smoky. But again, it felt funny to eat warm tartare. No? 

After that, we really debated whether or not we should have dessert. After the waitress told us that the ice cream that was part of one of them was not homemade, I lost my dessert erection. 

Service was great throughout our meal. Our dishes were quick to arrive and our waitress answered my 600 questions. She knew I was writing an article (I never say it but this time, I asked her to explain our dishes 'slowly, so I could write it down') so I'm not sure if we got special treatment or not. Anyhoot, water was on the table right away and we could just serve ourselves which was nice. She was very attentive and checked many times throughout our meal to see if we were satisfied. 

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 9.5

Will I go back you ask? Hells yes. I've already started putting money aside for it. True thang.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Misoya

My token Asian friend Jer wanted to bring me to Misoya, so I could forget about Kinton Ramen. In hindsight, he should just have brought me back to Yokato Yokabai, but this one was closer :p

Misoya is located in a hole in the wall, on Bishop street. Seriously, you can still see dem rocks from the stone age in there. OK, I'm sure it was a bit after that. The resto is in a basement and when you enter, you get hit by a wave of not so lovely smelling cleaning products. Bah. For a second, I didn't see how I was going to eat in there. But obviously, I got over it.
The place is quite small, with 32 seats. There's no real decor: some diner type lookin' chairs alongside some Asian 'art', bricks, mirrors and wood. It's somewhat of a melting pot. Ya, I'm going with that. 
We started off with the takoyaki: or fried ball of octopus! Fried? Yes! Octopus? Used to be no but now, yes! Bonito flakes on top? Uhuh!!! It tasted like... fried stuff. Hahaha. Seriously... having not known what i was eating, I would not have guessed octopus! But it was a tasty, soft ball of goodness. Especially with a bit of mayo and bonito flakes to give more flavor to the bite!
Le ramen. Komemiso cha-shu ramen to be exact. It was their 'recommendation' on the menu and Jer's aa well, for my first time at Misoya. This was a miso-style ramen from the region of Hokkaido in Japan, located in the northern part of the country, which explains the ever comforting potatoes in there. The meat was pork and cha-shu basically means that it is rolled into a log and then braised at a low temperature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_siu#chashu). It was double the meat, with cha-shu AND ground pork. I guess those northern folk really needed that extra fat! Hihihi. The ground pork was really good and full of that fatty flavorful goodness, but I found the cha-shu a bit on the dry side, although very tasteful as well. Miso based broth is my fave style of broth when it comes to ramen but this one was really salty. Like, really. Like, I could not have eaten this in a million years if I had a hint of a heart issue. A tiny little hint. The fermented bamboo shoots fit well in there but there was still  a little taste that I'm not uber fond of. I can't explain it. They weren't bad, but, for me, they weren't awesome either. Green onions always go well with ramen and they were there to add another layer of flavor and a nice little tang. Potatoes were way too much for me, and until Jer explained to me about the region and what have you, I was actually very clueless as to why I had potatoes in my ramen. Hey, you learn something every day! The noodles were thick and just rightly seasoned for my taste.

Service was Asian. Hahaha. I don't mean to be asianist here, but let's face it, that's the way they do things: quickly and efficiently. Hey, why am feeling bad here, this is a great complement! Quick like a cat! Anyhoot, water was on our table in 2 seconds and our dishes also arrived very quickly. I wouldn't expect anything less!

And now, the scores!

Food: 6.5
Service: 8

I'm totes going to try another ramen place before going back to this 'clean-smelling' restaurant!


Ramen Misoya Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Les Enfants Terribles

I went to Les Enfants Terribles about a long time ago (i.e: I don't remember) with my aunt and my memory of it was that it was great food, well executed, in a very loud dining room. The dining room hasn't changed (as if my very loud dad had multiplied himself), but this time, we sat outside on their patio. My sista from another motha, Mona, was in town on a layover (she's fancy like that) and Tacha, another high school girl, works right in front of this resto. 1 + 1= let's meet there! 
The place is pretty big with quite the dining room and bar inside and a nice big patio on the side of the restaurant. The vibe is happenin' and this is where you'll find most cool Outremont people. OK, I don't really know what those look like. 
As soon as we sat down, we had water and a menu. 2.5 seconds later, we were asked if we were ready to order. Sheesh, calm down woman! Well, while we were deciding, we just had to think it over a lunch time drink! Duh. Mojito, hello.
Well, it was diddely-damn perfect. except the brown on that lime. Come on people. As a restaurant worker meself, and someone that orders for my restaurant, I understand that, right now, limes aren't top shape. They either arrive half brown or get like that in a day or two. 'Tis life. But you know, use those narsty limes for the juice and the nice ones for deco! Sheesh, must I teach everyone everything? Anyhoot, enough about ugly limes. This was a real mojito. Like, a real one, you know? Like a how-did-I-get-to-Cuba-so-fast mojito. The bubbles were right, the sugar was right, the lime was right and the mint was right. Just. Plain. Right. I'd treck up to Outremont right now for one of those bad boys.
I was sharing calamari as an appetizer with Mona. Calamari is very easy to f*ck up. Cooked too little: f*cked. Cooked too long: f*cked. Well, these...were... perfect! With a splash of lemon, and a bit of mayo, they were just great. I mean, when can you go wrong with fried stuff? NE-VER. Speaking of the mayo. Mmmya, you kind of over did it there, right chef? You got carried away, didn't ya? It took over half the plate! At first, Mona thought it was a design on the plate! Hahaha! But seriously.
Albacore tuna tataki salad. On paper, this sounded like just what I needed in ma mouth. Watercress: check! Strawberries: check! Tuna tataki: check! Oh but wait.... WRONG. The watercress was not cut in any way, shape or form and so I was struggling to fit it in my mouth. I'm not asking you to cut everything... but it should be bite size. I hate having to actually cut salad. The strawberries were great and obviously from here, which is even greater! They were sweet and were perfect in salad format. The vinaigrette was most likely wafu and quite overwhelming. It was thick and there was just too much of it. A little bit less and it would have been awesome. In this case, too much was just too much. And now for the pièce de résistance, the tuna. Let me say that I am not one to mention it to the waiter if I don't like my food and, seriously, this time, I was disappointed in myself for not doing so. The tuna was ridiculously expired. I mean, it must have been at least 6 days old. It tasted fishy and the colour was so uninspiring! The only good thing were the steak spices with which the tuna was tatakised (We totes use that verb at work. As in: 'vas-tu tatakiser le saumon?') and that's it. Very, very disappointing.

Service was ok. It wasn't wow and it wasn't shitty. It took a while to get our food... but then again that is mostly the kitchen's fault. They were in a big hurry to take our orders but then they lacked in speed. It's a week day lunch time guys; speed it up!

And now, the scores!

Food: 5.5 Obviously because of the fishy tuna
Service: 7

Well, the tuna salad has inspired me to just NOT go back.

Les Enfants Terribles Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Ma Douce Moitié

Juju (cause that is just such a cute nickname) and I had planned on going to Ma Douce Moitié about a month ago. She had already been and was excited for me to try it. I was totes excited. New restaurant? What! New brunch place? Whaaaaat! So we met there aaaand realized that they were freaking closed. And they were supposed to be open. Damn them. The cook came to tell us that it was to be closed all day. We cried only a little bit. OK, a lot. Seriously, it became a very embarrassing situation for us, with all the crying and what not. Anyhoot.

Hence, we decided to go back 2 days prior to Juju's departure back to Belgium (because Canada doesn't want her to stay but that's another [sob] story) and, surprise surprise, it was freaking open this time! Woohoo!!!
The place is oh-so-cute, the kind of cute that when you step in,you go 'aaaaw!'. It had old tables and a very cottagy feel, bronze ceilings, and wooden boxes on the walls. One thing I did not like were the tall faux-leather chairs. They did not go. No! Well, AND they were the same chairs that we had when I was with my ex so maybe they brought back some bad memories. Who knew an ugly leather chair could do that? I must divulge that the table was quite sticky, which obviously means that they never clean. Just kidding. They probably just forgot a spot, and they didn't know that a very highly ranked (yes, that's how I describe myself now) blogger was going to sit there next. 

Anyhoot, food looked awesome. Y'all know I have a special spot in my heart for awesome food :p A fun thing about their menu (btw, it had JUST changed... lucky us, we got first dibs) is that you can choose dishes OR you can choose to make your own dish with different components. We opted for the first one. We were going to share everything because we tight like that, you know!
How effin good does THIS look? Well, it looks like a freaking million dollars. That's a million dsolla plate right there! Maybe I'm getting over excited, I mean, it's only bread and fruit, right? Wrong! This, ladies and gents, is chai french toast. Chai french toast! CHAI french toast!!!! I can keep on saying it and it will still be as real! And thank the almighty Heysus for that, dsayum!!! First off, I have to say that this was the right amount of fruit, unlike when you go to Chez Cora and they give you a full watermelon. But who cares about fruit right now? The bread was soft in the middle, crunchy on the edges. The good kind of sugar crunch, you know? The caramelization across the nation oooooof the sugar. Yes, that made a lot of sense (might still be on a sugar high). The chai totally came through in such a nice and subtle way while remaining oh so present. There was some cinnamon in there too which kind of reminded me of Christmas. Let's face it, every time cinnamon is involved, Christmas comes to mind. It's a thing. It actually fit right in there with the chai! It was just such a special, NOT your run-of-the-mill pain doré that was that much more appreciated by Juju and I.
Eggs benedict with candied bacon. Hello. AND hello! Let me tell you a story about me and candied bacon:  it was love at first sight AND it's the kind of love that keeps on giving :) The hollandaise was thick and lovely but a tad under seasoned, the egg was a perfect 10 in all respects (runny yolk, tasty, buttery, smooth) and the bacon... OH the bacon. The bacon could only be described as better than heaven itself. That's right, I went there. And I'd go there again. It was crispy and salty and all that bacon-y goodness X 100. It wasn't your store-bought thin-ass bacon. No no no. It was thick and I could have eaten it like a sandwich. Or somethin. On the other side of the plate was an abomination called mesclun. Mixed salad shall never ever EVER be part of any meal I am enjoying. Is that understood?
House made scone. It was flaky, it was light, it was soft, it was awesome. I rarely order scones because of the dryness that many can't escape. But this one was a little piece of alright! Ya baby! And the blueberry jam, again, home made, was, well... great! I am in no way a fan of jams or anything fruity except for whole fruits. It's just not my thang, my cup-o-tea. I blame my dad's ex ex ex ex because she always used to make pies and I got oh so sick of them. This jam was as if they had just hand picked the blueberries. For realz yo! It tasted so fresh and not overly sweet. Fosho one of the best jams I've ever tasted.

Service was good: the waiter came about three times to see if we were ready to order, haha. It was quite difficult with so many yummy sounding dishes! We got water quickly and from then on, service was very homely. One thing that bugged me was that our empty plates stayed in front of us for what seemed like an eternity. I'm the kind of person that used to push her plate when I was done dinner so in a restaurant, please just get it away... I'm done AND I'm full!

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 7.5

With the arrival of their new menu and therefore a bunch of new and exciting things (that include bacon of course), I would totally be up for going back soon!


Ma Douce Moitié Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Patrice Patissier

Y'all know I'm a pig. I consider myself quite the glutton from time to time. I totes own it. I know I go overboard. Well, to continue in that same vein, I went to Patrice Patissier the other day. Whaaaat? I craved good pastries and... I craved good pastries! Oh, and it's a 3 minute ride from work. What!!!

At first, I wanted to try the whole shabang: lunch AND dessert. After further consideration, I decided to only do dessert because A: lunch is a tad pricey and B: obviously they are known for their desserts!
So this is what I could only describe as a fancy pâtisserie. There are many employees in the kitchen with chef hats looking all clean and professional and what not, making awesomeballz desserts. Patrice Pâtissier also do catering so that's why there were so many people working hard, I presume. The place itself is on the dark side, with dark wooden floors and grey walls and black chairs. There is a counter that can hold up to 6 peeps and the dining room, around 20 ish. Everything just looks flawless and impeccable. And that, ladies and gentlewomen, is a rare thing in the restaurant world. Oh you can trust me, I've been there (8 times), done that (I'm gonna go with 20 times).

I needed to taste more than one thing, of course. For the blog, you know! I do it all for you, duh.
I didn't go THAT overboard, right guys? I mean, something sweet and something not so sweet. This made me feel way better about the fact that I was having TWO desserts! Banana bread: one of the best I've had, hands down. OR hands up in celebration? Mmmmyes. The crust was just so tasty and crunchy with sunflower seeds and sesame seeds! And it made it THAT much healthier! Although effin awesome, was a tad on the salty side, which, in smaller portion would have been a nice balance, but it was a tad too much. The inside was so moist and I would actually get pieces of banana. Pieces. Of. Banana!

The Forêt Noire was just freaking right ON. Lemme get something straight: I am not a fan of fruity desserts nor do I go out of my way to order them. Except, of course, in this case. And look how fancy that looks! I should have bought one for all my friends! First off, the dreaded dessert fruit. It was... AMAZING. That cherry had just been picked out of a nearby tree... in Montreal! Ha... I swear! It was juicy and everything a cherry should be. And then some! The little pieces of chocolate on top were very delicate and I felt almost bad eating them. Oh but I did. And oh, it was good! Imagine great dark chocolate, but better. The chantilly was just out of this world. It was to die for. I would ACTUALLY die for that. Not too thick and so soft and smooth and AWESOME. The cake part was just heavenly: moist (I've been using that word---that I hate---way too much recently) and just plain tasty. There was a cherry gelée, that I would usually hate, that I found really nice and not jellied up. Does that make sense? The important thing is that I understand what I'M saying :p

Service was good, although it wasn't like in a restaurant per se. She was very welcoming, with her cute hat and all. She described the desserts very well and totally made my choice easier. I got myself some water at their little fountain thingy on the counter and that was just fine and dandy.

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 9

Oh I'm going back there. Just watch me!
Patrice Pâtissier Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato