Queue de poisson

I loves me a good fish n' chips! I had already eaten at La Queue de Poisson a couple years ago but since I went with my aunt, I didn't write a review. Ya, I can be nice, you know! Anyhoot, Em and I were looking for a nice little lunch spot after gym one day and we didn't have to go very far. 28 steps to be exact. I am lying, of course.

The place is really cute. First of all, you feel like you're on a boat. I will forever remember the 'I'm on a boat' ad for Old Spice. I wanna watch it over and over and OVER. But enough about tv. They have about 30 seats and, as I mentioned, it was like we were in the ocean. Which, btw, is a pretty freaking good place to be. There was no music, but we didn't really care because we were right at the window, so we had some noise happenin' on the street. What's also very cool is that it's basically a fish shop. That's pretty damn awesome.

We shared one order of fish and chips, because a: we're poor and b: we weren't THAT hungry. We had the fried cod: moist AF and oh so tasty! We actually regretted sharing one portion of fish for a moment. Ya, it was THAT good. By the by, the fish was SO fresh: he legit took it from the display at the front and battered it up. The fries were crunchy and crispy and the salad was great. Yep. It's rare that I say that about a salad. It was just so simple and well done: lettuce with some marinated red onions and colored carrots. The carrots and the onions brought a bit of sweetness to it all and the vinaigrette was just present enough. All in all, a great little dish.

Service was OK. Took a while for him to take our order and then a while for us to get our meal. He was the only guy there AND he was taking care of the orders too, so I get it (but I don't). We had water quickly, so at least that's one good thing hahaha. He WAS a nice boy tho, very smiley, which is always appreciated.

And now, les scores!

Food: 9
Service: 6

Awesome fish n' chips: ya, imma be back!

Over the Edge

Rachie poo and I were on our way to Rum Point, a very popular beach on the other side of Grand Cayman. I went there last year and had loved it so, hello, we had to go back again. On the way, there aren't that many open restaurants, especially on a Monday. We stopped by Over the Edge, this resto on the side of the Caribbean Sea. No biggie. The view was excruciatingly wonderful. Ugh. can I move here already?

The place itself was half bar, half restaurant, with a beautiful terrasse out back. Wow. Wow. Woooooow! I cannot say that enough. Wow! OK, that was the last one (in this paragraph). Being a Monday and not busy... at all, we sat at a prime spot on the terrasse, overlooking the Caribbean Sea in all its glory. F*******ck! Wow! OK, sorry, that was the last one.

Just had to show you another view from the restaurant. DAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!

The waitress brought us some fried bread before we ordered and sh*t f*ck sh*t (sorry about all the swearing, kids), they were AWESOME!!! I'm gonna call them little bubbles of happiness. Yes. I'm gonna do that. With a bit of butter, holy f*ck sh*t f*ck man that was good. I hope I'm making myself clear here. Wow. So good and soft and... bready? Hahaha! But seriously.

We started with the best: conch fritters. When I first visited Rachie poo and her husband Carl, I ate some good conch fritters and was aching to eat some more! The fritters were awesome: very moist, and actually tasted like conch! You know, when sh*t is fried, sometimes it doesn't taste like much. They served them with somewhat of a tartar sauce that was oh-so-tasty and just a bit sour, going perfectly with them fritters. All I's gotta say is YUM!

We are on a mudslide quest, judging which one is the best on the island... like last time. Mudslides are everywhere, and we must taste ALL of them. This one, I believe, won the vacation. It was very alcoholic (hello!), the whipped cream was perfect and hello, chocolate! Yum AND yum! One would even say 'DANG'. In caps, of course, because it's THAT good. 

The main: cod and ackee, a Jamaican staple. The plate was HUGE and fully loaded. The potatoes were perfect and plentiful, to say the least. The rice and beans (a BIG staple in Jamaican cuisine), was perfect: rice was cooked to perfection and the beans too. Such a nice dish!!! The plantain, well, hello, it's plantain!!! I have never had bad plantain. Maybe because I love it so much! The ackee. Oh, the ackee. The ackee, the national fruit of Jamaica, was good. It was good. But it was mixed in with reeeaaaally salty and fishy cod. Ugh. I had the taste in my mouth for 3 days. Not good. NOT good.

Service was good: the waitress was very nice and fast but didn't ask us if we liked our meal. Meh.

And now, the scores!

Food: 6.5

Service: 7.5

Who knows, we might go back next time I come to Cayman, but I will FOR SURE not be having the ackee, you best believe it!

Barcola Bistro

I was invited by the owner of Barcola Bistro a couple weeks back. First thing she said was that she'd been reading my blog and loved it. Well, let me get my freaking #2 food blogger in MTL ass down there, and quick! I invited my lunch time buddy, the Asian persuasion man himself, Jer, to join me.

Barcola Bistro is located on Parc, in the mile-end, right at the cusp of Outremont. Just by looking at it from outside, it looked like such a cute place! A place I really wanted to eat at. A place, I'd later find out, I'd be at all the time if it were closer to my apartment. Damn it. A place, by the by, Anne-Marie Lortie has written rave reviews about. What! Anyhoot, the owner/chef is from Trieste, located in the North East of Italy, on the Adriatic coast. Ps, with my new Transat benefits, I'm heading there, pronto! They opened a bit over two years ago. The chef, Fabrizio, is Italian (duh) and his wife, Danielle, is the nicest person EVER. I'm being serious here. She came to greet us and throughout the meal, was very present, and after our meal, came to sit down so we could chat for a good 30 minutes. Now THAT's good customer service!

Barcola's menu changes twice a day. TWICE. It kind of reminded me of my old fave resto (this, obviously, is my new one), Olivieri, in Côte-des-Neiges. Fresh products and fresh ideas. DEEEElicious dishes. To be honest, I totally fell in love with this place.

Inside, it looks great: dark walls, with black and white pictures, big mirrors, long banquettes, vintage lamps and lots of wood. Some soft music was playing, which made it that much more charming.

WOW! This was lovely. LOVELY! We both tasted it and we both went 'mmmm' (X10). It was the perfect dish. I, not being a strong cheese lovah like gorgonzola, decided to have this as somewhat of a challenge. Well, I dsidn't regret it one bit. This dish was full of surprises! Cheese, pistachio, ginger gelée, caramelized pears. WOW! I really can't stop saying that. The pear was perfect and not overly sweet. The bread was perfectly grilled. The gorgonzola was soft and yummy and had a touch of citrus, which made it that much better. Fresh pistachio right on top gave it a nice texture, without being too salty. The ginger jam was not too ...gingery. Just a touch. Now, that was an awesome dish. One to tell the grand kids about. Or, I guess, my nephews and niece :p Seriously, all those ingredients i'd never thought would marry well, did! Hats off, chef. Hats off.

Celeriac purée with green beans. OK, this sounds much better in french! Purée de céleri rave avec haricots verts. Yes, much better. That purée was so soft and smooth. The haricots verts were cooked to perfection and the bread was nice and slightly buttered. A drizzle of oil to finish it off and you've got yourself a winner. The only thing we both found was lacking was a tad bit more salt. That's it that's all.

Artichoke and shrimp risotto. You had me at shrimp. I'm sure you guys would've guessed that one. How beautiful is that risotto? Cooked in artichoke stock, it had taken on the green hue of the vegetable. How many of you can say they've eaten a green risotto? I'm guessing 0.2. My face pretty much lit up when Danielle brought this to our table. With some charred artichoke, some pieces of shrimp and a pinch of parmesan, this dish was flawless. The risotto itself tasted very herbal and a hint of lemon could be detected through all that yumminess (technical term, of course). I would've liked more shrimp, but even if you gimme a mountain of shrimp, I'd still want more.

Cod with purée de pommes de terre and chickory. The cod was nicely charred, and, in all seriousness, was flaking just by looking at it. Cross my heart, hope to die! The potatoes were awesome (what ISN'T awesome here...) and moist but maybe a tad too much liquid had made it's way in there. The chicory, which, by the by, I neva eva run into (on the street, you know), was very earthy, a bit on the hard side, but nice and peppery. Again, every ingredient went very well with one another.

Nocciolino n' coffee. Y'all know I ain't a coffee fan. I've tried it, many a times, and I just cannot dso it. CAN'T do it. But this was different. Nocciolino is basically nutella but WHHHHAY better. You nutella and coffee lovers out there, just imagine your too favourite things, put together. Hello. It was a hazelnut explosion. That's one of the best explosion I know. Actually, the first thing that came to mind when I took my first bite was this: holy f*ck. Yes, I can be very vulgar when it comes to food. Cocoa powder mixed with hazelnut= creamy loveliness. I could drink that all day. ALL. DAY.

Chocolate cake oh ma gawd. This had the perfect level of sweetness. And thickness. The whipped cream was perfect and the chocolate dust on top was just heavenly. Can you tell I liked it? There was some fig purée to add that extra fruity element. We ate this in 2.5 seconds flat.

Panna Cotta with berries and nuts. The layer of berries was just a tad too sweet for me but I loved the nuts that added a nice crunch to it all. The panna cotta was very cold and super smooth. It was the most excellent panna cotta I've ever tasted. Granted I haven't yet tasted 25, but still. The nuts, on top of adding some texture, added another aspect to the dessert that was lovely. The taste of the pistachios in there fit with the fruit. Every ingredient in this dish was welcomed in ma mouth. Even the berries! Ps: I'm not an uber fan of fruits in dessert, so this is a step!

Service was right on par throughout the meal. We got a great welcome and Danielle explained everything to us and made us taste stuff like the nocciolino, that I would have never tasted otherwise. The wine service was ITHQ grade (there's no other way!) and our water glasses were always full because we had a bottle on our table (oh so important and THE way to do it, in my book). She was just so lovely. I would've put her in my pocket and brought her home with me. We never thought for a moment that we weren't taken care of.

And now, the scores!!

Food: 9.2 (because I can)

Service: a well deserving 10

As I've mentioned, this is hands (AND everything else) down. My new fave resto. And although I rarely go back to the same restaurant, oh, I WILL go back to Barcola!

Tapas 24

My friend Shar's boyfriend is one of the chefs at Tapas 24. You know what that means, right? Ya you do! Ah, free food. Wait. Ah, awesome free food. Hold on. Ah, awesome free tapas! OK, I'm done. But seriously.

Tapas 24 is a restaurant with high ceilings, lots of wood, and a huge and thick AND expensive looking marble bar. It has an open kitchen on the first floor and I've been told there's another one upstairs (hey, I'll have to see it to believe it!). The owner used to be Sébastien Benoît, the Québécois comedian and he has sold it to an actual manager. Who is very present. And, I gotta say, looks a bit scary. I'm sure Shar would disagree because she is always there, gettin' free shtuff, so he can't be that bad! 

I had already been with Shar and a couple friends but hadn't written a review, which is SO unlike me! This time, I was gonna get it, get it good!

Anchovies atop avocado with some xeres vinegar and coriander sprouts. I really loved the xeres in there and the avocado was just perfect. The anchovies were really tasty but a tad too salty for my taste. I was still surprised that I loved this dish so much because I'm not usually a big fan of the anchovy persuasion. 

Oysters. Ah, oysters: a love story. I used to just not want to ever taste those bad boys and now I can't get enough! These are the freshest damn oysters I've ever had. And I've had oysters. That's right. Two had leche de tigre (lemon, fish stock, chilis...) and raspberry, which sounded weird but tasted awesome and sweet. The other two had kombu, ponzu and fish eggs on top. Wow, dem cooks know how to find a winning tasty combo! I couldn't even tell you which one I preferred.

Bacalao croquette or cod croquette. All I's gotta say about this is damn girl! Like, fo realz. With that maple syrup sauce? Holy effin Heysus! Ya, that good. They were moist and tender and not dry like some croquettes tend to be. That sauce added the finishing touch to one of the best bites of the night.

A bad picture. Uh, I mean, the shroom plate. Button mushroom, enoki and oyster mushroom with a pine nut emulsion and chestnut crumble. The button mushroom were perfection (you never hear that when referring to those mushrooms) and were engorged with flavour. The enoki were cooked just right, for a second or two. Those bad boys are easy to overcook because they are so tiny. The oyster mushrooms were somethin' else. WOW! It was like eating a very expensive piece of meat. Fo serious, guys! I do NOT kid when it comes to food. The sauce was nice and you could actually taste the pine nuts in there but there was a bit too much of a good thing. The crumble added a nice texture to it all and married well with all the shroomy flavors!

Endives with oranges, dates, blue cheese, almonds. This was new on the menu and I'm damn happy about it! The endives could not have been more fresh! The falvours were a match made in heaven even if at first glance, I was like whaaaa? I also noticed the blue cheese which I am NOT a fan of. Normally. This time, it was just so great in there and not as strong, which helped the liking. The nuts added a crunch and the dates added a certain sweet side to counter the blue cheese's salty side! It was just on the ball.

Clams with artichokes, dry xeres wine and Spanish ham. The artichokes were right on. No canned artichokes here. Just the real stuff, which, by the by, is great. Do you even know how long it takes to cut an artichoke to get to the heart? And also, there's the annoyance level. Hahaha. Can you tell I hated doing this while at ITHQ? The clams were very tasty and had absorbed all that yummy hammy (haha) juice. Haaaaaam juice. The ham was a tad salty and the whole dish bordered on over salty but did not reach it. It was close though. It. Was. Close.

 Patatas bravas with aioli and salsa brava. This was a bit too much. A tad unnecessary. Shar's bf's 'excuse' for bringing us this was that we needed something to soak up that awesome clam juice. Damn it, he was right. The potatoes were actually crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and moist: just how you would describe THE perfect fries. The salsa brava had a nice smoky aspect to it and the aioli was very tasty. We didn't finish this: there was more to eat!

Chocolate fritters. Oh. My. Effin. Double-effin. God. 70% dark chocolate. This was my kind of dessert! I don't even think I need to explain how good this was. But seriously, these little balls were full of melting hot chocolate. Aaaaaand scene!

El pomelo. Another new item on the menu. This was multi-layered. Mmmkay, so you have the grapefruit, right? And then, you have a pistachio parfait. And THEN, you have pieces of grapefruit. And to finish it off, you have whipped cream flavoured with camomile. Wow. I am not usually a fan of fruity desserts and this just made my day! Pistachio parfait was just perfect and actually was a perfect match with the grapefruit. Who would have thought? And don't get me started on that whipped cream. The camomile was subtle, just as it should be. Lemme just say it's a good thing this is on their new menu! Lemme also tell you that I was one of the first ones to try it. This is when I stick out my tongue :p

Service was just wonderful. We were seated at the bar so we had Sara's full attention. That's right, I got her name. We're going out next week. Damn it, I lied, we're not. She served us wine all evening (all 4 glasses---each!) and as soon as we were done a dish, she would take it away. We also had the maitre d' bring us new plates/utensils in a very timely fashion and our glasses of water were always full. Shar's bf came out whenever we got a new dish to check up on us. Well, AND to give her a kiss but that was just sweet :)

And now, wait for it, the scores!

Food: 9

Service: 10

I have a feeling I'll be going back. And I will be the last one to complain!

Bitoque

I did a summer internship in a '5 star' hotel kitchen in Corsica 4 years ago. It's hard to beat that summer: it rained a grand total of about 5 hours over 3 months. And I met Emy. Even if she is over 10 years younger than I am, her and I bonded and it was so much fun traveling with her to neighboring villages and what not. But enough about the best summer EVER, let's talk restaurant! Her and her boyfriend are in town for a couple weeks and after spending Sunday together perusing Montreal, I was looking for a good restaurant to eat at. In my hood (sud-ouest), not that many places are open on Sunday. Seriously, sometimes it seems like only a handful are open. We chose Bitoque for 3 reasons. 1- I LOVE Portuguese food. 2- It's BYOW 3- Well, it was open!

Bitoque is located right where every other restaurant in MTL is located. Living here, I can bet you that at least 1.2 (this is a very specific number, as you can tell) restaurants open every 1.4 weeks (again, very specific!). I don't even need to get out of my hood to go eat, and I could do so every day for a good 2 months. I swear.

The restaurant is actually quite big, way bigger than what you would think from the outside. Its décor is sort of mixed, which I wasn't too fond of: different artists painted different paintings and they did not match at all. Brick wall here, old booth there, it was a mix and match kind of situation.

We decided on only tapas, which suited me just well. I loves me many small dishes, so I can try lots of different dishes! The menu suggests (yes, the menu can talk) we have 2 per person so just to be sure, we ordered 7. Something that must (yes it MUST) be mentioned is that on their tapas menu, some items have * besides them and those aren't available on weekends. When we asked, we were told that yes, they were available on Sunday. This makes me rethink the whole concept of weekends. I mean, can we say that Friday and Saturday is the weekend? Why not Tuesday and Wednesday. You know, life is full of difficult dilemmas and questions. And THAT, kids, was my thought of the day.

We were absolutely and positively starving when we got there so imagine my face when they start us off with tiiiiny little olives. Well, I devoured them. It was like I was on a deserted island and I had just found a fruit or something. You know that feeling? :D I also devoured the warm bread they brought us. The loveliness of the warmth was somewhat ruined by the fact that they put it on the table with butter in a cup. Butta in a cup. Butta. Cup. Come ooon! In a cafeteria, yes. In a restaurant, no!

Grilled sardines. I used to loathe sardines. I remember, in grade 4, Ed used to bring a little box of sardines for lunch and whenever he would open it up, half the class would start gagging. But I've learned to know that those were tiny, insignificant. ugly, stinky sardines. When I visited Portugal, I ate real mamas. And dem mamas were good. Makes no sense but y'all know what I'm saying! These sardines were packed with lemon and pepper and were nice and crispy. They were a bit dry but I think the flavours made up for it.

Tapa do dia OR tapas of the day: shrimp and chorizo. We were three, there were two shrimp. Not cool man, not cool. The chorizo was amazeballs. A-MAZE-BALLZ. It was juicy, it was spicy, it was screaming to be eaten. And be eaten it was! The shrimp were of a disappointing size. I'm a shrimp girl (some would even call me Bubba... OK.. no one ever called me that) and I know good shrimp. There was also some pepper and onion that were perfectly cooked and quite garlicky which fits me just perfectly. I loves me some garlic and I loves me some onion! Basically, I love all the stuff that will make me stink. Maybe that's why I'm still single.

Cherry tomatoes with basil and goat cheese. First of all, hello lactose. Or more like hello indigestion. Let's just say I sacrifice my stomach's health a lot when I go out to eat in restaurants. The tomatoes were hot as f*ck, the basil obviously went well with them and the cheese was lovely and soft. It was good but it wasn't special. By that, I mean I could have cooked that exact dish at home. If I can say that, I usually don't order it.

Piri-Piri mussels. I love good mussels. I am a fan. These were OK. They weren't big enough and sometimes I'd have to look really hard to see if there was one in the shell. OR maybe I just need to get new glasses! The sauce was what I loved and the chorizo. Wow! Seriously, chorizo in all the dishes was BANG on. Totes. That spicy loveliness in a spicy sauce. Mmmmmm! My lips were screaming out but I did not care! In the end, I was just scooping up that sauce with an empty shell. F*ck the mussels, I want the sauce!

Veal and pork meatballs with tomato sauce and parmesan. It was tasty and moist but nothing special and that salad... What in the holy hell was that salad doing there? I hate filler salads! And on top of the filler salad, a piece of caramelized apple. Why? Why I ask you.

Cod croquette on wakame with aioli. I need to know one thing: is wakame in any way Portuguese? Any way? That's what I thought. It was good, actually one of the best wakame I've tasted (I am not a fan) but why? The croquettes were a bit dry and I felt like there were still many fish bones in there which made it quite unpleasant to eat. It was like 'when will I choke?'

Pulled chicken poutine. See the fries? No? That's because there were 4. And they were old and soggy. I'm already not a poutine fan so giving me crappy fries really doesn't help here! The chicken was, AGAIN, on the dry side and the sauce reminded me way too much of the narsty brown sauce that is usually on that bad 'regular' very Québécois poutine. It was just not as good as expected. I'm kind of sad about it actually. Imma gonna go cry now.

Service was very good and efficient at first but as it always tends to do, became slower when more people came in. We had water on our table 3 seconds after sitting down and our wine bottle was uncorked 1 minute later. We were very warmly welcomed and our waiter was quite patient (we didn't know what we wanted to eat at first). He changed our plates many times throughout the meal and although he seemed new to the service world, he did a great job. Pat on back.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 8

Imma gonna go ahead and say (again) that there are 8000 units of restaurants I need to try so I'll get back to Bitoque when those are done (and hopefully, sh*t won't be as dry).

Portus Calle

This restaurant has been on my to go list for a while, especially since I went to Helena last year and was just amazed by the tasting menu. Sooooo when a benefactor gave me 250$ to 'enjoy good food and have fun' (heeeeeelllls yes!), I called Portus Calle right away.

I was going with my friend Rach, who was here on vacation from them Cayman Islands (lucky bastard), and she was pleased with my choice of resto.

We got a very pleasant welcome by the maitre-d' that showed us to our very lovely table close to the window. The place itself is quite big... lots of room at the bar and even more room in the brick walled dining room. Portuguese music was playing, which was a nice change from let's say a Mexican restaurant playing 95.9 (ok... I'm not aware of the radio stations here.... but let's just say I was happy it wasn't pop music!). It was very cozy and cute.

Since everything on the menu looked great, and we were about to order every damn thing on there, our waiter suggested the tasting menu for 55$ each. OH YES!

We started out with a glass of Porto, because hey, with that money in my pockets, we could! Ha! It wasn't too strong and went down well. If I had to, I'd have no difficulty drinking that all night! We wanted to have some vinho verde with our meal but the one we wanted was not available so we went with white wine.

Alrighty, fooooooooooood (enter drooling here). First was chorizo aioli (hello!), olives, olive oil, bread and tuna rillettes with daikon. Hum, yum! Tuna melted in your mouth but tasted a tad like it came out of a can, the aioli was damn wonderfully greatness and had just a touch of spiciness! The olives were great but the bread.... meh... it was a tad too dry for my taste. Ps: wine service was ITHQ worthy and perfectly executed.

Uh, hello tuna, is it me you're looking for? I really liked the plating on this one. Very modern and Picasso like (what? I dabble!). The crab salad was great and kind of sweet and had somewhat of a rice cracker to add some crunch. Breaded tuna looked like it was going to be a warm offering but alas, it was cold. Still yummy, but cold. The tuna tataki was melt-in-your-mouth good with a nice sesame crust and a wonderful tartar sauce. I could not have asked for more. Totally woke up my taste buds!

Ok, who knew warm tomatoes and goat cheese could be this good? It was a nice take on the bocconcini and tomato salad, but 100 times better. Flavours just popped right in my mouth. Man, this was good, yet so simple!

Cod cakes. I've had them before and I'll have them again... these were good but a tad too potato-y but I loved the sauce which was quite spicy.

OK, obviously this picture doesn't do it justice, but this octopus was WOW. Like, wow WOW! Fak! Perfect 'cuisson'. Puuuurrrrrrfect. Plus, the fried kale and the white beans were great with it. It's as if they were born together. Seriously. This was a good one.

Scallop with bacon 'chips' on top and lima bean puree with a cranberry and onion confit. OK, you guys know by now that's I'm a sucker for seafood but this was something else! The mix of flavours was to dssssiiiie for and the bacon chip? Well, I was aware that bacon could taste THAT good (yes, I'm aware it's freakin good!). Oh and that puree was so smooth and so tasty and well seasoned! Nothing bad to say about this at all.

You must also know that apart from lobster, shrimp is at the top of my list. Since the good old summer days in Maine when I was 6 and eating an actual PILE of shrimp, they have been my fave. They were garlicky spicy buttery unctuous goodness. Most importantly, perfectly cooked.

Pork cheek with aubergine puree. The veggies were cooked to perfection and the meat was so tender, so soft, melted in your mouth. It was perfection, basically.

Our desert. Well hello there, how you doin'? First off, the pasteis de nata was exactly like it was when I tasted it in Portugal about 3 years ago. Hoooooolly! The truffles were good and dsamn good: the chocolate one was good but a bit too fruity for my taste and the champagne one... well hello champagne! It was so airy and right on. The panacotta had some sap and herbs in there and made it absolutely delicious. The last desert on the right was such a nice surprise: many stories of fluffy egg whites and caramel. The whole desert plate was just didily damn good!

We had one last glass of porto to finish off the meal. What??? We were rich that night :) If we had known it was going to be 20$ a glass, I don't think we would have had it but hey, we were on vacation! It was even better than the first one.

Service was wonderful: great wine service as previously mentioned, we always had water in our glasses, plates were taken away and brought to our table in a timely fashion.

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 9.5

What a great experience! When I have the cash, I'm going back for sure!