Jardin de Panos

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack baby! Corsica was wonderful but more on that later :) First review: un resto où Isa et moi sommes allées pendant mon heure de lunch lundi passé (ah oui, l'école a recommencé!). Nous n'y avions pas vraiment pensé préalablement mais il n'y a vraiment pas beaucoup de restos ouverts le lundi midi. Alors notre philosophie s'est vite déclarée: let's find a resto that's opened and eat there.

So we found it: Le jardin de Panos... a greek(y) resto on Duluth between St-Denis and Parc Lafontaine. From outside, this place looks like a quaint little place but when you walk in, you discover that this place is HUGE! I mean about 250-300 seats huge! The decor is nothing special... kind of cheap looking and there are so many tables that you kind of get the cabane à sucre feel. There is a big terasse at the back holding up to about 80 to 100 seats (did I mention that this place was HUGE?).

Also good to know that it's a BYOW. Another thing that should be noted: no debit, only credit and cash).

Quaint looking resto!

We were, I believe, the first clients there for lunch (it was around 11h30!) and so obviously we got seats right away. It was a tad weird that we had to go through a portion of the kitchen to get to our section. Not sure how much I liked that! Également, la console proche de notre table était beaucoup trop grosse et beaucoup trop remplie! So many things were going on there!

We got our menus and it was a bit bizarre how, yes, there were greek dishes... but then a 'greek section'. Rapport! Why? We ARE in a greek resto, right? We got bread first and it was nicely warm, which I like. Anyhoot, we shared everything, as per usual. I had the lentil soup and the wife had tomato juice. Neither were good.... my soup resembled the one that you get dans une cabane a sucre (pour continuer le thème)... very thick and culinarily unsatisfying. We had the spanakopita as an entree: ok but lacking in taste. We then shared the moussaka and souvlaki. Those were the highlights of our meal. The souvlaki (not the sandwich, the plate) was nicely seasoned and, well, tasted like a souvlaki :) I had never tasted moussaka before... but the wife had and she said it was quite authentic. Good to know SOME things were authentic!

Desert: we had 4 or 5 choices and so picked the baklava and a chocolate cake. I THINK I can compare this cake to my 4th birthday choco cake: made of plastic chocolate. Seriously... vraiment pas bon. Needless to say, don't get the cake. The baklava was ok, but not great... again lacking a tad in taste.

By the end of our lunch, we didn't know who was serving us, I think we got 2 or 3 different servers. I'm NOT ok with that. One of the reasons being that communication then becomes messed up. Case in point, both came one after the other to ask us about coffee and desert...


And now, the scores:

Food: 6/10
Service: 6.5/10

I mean, this was pretty much the only resto opened on Duluth so we basically didn't have a choice. If you HAVE a choice, go to another resto.

La Prunelle

Coupons are back in my life :) I bought 2 coupons, 12$ each, worth 25$ (each) on vieurbaine. We made reservations at La Prunelle, this cute bring-your-own-wine french bistro on Duluth. Looking at the menu, it looked really nice and filled with good ideas and interesting pairings. The place itself is quite small (about 47 seats including the bar) and cozy. I can only imagine how it would be in the summertime with all the windows opened. We 'called in late' and they said no problem which was nice. When we arrived, the waitress showed us to our table at the window right away (and the only bad comments I'd heard about this place was the fact that, even with reservations, people had waited too long before getting a table, which obviously was not the case here). The ambiance in the resto was relaxed and chill, a little chit-chat here, a little chit-chat there :) The music was there but not TOO present so that we could still hear ourselves talk. When we got there, at around 7 and there a couple people in the restaurant and it filled up quite quickly. I would suggest making reservations if you intend on having dinner there!

The bubbly waitress brought us a bucket for the wine right away which was appreciated and explained the 'extras' that were on the board very thoroughly. We had water on the table as soon as we sat down and we found her very efficient. We had already discussed what we were going to have: the menu dégustation (which is basically table d'hôte including dessert...) for 48$ and one main. Right before getting our appetizer, we got our [cold] bread with [cold, hard] butter. :(

Pour l'entrée, nous avons commandé le tartare de filet mignon de boeuf, labneh fouetté au chipotle et chips maison. Mmmmmm! The spices were just right, with cumin and hints of cardamome. La coupe était inégale selon moi mais Isa ne partageait pas mon avis. Même si ce facteur était présent, le plat en tant que tel était vraiment délicieux, les chips juste assez croustillantes et robustes pour soutenir un peu de tartare et un peu de labneh (un genre de yogourt très gouteux, rehaussé avec un peu de sel). La présentation du plat était ravissante et invitante. Nous avons beaucoup apprécié l'entrée, est-ce que ça paraît?

And now, the main! Nous avons partagé le pavé de thon itsumo, salicorne de mer au vinaigre de citron et salade de quinoa aux légumes ainsi que le magret de canard de la canardière, caramel de cassis et vinaigre de groseille, gratin de Yukon Gold et patates douces. First thing that hit me when I touched my plate was that it was cold. And Isa's plate... was cold too. When you pay 30 $ for your plate, you expect it to be hot! The quinoa on my plate was really good and savoury and cooked to perfection. Topping the quinoa, there was some micro mesclun with flowers in it, very beautiful on a plate (my favourite: flowers on a plate! It brings such joy :) ) The tuna itself...At first I appreciated the tuna... pretty much raw in the center, nice colour. First bite was good but then I noticed that it was cold and that the texture where it was cooked didn't feel right. It seemed like they cooked it in advanced and then 'finished' it up right before serving. A tad disapointing.

As for the magret de canard, it was well cooked and had a nice little balsamic/fruits des champs reduction type sauce. Very savoury, very nice on the palate! Tiny courgettes and zucchinis were there as accompaniments along with the Yukon Gold and sweet potato gratin. The miniature veggies were the perfect bite size but according to ze wife, the ratio of sweet potato and potato was 1:5.

We shared the dessert: gâteau au fromage rose blanche, sirop d'érable, beurre et rhum. This was a nice end to our dinner. Very tasty, especially with the maple syrup. The butter and the rhum added a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to it all. The plate was a tad dirty which was disapointing. You could actually see fingerprints on it.

You can't pay debit which kind of sucks so watch out! Bring cash or credit!

The scores:

Service: 9/10
Food: 7.5/10 it was just a tad disapointing overall considering the high prices

Going on a date? Go there!! It's nice, good service, nice ambiance, good times!


ps: Just a little reminder: if you want to go to the restos' websites, click on the title and it should bring you there!