Aloha café

How cute does that sound? Who wouldn't want to go to Aloha Café? I went last week with my coworker who likes all things Hawaiian and possibly related to surfing (like September Surf Café for example  http://www.eatingoutmontreal.com/2016/05/september-surf-cafe.html) to see what this place was about.

You literally feel like you're in another world when you get inside: bright wallpaper with red flowers, wooden everything, colours and more colours. There's no way you can feel sad, or mad, or bad, when you step foot inside Aloha Café. Even the name should make you smile! We would have liked more surf-y music, if that is a thing; it was a bit too much on the chill side. Their wallpaper is ON POINT: very islandy!

I'm always inclined to get hot chocolate in new cafés because I tell myself that hey, if they are coffee experts, they must also care about their hot chocolate. Sometimes, I am wrong. It wasn't hot enough (hello, it's in the title), it had a nice foam goin' but not enough flavour. All in all, a bit disappointing.

Carrot and ginger soup. I love that mix! It could have been hotter and there could have been less herbes de provence. It was a bit overpowering. Still one of my fave mix of flavours though.

Volcano sandwich. They make their own focaccia, which is pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me. It was a cloud-like bread. This is le top du top: a bread you can float on. I swear I didn't take any hallucinogens. So soft and lovely and fresh. YUM! This sandwich had porchetta, caper aioli, grilled eggplant and zucchini, and arugula. A nice little mix o' flavas. This sandwich was niiiiice. I would have liked more aioli because I'm just a sucker for garlicky things, as you may know. I also didn't really taste the capers in the aioli. I absolutely loved the grilled veggies and the meat was fatty and delicious and there was lots of it! A sandwich hit!

Waikiki sandwich. First of, best name ever: 'I'll have the Waikiki please'. Man, that sounds awesome. It was a bit on the wtf side o' things: sardines, hard boiled egg, capers and fine herbs. It was...weird. The anchovies and eggs were a mix that I'm not used to and there was too much dill in there. On the good side of things, the egg was marinated and that was f*ckin' awesome. The sandwich was a bit on the dry side compared to the other one. Not as much of a hit.

We just HAD to share the matcha croissant. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!! That's actually why I wanted to go there in the first place! So basically, you gots a green croissant...It looks a bit bizarre but soon you don't really care because it's IN YO MOUTH. It has a praline mousse with matcha with most likely some kind of food coloring because it was as green as well watered grass (wow, what a comparison) . The paste (or mousse if you prefer) was thick and the croissant, fresh and tasty. It was very yummy, as the experts put it, but the matcha wasn't present enough. I guess that might be a good thing...'I'll have a tea croissant please'. Ya, it IS strange. It was still good tho. Croissants are ALWAYS good. Always.

Service was not so super. We were rather disappointed, actually. It is a new establishment and they should really get their act together! I feel like a teacher telling a student they did something bad. But seriously. On top of it, they were no less than about 6 people working there with about 6 patrons. AND 'our' girl just talked to a friend for the better part of our visit. We had to ask for water and YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT. Also, no one asked if we liked our food OR if we would like to order anything else after having finished our meal. You are there to make money, people...act like it! This is no way to run a business. OK, I feel like I'm being a bit (a lot) harsh... but it's for your own good :)

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 6

If I go back, it'll be for that sandwich.

Pub St-Paul

Disclaimer: I AM aware that the pics suck. I just couldn't transform them all and put everyone on Instagram through this.

I got invited to eat at Pub St-Paul right before Christmas. It was a nice little invite that explained precisely what was included in our free invite. Believe it or not, this is nice because I don't know how many times I got to a resto invitation and it was all confusing and baffling and complicated. And yes, I am aware that all those words mean pretty much the same damn thang.

I brought one of my faves, Daiz, and we waited. And waited some more. AND some more. Finally, the people that looked like the owners came to say that it was really busy with all the Christmas parties and what not and that we would be seated at the bar. Yay. And yes, if you are wondering, that IS sarcastic.

The place looks huge, with lots of televisions (it IS a sports bar after all) and screaming people everywhere. Still had a nice ambiance. I mean, let's face it, peeps be drinkin'. Everything seemed to be made of wood. I bet that even the toilet bowls were made of wood. Hahaha. Let's be serious here. There were pool tables, casino games and foosball. Un vrai bar, quoi!

We sat at the bar and for a good 5 minutes and nothing happened. Except the waitress just not talking to us. I'll hand it to her, she was uber busy. I get it. Duh. But, damn it, I got invited, serve me food. Please? On top of it, we were starving. And eating at that bar was not seeming very comfy. Argh. I hate not being comfortable when I eat, you know? Riiiight? Kinda felt like those old McDonalds with the super hard plastic seats that made you want to leave within 20 minutes of sitting down. Those.

We could get one drink FO free, so we both had a glass of wine. Basically, you have the house wine, that is, let's face it, made for sangria, and then you have the others. I usually don't like the house wine and Daiz either so we opted for a glass of white (for me) and red (for her). I'm not sure if they mixed it up or something but that wine tasted like no crap i've ever tasted before. I kid. But not really.

We ordered minestrone as a pre-entree. Remind me to never buy canned minestrone. Ya, it was canned. Canned soup. They gave us canned soup. Nuff' said. The only good thing about that soup was that it was hot.

As an entree, I got the crevettes gratinées au fromage avec ail. Y'all know how I feel about shrimp; they are simply the loves of my life. And I do appreciate a nice garlic shrimp now and again. But this was overly garlicky and, if it's possible, overly cheesy. I mean, I could pull a string of cheese for a meter before it broke. Too cheesy. Oh, and I had bad breath for 8 days. I MAY be exaggerating.

Daiz had the calamari. She was excited. It quickly faded. They tasted like they'd been deep fried 3 times and they were quite greasy. Also, they were cooked unevenly, which meant that some were good and some had the consistence of plastic. Mmmmm, plaaaaastic. And by the by, this was too bif for an appetizer. Cut it in half; there's your appetizer!

Daiz got the flank steak. And she'd been waiting for that flank steak. Her mouth was watering, people. And then, they bring out.... drum roll please...an uber thin filet of beef. You should've seen the disappointment on her face, poor little one. On top of it, when she ordered the steak, they actually asked her how she liked it. She said she liked it rare.  That piece of meat, as soon as it hit the pan, was over cooked because it was so thin. No such thing as rare here. There was a pepper sauce that was not as bad as anticipated but still had some chunks of I don't know what in there. Ugh.

I had the ribs. Ah, ribs. I make a mean rack o' ribs. You know what, they kind of saved the night. The sauce was too thick and too sweet for my taste but they were better than anything I had tasted in the evening. The ribs could have stood a bit more time in the oven to make them more tender. The caesar salad was too cheesy and the croutons were too hard. The fries were not bad but could have been a tad crispier. To be honest, I didn't even finish my ribs. That's how awesome the food was. And YES, I'm being sarcastic.

Dessert! It was bound to save the day! I believe they had three or four choices. One was  pudding chomeur... so... no. Daiz had the VERY store-bought (I'm talkin' grocery store here) cheese cake. It was OK. Not good, not narsty. The whipped cream saved the day. Let's face it, whipped cream always does. It was a very dense cake that could have broken a brick if thrown correctly. I swear.

I ordered the fondant mainly because I hadn't had one since my Juliette et Chocolat days. Aaaaaaand, nothing was fondant. Nothin'. The supposed melting part in the middle was just hard chocolate. Argh. Take the extra couple minutes and melt the damn thing.

Service was below par all evening. We sat and we waited. And then, we waited some more for the waitress/bartender who was right in front, to notice us. It took her a while to find the drinks menu and even longer to find the food menu. Hey, it's a good thing I'm on Tinder because at least we could look at the choice of ladies in Montreal while waiting for our 'food' to come out. Tinder: you might find the girl of dreams while waiting an eternity for your food. That's a bad slogan. Hey, I'm on flu meds and feeling woozy. Don't judge me. Our water was barely refilled throughout the evening and although I totes understood the fact that they were really busy, I feel like the girl was not doing such a great job. Oh, and I should've been advised that there were going to be a sh*t load of Christmas parties because we would have picked another evening. I felt so bad: when we were leaving, the owner said he was sorry it was so busy and how did we enjoy the food. Yish.

And now, the scores!

Food: a very nice 4.5

Service: an even nicer 5.5

No.

Xavier Artisan

I was invited to try Xavier Artisan. OK, so this means nothing to half of you but for me, it meant that a: I touched base with one of the biggest restaurant groups in Montreal and b: I could talk about my blog AND get invited to restaurants on top of it.

At XA, pretty much everything is homemade so that's about plus 8 points in my books. And it looks good. They make simple look good. Fresh and good. Yummy and fresh and good. Aaaand you catch my drift. On top of it, and everyone should know this about XA, they give all their day's worth of leftovers to Old Mission Brewery when they close up shop. They're like the little angel of Old Montreal. The smart little angel: generosity AND awesome PR! Smart, smart, smart!

XA has a huge space, right smack in the Place d'Armes in front of the basilique Notre-Dame. I mean, there's about 4 million tourists there every freakin' day. Even if a small fraction of those tourists decide to hit XA, they will make a small fortune. It's half lofty with those uber high ceilings and exposed pipes and half French bistro with the wooden shelves and pantry and cute, really well labeled homemade products displayed everywhere you look.

How it works is that you can either pick salads, cold sandwiches, homemade beverages and desserts from the self-serve fridges or you can get warm sandwiches and ice cream at the counter. I was told to ask for Geneviève, the manager I can only presume, and she turned out to be such a delight! Sometimes, I think about how my OWN restaurant would be like and there's no doubt in my mind that I'd need a Geneviève to welcome the clients. She was very professional, yet really friendly, showed us everything and also told us a bit of the restaurant itself. I'd pay her around 49 THOUSAND dollars... an hour :)

Mint tea. It was unsweetened, which made it that much better. Cooled tea is one of my fave summer drinks! Well, fave summer drink that does not include alcohol (that's a mojito!)! The mint was very present and aaaaawesome! Can you tell I like mint: MINT tea, Mo-MINT-jito?

Salade supergreen et féta. This was so cute! They had me with all that green shtuff. I like me my green shtuff. And I LOVE me some edamame. You don't see those enough! The brocoli was nice and crunchy, the cheese was soft and just salty enough aaaand the greens were mesclun. Why? Why you do dis to me? So apart from the mesclun, which you guys know I dislike at the same level as dog poo on my front steps (what?), it was a very tasty and healthy salad. The vinaigrette could have been a tad less on the vinaigre-y side but it was still very good.

We also decided (we=Jer) to try their home made chips, not pictured because it was just THE worst pictures in the history of chip pictures. They were crunchy and tasty and although the transparent spots on the bag would say otherwise, not that greasy.

The Montrealer: smoked meat, provolone cheese, pickle, cured red onion, home made mustard on whole wheat bread. To paint you a picture of how much I used to dislike smoked meat, when I'd go with my dad or friends that 'needed to try Schwartz', I'd eat fries and a pickle. No smoked meat for me. This one was different and easily approachable. Hahaha! By that, I mean it wasn't as strong, I guess. The pickle was right on and the onion made all the difference when it came to that perfect bite. It was just cheesy enough without having cheese oozing all over the place and that bread was just spot on: soft and grilled just the right amount!

The eggplant parmesan: roasted eggplant, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, fresh spinach on a roasted baguette. The bread was crunchy and all that goodness, the cheese was cheesy and yummy and the tomato sauce was on par. The spinach added that nice colour to complete that rainbow and supplied the sandwich with greenery. I could have been a tad happier with more eggplant. After all it's called eggplant parmesan! Jer thought it would have been a bit too overpowering if more eggplant would be put in the mix but I say yes to eggplant all the way!

We also tried their bold soup of the day (they serve one bold and one simple soup every day!): pineapple and garlic. I liked it more than Jer-Bear but the garlic did not really fit in with the sweet fruit. Good try though! A for effort!

Home made ice cream. Yes AND yes. And more of that 'yes'. I decided on french vanilla and pistachio. Great choice Marie, great choice. You could see the little vanilla freckles in there. Is freckles the right word? I vote yes! And the pistachio ice cream was very pistachio-y without being TOO pistachio-y, you know what I mean? Both were just great and I'd go back right now for some-o-that!

Service was, as you can tell by my Geneviève crush, awesome. She shook our hands and smiled from beginning to end. She came and checked if everything was fine and she praised her restaurant just enough. She put someone else in charge of making us happy and that woman was just so damn proud of working there OR was the best actress ever. But I like to think it was the first one. 

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 9 (only because the ice cream dude seemed a tad rude)

I think it's safe to say that next time I'm in Old MTL and I's got a little craving, I'll be heading to Xavier Artisan to say hey to Gen (ya, we're tight like that).

Olive et Gourmando

I had been meaning to go to this restaurant for a looong lohooong time! All I had heard were good reviews so I just HAD to go! I met my bro's gf, Chris, who had gone many times and loved it, and we headed to Olive et Gourmando.

Obviously, the place is full when we get in. We gave our name and surprisingly only waited about 15 minutes before being seated. Just enough time to look around, love the decor and all the little knicks and knacks that make this place unique. Also, to notice that one of the employees is a girl I went to high school with in Toronto! Whhheeeird! Anyhoot, the whole place was oozing comfort and good times, with a mix of business people working in Old Montreal and, well, people like us, looking for good food and nice ambiance!

We weren't even sitting down and our waitress was explaining the specials. We kind of felt like, dude, let us sit before you tell us this stuff. Oh well. I knew I wanted to get a panini and Chris wanted one as well.

The Cajun, 10.95$

The cajun chicken cold sandwich. Soooo, that was damn good. The chicken was nice and moist, the mango gave it that needed sweetness and the guacamole was darn tootin good. Oh and the tomatoes were so plump and juicy. Plus, there wasn't just a bit of guacamole, there was a whole bunch! I hate it when it says avocado on the menu and there's one slice. Pfff.

The Cuban, 10.95$

I had a hot panini; the cuban. Pancetta, roasted pork (yay meat!), raw milk gruyère, and lime, chipotle, cilantro and pickle mayonnaise. The mayonnaise was super duper tasty (you had me at cilantro!), the pancetta was alright but kind of lacked in the taste department. The pork was not dry at all which was nice and the cheese was very present which is always a win in my book! I didn't like mine as much as Chris' though. Even if it was good, I kinda wished I had ordered the other one.

As for the service, it was good. Our waitress came to ask us if all was fine and we had a bottle of water on our table for easy refilling. We did kind of feel like we had to leave right after we were done our meal because of the line-up at the door. That was a tad unpleasant... we were told twice to just go pay at the counter when we were 'ready'.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8

Service: 7

I'll go back for sure to taste something different and you should go too if you like good ambiance and good 'easy-going' food!

ps: I've read comments on blogs saying that their sandwiches were overpriced but I really think it's worth the money!

Kyo bar japonais

Since I didn't have the chance of going to the media event  of the Happening Gourmand, I KNEW I had to go to at least ONE restaurant of this lovely Happening. It's my third year and I've been satisfied every time. First, at Verses, then at Aix and tonight, at Kyo (strangely, where Aix used to be). Lea came with me to have a good time at Kyo!

Imagine my surprise when the first guy I see when we walk in is P-F, this guy that was in my class at ITHQ! And then, BAM, another Kyo employee was SL, this other dude in my class. It was fun to catch up for a couple minutes... and knowing them, I was sure to get good service.

Anyhoot, the place itself is good lookin', with a definite 'cool asian' vibe (whatever that means!) but played music by Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake. I guess they're going for a cool asian-american hang out bistro-type?! :) The place has a nice long bar and around 60 to 70 seats.

We were asked if we wanted a drink while we decided on our dinner choice and well, we couldn't resist... as per usual! I had the Kyo cesar and Lea had the Pinky Ginger. Mine was shochu, vodka, clamato and wasabi. It... tasted like your run of the mill cesar. It was good, don't get me wrong, but it was your usual cesar, maybe a tad spicier--wasabi and all. Lea's drink was very sweet and very girlie: shochu, chambord, cranberry, raspberry and ginger. Like I said, girlie! It was VERY sweet. Not my kind of drink, especially for a sushi dinner. But Lea loved it and found it 'dangerous'...you know, the kind of drink that you can have 5 of and not taste the alcohol and then bam, you're drunk. 

Alright, it was time to EAT! As an entrée, I ordered the beef sashimi with crispy garlic, green onions and ponzu sauce. YUM-MY! The ponzu sauce was marvellous and added just the right amount of tartness to the dish. The little garlic chips were perfect (uh, do you not know I love garlic?) and added just the crunch needed! The only thing I didn't appreciate, and this is personal because of my tiny mouth, was that the pieces were a tad too big.

Lea had the sunomono salad with harusame noodles, coriander, cucumber, wakame and kanikama (a fancier sounding word than mock crab. This was actually a delicious blend! I could have done without the wakame though; not a huge fan of it on its own. The mock crab was actually really delicious! Who knew? The harusame noodles (also called cellophane noodles or glass noodles) were very tasty and had absorbed the lovely flavor of the sauce. It was all very fresh. The sesame seeds added a certain je ne sais quoi to it all and made it a great dish.

For the main, I had the chef's selection of 15 makis: the tuna maki, the kamikaze, the dragon roll and the california roll. The plate looked great with zigzags of soya and spicy mayo. The tuna roll's rice was a tad dry but it tasted really great neverheless. With a hint of soya sauce, wasabi and spicy mayo, it was wonderful. The kamikaze was as tasty and the avocado was just ripe enough. The dragon roll just melted in your mouth. Plus, the tempura shrimp was nice and not as crunchy as usual, which I usually hate because it gets stuck in my teeth :p The california roll was good as well but not the star of the dish.

Lea's salad was very colourful. I mean, look at those colours! It was like deconstructed sushi! On the menu, it said this: Chirashizushi (Lea had a hard time saying this, even after a couple tries!): seafood, assorted raw fish, asparagus, omelette on sushi rice. I don't know if there was a change in the menu because of missing ingredients but there were no asparagus in there. Good thing is that they replaced it with edamame. And maybe Lea ate it all before passing it to me, but I didn't taste any omelet in there. That was also alright with me! The whole thing was just so pleasant to eat, with little surprises of raw fish here and there.

For the desert, I had the yuzu donuts with the condensed milk and sesame and Lea had the homemade green tea flakie pastry. My donuts were very good and it was obvious (especially with the waiting time) that they were freshly made. They were moist and lovely tasting: the yuzu kind of reminded me of eucalyptus and the condensed milk+sesame added just the touch that was needed. The flakie was just so didely-dam good! I took a couple bites and Lea slowly pulled the plate back towards her just to devour the rest. Damn it! It was so soft and daaaamn, melted in your mouth, literally! Just a hint of chocolate on the plate was a nice touch. basically, the keyword here is YUMMY!

Service was great, duh. Our water glasses were always full, our waiter came by to check how our food was at every course and we had pleasant discussions :) The only thing was that when we were done the main, it was a bit long for them to pick up our plates. And that'll be all :)

Oh, and did I mention that we got our drinks for free? Yep, P-F went to tell the maitre d' that he knew me and she was nice enough to offer them to us! Ah, I love it!

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5

Service: 9 (I MAY be biased)

If you want sushi or a good tataki plus get great service by experienced ITHQuois (its a REAL term!), go to Kyo!

Helena

One of my good friends Lena was in town for a convention last month and I got to stay with her in her hotel room at the Westin on St-Antoine so Helena was just a hop and a skip away.

We went with her boss which meant... yay... free meal :p But seriously, it was really pleasant to meet her and REALLY nice of her to pay for me! 

Anyhoot, we got seated right away in this very cute resto. Our waiter arrived at our table in 2,5 seconds and served us water in 3. He was very knowledgeable ( me hates stoopid waiters) and answered all the questions we had about the mneu and even suggested a bottle of wine.

First, he brought us some olives and oil oil with some bread---> just like in Portugal (ah...Portugal!). Also, fava beans!Yum! He suggested we have the tapas menu for three... and that's exactly what we had!

We started off with the bread and chorizo butter. Miam!!! The butter wa not over powering and the olive oil was just nice!

Then we had the octopus. Hello, octopus! Seriously, the first octopus EVER that I ate and did not go EW! It wan't squishy like most I've eaten. It was just right! It had a nice char on it and it was actually very tender!

After that, aperagus with St-George cheese. Looked quite fancy, all shaved and stuff (and no... I won't make a 'shaved' joke here... ;p ). They were well charred and the almonds on top added a nice crunch!

After that, there was... wait for it... foie gras. Well hellooooo there! It was very silky and soft but the fig that was accompanying it was a bit grainy. Also, we wished that there had been more toasts!

The next one was cured meat with peas and aparagus. It was a bit on the salty side but still very delicious!!!

The clams and chorizo was a bit on the salty side and a tad squishy unfotunately but still quite didelidam delicious!

The scallops were good, but cold :( Grrrrr! I hates me some cold food that should be hot! Parsley added a nice touch of flavor and the thick silky sauce was amazing!

Our desert reminded me so much of Portugal, its A-MA-ZING! First of all, hello pasteis de nata!!! They were even BETTER than IN Portugal (I swear!). The churros were awesome and flaky... but the figues, again, kind of disappointed.

The service was wonderful throughout the meal. Our waiter was very present and seemed to always be there when we needed him! Water? Check! Wine? Check! We even ordered a second bottle.

And now, the scores!!!

Food: 9
Service: A great 9.8

A wonderful portuguese restaurant by Helena, who also own Portus Calle on St-Laurent! Please go and feel like you're in Portugal again. OR, pleae go and just feel like you're in Portugal ;)