Thursday, May 30, 2013

Mikado




Another great post by Serge, one of my ex-coworkers. Turns out, he writes great reviews :) Merci Serge!

I have to say, my girlfriend Mélanie and I aren’t really lucky when we go out on a date for a quiet meal in a restaurant; it almost always rains, it’s cold and windy, and it sometimes dampers our mood and excitement about trying something new.

Our night out to eat sushi was one such evening.  My girlfriend is new to eating sushi and macki, so I wanted to be sure we would go someplace where the food is fresh and the setting appropriate to maximize our enjoyment.  If you’ve ever had bad sushi, you know some of us don’t recover from a bad experience and vow to never eat sushi again!  I could have searched forever for the perfect place... but then I thought I should consult my favorite expert: Marie-Christine from “Eating out in Montreal”.  She recommended “Mikado” – I looked it up, read the menu, saw some pictures off of their website, and found they had 3 restaurants in Montreal!  I figured I’d save on gas and make reservations at the Monkland establishment.

First, they have a reservation form you can use on their website, and they give you call to confirm.  The whole thing took 4 minutes, from filling the form to getting the call!  I thought that was very efficient indeed!  I should warn you though, if you have your computer speakers on max, put the volume down before accessing the website because they have a splash welcome screen with music that sort of doesn’t sound good when it’s super loud.

I also thought the Monkland area would have better parking than the St-Denis or Laurier areas... but oh my was I wrong!  If you’re going to go by car, prepare to walk some!  I didn’t think it was a big deal, we ate so much that the walk back to the car was a welcome digestive aid...  I believe access by public transport is much easier though.

The Monkland restaurant has a tiny terrace area in the front that looks out onto the busy street – it was too cold and rainy for us to sit outside but otherwise I still wouldn’t want to eat sushi with busy traffic zooming around me.  As for the inside decor, it’s pretty standard for a Japanese restaurant; they don’t overcrowd the walls with knick-knacks which is a good thing.  The table settings also have traditional items on them, such as a weird looking bowl-apparatus that they remove from your table when you sit down.  It’s just decorations I suppose.  The music could’ve been more traditional, but Japanese music does tend to be... snoozy at best.  What they had going on was a lot of 80’s pop music which we thought was kind of funny, it certainly made us smile to hear “Billy Jean” with our food.

Shrimp dumplings
And speaking of food...  there isn’t much that I could say about how the general setting could prepare you for such a delicious experience, because they are two separate things altogether.  At first I thought the weird bowls and Michael Jackson could mean the food would be sub-par, but I assure you it is not!  We started with a half-bottle of Kim Crawford sauvignon white wine (it was expensive for a half-bottle) which had the fruitiest taste that blended marvellously with our food!  We started off with an order of 4 shrimp dumplings, absolutely sublime!  If not for the large plate of sushi coming our way, we’d have eaten more dumplings.  Mikado has different ways of ordering an assortment of sushi and maki, depending on your level of tolerance for such things as caviar and algae.   


Mixed makis with soya

Mélanie, being new to sushi, still can’t get past those two traditional ingredients so she went with a standard assortment of sushi wrapped in a sheet of rice (or was it soya, I don’t know{note from M-C: soya!}) – this, you need to do upon request otherwise they assume you’re ok with algae.  This assortment had the usual cucumbers in rice, and also salmon and shrimp and all of that (you’ll have to excuse me but I didn’t retain every type of sushi on the plate).


I had the larger assortment which also included maki, I like my sushi with algae and caviar.  Overall we were blown away by the freshness, the texture (I’ve often found the rice to be either too soggy or too dry) which was perfect and the quantity.  Prepare to bring some money with you, our experience set us back a little.

We concluded with what they call a “moelleux au chocolat”.  I’m a dessert fan, and a good dessert can make or break my experience.  So when I inquired about this mysterious item, I was surprised to learn it was not some fruit fried in oil soaked in chocolate (again, I apologize if that sounds like I assume things about other cultures, it’s not a bad thing if it has fried fruit) but rather it was a chocolate soufflé!  And this was our first soufflé ever... and it was freaking awesome!  I’ve seen it on TV and how when you cut into it it’s supposed to be gooey and warm.  It was all that and then some!  One soufflé was enough for the two of us.

Throughout our culinary event we were served by a very knowledgeable young lady who really made sure we knew what we were ordering and came around just often enough to check up on our table without being overbearing.  I’d say Mikado has a lot of confidence in what they serve so they don’t act insecure in any way – they bring you food, you eat it and they know you’re not going to be disappointed! 
              
Service – 10/10
Food – 10/10

I highly recommend Mikado in the Monkland area, and I hope to try out their other two establishments soon to compare and validate their work ethic.
 
*Stuff to watch out for: lack of suitable parking, might have to walk / tiny terrace next to busy street / potential to be cold in the restaurant if seated near an air duct*
               


Mikado Monkland on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Grumman 78

Yay!!! Another great review by my english teacher! I push her and push her and she doesn't tell me to buzz off, she just writes great reviews :)

Grumman 78 is best known for its food truck that can be found on various festival sites in the summer. After a short stint at Faubourg St-Catherine, Grumman has officially moved its brick and mortal restaurant to its “headquarters” where the food destined for the food truck is made.

Grumman’s is now located in what looks like an old garage or warehouse. It has been cleaned up and repainted and outfitted with crafty furniture. Most of the tables are made out of wood pallets that have been assembled together. Although it looks quite neat, the current set up does not leave very much leg room (disclaimer: I’m rather tall but my partner who is not so tall also came to the same conclusion). It is worth appreciating the effort to use recycled objects, but simple changes in the design could possibly make these tables a bit more comfortable.

Having been unable to secure a table early on a Friday night the previous week, I decided to call ahead and make a reservation. My first call around 1 p.m. went unanswered, worse still the voicemail was full so I was unable to leave a message. I called again around 4 p.m. and left a message, but never got a call back. This was not enough to deter us from showing up at the restaurant that evening hoping that my name had been penciled into the reservation book.

I explained the situation to the host as I came in. He looked confused and shrugged this off but found a table for us anyway. Ironically, the same host ended up returning my call a few minutes later as I was sitting in the restaurant! Better late than never… Maybe, maybe not!

The headquarters offers various Mexican-inspired dishes that are a little bit more complex in preparation and taste to the tacos that they serve out of their truck. My Mexican mother-in-law was visiting this time around, and we wanted to show her another twist on her beloved tacos. We therefore ordered 3 taco dishes to share: pork banh mi, queso fundido and curried lamb tacos.

Each plate comes with four tacos which makes it easy to share with others. We also ordered agua de Jamaica to drink: it is a sweet herbal tea made with hibiscus flowers, delicious! The Quebec lamb tacos had a little bit of heat from the curry, but it was certainly not overpowering. These were a hit! The pork banh mi tacos are a creative twist on banh mi sandwiches served on a tortilla. They come with a sweet and slightly tangy sauce and they are topped with a garnish made of pickled onions and carrots. Finally, the queso fundido tacos are a bit more traditional, as far as Mexican food is concerned. In this case, the tortillas and garnishes are served separately so you can make your own taco. You’ll get a container with melted cheese (nothing special), guacamole and cooked chorizo. These were my least favourite overall, not because they were not tasty, but mostly because this is something that I could have made at home.

The food was good, but I have to say that my memories of Grumman were much better than this… I felt like it lacked some of the fresh flavours I had encountered before.

As for service, let’s just say that our little reservation conundrum did serve as a prelude to how the rest of the evening would unfold. We had an absentee waiter who came off as either detached or even arrogant. We ended up relying on the busboy for service (water, bill, etc.), this guy in fact seemed to be the only one determined to provide attentive service… despite the fact that he had to train a new employee at the same time. Let’s just say that there is certainly room for improvement on that front… Or that they ought to focus on serving food out of a truck!

Food: 7
Service: 6



Grumman '78 on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Taza Flores

On a whim, I decided to do Lachine-Mile-End as quickly as possible to meet Isa and her friend for dinner. Isa had chosen this resto and apparently it was to be good. And it was. 


Taza Flores is located in the heart of the Mile-End, on Parc between Fairmount and St-Viateur. It's a very cute place, with cute decor and, that night, oldies music because the waitress 'felt like it'. 

The girls had ordered colorful drinks so I decided to do the same and on top of it, the waitress was begging me to give her something to do, seeing as there were only about 10 people in the restaurant at the time. I think I ordered some kind of cosmo and it was dsamn good.

The girls had already ordered tapas when I got there so we ate those first before re-ordering. I must point out though that the bread the waitress brought us was kind of old and stale and not that pleasant to eat :/ 

Anyhoot, we had the trout tartare which had bigger pieces of fish which I usually would find unpleasant but it was actually enjoyable. It lacked a tad bit of salt though. And I must say that I still prefer my tartare cut smaller.

The same thing with the guacamole: big pieces of avocado which the girls enjoyed but I, not so much. Don't get me wrong, it was really tasty but again, the size of the pieces was too big.

The cod fritters were damn good. DAMN good. So good that we ordered some a second time. They were crunchy yet soft and very well seasoned. Put a bit of lemon on there and with the tartar sauce, it's like eating a little bite of heaven. Oh and they were hot too. I just hate getting cold food when it's supposed to be hot!


The polenta was good but not as good as I,ve had it in the past. It lacked something. What? I'm not quite sure. Maybe it was just a bit blend.

The calamari were very good. And this is coming from a girl that rarely orders this dish because I find it squishy half the time.

The lamb was deviiiiiiiiine. Melted in your mouth! It also had a great sauce and was amazing with a piece of bread and butter!!

The shrimp were perfectly cooked. It's hard to say that you've had perfectly cooked shrimp because many restaurants give you overcooked shrimp. They were well seasoned and yummy.

Oh, there was also a little salad to munch on with a great sesame vinaigrette! Lovely and refreshing!

The service was very good: got water the second I sat down, friendly waitress, fast service with the first order. For the second order though, it took a while and I was itching to eat more cod fritters, ya know?

And now, the scores!!

Food: 8.5
Service: 8.5 It did take her a while, even with almost no customers, to bring us the check

A very nice place to eat good tapas! This was a great discovery and I think I'll go back as soon as I can!



Taza Flores on Urbanspoon

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Mai Xiang Yuan

I had heard great things about this restaurant and how it had possibly detroned Qing Hua. I was all getting ready to go eat marvellous dumplings at Qing Hua but then decided to go to its better half :) So I went with Isa and we had really high hopes. You know what it's like when you have high hopes right? You get easily disappointed. 

Anyhoot, we got to this chinatown resto (which looks like nothing from the outside) and there was only one table left. Score! There are about 40 to 50 seats in this tiny, crowded room. 

You can see four people, mostly women, making dumplings as fast as the wind behind a window in the kitchen. It was fun to see them go at it with the dough and the filling (yes, that's right, go at it). Could not be fresher than that. Amazing! The place itself is nothing special, with chinese art on a brick wall along with some cartoons (ish things).


As an appetizer, we splurged and shared a 1,50$ cucumber salad :p It was nice and refreshing although a tad to spicy for Isa. She still ate it though! It had some chillies in there with a tiny bit of carrots, coriander and sesame oil. The cucumber pieces were cut a bit weirdly though; one could say they were really roughly cut! Actually, everyone would say that. It's almost like they used their hands.

We had two orders of dumplings. You can either have them fried or simply boiled. Obviously they take longer if fried and obviously (duh!) they are better fried (isn't everything?). I was told to have the chinese cabbage and pork one and we also decided to order the shrimp, coriander and pork ones. Oh and FYI, the lunch special from 11 am to 3 pm is 15 dumplings per plate for less $. Nice if you are more than yoself :p You must also know that if you order for under 15$, you have to pay cash. 

Alright, so both were good. Both weren't fried the same way though: it seemed that the chinese cabbage one was fried on both sides and the other one, not so much. Both were more squishy than crispy unfortunately. Apart from that, they both had wonderful taste and just enough seasoning. The shrimp one reminded me of shrimp dumplings I used to buy au Jardin de Jade just on the other side, on de la Gauchetière. Yummy. I loves me big chunks of shrimp! And the coriander was great in there! 
Shrimp, coriander and pork dumplings

The cabbage ones were silky and juicy. We also had both soya sauce and hot sauce on the table. The hot sauce was a bit disappointing though---not hot enough. Just one advice, these things tend to be juicy, as previously mentioned, so if you bite into it, the boiling juice may squirt into your nose. Just sayin. And it hurts.
Chinese cabbage and pork dumplings

The service was nice. Poor guy was alone. He was running everywhere but was quite efficient and managed to say 'bonjour' to everyone coming in! He served us hot tea as soon as we sat down and since there's a high turnover, he's quick to clean the table.Fast waiter=good waiter :)

And now, the scores.

Service: 8,5
Food: an average of 7,25. I would have loved to put higher but it just wasn't a 10

If you like dumplings, it,s a good place to go. Don't get your hopes too TOO high though. But don't get me wrong, it WAS good :)



Mai Xiang Yuan on Urbanspoon

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Barbie's Bar & Grill



Note: This post will be one of my shortest. This restaurant is not worth my time!
During Christmas vacations, there was this huge snow storm that left us all stranded in Lachine at my mom's place. Anyhoot, we decided to eat out for dinner and well, Barbie's is a 3 minute walk so we went there. Bad, BAD idea.

Anyhoot, apparently, my cousin (who eats at good restaurants...) has been there a couple times because her and her husband have friends that live in Lachine. She never warned us :p

I won't go into details. We were all, I believe, disappointed. We ordered a pizza and the crust was not cooked through. The nachos had a tiny amount of store bought guacamole and salsa. Also, the ingredients leave a lot to be desired. Everything is frozen and thawed instead of being fresh. And it's not like they don't have the clientele!!! That place is pretty much always at least half full!!! And with the deck, they have at least 100 to 120 places in there. It's unfortunately quite the institution! Weird. 

The service was not much better. The water took a while to get to our large table. The food also. The waitress was also quite on the impolite side of thangs and obviously that was not appreciated! I'm sorry if you had a bad day, that sucks. But smile when you get to my table por favor!

Anyway, now, the scores.

Food: 4,5
Service: 5

Even if you're in Lachine (or Dorval), just please spend an extra 10$ and go to one of those nicer restaurants along the boardwalk  :)


Barbie's Bar & Grill on Urbanspoon

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Dans le noir

What??? It's pitch black! Hehehe!
A very good friend of mine invited me to eat there because she had bought coupons (oh, how I love coupons!). I was confused at first because I was thinking of going to O.Noir on Ste-Catherine but it was really Dans le noir ... also on Ste-Catherine. 

Anyhoot, you get there and there are two people behind a desk with cash machines, taking reservations and also, most importantly your order. This room is very bright. And then, your blind server comes to get you and asks you first if you want to go to the bathroom. So we did. And it's still lit enough for you to know where you're peeing :p Then: complete darkness. Like, complete.

It was a really weird experience! Obviously all your senses are heightened: everything is louder than usual. It was weird to hear so many voices and not see a soul.

I had the crab cake to start with. It didn't taste homemade, it was most likely bought frozen but still tasty. Then, I had the shrimp. THAT was homemade and very good. Cooked to perfection. It's rare that you get shrimp cooked so well in a restaurant, I find. For desert, I had the chocolate mousse. Again, it felt and tasted like it was store bought but it was still yummy!

The service was great, as you can see by the score. Our server was very nice and came by every chance he got to see how we liked the food, which was nice and well appreciated. He would touch your shoulder and tell you how to either give him your plate (and drink) or how to receive it. I was waiting for at least one boob graze but nothing! Hahaha! Good.

You definitely don't go there for the food, even though it's quite tasty. You go there for the experience! And what an experience it was! Eating your food, and having to touch it to see what's left on your plate is weird. But what to do when it's pitch black? You touch your damn food!

And now, the scores:

Food: 6.5
Service: 9,5

All in all, a great experience but personally, I don't think I'd go back. It was freaky in the dark. And touching my food wasn't my fave thing. It IS a great place to try though!

Dans le Noir on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Sushi Crescent

Another lunch with my dad :) Yay! I was just going to enjoy lunch and not write a review but then, when the service started going waaaaaaay down, I just HAD to!

Anyhoot, this place is located on 2 floors, on Crescent near Ste-Catherine and has about, I'd say, 140 seats ish. It's very loud in there so I would suggest skipping it altogether if you're looking for some romantically romantic time with your better half (or just a date!).

To start off, it's so damn hard to park on Crescent. I'm sure most of you who have been ON Crescent know this seeing as it's always so darn busy! My dad actually got a spot right in front of the restaurant (lucky him!) but then turns out the guy in front of him was taking up two spots and so my dad payed for the wrong meter and tralala.... 8 years later, we actually got to go IN the restaurant :p

We were actually pretty lucky to get seats as it was lunch rush hour at 12:30. I had a great view: dirty windows. Ah man, it just gets to me when a restaurant dsont clean their windows! I mean, come oooon! Don't clean them at home, I don't care, but please clean them in your resto!

As I was saying, we sat down quite quickly and got our water glasses right away, which is a must in my book! The menu is pretty elaborate, with nigiris, cones, makis, hosomakis, tempura this, tempura that, etc. It has a lot of variety and that's great since, at lunch, you're paying 15,99$ to eat, well, all you can (I always take it as a challenge, which never turns out very nicely for my stomach). I found that the nigiri were really good and pretty much melted in my mouth. Always a good sign. The tempura shrimp (when they arrived, 5 years later, apparently they had a problem with the fryer...), were crispy and rather fluffly, which was great! I also really enjoyed the mango and avocado roll, the mango was really present in the maki and in my mouth! The fried zucchinis were good but not as good as other sushi places, namely Kanda, where I've been before. The teriyaki chicken and salmon were not very well presented but tasted OK. The other rolls were fine but with some, the seaweed was a tad hard and therefore it was hard for me and my teeth to chew through.

The service, wow, the service. And in this case, 'wow' is a bad thing. Shiz. They were good at first, meaning they got our first (out of something like 11) order right but then it went downhill. You could hear them around you: 'did you have this, did you have that?'. And of course, no orders were right. They might have gotten the table numbers mixed up, who knows... But it was a bad experience all around. At the end, it took us three (yes, THREE) tries to get our nigiri order (easy, 3 snapper) and finally... about 15 to 20 minutes later, they brought us those plus 2 salmon nigiri. And I was like whaaaat? We told you like 8 times what we wanted and you still manage to get it wrong? Pffff.

And now, the scores:

Food: 7
Service: 5 (they should definitely number the tables!!!)

It's good sushi in general, even though it's an all-you-can-eat but dsamn people, get the service right!!!

Crescent Sushi on Urbanspoon


Friday, May 10, 2013

Le Cercle


On the before last day of my internship at COOP HEC, my bosses decided to bring me to Le Cercle, the fine dining restaurant on the sixth floor of the HEC on Côte-Ste-Catherine. Thank you, bosses!!! It was such a nice surprise and such a great way to end my 6 week internship! Just lovely, really!

I would compare Le Cercle to Bistro Olivieri mainly because the menu changes every day and I think those are the two restaurants where you'll eat really well in Côte-des-Neiges. The decor is certainly not the same though: Le Cercle automatically feels fancier when you go through the large wooden door. The ceiling is quite high and the place is surrounded by huge panoramic windows, giving you a view of at least half the city.

I had the coconut cream with safran oil. Turned out to be very tasty but a tad granular. But still amazing! I would recommend it to anyone who loves coconut like I do. Then I had the beef stew. Very nice presentation in this little cast iron pot. It was maybe a tad too salty but very good nevertheless. It was surrounded by this little balls of goodness called acini di pepe and some very well seasoned button mushrooms. The tiny little pasta balls were just little pieces of heaven. Heaven I say! I was actually sad when I was done eating them :) I must say that I had ordered the duck at first but 5 minutes later, the waitress came back and told us there was no more of that.

The service was great, even with a full house (ok, I obviously did not take this picture at that time). The waitress came as soon as we sat down with some water and I didn't have to ask for it for the rest of the meal. She was very present, which was nice.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8,5
Service: 9

So little people know about this lovely restaurant in the HEC on Côte-Ste-Catherine. It's great!  Bring whoever you want to impress!


Le Cercle Hec on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Chase

I met Isa at her work on Monkland one night this week to go to the restaurant. I knew what was coming: she wanted to go to Tavern again. I LOVE Tavern, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to try something different. So we walked a bit on Monkland and found Chase, a Lebanese restaurant with a terrasse.

The place itself seems very nice, with a two level terrasse and quite a lot of seats inside. Unfortunately, many smokers felt free to...smoke on the terrasse and well.. that wasn't fun during dinner! Anyhoot, at least I got her to want to eat elsewhere :p

We sat down and as soon as we did, we had water served, which is always appreciated. She also brought us a little appetizer (some marinated radishes, hot peppers, olives and pita bread). May I just say that the pita was served in a plastic basket from Dollarama!!! Oh, that was good. But so not :( How ghetto!!!

We already knew what we wanted by looking at the menu before coming in: the Machawi. It's a huge plate for two with salad, rice, 5 brochettes (2 shish taouk, 2 kafta kebab and 1 shish kebab) with some babaganoush and hummus. All of this for 31,99$. Not too bad. Actually very affordable for 2. I got the impression that the salad and the rice took too much room on the plate but isn't that always the case?

We waited quite a while for the food but in our case that wasn't so bad since we both had had late lunches. Anyway, the babaganoush was very tasty and well seasoned. Perfect, really. The hummus was good and silky but Isa thought it was a tad too salty. I thought it was perfect! We both agreed that the rice was blend but, really, when is it not. Ok, that's not true but, you know, when you order dishes like these, the rice is usually blend, no? The chicken was a tad on the dry side but the two other brochettes were great, very well seasoned and moist. 

The service was OK but not great. I mean, come on girl, wear something else than leggings and a tank top please! On top of it, she wasn't super friendly and was bitching quite a bit about having tod to move tables or when more customers came in. 

And now, the scores!

Food: an average of 7,25
Service: a generous 6

A good resto to go on a small budget and if you feel like lebanese food. Don't expect great service though.

Restaurant Chase on Urbanspoon


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Vua

I was talking to my friend Losalie about going to eat somewhere REALLY cheap and she suggested Vua on St-Denis. This is a relatively new resto since, you know, I haven't noticed it before. Hehe! It's right smack in the middle of quartier latin and all the action. It's a tiny place but packed with good flavours! There are about 10 seats inside and 14 outside. There's also a second floor I did not go and see.

You go in and it's full of people. FULL. But them vietnamese girls are quick! OK, I'm not saying us north americans are slow but come ooooon!!! It's like BAM here's a sandwich, BAM here's another one (yes, I'm aware I say 'Bam' a lot). You choose what kind of Banh Mi or sandwich and you can add extras like bacon or avocado for example. And it's so cheap. 7 inches=3,25$ and for 50 cents more, you get a 10 inch sandwich. Nice. That's my kind of lunch! Good and cheap ;) You don't like Banh Mi type sandwiches? That's ok! There's sushi, eggrolls, spring rolls and a bunch of other lovely asian dishes to choose from. I looooves me some asian food :)

I had the pulled chicken mix on a 7 inch Banh Mi. Th3 3,25$ includes onions, coriander, carrots, radishes, mayo and soya sauce. I thought the bread was a tad on the dry side but the whole thing was just so good and fresh tasting. It was like eating a salad in a sandwich :) As mentioned before, there are a lot of customers so everything is very fresh. They have a very high turnover so they don't really have a choice, which makes it all the more fresh!

I also had something that looked like a pogo. I hate pogos but this one seemed to be screaming out at me. Well, for one thing, it mentioned something about having shrimp in there. It was shrimp and chicken on a sugar cane. Meh. It was more dry than anything else and not super tasty. I tried taking a bite every 5 minutes or so to see if it'd get better, but sadly, no. I think once I started sucking on the sugar cane, I realized I should have just bought that; a sugar cane! 

We had a seat outside so it was really pleasant with the nice weather and the people passing by :) And it was also kind of weird that there's a Subway right beside it. It's like 'Asian Subway' and American Subway' :p

And now, the scores!

Food: 6,5 Damn, it's because of that darn asian pogo stick!
Service: 9 Quick and efficient, but we all know it's not a 'real' restaurant setting.

Go there for a quick bite and/or if you're poor ! Hahaha!

ps: I've decided that if I can't take pictures, I'm not posting any. I'm sick of taking someone else's pics or having to go on the restos' websites and 'stealing' theirs.

Vua on Urbanspoon

Monday, May 6, 2013

L'entrecôte St-Jean

I wanted to try a new resto with my dad when I met him for lunch the other day. He said he liked this place so I went along. It's very well located on Peel corner Maisonneuve and I think we saw 1 Lamborgini, 5 Porshes and a Mazaratti pass by. Needless to say, with all the expensive cars and the tv celebrities, this was a hotspot for people watching!

As soon as you come in, the owner immediately comes to say hello. She turned out to be VERY present.  Maybe a bit TOO present. You're done your water, BAM she's there. You're done your plate, BAM! I mean it's nice to have someone care for your needs in a resto, don't get me wrong, but it was a tad too much I think.

L'entrecôte et frites (Strip loin steak and fries)OK, so L'Entrecôte St-Jean has the simplest menu I've ever seen: either you have the table d'hôte, which is the soup or salad, the entrecôte and the fries (which they call 'pomme allumettes-excuse me!) and the profitéroles OR you have the spécial entrecôte which is just the salad and the main. We had the latter. OK, let me just say that for me, a quarter of a boston salad and 8 nuts does not consist a salad. And having to cut said salad is quite unpleasant. Why, WHY would anyone serve huge chucks of lettuce? WHY I ask!!! Anyway. The main was quite delicious. Very basic but good: entrecôte and fries with a great mustard sauce. The sauce was perfect and the fries were good as well. The beef itself was a tad too thin and a bit overcooked but still enjoyable. The plate was cold though, which is a big no no when you spend 80$ for 2. The wine was good, at 9$ a glass.

The service was almost too good. The waitress was watching over our table like a hawk and since we were close to the door, the owner was ever so present. It was also quick to pay which is always nice!

And now, the scores!

Food: 7/10... and that's because of the huge chunk of lettuce we got.
Service: 8/10 .... a tad annoying but still good.

All in all, a good resto and a very simple menu. If you want to people watch, go there and get a table by the window!

Entrecote St-Jean on Urbanspoon