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.

Les Enfants Terribles

I went to Les Enfants Terribles about a long time ago (i.e: I don't remember) with my aunt and my memory of it was that it was great food, well executed, in a very loud dining room. The dining room hasn't changed (as if my very loud dad had multiplied himself), but this time, we sat outside on their patio. My sista from another motha, Mona, was in town on a layover (she's fancy like that) and Tacha, another high school girl, works right in front of this resto. 1 + 1= let's meet there! 

The place is pretty big with quite the dining room and bar inside and a nice big patio on the side of the restaurant. The vibe is happenin' and this is where you'll find most cool Outremont people. OK, I don't really know what those look like. 

As soon as we sat down, we had water and a menu. 2.5 seconds later, we were asked if we were ready to order. Sheesh, calm down woman! Well, while we were deciding, we just had to think it over a lunch time drink! Duh. Mojito, hello.

Well, it was diddely-damn perfect. except the brown on that lime. Come on people. As a restaurant worker meself, and someone that orders for my restaurant, I understand that, right now, limes aren't top shape. They either arrive half brown or get like that in a day or two. 'Tis life. But you know, use those narsty limes for the juice and the nice ones for deco! Sheesh, must I teach everyone everything? Anyhoot, enough about ugly limes. This was a real mojito. Like, a real one, you know? Like a how-did-I-get-to-Cuba-so-fast mojito. The bubbles were right, the sugar was right, the lime was right and the mint was right. Just. Plain. Right. I'd treck up to Outremont right now for one of those bad boys.

I was sharing calamari as an appetizer with Mona. Calamari is very easy to f*ck up. Cooked too little: f*cked. Cooked too long: f*cked. Well, these...were... perfect! With a splash of lemon, and a bit of mayo, they were just great. I mean, when can you go wrong with fried stuff? NE-VER. Speaking of the mayo. Mmmya, you kind of over did it there, right chef? You got carried away, didn't ya? It took over half the plate! At first, Mona thought it was a design on the plate! Hahaha! But seriously.

Albacore tuna tataki salad. On paper, this sounded like just what I needed in ma mouth. Watercress: check! Strawberries: check! Tuna tataki: check! Oh but wait.... WRONG. The watercress was not cut in any way, shape or form and so I was struggling to fit it in my mouth. I'm not asking you to cut everything... but it should be bite size. I hate having to actually cut salad. The strawberries were great and obviously from here, which is even greater! They were sweet and were perfect in salad format. The vinaigrette was most likely wafu and quite overwhelming. It was thick and there was just too much of it. A little bit less and it would have been awesome. In this case, too much was just too much. And now for the pièce de résistance, the tuna. Let me say that I am not one to mention it to the waiter if I don't like my food and, seriously, this time, I was disappointed in myself for not doing so. The tuna was ridiculously expired. I mean, it must have been at least 6 days old. It tasted fishy and the colour was so uninspiring! The only good thing were the steak spices with which the tuna was tatakised (We totes use that verb at work. As in: 'vas-tu tatakiser le saumon?') and that's it. Very, very disappointing.

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

And now, the scores!

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

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

Café International

I got an email asking me if I wanted to come for a free (FREE!) lunch/dinner at Café International in little Italy and try the food. I said no, of course. Ha. Of course I was totes in!

Since, 1968, this establishment has been serving up authentic Italian food from pasta to risotto to pizza! I love all of those thangs. OK, it's a lot of carbs, but when you gym it up 15 hours a week, you're good. I went for lunch. Why? Main reason was that, hey, I know there are going to be less people at lunch, therefore, more attention on ME and more food for ME. Oh, I know, I'm totes smart that way.

The place itself looks like it could use a pick-me-up: white paneled ceiling, old floors, badly lit dining room and old lookin' tables. The chef tells me that they are inviting bloggers so that we can tell dem peeps to go eat there because the last few years have been a hard hit for Little Italy. I think it's been a harder hit for Café International. They've been there longer than most but apart from a couple things here and there, haven't changed much of the decor. So now they are stuck with regulars that are about to croak (low blow, I know) and Italian gangsters. OK, that last one isn't true but I swear there was a group in there that looked very questionable! One of the only cool thing is their neon blue sign outside, which still looks great and means to say 'hello please come in'. It's also a huge space with around 80 seats inside and 20 on the terrace.

I got there and... no one knew I was coming. It felt like when I went to 'La Petite Mangue' with Val and it took 3 people and 12 minutes to finally have someone realize that I was there as a blogger. I'm already not too fond of saying 'hey, I'm a blogger: look at me, look at me' but when I got there, they were not expecting me. They had to go get the chef and even he seemed a bit in the dark at that point. But he was uber nice and we settled on him bringing out small portions of many awesome things. Many. Awesome. Things. Sounds just about right to me!

1st: house ham with aioli and arugula. Yes AND yes. The aioli was amazing with just the right amount of garlic in there. It was nice and thick. The ham was very tasty, somewhat on the salty side but I don't mind that too much when it comes to ham. Hello, home made! It was rather tough at some points so that wasn't as pleasant. The arugula added a certain earthiness to the dish and rounded it off. Oh and they brought grilled bread which was perfect with the ham. No butta, just awesome grilled bread. Yes to the yes.

2nd: house prosciutto with sprouts and squash mostarda. I think this might be part of why they are struggling to have more clients. I mean, who sells mostarda anymore? And why put a handful of sprouts on the plate. I am not a rabbit. No, but seriously. They have a delicious product like home made prosciutto and they put a tree beside it on the plate. No. Alright, so the prosciutto was aged 18 months and right on the damn ball. On. The. Ball. It was salty and soft and was just melting on my tongue. Yes. You could see that the chef took pride in this, as he should. This is why it was weird to me to put it with grass and mostarda. Speaking of mostarda, it was actually good. My last souvenirs of it were not awesome. I really liked the texture and the temperature. It was at room temperature and I guess that's what does it for me and mostarda. Wow, you never here THAT. The taste of the squash came through just enough.

3rd: pizza with pistachio pesto, mozzarella and house bologna. I gotta say I was never a fan of bologna. Neva. My friends would have that in their lunches in high school and I was all like 'ew'. It just tasted too strong for me and a bit fake. But this one was dsamn good. Ya, THAT good. It could have had a tiny bit more salt but it was still a bit crunchy and my taste buds really loved it. The dough was so soft and airy and pretty much a perfect A+. The pesto wasn't pesto though: it was more like pistachios here and there and some oil. It was nice and different to have pistachios on my pizza, but it sure wasn't pesto. I gotta say that it was a lot of bread. A LOT. Although it was like biting into a cloud, it was still bread. I forwent (yes, I use fancy words now) half of that loveliness.

4th: calamari and octopus salad on a bed of mesclun with a tomato, onion, caper and basil salsa on top. What do I despise more than mesclun? Nothing. Nothing is worse. I hate it so much I don't even know how to describe my hate. OK, I'm going to take a chill pill. Chill pill taken. In all honesty (and you guys know how brutally honest I can be), I wish the chef had never served me this dish. A, because it was not up to par and B, because it lowered the overall score for the food. The calamari were squishy, therefore either overcooked or undercooked. Look, it's crazy annoying to cook these bad boys so just don't risk it. You don't really need em' on your menu. The octopus wasn't as bad and had a charred taste to it which was 100% better than the calamari. The salsa was fresh tastin' and capers gave it a nice twist. The whole thing was very much overdressed and so everything kind of became soggy. Oh, ooooooh, I found the thing I hate more than mesclun: soggy, wet mesclun.

#5: gnocchi with tomato and basil sauce. See, if only all my courses could've been as small as this...The gnocchi were, for a lack of a better word, divine. Yep, that's right! They were just perfect: the perfect texture, the perfect taste, the perfect size. The tomato basil sauce was simple, yet very flavourful and the parmesan on top added that extra twang (yep, I'm goin' with 'twang' here!) we all like. That big-ass-GMO basil leaf was only there for colour, I'm guessing. Because, well, although I would totally just eat a leaf like that, I don't know many people who would.

#6: mushroom risotto. I was starting to go into a food coma. This was a huge portion, yet again. The waitress told me that she had hinted to the chef that he should serve risotto next and she was super proud. She was saying how no one actually makes risotto at home because it's so time consuming. I didn't think mentioning that I am quite the risotto making expert would be a good idea. I do make a mean lobster-stock oyster mushroom risotto tho. The rice itself was perfect: a risotto should always keep some kind of bite to it and be all rich and creamy. Rich and creamy are probably my favorite adjectives when it comes to food. Mmmm. The waitress asked if I wanted some pepper and extra parmesan --because there was already some in there--and hells yes I wanted extra parmesan. Let's make something clear; I will always want that extra parm. The mushrooms were nicely cooked but I would have liked a bit of variety instead of plain ol' button shrooms.

#7: tiramisu. This coffee tastin' dessert is not usually my fave. But this one. Oh! This one was...oh! Yes, that's a foodgasm if you haven't noticed. It was creamy, it was soft, it was nutty, it was coffee. It was gone in 2.5 seconds. Hands down the best tiramisu I've eva eva tasted.

 

Service was really good. Well, it had to be, didn't it? I mean, they knew I was there to write a review. At first, the waitress was kind of shy, bringing me the menu and mineral water. But then she started being friendlier, probably because I was there, eating 7 courses, for about 8 hours. OK, 1 hour and a half. Still. The chef served the plates and, although he seemed really introverted, would talk to me about the restaurant and about the dishes.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8 (that damn calamari!)

Service: 9

 

To answer your question, YES I ate everything. And to answer your second question, YES I am a pig. I left on my bike and I'm serious when I say that I don't remember anything from around St-Zotique/Clark to Pine/St-Urbain. It's like I blacked out! Food coma!!! I would definitely go back, especially for the tiramisu. I do hope that they revamp the place to get more customers tho. It would be worth their while.

Le Mousso

*disclosure: half of these pics are retardedly bad. Blame my phone in the darkness.

Sometimes, you get to experience a once in a long while experience (does that even make sense?). Le Mousso became one of those, very quickly. My really good friends were in town from the states (and yes, Donald Trump came up about 8 times) and Neush, I'll call her, had made reservations at Bouillon Bilk. Yep. When she said there was an opening at Le Mousso, I got so excited, I may have gotten some chills. See, Le Mousso is special to me because my mom's family are Mousseau! Whaaaaat! Dudes, I was basically going to eat at my 3rd cousin twice removed' restaurant! Or something.

The resto is located in the village on Ontario, near Amherst. Jesus, I wish all the awesome restaurants that have sprouted around there could have been there when I lived at the corner of St-Hubert/Ontario! This neighbourhood is definitely blossoming when it comes to restaurants! It has a definite vibe when you come in: hustling and bustling, the waiters are running around, aiming to please everyone. Le Mousso is still somewhat of a small restaurant if you think about it: a small dining room when you come in, you go up some stairs on the left and there's another space with roughly 8 tables, and then you continue and go down some more stairs and there's a couple more tables and a big booth where we were seated. FYI, those were the best seats in the house. It's kind of like a tiny maze, because if you continue, you hit the bar and there's no way out so you have to go back from where you came from. OK, you have to be there to get it. Geez!

It's pretty effin awesome to have a view on the downstairs kitchen from your seat. I absolutely loved that. I found it a bit weird to go downstairs, pass by the kitchen, say hey to the cooks and head to the washroom. To see all the spices, all the colourful veggies, the good lookin' plates and the communication between cooks/chefs was great. Especially since, even with that many dishes, things seemed to be running smoothly.

Le Mousso has a fixed menu of 7 courses for 65$ (55$ on Wednesdays) with an optional 8th course that you can add on for 15 buckaroos. All ingredients are either local or close to except, on this menu, the calamari, the daikon and the truffles. It's pretty darn tootin' awesome to know that everything on your plate comes from a field very close to home. It's like when I make myself a huge salad with the veggies from my garden. Mmmmmmm. OK, summer needs to get here now. But on another note...you can also get the wine pairing for 45$ I believe. They don't actually have a wine list so they just make you taste a couple wines. Tasting wine? Wait. Tasting a couple wines? Count me in baby!

Appetizers 'around the fire'. To be honest, I do not remember which one is which. It was very... black. One was a financier (a cookie) made from squid ink, with some caviar atop it. It was spongy and tasted just fishy enough! The black garlic calamari was oh so original but it could have been a bit hotter and the texture did not please me much. I must say though that the taste was as special as they come! So for that one, A for effort :p 

Foie gras cotton candy. Uh, excuse me? The waiter, in my head, just said: ' heaven, heaven, heaven'. Yep. And holy shizzle was he ever right! He instructed us to take the whole thing in one bite. I don't think anyone at the table did that but I would not dare contradict him and it was well worth it! Woooooow!!! So it was basically a cloud of loveliness. A CLOUD of LOVELINESS. Damn yo! Ya, I just yo'ed you guys. The whole thing melted as it should and then you had a hit of foie gras that was like butter (or should I say 'butta') on your tongue. It was the perfect vehicule for such a wonderful and fatty dish. Hands down the best foie gras I've had in my life. My LIFE! And ps, I ain't gettin' any younger!

Scallops with dashi, brown butter and dikon. OK, this specific mix of flavours sounds really far fetched and out there but you know what? It totes worked for me. Well, and for everyone else since we all absolutely loved this. Firstly, may I just say 'you had me at scallop'. They are like candy. Seriously, when I eat them, I'm like a kid in a candy store: I go all cray cray and I want more and more. The daikon was perfectly cooked and oozed flavour. Oozing is a technical term here, of course. The scallops were p-e-r-f-e-c-t: lightly charred and seasoned just right. The dashi added a certain umami to the plate, which, by the way, does not happen every day. Even when umami is trying to be reached, it does not transpire every time. Marie: umami expert! The brown butter added a certain nuttiness to the dish which paired really well with the scallops. They could have dialed down the sweetness a bit: for a second there, it was a bit desert-y. Dar thought it could have been served hotter and I thought it was just the right temperature. 

This is possibly THE worst picture my phone has ever taken. And it was such a pretty plate, gosh darn it! Arctic char with quenelles of borsch, onion, sour cream (or was it crème fraîche?) and caviar. The borsch quenelle was like beets X 100; yummy and rich and thick. The flowers and shoots atop the fish were actually quite spicy which was a surprise for us all. They were quite strong and tangy and a welcomed side to the dish! The onion quenelle was wooooowza! OK, imagine you are eating a french onion soup. Got it? Well all those flavours were concentrated in just one little quenelle. Yep! The cream quenelle was effin awesome and so smooth. I'd have a bite and it would melt directly on my tongue. Mmmmmm... meeeeelting. The caviar quenelle was my least favorite. I know, I know, it's caviar. But mama doesn't like it because it's expensive. It was actually overly salty and I didn't find that it went well with the rest of the components on the plate. The fish was just to dsie for. I know I say this over and over again but it actually DID melt in my mouth. It was so fragile and soft and just tasted like dynamite. Note: no, I've never tasted dynamite. Just take a little bite of the fish with a bit of the borsch or the onion or the cream and BAM, you got yourself paradise. It was seasoned perfectly and lord knows how important that is when you are eating fish, or anything for that matter. Everything is in the seasoning.

This was the extra course we paid 15$ for. We shared three for the table. I liked the fact that we could add something! Crab with green strawberries, wild leek and verbena. Let me first explain something. My name might be Marie-Christine but I could just as easily introduce myself as the princess, nay, the queen of all seafood. Let me explain somethin' else. I swam before I walked and I ate seafood as soon as I could eat solids. It's just how I dso. Alright, enough with the stories! The wild leek sauce may look like a slug on the plate, but it was the freaking best tasting slug ever. It was tangy and full of loveliness. The verbena was the wow factor. First of all, well, it looks damn good, and second of all, that special aroma it has paired uber well with the crab. That citrusy, almost lemongrassy taste was like lightly squeezing a lemon on top of the crab. Yes AND yes. Oh and that crab: dsaaaaaamn! Dsamn. I can't say it enough: dsaaaaamn. So tasty and, well, straight from the ocean pretty much. It was like they just fished it out and put it on my plate. And then I put it in ma mouth. And enjoyed the hell out of it.

Coq au champignons de Paris, poudre de peau de volaille et beurre blanc. I wrote it in french cause it sounds about 100% better and fancier. This was goooo-hooood! I'd totes go back for one these bad boys! So button mushrooms=boring right? Wrong. They were sliced very thin and seasoned just right and had almost a buttery texture to them. I would absolutely hate not being able to put at least a little salt on everything. We all know it brings out the goodness in meat, veggies, well, all food really. The beurre blanc was a tad on the salty side tho but it was still amazeballz. It was smooth and creamy. Mmmmm... I just want to dip everything I eat in THAT butta. The skin was the best part: crunchy tasty goodness. And the meat. OH, the meat. It was so tender that it was breaking in pieces just by looking at it. This plate was definitely a winner. Totes def. Man I sounded cool right there. I just ruined it, didn't I?

Holy Christmas! I just felt bad for my friend Beans who's pregnant and couldn't eat the lamb the way it is supposed to be enjoyed: blue. You do not eat fully cooked lamb. You just don't. It was tender and juicy and darn tootin' awesome. The flowers on top were so delicate and the basil, even more so. They kind of made up a tiny lovely salad atop the best damn piece of red meat I've eaten in a whhhhile. Oh and the smell emanating from that dish: dsamn! The basil and the harissa. Oh yes! The harissa seemed like a weird choice at first but it quickly became the BEST choice for this meat. Everything accompanied everything else so well. All the flavours married well together.

Obviously, I did not take this picture. I forgot to take one so thank you, Le Mousso facebook page.

How pretty does this look? Man oh man! Think about a beautiful painting and put it on a plate; you get this. The taste to prettiness ratio was up there too! They probably have their tweezers handy when plating because everything is so pretty and so well placed. Especially those little flowers. I love having flowers in my plates so I was a happy camper throughout the meal. This was the pre-dessert. Or the anti-dessert as they called it. It was described on the menu as so: 'shallot/blood/apple'. Mmmmya lemme jump right on that. Or not. But oh yes! This was full of textures: creamy, smooth, crunchy, soft. Blood sponge cake. It was really rich, moist and airy all at once. It tasted like cinnamon, which is an obvious pairing with apple. The apple butter was a bit tart but that was very nice. Apple=tartness. I don't like sweet apple thangs anyway! Anti-dessert hello! The shallot ice cream was, and I know I've written this word many times throughout this review, but, WOW!!! Naturally, I had never, neva eva tasted that before. I don't think anyone has! And it was so effin good. So original. Who knew? Again, very rich but the shallot was just present enough to not make it feel like I was eating a salad. Pouahaha. The cider vinegar was very sweet and kind of counter balanced the ice cream. Hey, a great dish is a well balanced one. The oatmeal crumble was needed on this plate. Again, with the balance! I needed that extra texture. It was just sweet enough.

Dessert! I'm quite saddened by the state of this picture because it was actually 1000 better than what it looks like here. Squash tuile atop frozen yogourt, buttermilk mousse, honey and honeycomb toffee. Hello! The mousse's job was to make sure the dish as a whole wasn't overly sweet because of the honey. I liked the contradiction. The tuile was pretty awesome and although I know how they did it, I still don't know HOW they did it. Hahaha! The crunchie bar... I mean honeycomb was such a great thought, flavour and texture wise. I would have liked a bit more of it but, hey, imma pig. The frozen yogourt melted in your mouth as soon as it hit it and it resembled semi freddo. It was a bit tart, which was much welcome. I could have licked the plate when I was done... or DID I?

Service was awesome. Actually we had two waiters. The first one finished his shift in the middle of our meal so a girl took over. She was less personal, less friendly, more get to the point. Not as fun for us. Our water glasses were always full, our utensils were changed between every course and our food came in a timely fashion. We had 8 courses so we left at aroud 12h15, which was waaaayyy too late for us old folk. But hey, we got there late too so it's all our fault. By the end, half of us were snoozing in our plate.

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: first half 9, second half 7 (sorry girl!)

As you MAY have noticed, I totes fell in love with this restaurant. Every time I see one of their dishes on their facebook page, I drool. I guess the only thing for me to do now  is to go back!

Vicolo

Like Rachel in Friends once said: 'I think there was a restaurant... I know there was wine.'

I was invited to try a new Italian restaurant called Vicolo a couple weeks ago! And everyone knows that getting invited by Jillian Zrihen of Tracy Brooke PR means one thing: it'll be a party! And a partay it was, but I'll get to that later!

First off, I just want to mention how ridunculous it is (really!) to have an opening on a weekday evening. Why? This only means I'll get to work hungover the next day. I mean, make it a Friday, and then I don't care what I look like or how dizzy I am the next morning :p

We were welcomed by all smiles and DJ Abeille Gélinas, who has been at all the openings of recent. Good vibes and good people! We waited a couple minutes to give our coats and then, we were off upstairs to the dining and bar area. The place looks really good, with leather booths and lots of wood on the walls. There was also a huge bar, which is always important! Hehehe.

Wow, the place got full at around 6:30 and OH-SOOOO-FULL as in I-can't-move-a-bit at around 7.

We obviously (uh, duh!) headed straight for the bar because I just knew it was going to fill up real quick. We had their signature cocktail of the evening, Il Vicolo, which is gin, blood orange, lemon, egg whites, orange flower water and soda. It was...alright. Not really my cup-o-tea (or my cup-o-gin?) Too gin-y for me. I mean, I can handle too vodka-y or too rum-y but too gin-y? Nah.

OK, so basically, the evening was to be composed of free drinks, free food (tiny versions of  their plates) being passed around by waiters, a tiny cheese, bread and meat buffet type thang and a pizza etc table. That pizza etc table was really diddly damn good!

Alrighty, let's talk food, shall we?

The cheese, bread and sausagy buffet. It looked really good! It looked so good that I wanted to put everything in my mouth at once, but let's face it, my mouth is way too small :p The olives were, what's the word, oh-so-good! Mmmmmm, they pretty much melted right in my mouth (yes, apparently olives can melt). Some bread was a tad too hard but some was soft and yummy! Same with the cheese, some was soft and tasty and others were on the harder side, but good nevertheless. The only thing that really disappointed me were the little sausages wrapped oh so carefully in paper: they were so hard, I thought I was going to break a 5th tooth (mmmmya, I don't have the best teeth). Plus, my guest, Lea, found them way too spicy.

First thing that was offered to us by the waiters was this butternut creamy goodness heavenly thang. It was hot, which is not the norm when soup is served, especially during an opening, and so soft and unctions! I could have eaten about 11 of those. Just because.

This was a hit! Burrata atop an olive tapenade and crushed tomatoes on a crouton. The crouton wasn't too hard, the cheese was just lovely and surprisingly, the olives weren't salty at all. As I said, a hit!

This was also wonderful! Beef carpaccio with fleur de sel, parmesan, and truffle oil. I thought, like in many cases, that the oil was going to overpower the dish but it just added what was needed to complete it. The beef melted in your mouth and it was just goodness all around.

Ze calamari. Not squishy, thank the looooord! They were rather crunchy with a nice little mayo. Very pleasant!

The pizza bar! I think we hung out next to it for at least half an hour, just eating our way through every single pizza. There were meaty pizzas and one mushroom pizza which was to dssssiiiieee for! All were thin crusted and wonderful and oh-so-cheesy! And I don't say that lightly because I AM a pizza enthusiast.   

We also tried their mushroom risotto with a bit of parsley. It was nice and creamy but a bit too hard for my taste (FYI: risotto is not supposed to be soft, it's actually supposed to have some crunch to it).

 

Now, for the service! Seeing as the place was full or 'plein à craquer' as we say, service was actually on par (and the door dudes were really cool---I even gave one of them a plate of goodies :) There was a huge agglomeration at the bar and they were quite fast giving out drinks! At some point though, they stopped giving out free drinks :( That's alright, we became fast friends with the drunkered owner, so we paid for half of our future drinks. Hehehe. And then, like magic, everything became blurry....From what Lea told me, we hung out with the owner and a hot girl (hello!!!) for some time when everyone was gone. Oh and I woke up with her card on my night table AND in my jacket. I dream of a threesome, mmmkay? Hahaha. We ended up getting our pic taken in the Vicolo photo booth at the end, looking ridiculous, in good Marie fashion.

 

And now, the scores!

 

Food:8

Service: 8.5   

 

We had an excellent time, although the morning after wasn't so excellent! I'll go back for sure to have the REAL Vicolo experience!