Hansang

As you may (or may not) recall, the first time we tried to hit up Hansang, it was a bust. So we had to return. Jer bear was there, duh. And his roomate/ma friend Em was there as well. Yay for Asian food discoveries!

The place itself looks much fancier inside than it does from the outside. Let's just say that the outside of it looks a bit meh, with two run-down looking signs, and inside is all supes clean, with dark wooden tables and some Asian art.

We had to have some starters, of course! First: the pajeon. I loves me a good pajeon. OK, it sounds like I eat this all the time, but, to be honest, I've had it only a couple times. Every time, with Jer Ber, and every time, it's to find out who would win the best pajeon contest. The winner (as of now) is Hansang! OK, this sh*t was SO good! Yes, it was deep fried, but sometimes, that's just totes acceptable. Right? RIGHT? The flavours were all there and the sides had a bit of crispiness to it. The green onions gave a little tang and the bonito flakes, well, hello. The only thing I found that I liked a bit less was the fact that there was too much tempura. But who cares! The rest was awesome.

The tteokqbokki. Well, that's a mouthful. Thick, gnocchi-like, and rice-based, these big-ass noodles were waaaaayyyy too thick for me. Wow. It was just too much, you know. Sometimes, it's just too much. I felt like I was eating dense pillows. They were comfy and everything, but damn, they were heavy. I liked the sauce tho. Yay for silver linings! It was ubs spicy and I just love those chillies!!!

Kimchi. If you ever see me NOT order kimchi at a Korean restaurant, something seriously wrong is going on. As in, it might be code that the person next to me has abducted me OR something else. Mmm, I can taste it right now and my mouth is legit watering. I'm serious, I just made a puddle on ma desk! It was just fermented enough, just spicy enough and it was really fresh. Which, by the by, IS a funny thing to say about kimchi, because it's fermented cabbage. Hahaha. I make the best jokes.

Beef teriyaki. Spicy, of course. This was right on the ball. You know, the meat n' spicy ball. That one. Don't even ask, I am aware that I don't make sense. The udon noodles were totes perf, thick and tasty. The veggies were not overly cooked, which is what I loathe. Why don't you make purée with that? GEEZ. They were good and just the right amount of spicy. Also, the sprouts were crunchy, which can add a whole other textural element to a dish. You think I'm exaggerating...but I am not. Dudes, I'm serious about my food, you know that! The beef was also the right amount of cooked. No one likes to eat a boot, am I right? It had all the right flavours: a bit sweet and a bit spicy. The perfect combo, basically.

Service was great throughout the meal: he gave us tea fast, food relatively fast, checked on us and was full on smiling the whole time. At some point we asked for cold water because there was lots-o-heat in our mouths and I found it quite hilarious that he only brought some for Em and I. As if the only Asian at our table was the strongest one. I think I cry less when I eat supes spicy food! He starts having the sweats way before I do :p (sorry Jer, tis true!)

And now, the scores!

Food: 8

Service: 8.5

I really enjoyed this place! On to the next Asian with my Jer bear! Do you even KNOW how many restos there are in MTL? Ya, that's what I thought.

Le Diplomate

I was looking for a new restaurant to write about and, let's face it, I really needed one: I like to have a couple reviews on the back burner, and that's how I feel safe. I've had nothin' on that burner for the past week and I was starting to go a bit cray. And so, ma gurl Clo and I decided on Le Diplomate, since it had gotten good reviews from her husband, who isn't a stranger to good food and good times. He IS the head mixologist at the Fairmount Queen E after all!

We headed to le Diplomate, a year and a half old restaurant in nowhere, Montréal. I kid, I kid. But not really. Seriously, it's in front of the Home Depot On Beaubien. AWESOME view. Hahaha! I mean, it is close to St-Laurent and little Italy and all, but for ME, it was waaaaayyy out of my way. This tells you how much I wanted to go! The door is almost camouflaged, and I walked right passed it. Clo stopped and was like dude hello. I gotta say it does not look very inviting from outside. It looks more like, what's the word I'm looking for? A prison. Yep, it looks like a full on prison.

When you enter the resto, it's a different feeling :) A long counter overlooks the kitchen, and only a couple tables surround it. We obviously wanted first dibs on what felt like the chef's table, so sought after in other restaurants . You get to see how the chef works and how everything happens!!! I LOVE that! We sat down and I immediately mentioned the music: 90's music from ma time. That made me very happy.

We started with some wine. Everyone should start a meal with some wine; this should be a universal rule. Almost without looking at the wine list (which is quite extensive, by the way), Clo said "we'll take a glass of orange wine". I was like WTF is orange wine. Turns out it's a thang, man! To sum it up VERY shortly, orange wine is a white wine with tannins. Read up about it here: http://winefolly.com/review/orange-wine/ It was sweet, it was sour. It was almost citrusy. A very nice and new discovery! It's rather hard to get: apparently some SAQ get about a case a week and an orange wine obsessed person just buys the whole thing ASAP. Some restaurants have it but they are quite rare. Orange wine is gaining in popularity, people. Sell it. Sell it good!

Our first bouchée was celeriac with green curry, coconut milk, and peanuts. This was such a great introduction to Le Diplomate!!! We had our first bite and were instantly wowed! That green curry made such an impact on our taste buds! It wasn't over curried, if that's a thing, and it legit tasted refreshing. It was like eating a nice curried noodle, but without the carbs! Such a great mix of flavours. The peanut offered a crunch to counterbalance the celeriac. Everything in this dish was on the damn ball.

Our second bouchée was eggplant, sesame, green onion, and gai choi. This was a hit and miss. Firstly, the colour wasn't ubs (uber, get with it) appetizing: somewhat grey. Grey food is not the best thing for the eyes, ya know? The eggplant was a bit mushy (technical word, of course) and unevenly salted. The rest was great and it was my first time eating gai choi, which, before rereading the menu, I thought was fennel. #dumbass It added the crunch that was much needed with that too-soft eggplant. Needless to say we didn't go cray for this.

We continued with the regular menu next. Brussels sprouts, tamarin and quinoa. This was another wow experience. Have you ever tasted quinoa foam? No? Well, we did! And it was magical. It legit tasted of quinoa and they added some acid and some honey to balance it. The brussel sprouts were perfectly charred. It was such a cute little dish and an awesome one at that. I'd go back every day only to have that bad boy.

Scallop with kohlrabi, daikon and peach. The scallop was raw, which, let's face it, is the best way to eat it. There were also camelina seeds, which are also called gold-of-pleasure. HAHAHA!!! These little balls of heaven taste akin to hazelnut. Mmmmm!!! Scallop and camelina: match made in nutty heaven! I didn't taste the dikon much and the kohlrabi was, on the other hand, a bit too present. Maybe it's because there wasn't enough scallop in there. ALWAYS put more scallop. ALWAYS. Or, you know, in a perfect world. I thought the kohlrabi tasted way too much like the celeriac, even though I am aware they are two different vegetables. The peach also wasn't sweet enough, so the point of putting it in there was sort of lost. All in all, not a big winner.

We had only ordered four dishes and had to order another one because we were still totes hungry. We had the salsify with cucumber, mint and black beans. I think I've eaten salsify once in my life so I had no basis for comparison. This was really good. It was good IN MA MOUTH. I loved the salsify: texture and taste were right on. The mint added a bit of sweetness and the black beans added a bit of a salty side to it all. The cucumber was perfectly cut in a perfect brunoise. It was perf. Did I mention the perfect cut? Mmmmya. All these ingredients went really well together. Who would've thought?

To finish off, obviously, we had to order dessert! They had three choices. We had the carrot semifreddo with spiced cake, chocolate and églantier. OK, apparently, 'églantier., in English is 'dog rose', but that's just weird. Anyway, moving passed it. The eglantine gave a punch of flavor and the semifreddo was just thick and carotty enough! Yum! The actual cake was unfortunately a bit on the dry side and the chocolate would have been much better on top than on the bottom. This way, it would have enveloped everything. Since it was right at the bottom, it was harder to get to while eating the dessert, and in the end, harder to... lick off the plate :)

Service was awesome when we first got in and as soon as it filled up, it became a bit slower. No wonder... they were only two! The woman was really sweet and smiley and the chef seemed really calm even when the resto filled up. He just did his thang. I give him props for bringing out dishes in such a timely fashion. We were asked if we liked our food and were offered dessert at the end of our meal. They answered all questions we had about our dishes.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 7.5

It's so out of my way that I don't see myself going back right now. Perhaps in the summer time when I won't wait FORTY minutes for the bus. Ew.

Café Olimpico

Ma work girl Margo pretty much forced me, with all her might (and she's a small girl) to try her fave coffee place in the Mile End. I don't like coffee, so, for me, it wasn't a life or death situation. But for her, it was. So I dsid, I tried Olimpico a couple weeks back right before hitting up le roller derby a couple blocks away. Perfect!

The place is an institution: it's been there for I don't even know how many years but believe me when I say they have regulars. I'm gonna go ahead and say 50% of their clientele are. We sat on the terrace where they only have benches: very suitable for chatting and meeting new peeps. Clients hang out there, right outside, inside, pretty much everywhere. Iz nice. I can see why some would feel like home here.

Since I didn't want no coffee and it was damn hawt outside, I had a cold chocolate milk. Oh, and I had the affogato. I know it was, like, blasphemy, to not drink le coffee but what can I do? I've tried to drink the stuff more times than I can count and I just CANNOT do it. I cannot. Do it. Last time I took a couple sips, I was sick all day. Not pleasant!

El chocolate. Let me reiterate: I loathe coffee. I LOVE hot chocolate. On that day, it was way too hot for me to drink hot stuff so I asked for a cold one. No, not a beer, I hate that too. Hahaha. I know, I suck. The drink was very sweet and sort of meh. A bit disappointing. Hey, Olimpico is not synonym of chocolate, it is synonym of coffee!

Which is why I had to have somethin' with coffee in there. I had the affogato with hazelnut ice cream. At 6 (or 8... can't recall) dollars, I thought it was a touch expensive for ice cream but it was quite good indeed! The shot of espresso went really well with the ice cream and although it was quite a big dessert, and I didn't have the hunger to finish it, it was quite satisfying. I NEVER say this about anything with coffee. Eva.

Service was very friendly and quick. The dude at the counter told me what to get because I had next to no clue and I was satisfied with his choice :)

And now, les scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 9

Not sure if I'll go back on my own but I'm pretty positive Margo will make sure I do :)

Larry's

Larry's was on my list. OK, this is how it goes: I have a pretty extensive list of restaurants I just need to try and when I go out for lunch/dinner with friends, I always look at my list first. Larry's was located right where I needed it to be: mile end. I was meeting my baby gurl Isa for lunch before work! FYI, Larry's is Lawrence's baby boy. Lawrence is ALSO on 'the' list.

The place itself, at 11h40AM was full. FULL! WTF! Dsamn man. With around 16 seats on the floor plus 11 at the counter, it was pretty small. It had a nice ambiance, an open kitchen, actually nice soft-like country music and a VERY hipster-ish vibe. A tad TOO much for our taste.

Mmmkay, so this resto serves up small dishes akin to tapas. I loves me some tapas! Of course, I had chosen them before getting there. Hello, do you not know me?

Isa decided to have the Spruce pop. She wanted to have a 'regular' pop, but they don't got any. I tasted it and it just reminded me of Buckley's. You know, that really freaking harsh syrup you buy to get rid of all your germs? Ya, that one. She wasn't cray for it either and half of it was left in the bottle when they took it away.

Le ceviche. Albacore ceviche. Hum, yes! I loves me some good albacore. This was fresh. Oh, so fresh! A tad on the oily side but good nevertheless. The pieces were a bit too big for me (for a ceviche, really), but it did taste yummy. Very well seasoned, with a little homemade salsa type thang atop it. Yasssss.

Anchovies and tomatoes. I gots to say, I ain't a fan of run-of-the-mill anchovies. But fresh anchovies? You GOT me! The tomatoes were right on, grilled to perfection. Juices were comin' out of them and dem juices were good! Unfortunately, the bread under the anchovy wasn't day-old bread, it seemed more like three-day-old bread. Meh. And the oil. Why so much oil? Not uber pleasant.

Pasguetti!!!!Spaghetti with bread crumbs, capers, mackarel sauce and herbs. At the bottom, a bunch of oil. But WHY??? The bread crumbs gave it a nice texture, the capers, some acidity and the mackerel just fit right in there. But we were dumbfounded by all the oil at the bottom. WHY?? It was just unnecessary!

Flammkuchen! A mouth full, really! Hahaha! Akin to somewhat of a pizza. That dough didn't seem cooked enough. Those herbs were lovely though. The flavours were awesome but again, that dough did not seem cooked through.

The oxtail. Obviously, we don't get much of this here. Like, ever. It was, again, in this dough. Again, a tad on the oily side. But why? I LOVED the oxtail. Isa wasn't havin' it. I mean, she's from South Africa, where oxtail is pretty much like beef: everywhere! I thought it was tasty and flavourful. It even tasted a bit like cinnamon I thought. She thought it was lacking in flavour. Damn it!

Dessert. Now, THIS was a nice surprise. Rice pudding with custard and torched à la crème brûlée with some cranberry compote on top. I'm pretty much in love with the breaking of the crème brûlée and this was the same. For a second, I felt like Amélie Poulain. The cranberries were very fresh and had a hint of orange mixed in. The whole dessert wasn't overly sweet and it was just so f*cking good. That rice was perfect and that custard was perfect too. Just one bite with all the elements of this dessert was enough for me to make a decision: it was hella good. 

Service was OK. As Isa pointed out, it's never ideal to get served by four different people. Totes on her side here. I like two, tops! The dude that took our order had to ask us three times because he wasn't writing it down. Boy, I don't think your memory is as good as you think! What sort of really annoyed me A LOT was the hipsteryness of it all. What IS that hair cut? What ARE those pants? Are those FAKE GLASSES? I know, I know, I judge, I judge. But you guys already know that I am a judger. They looked funny to me but they were still nice kids :) Oh but one of the waitresses had really long hair and I could just see it in the wind, practically landing in my food. Hair and food just dson't go.

We did get our food in a timely fashion tho so that was nice. They did not check how much we liked our meal but one of them explained the dessert in length so that was appreciated.

And now, the scores!

Food: 6.5

Service: 6.5

As you must know by now, I rarely go back to the same restaurant. I guess if I need my oil fix, I will return. Hahaha :)

Caribou Gourmand

I was invited to the [rather soft] opening of le Caribou Gourmand last week by Cat, a girl I used to work with at Juliette et Chocolat, also known as my worst professional mistake, aka the bosses were butts. I'm being nice here. Anyhoot, getting back to the Caribou! 

It's located in the Mile-End/Outremont. Who knows now with the extended boroughs and the neighbourhoods and the adjacents and what have yous. Point is, there are around 8000 restaurants around just looking for yo love. And they will do whatever is necessary! This is why every single establishment that opens its doors must be damn special and have a damn good idea.

It wasn't the most awesomest (oh, it's a word) of days to have this event. It was raining and flinging flanging cold and winter had decided to come back in June. JUNE, people! My homegirl Lea was meeting me and her bus was running late so I actually had to go in before dying of hypothermia. I'm being totes serious here. 

The space is actually quite small and rather cozy. There is a long bar that transforms into a high table, so you feel like you're kind of PART of the bar. You know, like, if you reach far enough, you could actually serve yourself your own drink! Hahaha. Dudes, I totally have to try that! The front wall completely opens up and that would have seemed 1000% cooler (no pun intended) if it wasn't -8 degrees outside. I'm exaggerating, it was -4. Oh but I must mention that when two girls started smoking right outside, I felt like I was smoking both their cigarettes. At the same time. So that wasn't too awesome. I've smoked. I've been there, I've done that. I dson't wanna dso it anymore.

There's slate everywhere, or I guess slate colour. It's actually nice, it fits. I felt like taking out my chalk and drawing on the tables. Cause, you know, I's got a chalk reserve in ma bag. And there I go, babbling again. It seems rather 'industrial' with pipes everywhere but also kind of the opposite, with a wall made of tree trunks, plants on the walls and big ass caribou antlers on another one. There's about 25 seats in all, but I'm sure there's more on a regular night. OK, hopefully there's more on a regular night.

Aight, so basically, beer was 3$ and wine was 5$, which I thought was just about right on. Some itti bites were going to be offered so that we could get an avant-goût of their menu. Seriously, I've been to huge mother freakin' restaurant openings where soooooo much money is spent on all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink and then BAM, they close. Just like that. I'm just gonna go ahead and name Kyozon and Vicolo as examples.

Beet carpaccio: pecan, grapes, maple and tarragon. Tasted really fresh and the grapes were a perfect match. The beets were cut into perfect cubes, which made it that much better. For me, anyway. I had a hard time finding that maple vinaigrette tho. The pecans were good but any nut would have been good in there; it was there for the texture more than the taste, I found. Oh, I sound so sophisticated. OMG, I should totes meet the queen. Or... not? Moving on...

Salmon rillettes with pink pepper corns and tarragon. Oh, except it was definitely dill in there. Yep, I know dill when it's dill. Does that make sense? No. Was it tarragon? No. Anyhoot, I've grown to love dill over the past couple months so I liked it. The pink pepper corns were awesome in there, again a great match. Points for everyone! The bread got kind of soggy with all the waiting time in the kitchen, I can only presume. And although this was good, I felt like it needed more originality. This will not get you waves of people. Waves. People. Disclaimer: I swear I haven't taken any drugs.

PICTURE #3 --MISSING

Yes, this dumbie forgot to take a pic. I'm gonna blame Lea, it's easier that way (sorry gurl!). Chicken liver mousse. Which, by the by, sounds about 800 times more refined in French; 'mousse de foie de volaille'. No? It was close to perfect and smooth as a baby's butt. You know, people say that all the time. Well, damn it, it's true. I can honestly say that all the babies' butts I have touched (wow, how creepy do I sound on a scale from 1 to 1 million?) were uber duber soft. Hence, this was damn smooth. Little gerkins, very thinly sliced added some texture and a briny flavour that paired really well with the richness of the mousse. Mmmmm. Mmmmousse. 

PICTURE #4 -- MISSING

Damn it Lea! Last bite was beet coulis, dijon mustard 'mousse' and cracklings. Cracklings: funny word. Ha! Cracklings: pork meat that has been roasted and then confit (confied?).  The bad thing about this was that the vessel for this dish was a spoon (you know, those appetizer spoons that look like it could be for your wonton soup) and so it was really hard to get everything in your mouth in one shot. So then I had to pick at it with my hands and that was on the 'meh' side of things. Anyhoot, the meat was really nicely cooked and was oh-so-tender (A+), the beet was nice but a bit too earthy for this and the mustard was overwhelming. You know... too much of a good thing (I loves me some good mustard).

Service was good. I mean, we were seated right by all the waitresses so it wasn't that difficult. I was kind of disappointed  that we only got to taste four things and even more disappointed when the waitress would pass by with the same bite we had just had. 

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5

Service: 8

There are about 127 restaurants on my to-go list so I'm not sure this made the cut. I'll get back to you on that ;)

 

Café Les Entretiens

I absolutely wanted to eat on Laurier East one day and so I brought two of my good friends, Jega (wow girl, I totally transformed your name into the coolest one!) and Rach to that area to scope out the resto scene. I had been to Byblos 2 weeks before so I didn't want to go back there. We decided on a cute little bistro on Laurier.

There was no one in there. No one. Which means we got service very quickly. Water was on the table as we were being seated. Nice. We were there with Jega's daughter who is not even 18 months so it was fun to know that they had toys for her (and for me!) and a nice big salt water tank with lots of colourful fish in there!

Staying true to my usual, I ordered the biggest breakfast on the menu. I had 2 eggs, some breakfast potatoes, fruits, ham and cheddar with a croissant. Yummy! Actually, you have the choice between baguette, brown bread, bagel or croissant (for 0,50$ extra). The ham was bacon-y, almost crunchy. Very nice! The potatoes were well cooked and not mushy (you know when you get mushy potatoes...). The eggs were unfortunately unseasoned (yes I know I can season them myself but hey) and they were in a bowl. It became kind of narst with the water from the eggs and the running yellow. Let's just say it wasn't the best vessel. The fruits were very fresh and the croissant was soft, buttery goodness!

Rach and Jega had the croissant doré with fruits. Again, I thought it was cool they could their croissant pain doré style! They were both very happy with their choice. It was original and delicious, crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. Oh and it was cinnamon-y! Rach even said it was the best french 'toast' she had ever had! Oh and there was this mix of maple sirop and yogourt in the bowl: very enjoyable on the croissant!

The service was great to start with: she was very attentive and we got everything pretty quickly. But then, by the end, meh... it took a while to get the bill and as I mentioned, we had a tiny kid with us so when you gotta go, you gotta go!

And now, the scores!

Service: 7,5

Food: For the croissant doré, 8,5. For my breakfast, 7.

A nice discovery! If I do go back though, I'm taking the croissant doré!

Cartel

A couple weeks ago, we were celebrating the fact that a friend of ours was back from Kuwait for 6 weeks (yay!) so we were heading to Voro. Turns out, it was all reserved with about a 45 minute wait. I don’t think so. So, we walked along Fairmount and found Cartel in the Mile End.

There weren’t many people in there so we were hesitant at first but still went in (actually, there were about 5 people). The place has a loungy feel to it. It had ‘happenin’ music’ with about 100 seats. Oh and there seemed to be a couch on the ceiling ?! Weird.

The menu was all over the place: quesadillas, lobster rolls, meat, poutine. It was a mix of Mexican/Japanese/Canadian.  I usually don’t tend to appreciate mixed restaurants (I’m SO restaurantIST), but this one turned out to be ok. And their theme was ‘street food’… so the mix of different foods was understandable. 

I had the duck quesadillas. I see duck on a menu, I have duck. It's that simple. The duck turned out to be a tad dry but there were really good flavors in there and amazing guacamole! Careful, the hot sauce (on the side) is damn hot. I was happy with the portion: it was quite big, for my big appetite!

The service was good. The waitress knew what she was talking about and opened the wine very well (I always look at this part of the service, don't ask). She was friendly and knew her shhtuff. On top of it, when we asked for the bill, it took about 3.5 seconds to get it. I guess the fact that there were about 12 people when we left kind of helped!

And now, the scores!!!

Food: a generous 8
Service: 8,5

Don't be fooled by the fact that there's no one in this restaurant. It's worth a try!!!