Portus Calle

This restaurant has been on my to go list for a while, especially since I went to Helena last year and was just amazed by the tasting menu. Sooooo when a benefactor gave me 250$ to 'enjoy good food and have fun' (heeeeeelllls yes!), I called Portus Calle right away.

I was going with my friend Rach, who was here on vacation from them Cayman Islands (lucky bastard), and she was pleased with my choice of resto.

We got a very pleasant welcome by the maitre-d' that showed us to our very lovely table close to the window. The place itself is quite big... lots of room at the bar and even more room in the brick walled dining room. Portuguese music was playing, which was a nice change from let's say a Mexican restaurant playing 95.9 (ok... I'm not aware of the radio stations here.... but let's just say I was happy it wasn't pop music!). It was very cozy and cute.

Since everything on the menu looked great, and we were about to order every damn thing on there, our waiter suggested the tasting menu for 55$ each. OH YES!

We started out with a glass of Porto, because hey, with that money in my pockets, we could! Ha! It wasn't too strong and went down well. If I had to, I'd have no difficulty drinking that all night! We wanted to have some vinho verde with our meal but the one we wanted was not available so we went with white wine.

Alrighty, fooooooooooood (enter drooling here). First was chorizo aioli (hello!), olives, olive oil, bread and tuna rillettes with daikon. Hum, yum! Tuna melted in your mouth but tasted a tad like it came out of a can, the aioli was damn wonderfully greatness and had just a touch of spiciness! The olives were great but the bread.... meh... it was a tad too dry for my taste. Ps: wine service was ITHQ worthy and perfectly executed.

Uh, hello tuna, is it me you're looking for? I really liked the plating on this one. Very modern and Picasso like (what? I dabble!). The crab salad was great and kind of sweet and had somewhat of a rice cracker to add some crunch. Breaded tuna looked like it was going to be a warm offering but alas, it was cold. Still yummy, but cold. The tuna tataki was melt-in-your-mouth good with a nice sesame crust and a wonderful tartar sauce. I could not have asked for more. Totally woke up my taste buds!

Ok, who knew warm tomatoes and goat cheese could be this good? It was a nice take on the bocconcini and tomato salad, but 100 times better. Flavours just popped right in my mouth. Man, this was good, yet so simple!

Cod cakes. I've had them before and I'll have them again... these were good but a tad too potato-y but I loved the sauce which was quite spicy.

OK, obviously this picture doesn't do it justice, but this octopus was WOW. Like, wow WOW! Fak! Perfect 'cuisson'. Puuuurrrrrrfect. Plus, the fried kale and the white beans were great with it. It's as if they were born together. Seriously. This was a good one.

Scallop with bacon 'chips' on top and lima bean puree with a cranberry and onion confit. OK, you guys know by now that's I'm a sucker for seafood but this was something else! The mix of flavours was to dssssiiiie for and the bacon chip? Well, I was aware that bacon could taste THAT good (yes, I'm aware it's freakin good!). Oh and that puree was so smooth and so tasty and well seasoned! Nothing bad to say about this at all.

You must also know that apart from lobster, shrimp is at the top of my list. Since the good old summer days in Maine when I was 6 and eating an actual PILE of shrimp, they have been my fave. They were garlicky spicy buttery unctuous goodness. Most importantly, perfectly cooked.

Pork cheek with aubergine puree. The veggies were cooked to perfection and the meat was so tender, so soft, melted in your mouth. It was perfection, basically.

Our desert. Well hello there, how you doin'? First off, the pasteis de nata was exactly like it was when I tasted it in Portugal about 3 years ago. Hoooooolly! The truffles were good and dsamn good: the chocolate one was good but a bit too fruity for my taste and the champagne one... well hello champagne! It was so airy and right on. The panacotta had some sap and herbs in there and made it absolutely delicious. The last desert on the right was such a nice surprise: many stories of fluffy egg whites and caramel. The whole desert plate was just didily damn good!

We had one last glass of porto to finish off the meal. What??? We were rich that night :) If we had known it was going to be 20$ a glass, I don't think we would have had it but hey, we were on vacation! It was even better than the first one.

Service was wonderful: great wine service as previously mentioned, we always had water in our glasses, plates were taken away and brought to our table in a timely fashion.

And now, the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 9.5

What a great experience! When I have the cash, I'm going back for sure!

O Bico

Lea's friend is the chef at O'Bico so she said we should meet there one evening. PLUS, it's a ten minute walk from my place! Hurray!

The place itself, as you can see from the picture above, is really nothing special. They could have put more thought into it, if you ask me! But that's not the most important thing! The important things are the food and the service! Anyhoot, this place is pretty small, with a brick wall and around 40 seats.

Let's talk food!

First off, sorry about the picture quality; it was very dark in our corner near the window! Anyhoot, I had a glass of white house wine for SIX bucks! I likes me some good deals like that! And it was actually decent. I ordered the chorizo sandwich which came with fries and coleslaw. I must say, probably the best coleslaw I've ever eaten: it had just the right amount of acid in there and it was just creamy goodness! Mmmmm... I wanna go get some right NOW! But I won't. The fries were a bit spicy which was well appreciated and they went well with... the spicy mayo! They weren't as crispy as I would have liked but still really great. The sandwich itself was so darn tasty: yes, the bread was a tad too dry for my taste but the chorizo and the spiciness of it all made up for it. Mmmmmjuicy chorizo! Oh and there was some coleslaw IN it which I found quite nice indeed! Oh and arugula -which added freshness-and well, I loves me some arugula! And just adding a bit of hot sauce in there made it even tastier! A very simple, good meal!

Bah, again a bad picture. Grrr. Lea had herself a beer and a poutine with chicken and porto sauce. Well excuse me! I'm not a huge fan of poutine but this one was quite pleasant. Lea loved all the flavours, the sauce was great with all the ingredients.

Service was good although not very professional. We got there and from behind the counter, the waiter told us to sit anywhere. He brought us menus and a bottle of water for easy refills. I like that; you don't have to holla to get water all the time. For my second glass of wine, it took me about 5 minutes to finally get his attention because he was talking it up with the cook. Come on dude!

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 6.5

It's close to my house. It's portuguese food. It's cheap. I'm going back!

Helena

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And now, the scores!!!

Food: 9
Service: A great 9.8

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

Mavi

Ze wife and I had been meaning to eat there for a loooong time and we finally ate there on Saturday. Correction: we ordered to take out, therefore in this review I will only be scoring the food and not the service. It had been a long time coming and it's about a block away so we were long overdue.

I was the one to go get the food---the wife was comfy on the couch---but in her defense, she hadn't slept much that night! Anyhoot, as soon as you open the door, the smells enter your nostrils and you're in Portugal. Ah, Portugal, how I miss thee! You immediately see the 'kitchen' which is out in the open and maybe shouldn't: stuff haphazardly stored everywhere, NO SINK (oh goodness, my profs would have a fit!), and a garbage bag left on the floor, in the middle of it all. Oh god! As I tried to take this out of my mind, I looked at the menu. It's been photocopied and put into this binder type thing and is not user friendly at all. As I tried to decode this menu, I noticed that Virgin Radio was blasting and I was a tad disappointed that it wasn't Portuguese music :(

I chose the sardines (with rice) and the chicken (with fries). I also took a sumol because let's face it, I just HAD to remind myself even more of our Portugal trip! The whole thing cost about 34$. This restaurant was once in the 'Cheap thrills' book (a book of restaurants that offer a meal for 15$ and under) and I found that it was juuust making it (I guess the sumol was not part of this) and restomontreal.ca mentions that you can get a meal for 25 to 30$. A bit too much for this restaurant. I think they should review their... reviews!

FOOD! I was told it was going to take about 30 minutes for the sardines and the rice which was fine, I just went back home and came back. When I arrived home, and we ate, it was like we were back in Lisboa, in this tavern type restaurant with only 2 choices on the menu (fish or meat) and there was this one dude in this enclosed grill 'cabana' type thing. Point is it was really good!!! The chicken had nice spices, although the breast was a tad dry but the juicy wings made up for it. The sardines were delicious, not too salty, with a little gremolata (garlic and herbs) on top and with perfectly crisped skin. Obviously the bones were still in there so be careful with that!!! Wouldn't be too pleasant to swallow those!

The salad that came with our meal had really REALLY long pieces of lettuce which made it hard for us to eat. Would have been nice if they'd think of cutting it! I also think there was too much salad (ratio was poor) but ze wife ate it all and didn't think like me. The rice was well cooked, with some veggies in there, but again, there was a bit too much of it. Lastly, the fries. They were damn good, if I may say so! Very crispy and delicious.

Here's the score!

Food: 8/10

Obviously, the fact that just a month ago, we were eating this in Portugal helped the experience but this is a great little restaurant!