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!

Decca 77

I'll never get used to getting invited to great restaurants... where I can eat great food that most people will never get to try.... for FREE. 

My friend L and I were very excited to try Decca 77 (it's at 1077 Drummond... get it?!). It had a bad rep for a while but now that there's the new chef, Jean-Sébastien Giguère, who worked for 8 years by Normand Laprise's side at Toqué!, everything seems to be falling back into place. Looking at the menu before hand made my mouth water and I started drooling onto the floor. Hahaha. Kidding. No I'm not. 

Huge light fixture

We got there and the first thing that hits you is how everything is so big. Two big leather chairs at both sides of the entrance, very high ceilings and huge light fixtures. You kind of feel like you are entering somewhat of a contemporary palace. There was classical music playing and suddenly they put some Black Keys on. I found it fine but L thought it was weird that they switched styles. Oh whhhell!

Well hello there, huge chair!

This restaurant is very well located corner Drummond/René-Lévesque right beside the Bell Center. You're going to watch a game? Why not eat at Decca 77 first? You're going to see a show? Disney on ice? Ok maybe not the last one.

Alright, so we get in and we are welcomed by a hostess that looks like she dsont wanna be there. Sucks for her. She kind of said hi and then walked away so we figured we should follow her. We got a table by the wall which would not have been our first choice, and since the place was almost empty, I thought she could have given us a nicer table, perhaps by the window. I forgive her :p

So we sat and we got water which, as you know, is very important to me :) Our waiter came to explain how the evening would be (since it's free) and suggested that we chose from the menu and instructed us that we would get a 'Cocktail de bienvenue' and a glass of wine each. The rest would be up to us. I surely did not want or need more alcohol since, well, I was a tad hungover :/


The Maître d' arrived at our table shortly after to give us a hibiscus, grapefruit and bubbly cocktail. First of all, she was explaining this but both L and I only heard half because of her, hum, tight dress shall I say. Haha. Seriously, for the rest of the evening, we'd here her walking and we would just stop talking. I know this makes us sound chauvanistic but hey, when can you do?! Back to the cocktail!

Holy bejesus, that drink was A-MA-ZING (or amazeballs like my brother would say). It reminded me of something I really liked during my childhood, I just don't remember what, grrrr. It was obviously very floral but also very grapefruit-y and bubbly. SO nice! As soon as you'd put your nose in the glass, it was filled with an amazing smell! Really wonderful! Oh and to give it that je-ne-sais-quoi, there was an actual hibiscus flower at the bottom of the glass :)


OK, get ready for the food! First, I ordered the calf's sweetbread with rhubarb confit and black garlic and L had the lobster, tarragon mayonnaise and grapefruit salad.

Sweetbreads

Let me start off by saying that I had never eaten sweetbreads before and really did not intend on trying it, ever. But I saw it on the menu and I told myself that if I should ever try it, I should try it at this restaurant. And I did. And damn was it ever good. I told L that it tasted like chicken and when she tasted it (as scared as I was...), she said it tasted better than chicken. There were crispy green beans, balsamic caramel, which was thick and yummy, some caramelized peanuts (described by the waiter as 'des peanuts' instead of 'des arachides'... so we found his ghetto side :P) which added a crunchy element to the dish and some rhubarb confit. I have to say that with all the work they did on the rhubarb, it was still quite bitter. There were also a couple strawberries in there that, I felt, didn't add so much to the dish. I guess it did add some colour.

Lobster salad

The lobster salad was greatness. The lobster, for once, was cooked just right (I'm sick of eating chewy, squishy lobster!) and the grapefruit's acid was there to balance the whole dish. The also put a little homemade cracker on top to add a textural side. It was a very pretty dish and had a lot of flavours, which was appreciated.

Let's get down to the main course now! I had seen the rack of lamb on another blog and had decided right then and there that I wanted it in my mouth. So I had that dish (with green pea puree, blueberries, tiny grapes, onion confit, green beans and long ass yellow beans). L had the beef filet with clams, pomme boulangère, and bordelaise red wine sauce. For the main, I had chosen white wine (I know I should have taken red but i'm partial to white)--Suave Classico, and L had red--Cave Spring. Mine was very mild and didn't have any strong flavours which was good because my plate had many.

Does not do justice to the beautiful plate

The lamb was perfectly cooked. PERFECTLY. Did I mention it was perfect? Well it was :p It pretty much melted in my mouth. I swear. The fruits were a perfect match and brought just a little acidity to the dish. There were mushrooms also. They were squishy. And then I verified the info and I knew it, they were shiitake. Look, I know this chef has quite the experience but unless you're REALLY sure you know you can cook it, don't put shiitake on a plate. But hey, I'll overlook this because the green and yellow beans were freaking amazing and the sauce was out of this world (and I don't use that expression lightly)!!!

Beef and clams

This plate was also visually pleasing (...if you could make love to food...). The clams were great, just briny enough. Very well cooked. The meat melted in your mouth. It was quite rare though. And even if I have learned to love rare beef, L has not, yet. She asked for medium but she got this. She loved it but the problem here was that she asked for medium. Anyhoot. The potatoes were great and the peas were a nice touch. There were also mushrooms here but King Eryngii and they were nice and well cooked and YUM! Would have loved to have THOSE on my plate!

Soufflé

On to desert! L had a soufflé (note: if you have this, it's a 15 minute wait). It had good flavours but I found it had an overly eggy texture. 

Crème brûlée au chocolat

Wow. OK, don't have this if you don't like overly sweet deserts, duh. Holy bejesus! It was thick chocolaty goodness. I also loved the chocolate beeds; it added some texture to the desert.

Let's talk service now! But first, let me mention that the restaurant was empty. Ok, no...there were maybe 6 or 7 people. It was very personalized: the waiter kept on checking if everything was fine and our water glasses were never empty. 

And now, the scores!

Food:8.5
Service: 9

Great place to try at least once! I loved my experience and I will go back [when I'm richer]!

ps: I don't know why but the waiter felt like he should tell us how much our whole meal was worth: 232$. I think this is a good place to insert that L thought that for the price, the portions could have been a tad bigger.

Food Trucks on Monkland!

Last Thursday, Isa told me that there were a few food trucks around her work on Monkland for somewhat of a street festival. I just HAD to meet her on her lunch break the following day to witness this. Oh and I did! There were about 7 or 8 food trucks lining the street so of course, we didn't want to try only one or two... we tried four :)

The first one, right around the corner was P.A. Gargantua, a gourmet grilled cheese specialized truck. We, as good pigs that we are, just had to have the bacon,  smoked butter, cheddar des îles-aux-grues (cut by one of my good friends that works at la Fromagerie Atwater!!--apparently they cut about 100 kg a week for them!) and échalotes confites one (8,50$). Holy YES! First of all, as soon as you put your nose in the bag, you are in grilled cheese heaven: it smells so freaking good. You take a bite and dsamn! First off, I need to stress that we ware talking about REAL bacon here. Thick, juicy, freshly cut from ze pig bacon. Although pleasant to eat, it is quite hard to eat it without taking the whole piece in your mouth with one bite. The cheddar was so freaking good and added a tad of saltiness to the grilled cheese. The shallots, well, hello! I'm an onion type-o-girl so this was more than perfect for me! It added a certain sweetness to it that was welcomed.

And the score: 9 !!! It was also my fave of the day.

The second truck was Lucille's. They serve up some seafood and that day, they were serving a lobster roll. How can I say no to that? Well, I can't! It was 10$ for the roll and both Isa and I thought it was pretty steep. At least gimme a pickle, chips, something! It had great flavours with some green onion in there but a tad too much mayo based sauce and meeeeeeeeeeeeeeh, the lobster was overcooked :( When it's squishy, it's overcooked people!

 And the score:6,5

The third truck was Route 27, Marché 27's truck. Isa brought me to Marché 27 for my birthday 3 years ago and it was damn freaking diddlydamn good. So we just HAD to try it. We had the tuna taco. Basically, it is tuna tartare with a mango salsa. Good right? Meh, I guess. First off, it was more like a fajitas: soft shell that kept on breaking and was very unpleasant to eat :/ I would have preferred a hard shell. And everything was mushy, the shell was mushy, the tuna was mushy and the salsa was mushy. The flavours weren't even that great. Oh, and it was TINY. I don't even think it was worth our 8$.

And the score: 6

The final truck was Pas d'Cochon dans mon salon. They had like 4 things on their menu, which is just perfect for a food truck; don't complicate things. Oh, and they had their smoker right RIGHT there. We had the pulled pork sandwich (7$) and it was the best deal out of all the food trucks that day. First off, it was fresh fresh FRESH out of the smoker. And it was HUGE!!! We had to eat it with a fork! Mmmmm the pork melted in your mouth it was so tender!!! The flavours were there, the everything was there, it was perfect! Not too salty, and surprisingly not too meaty.

And the score: 9

Barque Smokehouse

Sylvia and I had been walking for a while and therefore starving. We were on Roncesvalles ave (try to say that 5 times in a row) right beside High Park in Toronto and we found this little gem of a place. 

This restaurant is not too big, not too small, with around 40 seats. It has a nice feel to it, with picnic tables, a bar and some higher tables. Lots of wood in this place which makes it quite homey.

Popcorn!

On top of it, as soon as you sit down, you can eat! Eat what you ask? Well, the big arse bowl (more of a bucket) of paprika and cinnamon sprinkled popcorn. SO GOOD. I don't even care if someone else had their hands in there, it's too good! And, well, the bucket is full so I'm thinking no one has :p

Heaven in the form of a drink

We started by ordering drinks. Duh. Had the Barque Caesar and do I ever NOT regret getting it. One of the best drinks I've ever had. Seriously. And as most of you know, I've had quite my share of drinks, hehehe! On top of tasting great, it had this lovely pickled asparagus in there which added just a touch of brininess with a salty and spicy side to it. The star, OH, the star was of course the candied bacon rim. Holy bejesus. It was HEAVEN-IN-MY-MOUTH. I'm not even kidding. It was passed caramelization, it was freaking candied. Think how much bacon is oh-so-good and then multiply that by 100.

Burger

Brisket

As for food, I had the smoked Barque burger and Sylvia had the Barque brisket. Sylvia said this about her meal: 'it's the best thing in the world'. The bread was moist, light and fluffy, the horseradish and the mayo were great and the whole thing was just oh-so-good. The slaw was sweet enough and the fried onions were there to balance out the whole thing. And then, she tasted mine and she said holy shiz, I didn't think it could get better than my brisket. Oh but it did. Did I mention that I had candied smoked bacon in my hamburger as well? Oh yes I did! Plus aged cheddar, caramelized onions and bbq sauce. So, basically, heavenly. Obviously, the bacon made it great. The cheese was just salty enough to balance the sweet side of the bacon, the bun was airy and fluffy and the meat was perfectly cooked. The mayo was spicy and the pickle added a fresh touch to it all.The fries were homemade, crispy and well seasoned with a hint of paprika and cinnamon=so good!

As for the service, it was wonderful: the waitress even attempted to fix our slightly wobbly table. She had a smile on her face from start to finish.

And now, the scores!
Food: 8,5 (a 10 for the drink!)
Service: 8,5

So basically, the key word here is HEAVENLY. Go there and please PLEASE order the Caesar and the burger! You will not regret it, I assure you!

La Panthère Verte mobile

FINALLY, a food truck! And by that, I mean I finally got to eat food truck style! I was meeting my English teacher, her girlfriend and my friend Gab from school. We had to find a veggie place for my veggie friend so we chose La Panthère Verte. I looked on streetfoodmtl.com and looked for trucks. Turns out La Panthère Verte was in the Old Port that day! 

We met there and it was beside two other trucks: Le Quai mobile (I think it's called) and Le Cheese which I need to try. Anyhoot, La panthère verte has two restos: one in Mile-End and one downtown. Basically, in order to have a food truck in MTL you need an actual restaurant where you can store and cook some of your meals etc. 

Obviously, since its a truck, they don't have the complete Panthère Verte menu: 5 choices + desert + sodas. I had the Tempehtation: tempeh (FYI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh), tomatoes, lettuce, sauerkraut, sprouts and hippie sauce which is some kind of mayo. Oh and they didn't have anymore lettuce (this is the downside of food trucks: they run out of stuff) so they just added some more sauerkraut which was just fine with me.

First off, it was really drippy. Dripping EVERYWHERE. My dress, the ground, my hands... That was a tad unpleasant. Secondly, the tempeh, which was very tasty and soft and actually just plain damn good was at the bottom of the wrap so I got there like 10 minutes after having started and I was already annoyed by the whole thing. The wrap had layers of flavours when in fact, the flavours should have been mixed together. Oh and beware tiny eaters, this wrap is huge.

And now, the score:

Food: 6,5

It could have been better, you know? Not totally pleased with my first MTL food truck experience but I can't say I won't go back to try other vegan choices on La Panthère Mobile's menu!

L'Atelier d'Argentine

I got invited to try L'Atelier d'Argentine with a friend a couple weeks back. I was so excited and I was thinking 'hey, we'll buy a bottle of wine and we'll get some free food'. Oh but we got sooooo much more!

This restaurant, part of the Tom Nacos Group (Decca77, Newtown, Weinstein + Gavinos, Guido + Angelina), is located in Old Montreal, close to De La Commune. It's quite a big restaurant with two rooms, a private dining room for a small group, and a table downstairs pretty much in the kitchen. When you reserve this table, you have the chance to get served by the chef!

So my friend Cat and I go in, and we are welcomed by the host/maître d'/sommelier by the name of Alexandre. He shook our hands and seemed very pleased that we were there. Yay! He brought us to our perfect table, by the window.

Ze bubbly

First, we got ze bread...including this tiny little bread with cheese that we dubbed 'little pieces of heaven' because they were. They pretty much melted in your mouth. YUM. Then, it was time (already) for some bubbly. Hello! It was great: not too sweet, not to dry. It went well with the four empanadas he brought us right after.

Empanadas minus 1 because we forgot to take a picture with 4 :)

Empanada #1: Cheese. Very cheesy but not great flavours
Empanada #2: Beef (cut by hand). Great. Moist. Well seasoned.
Empanada #3: Ham and cheese. Very nice. Crusty on the outside, moist on the inside.
Empanada #4: Corn and crushed tomatoes. Well seasoned. Very creamy. Fresh. Nothing too fancy.

By the way, Alexandre had given us menus but then asked if we had any allergies/preferences and told us that he would take care of everything and we didn't even have to look at the menu. So that was great and it made us feel even more special!

Next were two plates of tartares. The first, tuna. Fine slices with tomatoes, lovely when you put it in your mouth, great texture, but unfortunately didn't taste much. This came with very floral white wine that I loved but was a tad too sweet for Cat. Still, a great pairing.

Then, the crudo di corvina, very pleasant and soft, with guacamole and homemade chips. Very tasty and well seasoned. The tomatoes added a nice fresh touch.

Risotto

Chorizo

Bavette

As for the main course, since we got two different plates, we, of course, got two different red wines :) Since I was having meat (+ meat), I got the Malbec and Cat (veggie), got the Shiraz. For Cat it was the quinoa risotto. It was a fresh alternative to meat, with perfectly cooked mushrooms and

Provolone

other veggies. I got the 10oz bavette, which was perfect, perfect, PERFECT! With awesome chimichurri (garlic, oil and herbs). It was a HUGE piece that I didn't finish but it was so tender and cooked to perfection! On the side, Cat got the provoletta, a nicely textured piece of fried cheese with a couple sweetened carrots. They were just soft enough. On my side, I got a chorizo sausage which was nicely charred but a tad on the hard side yet very tasty.

As for ze desert, well, we told them it wasn't necessary because we were so darn full. But Alexandre insisted and so he brought us a small plate with three different deserts. Oh, and desert wine :) A goat cheese cake which was quite cheesy and not too sweet. A milk semi-fredo which was damn good. A dulce de leche (well good day to YOU!!!!) crêpe which was smooth with a flambée banana on top. There was also a homemade icecream on top which was so lovely and well balanced.

At the end of our meal and after leaving a hefty tip, we went to see Alexandre to thank him and instead of leaving, he asked us if we wanted to see downstairs. Of course! We got to see their wine cellar and the kitchen with the table reserved for a lucky group that would be served by the chef. Awesome.

Now, let's talk a bit more about the service, shall we? Well, it was wonderful. I've seriously never had this good a service. Alexandre was marvellous; always there to explain our dishes and wines and answer any question we had. The waiter/busboy was always there when we needed water. We were asked at every course if it pleased us and oh it did!!

And now...the scores!

Food: 9
Service: 10

This experience was a once in a lifetime thang! Even if you don't get invited, please go, you'll be pleased!