Mon Lapin - Montreal

 

Part of the reason that I wanted to go to Montreal in the first place was to visit the most well known restaurant in Montreal, Joe Beef.  As it is the most well known restaurant in Canada, it is also very difficult to get a reservation.  They take reservations three months in advance which are gone very quickly and I was unable to get one.  Eater Montreal, said that Joe Beef has become very tourist focused and to go instead to Mon Lapin, a Wine Bar by Joe Beef, which is located in Little Italy (as opposed to Little Burgundy which is where the other restaurants in the Joe Beef group are located) and does not take reservations.  This sounded like a good idea because I would have to take a subway to get there and it would let me explore another neighborhood.  I decided to get there when it opened both because I could much more easily get a seat and I was going on my last day and would be leaving early on the next day.  The subways were pretty cool.  They were bigger than those used in Chicago with multilevel stations.  It actually reminded me of the Tube system in London.  I arrived in the neighborhood early and explored a little.  Located on the other side of Mont Royal from Downtown, Old Town, Little Burgundy, and the port, it's smaller and looks more residential than the downtown area.  Mon Lapin is in a storefront on a main road and has a large front window and a nice patio to the side.  The inside is small, a little rustic, and bistro-like.  There is a small granite-topped bar in the rear that overlooks the kitchen where I decided to sit.  I sat to one side, next to a selection of French Liqueurs using things like quince and cherries, but the one that caught my eyes was the tomato liqueur.  They all sounded interesting, though I did not try them.

 

There was a chalkboard on the wall to the left behind me that listed the wines by the glass that were available.  I started with a dry white that had a very fruity aroma, though a dry flavor and it was very nice.  For food, I decided to go with the tasting menu.  Items on the tasting menu were also on the a la carte menu, but I figured that the chef would better be able to put a meal that flowed well, than would I, so I let the chef drive.  The food menu was very vegetable heavy, and in fact, the only meat that I had was in the first course.  I was served Radishes with an Eel Cream Sauce and a very large Razor Clam with Asparagus and topped with Pork Belly.  The Radishes were very fresh and crisp and the eel cream sauce complemented the spice of the radish well.  The best way to eat the razor clam was with both the asparagus and pork belly, though admittedly, that was a little difficult.  Every part of it was very good.  The clam was briny which complemented the saltiness of the pork belly.  The asparagus was also fresh and crisp and gave this part of the course some crunch.  I saw quickly that things were going to be very fresh and crisp.

For the second course, I was served Shrimp with Lovage (an herb similar to parsley with a celery flavor) and Cucumbers.  In the center of the dish there was a plastic skewer that skewered all three elements together.  The shrimp was very fresh, tender and sweet, and the lovage and cucumber added texture and a green vegetal flavor.

Course three was probably the most savory and was a favorite.  It consisted of Snow Crab with Tagliatelle topped with Bread Crumbs and Chives.  The pasta was perfectly al dente with a lot of tender and flavorful crab.  The bread crumbs added a little texture and flavor and tied everything together.

 

   I was ready for another glass of wine with my fourth course.  It was a Red Vinho Verde, which is actually called a Vinho Tinto.  Like other Vinho Verdes it was bright and light.  It isn't exceptionally complex, but it's a great table wine.  As it is a red, it does go well with more savory courses.  With my Vinho Verde, for my food course, I was served Halibut with Fried Nettles.  I had had and like halibut before, but I had never had Fried Nettles (nor nettles at all, for that matter).  The Halibut was light, moist, tender, and flaky.  The nettles had a texture similar to kale and a flavor similar to spinach.  With the light flavor of halibut, the nettles definitely added some flavor, though the butter also helped.

For course number five, we went back to the vegetables and, in fact, back to the Asparagus.  I was served Fresh Grilled Asparagus with Ramps.  While asparagus has a strong flavor, grilling actually concentrates the flavor.  Ramps are a type of wild onion that are in season in May.  They have a flavor that is kind of like a cross between garlic and onions and it went well with the asparagus.

Course number 6 actually surprised me a bit because it was essentially a salad.  I am aware that serving salads first is an American tradition and other parts of the world, France specifically, will serve it after the entree.  That doesn't mean that it still didn't throw me off a little.  I was served Lettuce with Bacalao Sauce and Salmon Roe.  Bacalao is a dried and salted cod, so with the salmon roe the dish was pretty savory.  It was very good, but it was a salad.

Pre-dessert was a Cheese Course.  It was a Louis Dor Hard Cow Cheese served with a Sour dough Cracker and Honey.  The sourdough was thin and crisp and was easily breakable into smaller pieces.  the cheese, had a nice sour salty flavor similar to cheddar, and the honey added a nice sweet finish.  It was enjoyable enough that I would have eaten the cheese even without the cracker or honey.

To finish things off, came a dessert that both was very seasonal and referenced Canada.  Called Maple Flan with Fried Rhubarb, it started with a nice firm flan topped with a lot of Maple Syrup.  If that would have been it, it still would have been very good.  Maple complements the sweetness of flan well.  I have had Rhubarb both fresh and baked in a pie with strawberries.  It is very sour, though cooking does reduce that.  Frying it made it more tender and added a little sweetness to the sour.  It was very good, I liked it a lot and it was a very nice finish to both my dinner and my trip to Canada.     

 

Restaurant Toque - Montreal

 

When people thin of fine dining in Montreal, most will first think of Joe Beef, but if you google Fine Dining Montreal, Restaurant Toque' will show up high on the list.  Located in downtown Montreal, it serves seasonal French cuisine a la carte or as a Tasting Menu.  I decided to try their tasting menu so I could try more things.  Located in what looks like an office building, it's pretty unobtrusive and easy to walk past.  It's also located on a side street, but it's opposite a park, so it has good visibility and you have a lot of opportunity to see it.  The dining room is large open and carpeted with a curved bar opposite the window modern looking wine storage.  Located in a glassed in room visible from the dining room, the bottles sit on their sides on modern minimalist shelving.  There is also a stairway in the room, which I imagine, leads to more wine storage.  While their wine list did look good, I decided not to opt for a wine pairing with the tasting menu.  I went with a cocktail called La Detox instead.  It looked and tasted like a vegetable smoothie, which it was, with some booze added.  Starting with Gin St. Laurent, it also had Cucumber Juice, Celery Syrup, Lime, and Egg White.  I am generally not a vegetable smoothie drinker, but this wasn't bad.

Before the dinner actually started, I was presented with an Amuse Bouche.  It was a Cold Cod Soup with Cod Confit, Olive Oil, and Croutons.  It was thick, creamy, and very good.  While I like cod, I was surprised with how much flavor this contained.  I liked it, though think that a larger portion would have been too much.

The first course was also in the seafood vein., but was also very seasonal.  We started with Nordic Shrimp with Cucumbers and Strawberries.  I was surprised that strawberries and shrimp would work together, but the sweetness from each complemented each other and the vegetal flavor of the cucumbers also went well with the shrimp.  It was interesting and very good .  I liked it.

I will admit that course number two really didn't do it for me.  It was a Filet of Hake with Turnips.  Hake, like cod, is also a white fish, so it has a generally mild flavor, but turnips are very earthy, and it brought out the earthy flavor of the hake.  Overall, it kind of tasted like dirt.  I ate it, but it wasn't something I would have chosen.

The next course progressed to the savory and had a lot of combinations of flavors.  Starting with Foie Gras, it also had Raspberry Jam, Mushrooms, Pistachios, Cipollini Onions, and Shortbread.  Individually, everything was very good, but it was also a lot of fun to see how the different elements would taste together.  The Foie, Raspberry Jam, and Shortbread were good, but I think my favorite combination was the Mushrooms, Onions, and Foie.

My first entree was Braised Lamb with Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Mushrooms.  The Lamb was heavily glazed and was very tender.  While we were given a steak knife, the meat was so tender that it flaked apart with a fork.  It sat in a Tomato Puree.  The Mushroom was also pureed, but the Eggplant was folded on either side of the lamb.  It was all tender and very flavorful and was a good entree start.

My next course was Duck, which is generally my favorite protein.  As is typical, the main part was Fileted Duck Breast.  It was served with a Green Garlic Leaf, and Truffle and Foie Gras sauce.  On the side were Pureed Raspberries, Potatoes, and Duck Heart.  This was also a lot of fun combining flavors and textures.  The duck breast went well with the raspberries (as did the potatoes).  The duck heart didn't taste largely different from the duck breast, it did have more of a minerally flavor, but the texture was very different.  It was all good, and I enjoyed mixing and combining the different flavors.

For my pre-dessert I had a choice, I could go with the Cow's Milk Cheese for a Cheese Course, or I could go for a surprise.  While I am sure that the cheese was good, I will always go for the surprise.  For my surprise Pre-Dessert, I got Fennel Jelly, Star Anise Meringue, Celery, Brambleberry, and Brambleberry Sorbet.  Fennel and Anise both have a Black Licorice flavor and Brambleberries are pretty tart.  The variety of textures and flavors made this my favorite course.  It was sweet, tart, licorice, a little bitter, or a combination of these depending on what you tasted.  It was a lot of fun and very good.

Dessert was creative and I liked the way that it looked, though I can't say that I liked it overall.  Starting with a White Chocolate Torte, it was topped with Lemon Creme and White Chocolate and Raspberry Meringues.  On one side was a rolled slice of Cucumber and Raspberry Pudding, and the other side was a Cucumber Sorbet.  The main part of this I did like, even if it felt a little incomplete.  The Raspberry Pudding was okay, but I didn't think that the Cucumber or Cucumber Sorbet worked.

Finishing things off, I was presented with a couple of Mignonettes, both referencing the cuisine of Quebec.  The first was a Maple Candy and the other was a Blueberry Jelly.  They were both nice, sweet, and simple, and were a nice way to finish a good meal.  I was glad to have come here even if it wasn't a home run.        

Candide - Montreal

 

One of the things that I make sure to do before I go on a trip is to try to find out what the notable restaurants are in the area.  Before I went to Montreal last month, I looked at several lists to try to find out where to eat and Candide kept on coming up.  I noticed that it was in the Little Burgundy neighborhood and was actually located in the basement of an old church.  While they did have a menu, it was simply the menu of what they would be serving on that given night.  Every night, they served a 4 course seasonal menu based on what they could find in the markets.  The only choice that you had to make was whether you would also be doing the wine pairing.  This sounded very much like the thing that I am very much into, so I made sure to make a reservation.  The place was a 40 minute walk from where I was staying and when I got there, I found that not only is it located in an old church, but the church was located in the middle of a park.  While there was an address, the road on the block where the restaurant is located is pedestrian only, so even if I were to have taken a cab to get there, there would have been at least some walking.  The entrance had a large covered porch with strung white Christmas style lights, but it was not yet being used.  I walked in and found a ramp that led (slightly) down to the host station.  The dining room was small, seating about 30 people in total between tables and the counter overlooking the kitchen, where I was seated.  I really enjoyed the counter seat because the chef and his two sous chefs were literally across the counter so I could both watch what was being done and ask questions.  Shortly after I was seated, the Sommelier came by and asked if I would like bubbles.  It is very much both a French and Fine Dining tradition to start things off with a sparkling wine because it opens up your taste buds and allows you to be better taste what you are about to eat.  I said yes and was served a Cava which was dry, very sparkling, and very good.  I also said yes to the wine pairing.

For my first course, which was actually kind of a pre-appetizer, we started with  a simple dish of Asparagus wrapped in Greens and topped with Seaweed Butter.  It tasted very fresh and green and while the butter did add an element of savoriness, the seaweed that it was infused with added to the green flavor.  It was very good and almost as if I was eating directly from a garden.  In addition to the Asparagus, I was served a bowl of Housemade Bread and Whipped Butter which was very good.  I did eat all of the bread and I was offered more, it was just sitting on the other side of the counter,but I waved it off because, while it was very good, I didn't want to fill up on bread.

 

The actual first course was also vegetable based.  I was served Red Romaine Lettuce with Bottarga  Sauce (a sauce made with tuna roe), Pickled Blueberries, and Farmers Cheese.  It was crunchy, creamy, briny, and a little bitter.  It really didn't look like much, but it did have a wealth of flavor and I really liked it.  It was paired with a local white wine called Nibiru Alte Reben, which, while I have never heard of, I liked and thought it went well with the lettuce.

The next course kind of skirted the line between a vegetable dish and an entree.  Also simple (and actually a favorite), it was Crab, Carrots, and Yogurt.  It was very fresh, sweet, tart, and sour, and both creamy and crunchy.  The wine served was another white, Stefan Vetter Sylvaner (shown on the right in the picture below) which was crisp with a very minerally flavor.

The main course also very seasonal.  The star was the Guinea Fowl which was set on a Parasol Mushroom Puree and served with Fiddlehead Ferns and Local Greens.  It was savory, salty, and tasted very fresh.  The mushrooms added a savoriness to the already savoriness of the Guinea Hen and the fiddlehead ferns contrasted that with a green flavor.  The wine pairing was a Methode Sauvage Syrah which was both very rich and savory and very floral.

Dessert, while it was seasonal and fruit forward was kind of unexpected.  Dried Plums (Prunes) were rehydrated with Strawberry Juice and served over Malted Wheat with Sweet Bread.  It was sweet, fruity, and a little tart with the richness of the malted wheat.  The sweet bread was sweet and crunchey and paired well with the malted wheat.  I was actually surprised that the plum, which had started as a prune had not retained any of the bitterness of a prune.  The fruit went well with the dessert pairing, which was a Sauternes.  It was sweet and slightly syrupy and gained from the tartness of the strawberry juice rehydrated plum.

Many fine dining places will finish things off with Mignardises when the check is brought.  While I was served a sweet surprise, it was actually Linden Honey with Honeycomb.  The check was also served with a little toy hippo which was cute.

Dinner was very good and the experience was great because I had the chefs there to answer my many questions.  It was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it to any friends who decide to visit Montreal.