Simon Hamel-Genest
Google
We had a lovely time at Café Denise, although it did not live up fully to my high expectations given what I had heard about the place.
First, the food is amazing. The dishes were fun and tasty, fresh, and well presented. Really fantastic work on the flavours! The drinks we got were also good, although we did not try the extensive wine list.
Second, the service is warm, friendly and makes you feel right at home. The place has super cute decor and lighting, making for a very good date spot.
Now the reasons why it (barely) didn’t live up to the expectations: the food came out of the kitchen very slowly (it was a busy Friday night, but it was nonetheless on the very slow end). Even for though three out of four dishes required limited cooking such as the cucumber salad and burrata and the tartar, we were looking at 40 minutes until we got the cucumber salad, and at least 20 minutes between other dishes. For four plates, we were at the restaurant for a little over 2 hours. The final dish (cornish hen) took unusually long to arrive, the staff apologized which we appreciated. This alone did not disappoint me too much since the vibes of the place are nice and, if you’re having more cocktails or wine you could fill that time up easily.
However, the other negative point was price-value. Although the food we got was individually fantastic in flavour (when it did arrive), the quantities are limited for the price paid. I don’t mind paying a steep price for quality food, but I was surprised by the small quantity in some dishes, especially the 14$ cucumber salad. It made it almost hard to share between two of us. The burrata, on the other hand, was more substantial and what I would expect for similar restaurants at similar prices.
Conclusion: I recommend the spot for a cute date and drinks later at night, definitely try the food which is fantastic. On the other hand, I would probably have a snack or meal before coming.