Dave Loewenstein
Google
My wife and I had the tasting menu here recently in late August. First impressions were exciting as the location is gorgeous, and the restaurant is tastefully designed - with one major caveat.
When you first enter, you find yourself in a merchandise area, which I think is not the most appropriate way to start a meal/dining experience. I'll get to the food but first the aesthetics of the restaurant need to be mentioned. We were sat at the counter adjacent to the open kitchen. Every other open kitchen I've ever seen has been well lit, like a theater set almost, so the guests can watch as the chefs prepare meals. Here, the kitchen was so dimly lit that we wondered how the two chefs could see what they were doing. It made me feel like the decision was made to hide what's going on. Very odd, and frankly an unappealing design choice for the guest.
Now the food - we were first served a cold tomato soup, which was probably the best dish of the evening.
Next up was a tomato plate with two small pieces of bread, completely unseasoned tomato slices, and some miso-flavored butter. This is part of the theme here: fermentation and maceration.
At the same time a plate of 'seasonal cabbage salad' was put down for us. There were slices of fennel and some scattered seeds.
The slaw was an odd dish, as I was under the impression that we would be eating farm-to-table dishes that reflect the height of the summer season. Cabbage? Not what I associate with summer.
Next up was a trout 'grav lox' dish, with a very tiny portion of trout that didn't have any flavor remotely like grav lox. There was no hint of salt, dill, or other aromatics that you expect from the description. It was served with a garum foam and fish roe. I think foam in any dish just looks so unappealing, like a pool of saliva. So one bite of fish for each of us and it was finished.
Now it gets really odd. The next dish served was braised cabbage with kimchi and a tomato cream. This was the second dish served to us with cabbage. Where were the seasonal summer ingredients? Fresh garden vegetables like zucchini, peppers, corn, carrots, etc. I don't think of fermented kimchi as a summer seasonal dish that says anything about the region or terroir of Quebec.
Following that was a bison two ways dish. The bison was prepared as a tartar, and the other way was pan-seared. The tartar was basically unseasoned, which was a theme throughout most of the food we had. Tartar is very common dish in Quebec, as most bistros and restaurants have at least one variety. One thing they always have in common is that the tartar is seasoned with capers, onions, herbs, and other seasonings. The tartar here was only served with a small amount of mustard seed mixed in. The seared bison was also completely without seasoning. On the plate was one very small roasted potato. This would be a small plate even for one person.
The next dish was one of the highlights. Lemongrass noodles with pork and some seasonal summer vegetables. This is more of what we were expecting. This dish was seasoned well, and had by far the most flavors of everything in the meal.
For the dessert course, we received an ill conceived shiitake and ginger flan. To me, mushrooms have no place in a dessert, and I couldn't have more than one taste of this unpleasant combination.
They also served a piece of baba, which was (I think) a buckwheat cake with sake and rose. The flavor of it was pretty good, but the cake had a very grainy, dry texture.
Overall, we were disappointed. In the variety of a tasting menu, we got two tomato dishes, two cabbage dishes, and mostly unseasoned foods in very small portions. I don't feel there was a value to the cost of our meal.
They have a beautiful place, and with some changes to the concept and the interior, this could be really great. As it is now though, I feel that it is not a place I would return to.
