aromes's Profile
Club Chasse et Peche - Very Disappointing Evening
I truely feel bad to what happened to you. I went there last night, with actually your experience in mind (cause I had read it prior to the dinner) and my experience was at the total opposite of yours.
world class service, good food, elegant and chic decor
We dined at XO this Friday Oct 9th,8PM
I Started off with a beef tartare: small rectangularish artfully presented tartare, amazingly fully flavoured, topped by a poached quail egg , cute little leaves of baby arugula.
This tartare is one of the top best I ever had in a city..where god knows...tartare is so popular: as far as taste, freshness, complexity of execution and supreme well balanced flavors go, this was simply impeccable. That truffle mayo master taste behind this tartare was simply heavenly to my tastebuds! My Main course consisted of their "Free form lasagna", this dish -- I predict -- will quickly become (whether he wants it or not) the signature dish of their chef: although, at first glance, it might not look like your typical lasagna... it is packed with all technical goodies of a lasagne: cheese, pasta and so on. But this is a unique high end different and creative version of the lasagna -> as you can see on the picture, it's more of a "deconstructive" version of it. What the picture wont tell you (and that is why I do predict that this is a signature dish to come) is about the remarquable work that is done in terms of savourishness: from the small chunks of lobster, braided sweetbreads, enjoyable lobster emulsion, very tasty sparse sweetbreads, fresh tender baby spinach and oh so lovely stracchino cheese.... every little element of that dish was a blast in terms of taste. Impeccably delicious.More on this in my web blog's fully detailed review:
http://aromes.xanga.com/714228763/montreals-luxurious-tables-xo-le-restaurant/
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XO Le Restaurant
355, Saint -Jacques street, Montreal, QC H2Y 1N9, CA
Toque (Montreal): A Review
I went there many times, so I will stick to latest dinner there:
My starter of Guinea fowl sausage was a mixed of some hits and misses: the sausage itself was a bit too dry to my taste and short of memorable savors. the egg plant caviar was a hit: delicious and orginal in terms of flavors. The fried leeks were forgettable here.
The halibut maincourse was flawless: perfectly cooked, all flavorful halibut. The almonds here were of enjoyable company to fish.
Kudos to the cantaloupe crisps and white chocolate mousse dessert: it was heavenly!
Sosua and Cabarete Dominican Republic
In Sosua, the restaurant "on the waterfront" has always pleased me. It's beeing 3 yrs that I didn't go there, so I can't tell if it's still good or still opened. But the food was delicious (some nice dominican fares, lots of seafood + meat grills) and I will never forget the romantic and scenic view from their terrace (overlooking the sea).
http://www.hotelwaterfrontdr.com/eng/restaurant.html
The "new" Laloux
I guess your choice is done by now.
But I will reply still: Although Europea is nice, I prefer Laloux for it's more savourish fares (just from personal preferences)
Bistro Cocagne, Montreal - Review
I had dined there on Sept 4th evening at 6;30pm.
I picked the $42 menu that consisted of appetizer+ main course + dessert.
Started off with the pan-seared duck liver:
nicely pan-seared with a beautiful caramelly-looking enjoyably slightly crusty outside texture. The inside was perfectly evenly cooked and ideally smooth. Kudos to the accompanying shallot chutney: although tiny in portion, it was
a mouth-drooling marmalade/jam-alike chutney. Would have preferred the accompanied
yellow beans to be warmer but it's really no biggie at all! Delectable!
At Main course extravaganza, the braised lamb was served: that was a generous portion
of fully flavoured, perfectly cooked (so tender -- on the inside -- that it would slide off the bone effortlessly). The accompanying risotto was very interesting and refreshingly different from my usual risottos: it had some fresh enjoyable crunchy corn seeds, pieces of carrots, a perfect lite creamy consistency with a subtle enjoyable touch of sweetness (there was also what looked and tasted like slices of tamarind. I think this was sun-dried tomato, but they did really taste like tamarind. Those were a well thought addition to that savourish risotto). The risotto was evenly seasoned with amazing little savourish crunchy grains of rice (looked like arborio rice, to me)!! Awesome!
Dessert : Pot de crème, hibiscus flower, berry fruits, maple syrup -> Served in a glass, the delectable snowy white cream was a blast! It was covered by the freshest berries I could think of. As if they had been picked up right from the fields, rfaol! Great! 5/5 for the dessert.
The decor itself is typical bistro chic, with a simple and yet trendy enough decor. Omnipresence of dark wood, low light, couple of discrete mirrors, some intense-red and intense-lemon green
touches here and there. Some nice, not loud-at-all cute balads (some in french, some in English..and it's NOT kitsh music!!) background music. Lovely!
My fully detailed review with pictures can be found here:
http://aromes.xanga.com/711358238/bistro-cocagne-montreal---friday-sept-4th-1800/
