I was invited onto CBC Radio’s Homerun in Montreal yesterday to talk with host Sue Smith about MTL à Table (Taste MTL for the anglophones), the city’s 11-day restaurant week. Host Sue Smith and I talked about where to get the best deals, the merits of dessert and the wonders of bog myrtle. Check it out:
Photo: Taverne F‘s grilled octopus served in a cast-iron skillet with potatoes, confit onions and olives. Served with complimentary olives, beans and sundried tomato slices. All swimming in quality olive oil. Get it with the $29 dinner or the $19 late-night menu.
And here’s the blog post I wrote last week about the event:
Does it seem strange to anyone else that Montreal’s restaurant week is actually 11 days long? I guess “Montreal Restaurant Week and a Half” isn’t as catchy.
In any case, from October 30th to November 9, 2014 a ton of the city’s top restaurants are offering three or four-course prix fixe lunches, dinners and late-night dining specials. At some participating restaurants that’s not necessarily a great deal, but in others, you could be saving $30 a person on dinner.
But how do you know you’re getting your money’s worth? And come on, Bistro Cocagne, vegetarian-friendly does not mean fish!
What you need to know
1. Taxes and tip are NOT included.
2. Each menu will have a choice of two or three appetizers, main dishes and desserts.
3. Most have suggested—but not mandatory—wine pairings that cost extra.
4. Dessert has to be stellar to sometimes make the meal worth it financially. If you wouldn’t order dessert anyway, you might not be saving any money unless the third service is savoury, not sweet. Ex: The very respectable Auberge St-Gabriel. Dinner costs $39, but if you order the pumpkin soup with hazelnuts ($9) and the cornish hen with garlic and thyme ($29) but don’t feel like molten chocolate cake or white chocolate mousse, you’re better off going to the restaurant another night. But at Restaurant Vertige ($29), the cod main alone costs $24 on any given night, and the bison kofta costs about $9. Even without the creme brulée ($7) or (ubiquitous) molten chocolate cake ($10) the meal is a bargain.
So to help you wade through the menus and options, here are my top picks for a great meal at a great restaurant at a great price, by category:
Best deal: Patrice Patissier was my #1 pick but he’s sold out. Shucks.
Best Fancy Hummus: Accords Bar à Vin – $39
The braised lamb with hummus is usually $25 on its own, and the duck tartare appetizer is $15, so basically dessert comes free with this meal. You might not get the fois gras torchon with the app, but you will get white chocolate brownies with caramelized apple, chocolate ganache and a beer sorbet, OR carrot cake with a bitter orange purée, seabuckthorn cream, oatmeal crumble and sour cream ice cream thrown in. The guinea hen is gluten-free, but neither of the desserts are, so it’s not a steal for gluten-free-ers.
Best Use of Bog Myrtle: Laloux – $39
Yes, chef Lapierre-Réhayem pairs a bog myrtle remoulade with his guinea fowl, but the dish also comes with a foie gras terrine so as not to scare anyone off. The locavore restaurant is also one of the best deals of MTL à Table, since their menu is pretty much the same as always, but just costs less. Start with the hot-smoked sturgeon with cauliflower, lobster bisque, preserved lemon and sea asparagus salad, then have that guinea fowl, or try the Actic char with chanterelle mushroom, squash and a pumpkin seed grenobloise. And finish with rosemary marshmallows, a lemon tart, citrus yogurt foam, grapefruit and a pink peppercorn sorbet. The chocolate option comes with “crispy milk.” What the heck is crispy milk?
Second-Best Use of Bog Myrtle: Renard Artisan Bistro
Chef Jason Nelsons is a curer, a terrine master, a forager and an offal-y good chef. Start with ice cream: a beet and bergamot crème glacée with a black radish salad, horseradish and a sour cream foam. Or better yet, go for his sea charcuterie of eel rillettes, shrimp sauce and crab cake. Actually, no, the best is his red deer and wild blueberry terrine with homemade wild mustard…
Those were just appetizers. Move on to rainbow trout with roasted salsify ravioli and sea pesto (I’m thinking sea asparagus, which could have had its own category…), or a lamb tartar with confit tongue, herbs and fingerling potatoes. I think the cassoulet option with wild mushrooms and house-smoked sausage is even vegetarian. At least the house-smoked sausage chef uses in it is. Where’s the bog myrtle? In dessert: chocolate truffles with Labrador tea and maple syrup.
Best Meal of Endless Cake: Bistro Le Répertoire – $29
You could start with a savoury escargot casserole or homemade blood sauce, but why would you when the other appetizer option is called, “Foie gras and figs impossible cake”? Then move on to the duck breast with cherries and bourbon vanilla, which makes much more sense as (but isn’t) a cake than foie gras. Dessert has two cake options: a chocolate and elderberry soft cake (I’m thinking it’s a translation from the French for gateau moelleux, which makes much more sense in that language but basically means molten chocolate cake with a a little local flavour thrown in thanks to a drizzle of elderberry) and a creamy mango and coconut bun—think those aromatic Chinese buns stuffed with coconut pastry cream that you smell at Guy-Concordia and Atwater metros, but hopefully with much higher quality ingredients.
Best Typo: Le Darlington
Yes, I would like an appetizer of tuna on a Provençal tart with a snow crab rust, please. The most ridiculous part? It’s not even a snow crab crust! It’s a snow crab rouille, which is completely different.
Best Burger and a Beer: Au Cinquième Péché – Late-night $19
After 10pm, the upscale bistro goes gastro-pub with a Ch’ti burger and a house beer. I think it’s the least expensive meal the restaurant will have ever served. If you can fork out an extra $20, though, the dinner menu is extraordinary: ostrich neck with fois gras and chestnut; mackerel with and squid ink brioche; and roasted salmon with “Hareng-cini”, cabbage and dulse gremolata.
Best Late-Night Menu: Pastaga – $19
I love it becasue it’s the same as the dinner menu but without the dessert that I as a gluten-free, lactose-free person can’t eat. I actually can’t eat either of the late-night courses, either, but if you want a $10 (read overpriced) chocolate mousse or pineapple cheesecake, two very un-local options at a locavore-ish restaurant, go for dinner instead. Either way you’ll get two of the following: squash, brown butter and ricotta ravioli; charcuterie with onion mousseline and toasted bagel; maple piglet with carrot pancake; and grilled white tuna with fried tortillas and herb mayo. Not much local there, actually. Guess I got the branding wrong. All the wine is natural, meaning better than organic and pretty reasonably priced.
Runner-up: Taverne F by Ferreira – $19
Escabèche sardines followed by pork and clams or fresh roasted cod. It’s a darn good deal. $10 more gets you same plus a side dish, and amuse-bouche to start and natas or rice pudding at the end.
Best Pub Fare: Pub Sir Joseph – $19 late-night
Go after 0pm for three courses (most late-night options are only one or two). Start with the salmon glazed in maple, soy sauce and beer. Then fill up on BBq turkey wings. And gild the lilly with cheesecake.
Best Gluten-Free Deal: Bar Tapas Taza Flores – $29
The problem for most gluten-free-ers is dessert. So get around the issue with tree courses of tapas instead. Start with the coconut milk and ginger ceviche (or mango, fig and grilled halloumi salad with chimichurri if you’re not lactose-free, too), then the saffron and olive lamb tajine; and finish off with the beef or fish tartare. If you need dessert, make your own damn cake instead of replacing something from a gorgeous dessert menu with yet another glare-inducing scoop of sorbet.
Best Peruvian Discovery: Mochica – $39
Skip the Peruvian ceviche and go with the grilled veal heart and octopus anticucho skewers to start. The veal comes with sweet potatoes and black mint huacatay sauce. The tender octopus comes with chimichurri and a traditional olive pesto. But it’s a tough call to skip the casusas trio—mini stacks of spiced mashed potatoes, salmon, crab in black mint and fresh cheese huancaina sauce and octopus in olive sauce with Cognac. Then it’s on to seared corvhina (a firm, Peruvian white fish) with a cod and cassava brandade, seared scallop and black quinoa risotto. Or the grilled alpaca in Pisco (Peruvian brandy) with dehydrated potato stew carapulcra and duck with coriander rice. you might need to pack the purple corn pudding (mazamorada) with dried fruit and quinoa sablé, or the Japanese-influenced rice in sugar bread with fruit and honey to go. but the butterscotch-like lucuma ice cream profiterole with black Peruvian chocolate sauce won’t make it past the door.
Runner-up: Callao – $29
From the owner of former Raza and the current two Madre restaurants—two haute Peruvian establishments in Montreal—comes Callao. It’s all about Peruvian street food, but, of course, upscale. And with the three services you’ll save about $15. The restaurant is trying to be affordable in general with its menu, but it’s also trying to get discovered, which I think is why this MTL à Table meal so very affordable. Start with papa rellena, a Peruvian stuffed potato with lime, onion and cilantro salsa criollo, liquid avocado and squid ink aïoli. There’s also a fish ceviche option with black mint and fresh cheese huacaina sauce and Peruvian yellow chili pepper. Then take either the seared fish in Pisco (Peruvian brandy) with lime, Parmesan and butternut squash, or the braised lamb with white bean purée, more wild black mint in a peanut sauce and a salsa verde. Finish with a bittersweet quinoa pudding with chocolate and hazelnut ganache and coconut milk cream, or a Pisco custard with meringue, butter crumbles and dulce de leche.
The Restaurant You Could Never Afford: Milos – $39
Now’s your chance. Grilled lobster with olive oil and lemon; fried zucchini and eggplant slices with Saganaki cheese and taztziki; private import filet mignon; and fried-to-order sweet thyme-honey loukoumades, or goat’s milk yogurt martinis with that same thyme honey.
Best Spanish and Tapas: Santos Tapas Bar – $29
Any meal that includes paella and two other savoury courses gets my penny pincher vote. Start with a sherry-marinated mushroom salad, then either aged Manchego sheep’s milk cheese with honey or salmon and confit ginger tartare, and finish with a heaping plate of seafood paella.
Best Vegan: Invitation V – $19
This is the most upscale vegan place in town, but are you willing to pay $40 for fancy platings of mushrooms? I’m not. But I am willing to pay $20 for the same. Plus, it’s one of the only places with gourmet gluten-free dessert options!! Start with a Burmese chickpea soup with lemongrass, then a New Orleans “crab-less cake” with dirty rice and basil sauce. Then the pièces de résistance: a gluten-free pumpkin parfait on a spiced walnut cake, or a gluten-free, refined sugar-free and nut-free maple shortcake. Bonus: the wine pairings are mostly organic and/or biodynamic and range from $5-$12.
Best Asian: Kyozon – $19
I really can’t recommend a lot of the other Asian (especially Japanese) places doing MTL à Table because their fish is so, so, so unsustainable. But Kyozon skirts the fish problem with some pan-Asian solutions and unique ingredients. Start with the mackerel confit with tomato and red curry jam (“Bangkok style”). Then stick with foolproof confit for the trout with sake chili sauce and a pear and yuzu salad. Or branch out with grilled tamarind chicken thigh, puffed rice, peanut and cilantro salsa. Finally, there’s pineapple flambe with coconut ice cream and a fortune cookie caramel.
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