Has Yotam Ottolenghi taken over the world? Perhaps not, but he’s certainly a big reason that Middle Eastern cuisine is big right now. And with a strong Syrian community in Montreal (and proud reps from the rest of the Middle East), the city isn’t lacking hummus.
Damas, Sumac, Kaza Maza, Sefa, Byblos, Le Petit Alep (and Alep), Al-Baghdadi Pastry, Rumi, Su, Barbounya, …want me to keep going? These are all great choices, from affordable to splurge-worthy.
But Omnivore is an option I snuffed my nose at for a little too long. I used to work just down the road, and when my co-workers trekked there for kefta sandwiches and lemonade, I stuck to my gluten free, homemade lunch instead. Despite the ton of restaurants on St-Laurent, Omnivore was the lunch choice about once in every three days of their restaurant rotation. If it’d been available through À La Carte Express at the time, they would have ordered it even more often, I think.
And I don’t regret that decision, because at more than $10 for a lunch plate, I wasn’t interested. My homemade lunches were plenty good.
But every now and then you want a healthy, filling meal out. And I realized that Omnivore is also open at dinner. So why did I love Sumac down in my neighbourhood so much and neglect Omnivore? Was it the gorgeously lit kitchen backdrop or the fact that it was new and shiny and featured a fermented mango sauce with deep-fried mango? Or, was it that Omnivore was a counter, where insert trays held pre-made salads that I figured weren’t as fresh as other places?
But I was wrong. Those salads are fresh. There’s a high turnover at Omnivore, and the other restaurants pre-made some of their salads too – they just didn’t didn’t display them in a counter (which just means you have to wait longer for them and you can’t see which ones look the most delicious before you order).
I also figured the salads would be all oil and no flavour. Wrong again. The beet and apple was crunchy and sang of parsley. The sweet potato and zucchini stew with chickpeas was simple but still tender and not mushy from overcooking. I could actually taste the flavour of the zucchini. The broccoli was bright green from a proper blanching (not so traditional, the broccoli, but plenty enticing for healthy-eating Plateau-ers) and the Lima beans were appropriately silken.
So vegetarians are well off here. But all my co-workers were ordering those tiny, rolle, flatbread sandwiches I couldn’t have. And I love chicken taouk.
The chicken here isn’t sliced off slowly as the outside caramelizes (shawarma), but the skewered meat (chicken taouk) is charred on the inside and tender on the inside. The green salad that comes with the chicken plate is actually mixed to order with tomatoes, yellow pepper, cucumber, radish and a vinaigrette of sumac and lemon. And underneath all that was a bed of savoury rice and lentils, a comfort style dish usually served with tons of delicious oil soaking in from a garnish of fried onions.
But wait, there’s more. If I had been able to have pita, I’d have been dunking it in the heap of hummus, and if I could have dairy, I’d be digging in to a dollop of tzatziki. Instead, I stuck to the homemade turnip pickles naturally dyed purple from beet juices.
What I loved were the extra touches, like the crater in the hummus filled with delicious olive oil, the bright and lemony sumac sprinkled on everything. Like my dining parter said, nothing was out-of-this-world, but together, each plate (the chicken plate and the mixed salad plate from a choice of salads that always changes) was exceptional all together.
There were so many textures and flavours, some crunchy to smooth to creamy to soft to chewy. The colours were a feast for the eyes before the food became a feast for the belly.
As a dinner destination, it’s incredibly affordable. So while I cheaped out at lunch, I’d go back for supper in a second. Or I’d go for lunch and eat leftovers for dinner…
And I’d look forward to seeing what salads were available that day, hoping for those sweet potatoes every time.
Omnivore Grill
4351 Boul St-Laurent, Montréal
514-303-5757
Hours: 11am-10pm Mon-Sat
$9-$15 (from a single sandwich to a plate and a lemonade with tax and tip)
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