Dinner at Pastel, the fairly new fine dining restaurant in Old Montreal, starts with a heads-up that the meal’s going to take awhile. This is a destination kind of restaurant where you come for the evening, explains our server/sommelier.
Post-dinner drinks with friends at a bar nearby? Probably not going to happen. Did you drive? Better extend your parking. Should you have that $22 by-the-glass Champagne that’s only offered on the weekend (because apparently people want more Champagne on weekends)? Only if you can afford both the extra hours for the babysitter and the bubbles.
But you’re probably not coming to Pastel if an extra $22 is make-it-or-break-it anyway. At $110 per tasting menu, you’ll be lucky to get out of here for less than $200 a person – depending on booze, of course. If you have the Pastel negroni to start and then split a bottle of wine, or even order a few by the glass, it’ll add up. Opt for the wine tasting at your bank account’s peril – but know that it’s going to be amazing.
Normally I text a wine importer friend a picture of the wine list and ask what to order (we all need those friends). Or I just pick something that I know he brings in (natural, biodynamic, exquisite). His response to my text the other evening:
“There’s lots of interesting things. The sommelier is Renee. Ask if she’s there.” Conveniently, she was our server. We were in good hands. Had I not already been instructed to relax and enjoy by the server, I now would…
To be fair, I was a bit on edge. I had high expectations after enjoying Le Fantôme, the owners’ Griffintown restaurant, a few years ago. But since then they’ve opened two new places, so you always wonder how thin restaurateurs can be spread.
Spread successfully thinner was the foie gras square (under beets and pears) in my first course: creamy, metallic duck liver paired with mineral-rich beets and nutty toasted hazelnuts, while sweet-and-sour plums and cut through the richness. Suddenly, my tastebuds were disco dancing – or was that the playlist?
My non-dairy-free friends got a rolled version of this first course, but I wasn’t missing out. Vegetarians get a butternut squash version, it seems, because the server (not Renee) thought that’s what mine was. The taste was much too wonderfully organ-y and duck-y, though, so I figured it was butternut squash blended with duck fat until the server came back with an update – all foie gras after all.
My taste buds had initially been tickled by the amuse bouche – a fried beet mini cone wrapped around a shallot mignonette with diced apple. So much better than an oyster, and it came on a bed of something (“You don’t want to eat what the cone is on top of,” warned the server, not Renee) dotted with lavender, I think. Sweet and savoury one-bite bliss.
Apparently there were six line-caught bluefin tuna caught in the Atlantic this year that made their way to Montreal restaurants, said another server. Pastel got a whole one, which seems ridiculous when restaurants often share the enormous and incredibly expensive fish. (The line-caught part makes it probably more sustainable, though I’m not up-to-date on stock levels.) So they break down the whole fish and for this dish they used a slice of the maguro tuna loin, a dark red, lean meat without marbling. There wasn’t a ton of flavour because of that low fat content, and it was maybe a bit overpowered by the leek confit, but I liked the texture combos – chewy, silky fish flesh plus creamy leeks and crunchy, nutty popped rice.
Here are the rest of the photos:
Duck breast hiding some squash underneath, with duck reduction being poured on top. Juicy and consistently cooked throughout (sous vide and then seared?)
I didn’t get this “cacio e pepe”-style pasta because of the flour and butter, but I did get a dairy-free version of the dark-green strained chlorophyl sauce underneath made with parsley, spinach and oil. It was bitter in all the right ways with my green beans and super-sweet half-dried cherry tomatoes:
Green beans can’t compete with homemade pasta, but they’re about the same size as pasta and sure soak up the sauce more elegantly than a junky gluten free boxed macaroni.
I also didn’t get the creamy sauce with the black cod and celery root spheres, either (was there cauliflower in there too?), but I again didn’t mind. Mine came with a vegetable millefeuille and a little reduction. The cod was appropriately buttery, because black cod is hard to mess up. Just one question: why non-local black cod instead of local turbot, which is less expensive and a pretty good replacement flavour-wise? It’s not quite as buttery or sweet, but I should have asked. Maybe that’s nosy. But diners are nosy about eating local these days, especially at local-leaning restaurants. I feel as though you promote yourself as a locavore-leaning restaurant (Atlantic sustainable tuna, root vegetables in winter) you should have a ready answer to “why turbot instead of black cod.” Maybe they did. Renee would have understood, I feel. Maybe it was the bottle of the super natural “Vain de Rû” from Dominique Andiran that we ordered that makes me think she’d be cool with me prying.
I don’t eat a lot of beef, but I make exceptions for small portions at restaurants where I know it’ll be carefully sourced. There was a good amount of marbling on this slice, enhanced by the mushroom-beef reduction and bitter-savoury-creaminess of the kale quenelle. Worth it. Maybe one day I’ll be vegetarian, but not yet.
Pre-dessert:
Along with some Carly Simon came a deconstructed s’more, almost. Graham cracker with some kind of lemon curd or other (I couldn’t taste it because of the dairy/gluten) and torched, sliced fruit on top with meringue on bottom.
My pre-dessert (shrug off the nomenclature awkwardness – it’s dessert, part one) was a boozy melon sorbet with marinated grapefruit. It felt like the equivalent of a shot. Sweet and dangerous. Maybe a little olive oil on there (bottom-left green liquid in the photo?)
And for real dessert? (Dessert, part two; they were just mouthfuls, don’t worry.) I got my meringue in the form of sweet Popeye-style sticks, with a strawberry sorbet and chamomile-brown sugar granita underneath. 
I should reiterate that portions were tiny. I didn’t get the brioche that came with the foie gras, the mini epi buckwheat rolls or the thick-cut sourdough, so there was really nothing to fill me up. The dense protein was great and there was plenty of fat, but if you’re looking for quantity, you won’t get it here if you’re gluten free. I’m glad they didn’t have frozen gluten free bread, though, which I usually feel is insulting for a restaurant where you’re paying $200 a person. Either make your own or don’t serve anything. Pastel went with the latter, and I respect that.
Was it worth the money? $200 for a single dinner? For die-hard foodies, yes. Montreal doesn’t have that many high-end tasting menus. It was creative and delicious, and despite taking four hours, time flew. I wouldn’t go with someone who couldn’t carry their side of the conversation. It’s definitely not a safe break-up restaurant.
Will I go back? Not until I save up a ton of money and the season has changed. I’d want to make sure the menu was completely different. When I went back to the L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the casino, I was a bit disappointed because all the dishes they adapted gluten-free, dairy-free for me were exactly the same as the previous time. Still excellent, but no longer novel. And you pay for novelty.
You pay for chlorophyl butter and line-caught tuna, vegetable millefeuilles and compressed duck breast.
So I’ll be back, eventually.
Pastel
Address: 124 Rue McGill
Montréal, QC
Phone number: (514) 395-9015
Email: info@restopastel.com
Hours: Sunday – Friday 6pm-10pm; Saturday 6pm-10:30pm
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