Here are two new Montreal restaurants and one oldie but a goodie.
Sumac
Sumac is the new hip kid on the St-Henri block (at least until the new Satay Brothers opens, at which time they’ll probably share the “affordable gourmet” block party ribbon).
It does Middle Eastern with flair. Pickles are made in-house. And the quinoa salad is studded with barberries, kale, almonds raisins and coriander. The concept is key here. You order a meat or vegetable base and complement it with a choice of salads, fries, pickles or dips. Plates of shawarma, eggplant, beef kefta and falafel come with charred pita bread and massive scoops of hummus. There are also enormous pitas with the same hefty fillings. And there’s a killer five-salad combo platter (or three-salad plate). But for me the show-stopper was the eggplant sabich.
Rarely is a vegetarian main my favourite thing on the menu, but here the eggplant sabich is king. The balance of rich hard-boiled egg with fried eggplant, pickled cucumber and fermented mango pickle is insanely good. Pair it with the cooked salad (stewed tomatoes and roasted peppers), the chopped salad of tomatoes, cucumber, onion and mint and the Moroccan carrot salad spiced with cumin, currants and parsley.
This is not diet food. There’s enough olive oil in here to kill a Greek. But boy is it good. Bring tupperware so you can be eating the leftovers for the next three days.
Where: 3618 Notre-Dame West
When: Tues-Thurs 11:30am-9pm; Fri 11:30am-10pm; Sat 3pm-10pm
Reservations?: No
Phone: 514-935-1444
How much: $7-$9 pitas; $13-$14 plates ($17 with tax and tip)
A hop, skip and a jump east in Griffintown is the city’s newest upscale sushi joint. The chef is impressive. Perfectly sliced sashimi and lovingly jacketed nigiri make up the gorgeous mixed sushi plates that come on their own or with the tasting menus. There’s a sushi omakase ($50 for whatever the chef wants to give, accompanied by soup and sashimi salad), a sushi moriawase platter ($36), a Wagyu beef tasting menu (market price) and the upper crust $75 Kaiseki-style tasting menu (amuse-bouche, appetizer, soup, sushi, granita, main dish and dessert).
There are rainbow rolls and BBQ Eel rolls on the menu, but there’s no cream cheese involved and no farmed Atlantic salmon, at least. But if you don’t go for the tasting menu, you’re best off focusing on Chef Shinji’s small plates: Wagyu dumplings, Japanese calamari with squid ink udon noodles and sea urchin sabayon, beef shabu shabu with homemade buckwheat noodles, or simple, well-made miso soup with tofu and wakame.
And the sake list is good as far as sake in Montreal goes. We just don’t import enough great stuff because the market isn’t there (yet).
Overall, this place is doing a good job working with the ingredients we have. Organic Chinook salmon is maybe the best available. Boring maguro tuna was tastier and more tender than normal, thanks to good sourcing and a perfect cut. And they have gluten-free soy sauce! Plus, anywhere that will use fresh local crab in its California roll is a cut above (even though they’re serving a California roll in the first place).
Shinji, 1732 Notre-Dame West
When: Tues-Sat 5:30pm-11pm
Reservations?: Recommended
Phone: 438-384-1270
How Much: $45-$120 including tax and tip
Renard Artisan Bistro
I came here on the recommendation of Chef Chris Parasiuk of Manitoba. Jason Nelsons Taste MTL Restaurant Week menu looked amazing. Lamb tongue tartare and eel rillettes sold me on it. But when I got there on the last night of the week, the the eel was all sold out and the lamb tongue confit contained gluten. So I had the tartare without the tongue, and I had the black radish salad instead.
Usually a salad feels like a waste of stomach space in a fancy restaurant, but I was wrong. This seasonal creation was awesome. The thinly sliced radishes were served like celery remoulade—thinly sliced in a thick aioli. But the best parts were the dense beet and bergamot ice cream and the sweet and sour coulis on the side. It balanced the sour cream foam (gross on its own, but great in a combo bite). It was cold and crunchy and sweet and bitter.
I would have had the deer and wild blueberry terrine but it had gluten. How I love homemade mustard, though…and wild blueberries…and deer.
The lamb tartare was still good without the tongue. It was just a very well-made bistro-style tartare with diced capers. It came with aioli-drenched local fingerling potatoes sprinkled with piment d’espelette and arugula sprouts. I couldn’t scoop it on to bread because of the gluten issue, but I savoured each bite.
For dessert, I had the first crème brulée I’ve had in a restaurant in upwards of five years. I ate half of it, just to give my lactose intolerant stomach a chance. It was apparently made with birch syrup. I had no idea. All I knew was it was textbook. At first I thought the top wasn’t crispy enough. It didn’t crack when I pushed my spoon through it, but it was a solid crust when I chewed it and so, so satisfying.
If I lived in the area, I’d want this place to be my neighbourhood bistro. The main server had one assistant helping him get food to tables, but he really was the frontman of the restaurant, taking every order and serving efficiently. He cut bread to order and delivered it promptly to tables just after they arrived. Even sitting at the bar, I felt like a welcome guest—in true bistro fashion.
Renard Artisan Bistro, 33 Mont-Royal Ave. E.
When: Tues-Sat 6pm-11pm
Reservations?: Recommended
Phone: 514-508-2728
How Much: $60 including tax, tip and a great glass of private import wine
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