Before Aix Cuisine du Terroir closed down (and turned into a Japanese-ish restaurant with a relatively decent sake list for Montreal), I went there several times. I usually very much enjoyed it, and once was floored by the more enormous piece of lamb I’d ever seen brought to a table and intended for one diner. $40. 48 hours of cooking. That’s almost a dollar per hour.
But I’d never been to the restaurant’s fancier older brother restaurant, Verses. It was a little more expensive and never quite seemed worth the expense. What it does have going for it, though, is a rooftop patio. Aix has an upstairs cool cocktail bar with DJ, but no rooftop. The Terrasse Nelligan has a view of Notre-Dame, sort of, and it’s got nothing on the Manulife Building in Toronto, but it’s not bad. And you dn’t have to pay cover to get in the elevator. The drinks are fruity and way too sweet, but wonderfully addictive. Many are with fruit and crushed ice variety, which has nothing to do with the fancy restaurant below where cocktails are classic and boozy and the only ice involved would make something “on the rocks” rather than “frozen.”
But finally I went for dinner, so we could sneak upstairs afterwards.
We started with an aperitif: campari, sparkling wine and sparkling water with a slice of orange, which wasn’t on the menu, but was simple enough to wip together in the form of a spritz.
Appetizer: Octopus (or squid?) carpaccio with squid ink, grapefruit segments, radish, cucumber and microgreens.
Deliciously tender octopus with enough fancy salt and oil to make it feel luxurious, and not too sweet with the grapefruit.
Then creamy, sweet almost-raw scallops with corn and cherry tomatoes, but if only there was more of it for the high price tag.
Mains:
Lamb chop with white beans, cherry tomatoes, lima beans and chanterelles. Beautiful dish. Kind of winter-y, but it didn’t taste heavy. And the chanterelles made it feel more seasonal. not nearly as spectacular as that 48-hour lamb shank, though. It’s a much more expnsive cut of lamb, to be fair.
Then the black cod with mussels and sabayon. Delicious, but boy black cod is expensive. I wish it was much more affordable wild-caught, Quebec, sustainable turbot. And I wish there were more than three mussels. That’s approximately $0.50 cents of mussels…You could afford a couple more without wrecking the beautiful plate presentation. Still, it was gorgeous and the fish was perfectly cooked. The sabayon (whipped egg yolk sauce, usually a dessert, but often found in a savoury incarnation) was rich and satisfying with the luscious fish.
The problem with being lactose and gluten intolerant is even when great restaurants are accommodating with dishes, and even when their dishes are naturally both gluten- and lactose-free, you often end up with no carbs to absorb that alcohol. So we had one glass of wine each with dinner, but with nary a potato in sight, we were in no state to sip a strong beverage on the rooftop patio. Fortunately, there’s an alcohol-free cocktail menu with a couple of coconut-heavy and daiquiri-inspired options. Unfortunately all that sugar is not what you need after alcohol and not enough carbs. Suddenly I found myself wishing I had Toqué’s rice cakes to snack on…Glute-free bread, obviously, would have been better with that delicious sabayon, but ah well.
Still, a great meal, and worth it when you’re ready to break the bank.
Verses Restaurant and the Terrasse Nelligan in the Hotel Nelligan
100 St-Paul West
514-788-4000
How much: $50 per person, more with wine, cocktails around $15 with tax and tip. At the rooftop bar, same cocktail prices. You can eat up there too.
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