DINNER January 22, 2009

Regular readers will already know the affection I bear for Mas Cuisine. I had the opportunity to dine at the restaurant again recently and wanted to post a brief description of the meal and some pictures. Once again, I was very impressed by the creativity and strength of execution of the kitchen.

Marinated salmon with curried cauliflower florets, raw grapes and pine nuts was an interesting on a number of levels. The silkiness of the fish layered on the rich pine nuts contrasted with the crunchy cauliflower and the sweet, acidic pop of the grapes, the whole bathed in undertones of turmeric, coriander and cumin.Grilled calamari tubes redolent with paprika are paired with crunchy deep fried calamari tentacles and served with chorizo and lightly pickled cucumber on aragula and a cold salad of ratte potatoes herb and shallot. The potatoes provide a canvas for the bold flavors of the calamari, sausage and cucumber and every mouthful is a new taste sensation.

Duck magret is served on a bed of savoy cabbage and romanesco with spicy ratte potatoes, a smooth orange emulsification and an orange infused jus. The flavour of orange is cleverly understated and provides a surprisingly strong foil for the hearty cabbage, potatoes and duck breast. I have to try to make this orange emulsification at home – simply divine.

Seared cod is perfectly cooked with crispy skin and served with a smooth butternet puree and a curious sauce composed of  moutarde de meaux, apple and crab. Jerusalem artichokes and sweet  caramelized cippolini onions complete the dish. Seemingly random but comes together very nicely on the plate.

While desserts are often a letdown, at Mas Cuisine they easily match up to the rest of the meal. Highlights include a lemon and white chocolate souffle with a knockout raspberry sorbet and a not-too-sweet chocolate pecan brownie with caramel ice cream and cocoa sauce.

The wine was a 2007 Cotes-de-Brouilly Chateau Thivin which I noticed is also available for takeout sale at Les Cavistes.  The service is stellar, friendly and with an almost telepathic foresight. Our seats on this occasion provide a window into the kitchen where chef Ross and crew work their magic. But the best part of a meal here is getting the bill and seeing how little the amazing meal you just ate cost you. Mas Cuisine is probably the best fine dining value in the city. Hurry, because nothing this good lasts forever.

Have you tried Mas Cuisine yet? Let us know your impressions. Apart from Simplechic are there other must-visit foodie spots in Verdun?

Mas Cuisine

3779 Wellington
Verdun
514.544.3779

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1. Mas Cuisine

DINNER January 19, 2010

This year has been busy so far. So busy, that my new New Year’s resolution has become to write abbreviated reviews in the hopes of actually getting some content online. While I have been too busy to write, thankfully I haven’t been too busy to eat. I was invited to Atti by friends on a weeknight in January, which given my current state of affairs means that I arrived late, did my best to eat in less than an hour, then ran back to the office.

I wasn’t expecting much from Atti. Located in the semi-basement of a non-descript concrete mid-rise in an unglamourous part of downtown, Atti is  blessed with an awning that reminds one of a Sizzler steakhouse. So it is not without some surprise to walk into a sharp and modern space, with just-dim-enough lighting, stacked stone walls, walnut-ish panelling and traditional silk prints. A little piece of luxe, calme et volupte–Korean style. The mish-mash of Korean pop in the background and the doorbell on every table to summon the waiters add a foreign touch. Atti actually feels a lot like a young and trendy place in Seoul, which distinguishes it from the Mom-and-Pop feel of Montreal’s leading Korean eateries.

The food also tries to track that modern vein. The menu is entry-level Korean, with nothing too foreign or threatening for the novice. Prices are within everyone’s grasp with few, if any, menu items over $20 and staples like bibimbap, bulgogi, galbi and the like predominating. Atti’s efforts at modern presentation as well,  including non-traditional plateware and fine dining-style plating, also distinguish it from most local Korean joints.

The banchan do not particularly impress. Cubed potatoes fried with garlic and an apple, hard boiled egg and mayo salad are not bad, but fail to raise the heartbeat. The kimchee is good, but a little industrial, lacking that tang of fermentation and draft of heat that take kimchee to another level. Haemul pajeon, the ubiquitous Korean seafood pancake, is available with or without kimchee in the batter. The presentation of both versions is pretty and the crispy pancakes are tasty, although the kimchee version could have packed a little more heat and both could have packed more seafood. Grilled squid is well cooked and served with a simple sweet gochujang based dipping sauce.

The bibimbap, featuring purple rice and served in an elongated bowl is a beautiful contrast in colors and nicely presented, but as pretty as it may be, the dish is largely underseasoned and falls a little flat, even with the gochujang to push it along. The galbi, on the other hand,  is quite tasty. Although the beef ribs are cut a little thin for my liking, they are nicely caramelized and possess a good combination of heat and sweetness. Sure, I’m a cheap date, but what’s not to like about  a plate of ribs? A spicy bulgogi served with rice also hits the spot, as it packs depth of flavour and a lot of heat. Too many Korean restaurants tone down the spice, but this plate reminded me of some of the affordable, fire-breathing meals I ate in Myeong-Dong a couple years back.

Washed down with beer and maehwasu, a lightly sweet plum wine that is the antithesis of soju, I can’t help feeling that my meal at Atti has been nothing but pleasant. Sure, it’s not highbrow Korean and the fare is not exceptional but, though purists may say differently, Atti is at least in the same ballpark as the better Korean restaurants in Montreal, although perhaps not at the same level. There are so few places downtown with a nice atmospehere and good food that don’t charge an arm and a leg that Atti is a breath of fresh air in any event. I find it hard to believe I won’t be eating here again.

Have you been to Atti? If so, what did you think?  Do you have another Korean favourite in Montreal? Leave us a comment below and tell us why you like it.

Atti
2077 University
514.842.2884

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1. Hwang Kum
2. Marche 27
3. Resident

DINNER December 29, 2009

I don’t really eat tartare in winter. To me it is such a quintessentially warm weather dish that I gloss right over it on menus from October to April. But friends invited me to Marche 27 on this frigid December evening and since its reputation is for tartare (and for having very little else on the menu) I was more or less cornered. The restaurant looks like a high-end lunch counter: refrigerated display cases and  marble topped tables with aluminum chairs dominate the room while antiseptic white tiling rises into layers of colored tiles and finally to blackboards stretching to the ceiling.

While I was waiting I tried to warm myself up with a French onion soup. Big mistake. French onion soup is a funny dish. It’s a simple but it gets  mangled fairly consistently. Like the miso soup in a sushi restaurant, though, it’s an excellent test of a kitchen. And if it was a test Marche 27 would not only have failed but likely been expelled from school as well. I can actually smell something is off as the carcinogenic waft hits me before the bowl hits the table. The cheese is burned and has curled up into a ball as if to protect itself from further injury. It’s not gruyere nor does it have the tensility of gruyere. The broth is heavily wine and thyme flavored but not otherwise offensive, however there is very little sweetness in the onions. But the worst part is that the factory croutons have sesame seeds on them. A shitty soup by any other name…and for $9. Wow.

After the soup, I am understandably leery of allowing the kitchen to engage in any cooking for the main course, which makes eating a tartare in winter all the more palatable. There are a few non-tartare options: hamburgers, ribs, steak frites, but in my mind if I’m ever getting my hands on a Marche 27 tartare it is likely now or never. Marche 27 has a Chinese restaurant approach to tartare: pick any meat, pick any sauce and we’ll put them together. In addition to beef, tuna and salmon, they also offer, duck, venison and smoked salmon (the latter for people who are looking for a starter tartare, I guess). You can have it French style (think traditional beef tartare), Thai style (with coriander, lime and lemongrass), Italian style (parmesan and truffle oil), Japanese style (with tempura, soy and chives) or spicy (with chipotle). The Japanese tartare seemed particularly offensive and I started secretly hoping one of my dining companions would order one so I could prod it with a stick. It also struck me as odd that a tartare restaurant wouldn’t have a basic salmon tartare on the menu but I don’t think you can get there  (at least to my tastes) with the Marche 27 permutations. So I did what any sensible person would have done and ordered the beef tartare, French style with a quail egg for an extra $1.

The tartare was pretty, served simply with the quail egg in the center and little spears of French toast (where was the bread when they were putting that soup together?). It looked better that it tasted though. I like spicy food so I found it fine, but a lot of people would not have agreed as it was quite overseasoned. A Thai style salmon tartare also failed to impress, but mostly because, for my tastes,  farmed salmon is just way too fatty to serve in a tartare. A side of fries were unevenly cooked, some dark brown others almost raw, but there was a certain hominess about them that I liked nonetheless. Sadly, the homemade mayo with which they were served had an off-putting sweetness .

Our waitress was nice enough, but so young I considered asking her for ID when I ordered the wine. The art of service did not appear to come to her naturally, which is just as well as it probably means she will shuffle into another line of work (maybe if she fails her sociology mid-term). All in all a forgettable (even regrettable meal). Tartare is definitely a summer meal but I don’t think I’ll be eating too many sun soaked lunches at Marche 27 come the month of May.

Who do you think makes the best tartare in town? Have any thoughts about Marche 27? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

Marche 27
27 Prince Arthur W.
514.287.2725

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DINNER December 19, 2009

I only knew two things about Resident: it had been named one of the top five spots for comfort food in the city by Elle Québec and they served a mini-Thanksgiving dinner plate  for one. The first point didn’t seem like much of an endorsement, but the second did. While I would like to claim that it was an insatiable lust for the taste of Thanksgiving that led our group of 20 to Resident on this blustery December evening, the truth is that we couldn’t get into Le Local.  Rather than opting for the humdrum bistro offerings of the group menu at Holder, our little band chose the road less travelled, making our way to the outskirts of civilization (the eastern periphery of Old Montreal) and into the warm embrace of Resident.

And warm it is, with soft lighting, lofty ceilings of copper painted tiles, dark wood and a muted yet trendy soundtrack: the fake  yak  head above the bar is the only uncomfortable note in surroundings an otherwise ideal antidote to the weather outside. Having worked a fair bit in the trade, I always feel bad for waiters who have to deal with big groups. We trickled in slowly, we convened an improptu cocktail near the bar and we sat down to eat around an hour too late, but the waitstaff took it all with a stiff upper lip, if not necessarily too many smiles. In our defence, we were not the worst offenders, as they permitted an aging half-stoned strumpet to traipse around the room disturbing the other patrons for the better part of an hour before finally expelling her. Too much velvet glove, not enough iron fist. In running a restaurant one must always remember not to let the riff raff disturb the patrons–because they inevitably blame the restaurant for it–as I am doing now.

The name of the game at Resident is modern comfort food: simple dishes given a bit of an upscale twist. The burger is made with bison, the grilled cheese contains lobster, shepherd’s pie is made with ground lamb and the hot dog is served with truffle and parmesan fries–you get the picture.  Tempura onion rings with home made ketchup and crab cakes with sriracha mayo lead us off. The only thing “tempura” about the onion rings is the description on the menu, as the stack of bulky fried onions have more in common with carnival food than their Japanese namesake. The onions are encased in a gob of thick beer batter and have an off putting doughy softness instead of a nice crunch. The bigger ones are more like onion doughnuts than rings. I am an afficionado of homemade ketchup and really like the one Resident serves with the rings: not too sweet, with a deep  tomato flavour. After reading nothing but raves about the crab cakes I was expecting something pretty spectacular on the plate. While the two fist-sized cakes are impressive to look at, they are composed mostly of potatoes, with stringy bits of crab that can hardly be tasted. The sriracha mayo is a must as the cakes are pretty tasteless without it and since you don’t have to worry about overwhelming the taste of the crab, it’s a no-brainer. The  cakes are nicely cooked with a nice crunchy exterior and are very reasonably priced ($7) considering how big they are. Then again, potatoes aren’t exactly expensive.

In a cruel twist of fate, the mini-Thanksgiving dinner was not available on this evening. Thankfully, the special was roasted quail with mashed potatoes and a cranberry orange reduction, which was a close enough facsimile for me. The quail had been marinated and had a great depth of flavour which was accented by the perfect cooking, resulting in a succulent flavorful bird. The rest of the plate was not on the same level though, with mashed potatoes that were tasty but a little dry (some might say rustic) for my taste, the reduction  a little too sweet and the appearance of asparagus on a plate in December a bit of a turn-off.  The much anticipated lamb’s shepherd’s pie also failed to impress as much as expected. While pains had been taken with the presentation, the modernish round mold of pie topped with the selfsame veg was too bold a presentation for this unassuming dish. The combination of mash, corn and lamb were  tasty, but nothing more than you would expect from, say, your aunt’s cooking.

There are have been a few theories bounced around about the re-emergence of comfort food in these recessionary times, with some seeing the trend as stemming from a desire of patrons to seek out security in the foods they enjoyed as children. Personally, I think the re-emergence is largely due to the fact that most people don’t know how to cook anymore. People have always gone to restaurants to eat the kind of meals they couldn’t or weren’t likely to make at home and these days that doesn’t just mean Beef Wellington it extends even to the simple dishes on which most of us were raised. I like that more and more restaurants are serving comfort food but I expect it to be at least as good as what I make at home. The food at Resident wasn’t bad (especially considering the prices) but it wasn’t great either and, apart from the quail, I wouldn’t have been too excited to serve any of  it at Casa Thelonious. So, I guess what I’m saying is that if you are a terrible cook, Resident is likely to be a lot more impressive than it is to someone who knows their brunoise from their mirepoix. I don’t think I’ll be back myself but can’t begrudge those who like it.

Did you have a different experience at Resident? Do you have a favorite restaurant for comfort food (either on or under the radar)?  Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think.

Resident
400 Notre-Dame E.
514.844.1466
http://www.residentrestaurant.com/

Related posts:

1. Atti
2. Marche 27

As a rule, I don’t like to spend my own money at Queue de Cheval, but news of a $27 lunch menu was too intriguing to resist. Although it had been a few years since my last visit, I had become pretty comfortable thinking of Queue de Cheval as Montreal’s best steakhouse. This isn’t to say that I particularly like the place, but in the world of steakhouses you can’t play in the big leagues without dry aged beef, and you can count the number of Montreal steakhouses serving dry aged beef on one finger. Steakhouses have a very simple business model: you buy the best products, prepare them in a simple manner, serve them in big portions and present a hefty bill at the end of the night. One look at the dry aged steaks at the take-out counter , and you know Queue de Cheval undersands the first step. But, surprisingly, there were a few more issues with the second step than I anticipated (steps three and four went pretty much as planned).

The $27 lunch menu includes a choice of main and a salad and dessert chosen by the kitchen. We get off to a good start with the salad. A thick wedge of iceberg with a creamy blue cheese dressing topped with crumbled Stilton. This modern take on the simplest of salads is a dolled up version of classic steakhouse fare and I like it a lot. The lettuce is crisp, the dressing is well balanced and the rich saltiness of the cheese brings it all together. This is the kind of dish all good steakhouse should be trying to serve. Mains leave me a little less enthusiastic. My prime rib,  served with a creamy horseradish sauce on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, packs a ton of flavour and features a nice peppery, garlicky crust. But instead of the slice I was expecting it is actually a collection of ragged odds and ends piled onto the potatoes–like practice slices gone wrong. I can’t complain because it is really quite tasty, but can’t deny my disappointment at not getting a real slice of prime rib. I actually fare better than my dining companions. The JJ opts for the “steak bavette de mignon” which is a nice label for the tapered end of the filet that is too small to be portioned as filet mignon but has nothing to do with bavette. Her steak ordered rare, is served raw on one side and is obscured by a puddle of a nasty one-note brownish wine sauce studded with green onions. If Heinz tried to bottle something this foul, they would be out of business in no time, and smothering a 6 ounce steak in it is predictably unappetizing. Liberated from the saucy mess, the meat, though poorly cooked, is flavorful and actually does recall the mouthfeel of bavette. Mea culpa. The accompanying  ratte potato fries,  seasoned with sea salt, are either undercooked or cut too big (your call) but not bad. My other dining companions opt for a bacon wrapped fillet mignon and seared bay scallop combo. While they like the scallop, neither is blown away by the steak and both find the accompanying truffled veal stock underwhelming. Things pick up again with dessert. A clever individual tiamisu: itlooks like an eclair and features a just soaked enough ladyfinger and a dollop of mascarpone crowned by a brittle thin sheet of chocolate. Although I’m quite full at this point I don’t think twice about polishing it off. For once, a plate at Queue de Cheval that isn’t massive.

Putting aside the issues with the food,  I would say the problem with Queue de Cheval is that it is not a generous restaurant with the result that I tend to leave grumpy even when Ieat well. I often end up feeling more like an ATM machine than a patron, although that may be a byproduct of running a place that lives and dies by the expense account. And it isn’t just about the prices. Eating at French Laundry is much more expensive but you feel as though the kitchen and the service staff are vested in your satisfaction. Not so at the Q,  but what do you expect form a restaurant owned by a  company that made its fortune with  mediocre chain restaurants?

I always find  the service at Queue de Cheval grating and this lunch was no exception. The waiter seems to be channeling Joe Pesci (granted without any of his subtlety and charm) and spends a looong time talking up the jumbo shrimp. Now, if you remember anything from this review, remember this: the waiter at Queue de Cheval is not your friend. Everytime I have been to the Q the waiter has tried to steer me away from my choice in favour of a special recommendation (the first time I ate here,  I fell for it and ended up with a sirloin that was so aged it already had one foot in the garbage can).  We order water and he manages to open up two bottles of San Pellegrino for four people before we have even touched our glasses. The $55 Chilean cabernet sauvignon I order ( incidentally it is one of the cheapest bottles on the lunch wine list) turns into a cab from Washington State (incidentally, it is from California). They charge us the same price and we decide to take a chance on it but it tastes like a $15 wine (because it is) and not a good one at that. Finally, the waiter refuses to accept RBC Visa cards from two of my dining companions because “they don’t accept Avion cards on Thursday, Friday or Saturday”.

Decidedly an underwhelming visit, but does it change my assesment of the best steak house in Montreal? I had already factored crappy service into my assessment but was not expecting the food to be so lackluser. My better instincts tell me that the lunch special is not really a cheap way to get a taste of Queue de Cheval, so much as it is a chance for Queue de Cheval to serve you a cheap meal. The $27 set menu doesnt have much in common with the dry age marvels in my memories. Of course, the only way to verify it would be to spend more of my money at Queue de Cheval. Quite the dilemna.

Queue de Cheval
1221 Rene-Levesque Blvd W.
514.390.0090
http://www.queuedecheval.com/

Related posts:

1. Gibby’s
2. Rib N’ Reef
3. Moishe’s

- Thelonious

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Crescent Street is one of my least favourite places in Montreal. Most of the businesses scream “low-rent” (with apologies to the Hugo Boss Red Label store) and the restaurants seem more likely to give you hepatitis than a good meal. Newtown, even in the days it was owned by washed-up race car driver and failed minstrel Jacques Villeneuve, always seemed a little too smart for its surroundings. And once the new owners lured up and coming chefs Marc-André Jetté and Patrice Demers away from Laloux to this gaudy part of Montreal, the food promised to become a lot smarter as well.

The new Newtown looks a lot like the old Newtown. It’s a complex with a club downstairs, lounge on the main floor, an upstairs terrace and the second floor restaurant. The restaurant looks pretty similar too, although the big old leather chairs have been replaced by sleeker, Nordic-looking models that lighten up the space and fit in well with the modern decor. Arriving downstairs into a crowd of guys who look like they’re auditioning to be the next Sham-Wow pitchman  I start to wonder if I was wrong about coming here for an intimate meal. But the crowd in the restaurant upstairs, populated by tables of older folks, mostly women and mostly wealthy looking, couldn’t be more different than the one in the lounge.

Although the Newtown website prominently features a 3-course $33 “NHL Menu” when the Habs play, it practically takes an inquisition for our waitress to admit that such a menu exists. I can understand that they would rather have people order off the regular menu but its not really fair play to make people pull an Oliver Twist just to take a look at it. Our waitress, apart from this incident, is actually charming, knowledgeable and efficient–charming really.

The JJ starts with a cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup with rock shrimp, a mustard yogurt and dill. The poached shrimp are amazing: plump, juicy and cooked just enough so that they still possess a delicate saline crunch. They are served in a bowl with the mustard yogurt and the soup is poured tableside. Nice presentation (flashbacks of Paris) and a deft combination of ingredients that work very well together. A  meaty mackerel fillet is carved into pieces and served on drifts of a smoky squash puree with pickled cipollini onions,  pulverized dehydrated black olives and a stream of olive oil. A really beautiful plate (forgot my camera again). The fish, while tasty, doesn’t really shine on its own but the combination of flavours and textures on this plate is about as good as it gets. The salty crunch of the olive dust, the sweet sharpness of the onion and the depth of flavor from the squash all play well off the strong flavor of the mackerel. If this plate isn’t 3-star material, it’s pretty close.

With two stunning appertizers behind us, we turned to the mains. A duo of trout and pork  features a thick chunk of seared steelhead and a braised then roasted slab of pork belly on a ragout of cipollini onions, baby spinach and chanterelles surrounded by a salsify puree. The pork is rich, not too fatty and works fabulously well with the ragout and the puree but the fish, with skin seared to crispy perfection, and a great texture, is less of a match for the other ingredients on the plate. Frankl, I could have done without it. And as small and delicate as my mackerel appetizers was, this main was definitely a full serving of protein. Scallops and lobsters feature  a couple of seared scallops and lobster tail served on parsnip puree with French green beans and sauteed mushrooms as well as a a hazelnut foam. Again, the flavour combinations aren’t obvious but work very well  together, although we both agree that they don’t knock us out like the apps did.

Any restaurant with Patrice Demers is going to have a leg up on dessert. Long recognized as one of the leading pastry chefs in the city despite the fact that he still looks like he is about twelve years old, Demers’ touch is evident not only because of his signature pot de creme caramel with Maldon salt but also in a delicate caramel tart served with ginger ice cream, candied cashews and coconut, both pureed and pulverized. My preference is always to have a small but elaborate and well thought out dessert than a big slice of simple. The desserts at Newtown certainly hit the spot on this count.

I have to say I was quite smitten by my meal which, with a bottle of 2007 Rosenblum Viognier and a couple of espressos came in at $160 pre-tip. It is going to be very hard to avoid Crescent Street in the future and I suppose that is a shame. I’ll just try not to touch anything before I get inside the restaurant.

Have you tried the new Newtown? Whether you love or hate Crescent, we would love to hear what you thought. Feel free to leave your comments below.

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When I eat outside my cultural boundaries I tend to be concerned about the authenticity of what’s on the plate. It’s an interesting concern. You’d think that when venturing into a foreign cuisine one’s main concern would be that it taste good not that it be authentic. Like many foodies, I have been known to pester friends of all nationalities for the inside scoop on where their community is eating. Which is what led me to Jounieh, which an Egyptian friend described as the only worthwhile Egyptian restaurant in Montreal.

So I asked him if Jounieh had koshari and when he said they did it pretty much sealed the deal. You see my wife, the JJ, in addition to being a stunning woman and the baker responsible for my inability to lose the last ten (OK twenty) pounds, is the biggest koshari fan I know. She came back from Cairo after trekking around Egypt a few years back with nary a word about pyramids, desserts or museums, but raving about an Egyptian dish that, frankly, sounded pretty disgusting. Koshari is Egyptian fast food with its roots in the British empire: a mix of rice, lentils and pasta topped with tomato sauce and fried onions. It’s cheap, quick and filling and if you know the JJ it seems like something not exactly up her alley.

The rest of Jounieh’s menu seemed unfamiliar but amateurs of Lebanese cuisine will see through the different names to some familiar dishes. Take the kobeba, which I know better as kibbe akras: little football shaped balls made with bulgur stuffed with ground meat and pine nuts and deep fried until golden. There are also soujouk, makanek, falafel, spinach and meat pastries and vine leaves. But I skip the vine leaves to try an interesting variant: mahsy crump, Egyptian style stuffed cabbage leaves are exactly like vine leaves but made with…uh, cabbage. A little taste of Poland in the Middle East. Good stuff all around, but I personally prefer the kibbe…umm kobeba and vine leaves at Daou.

But we weren’t at Jounieh to get into an argument about the cuisines of the Levant. We were there to eat koshari. It is served as a big round dome crowned withthe  macaroni along with a bowl of thick tomato sauce and a side of thinly sliced, amber colored  fried onions. There is also a vinegary spicy sauce laced with cumin that those who like heat will want to keep near at hand. One spoons tomato sauce, onions and hot sauce into the carbohydrate mash to one’s taste. I recommend a second side of onions, they add a great sweet and fatty dimension to the dish. I always thought the JJ was exaggerating about how good koshari was but it is truly, truly addictive… not to mention filling.

We still find room for dessert, a big piece of cream konafa and a little mint tea, but my mind was still on the koshari and how I would eat another bowl if my bloated stomach would let me. Just on the basis of that one dish, I’m definitely making the trek back to Jounieh.

Café-Restaurant Jounieh
595 Cote-Vertu Blvd
Ville St-Laurent
514.744.9898
http://www.jounieh.ca/

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Sushi downtown is a tall order. Normally, I would opt for Kaizen but its not really downtown and its not priced for lunch. My dining companions wanted to go to Isakaya  until I informed them I had blacklisted it based on my last two meals there. You also  have your Sho-Dans, your Sakuras and your Takaras downtown, but I don’t find any of them very interesting. They will do in a pinch, but usually not when I have any discretion in the matter. That’s when I remembered Zen Ya. It has been on my list of places to go since it opened (which I now realize was a good four years ago) and I hoped there was no expiry date on the good reviews it had received back then.

Shoehorned between a Future Shop and a Burger King, Zen Ya is an oasis of tranquility on an obnoxious stretch of Ste Catherine. The second floor restaurant is open, modern and soothing with subdued lighting, a long bar extending the space, dark wood and the obligatory bamboo motif to let you know you’re still in an Asian restaurant. It could even be described as tranquil but for the streaming house music.

But the food fails to live up to the decor. Sushi and sashimi offerings are mostly the Montreal standards, a few types of tuna (but no toro), salmon in all its manifestations, unagi and some octopus thrown in for good measure. The high points were the “white fish of the day”, a nice fresh butterfish; the unagi, which had a toothsome bite; and the saba, which was lightly marinated and retained a nice firmness. The sushi rice itself I found underseasoned and at times even unusually hard. This was most disturbing in the hosomaki which were also badly rolled and falling apart. The uni was not fresh with a strong ammonia taste. The pickled ginger was disturbingly soft with no crunch at all. The seared salmon belly sushi inexplicably came smeared with what seems like a cup of that creamy brown dressing I associate with Sushi Shop. Although it cuts through the fattiness of the fish it also completely kills the flavour.  I’m not a big fan of rolls generally and the piece of dynamite roll I tasted wasn’t about to change my opinion: packed with greasy tempura and too spicy for a sushi roll it made me wish I had only taken half a bite.

I often complain about Montreal sushi restaurants. Menus are often pedestrian and the fish is often not particularly fresh, but Zen Ya falls even below the low standards of Montreal sushi. While I don’t mind eating at the Sho-Dans, Takaras and Sakuras in a pinch, at these restaurants all serve sushi that is a step above most of my Zen Ya meal. It would be quite the trick to get me to come back to Zen Ya.

Zen Ya
486 Ste-Catherine W.
514.904.1363

Related posts:

1. Kaizen
2. Mikado

I don’t often get requests to do restaurant reviews. So when I  received two e-mails within minutes of each other requesting that I try Le Gourmet Burger, a new burger joint on Bishop, it was clear that I was the victim of some new form of viral marketing. Little did they know how easy their task would be, given my long love affair with the hamburger. And it has never been easier to love the hamburger downtown. The last couple years have seen quite a few credible burger joints pop up downtown (mostly around Concordia). I’m not talking about restaurants that have burgers on the menu, I’m talking places that live and die by the burger. Le Gourmet Burger joins Buns Hamburgers and Picks as the latest contenders in this category.

The promotional material Le Gourmet Burger sent me pushed the quality angle. They made it sound a bit like someone had spent years flying around the world in a hot air balloon to scavenge the most premium of ingredients for my hamburger. The hamburgers come with caramelized onions, lettuce and tomato. There are additional toppings but if you’re facing the cash register you can’t read the side of the menu board where they’re listed. They range from the typical (bacon, sauteed mushrooms) to the luxurious (foie gras, truffle oil) to the unique (caramelized onions, walnuts and figs). But when I’m trying to assess a new burger, I don’t want any background noise, just cheese and a little sugar and acidity from the traditional condiments.

My first hamburger is a bit of a learning experience. I hadn’t clued in that only onions, lettuce and tomato meant there were no sauces on the burger and ate half of it before I realized I had to get my own sauces at the little dispensary on the counter. The hamburger is big and looks very traditional, almost homemade, with a thick, misshapen patty and a big, billowy bun.

The bun, I love. A  golden roll with a hint of sweetness and just the right softness for a burger. The patty is very beefy but a little dry and underseasoned. Meh. It was charcoal grilled but didn’t taste any different to me than a burger made on a flattop. Apparently, Le Gourmet Burger has a proprietary meat mix (when I asked what cuts were in the beef, the answer was AAA Canadian beef–not very enlightening) but if you ask me, they need to raise the fat content. You can’t make good burgers with lean meat, kids.  The patty in that first burger could have used some resting as well. Both beef and onions had gone directly from the grill to the bun and I had a nice pool of juice in my wrapper and a soggy slice of bun to show for it. The fries were good, workmanlike, but not spectacular.

I liked my second hamburger a lot more than the first. For one, I remembered to add the condiments. I have to say it’s a pain in the ass to have to get all the condiments and apply them yourself. I hope this isn’t a trend that catches on.  The second burger  is well rested and with a full complement of sauces, it tastes great. I still find the patty on the underseasoned and dry side, but it matters less when the burger is fully dressed.  The only downside is the caramelized onions, which aren’t caramelized at all just sauteed. Sweet potato fries are thick cut and rated about the same as their potato counterpoints. Bonus points to Le Gourmet Burger for having Boylan’s root beer and Cokes in glass bottles. A burger, fries and a drink rang up at $11 both times.

So how does Le Gourmet Burger rate in the downtown burger wars? Quite well. Although I don’t love the patty, the hamburger is on the whole tasty, includes a great bun (the Achilles heel of most burgers) and doesn’t break the bank. I would rate it over M:brgr (crappy buns and too expensive to be so inconsistent) and  Buns (stoned staff, stale bun and the fries looked like they were stolen from a homeless person’s campfire). The Picks hamburger is not as classic, but has its own appeal (although I don’t particularly like the Picks patty either) and can at least take a run at Le Gourmet Burger. Bonus points also go to Le Gourmet Burger for having a nice little modern dining room where one can sit down and enjoy one’s burger without worrying about catching hepatitis.

Would I go back to Le Gourmet Burger? Yes. It’s not a life changing experience but its a very, good homestyle burger at a good price. And that is more rare than it should be.

Le Gourmet Burger
1433 B Bishop
514.435.3535
http://www.legourmetburger.com

Related posts:

1. M:brgr
2. Pois Penché
3. Beaver Hall Bistro Gourmand