It’s been a few years now since Europea first gained acclaim as one of the city’s top restaurant with its meticulously prepared cuisine melding traditional French technique with a modern twist and local ingredients. Since then chef Jerome Ferrrer has gone on to build a miniature restaurant empire based largely on macarons and high-end business lunches. Europea, for its part, has faded from my memory. It seems to always be mentioned as an afterthought in any discussion of the city’s best restaurants, which is a shame because on any given night the food at Europea can match that of any restaurant in town. So it was with no small amount of enthusiasm that I greeted Protege 2008’s suggestion of a lunch at Europea.

My only gripe about Europea had been that the low ceilings and sliding doors in the sub-basement space made it seem a bit too much like eating in someone’s apartment with a bunch of strangers. So when we arrived to find that Europea had expanded upwards since my last visit, conquering as it were the two floors above the old kitchen, I was fairly atwitter with excitement. The new space seamlessly blends the traditional with the modern. Exposed brick walls and a grand old fireplace competing with matte grey walls, stainless steel and mirrored furniture. A setting fit for the food.

And the food is exactly how I remembered it. Perhaps because it was the same amuse-bouche as the last time I dined here: a rich lobster bisque cappucino with a shot of truffle oil that seems almost to have become Europea’s signature dish. Neither overbearing, nor gritty, it fires on all cylinders. You wouldn’t want to down a bowl of it, though, or you probably wouldn’t have room for dinner.

Which would be a shame, because the “business” lunch menu featuring soup, salad or poultry rillettes as an appetizer paired with mains ranging from $16.50 to $27.50 is a pretty good value. For a little extra you can trade in your appetizer for scallops or foie gras, which we did. Seared Quebec princess scallops, served on the shell with a morille foam and preceded by a seawater foam to cleanse the palate, demonstrate the technical skill of the kitchen. A  few ingredients interpreted in an interesting manner with a delicate balance of flavor brought to the fore by expert preparation. Pleasant to the eye and on the palate, these scallops embody the Europea style for me. Served alongside is a lone mini-blini topped with King salmon gravlax, a lemony creme fraiche and a strand of herbaceous green. Very impressive.

Europea’s French leanings are strongly reflected in its menu with its confits, tartare and saumon en croute, but when I saw a variant on tournedos Rossini, a throwback dish to an age of simple excesses, I knew what I was eating. Europea’s version omits the bread in favour of roasted ratte potatoes and this is one substitution that works wonders. The beautifully golden, oven-roasted potatoes paired with a few bitter greens are such a great compliment to the rich sauce which doesn’t have the alcoholic tinge of the Madeira sauce traditionally served with this dish but instead is a simpler veal stock based concoction with recalls of the truffle and foie gras flavours that are key to Rossini. The fillet is well done but the seared foie gras is burned with  a dry, grey interior and none of the rich , unctuous flavour for which foie gras is prized. Rare for a chef to not watch foie gras like a hawk when its in the pan, but there you have it. I don’t think you can call it a success, but it must speak very highly of the dish to say that despite this rather central flaw, I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Paired with a Chateau Robin Cotes-de-Castillon 2003 recommended by our waiter which works quite nicely.

A vanilla pannacotta with tarragon juice and passionfruit served with a passionfruit sorbet is good, but not as unctuous as many a pannacotta I have eaten lately and is served in a glass that makes eating it awkward (eating out of glasses is one of my pet peeves).

Would I go backl? Most certainly.  Europea remains one of the more inventive and technically strong kitchens in the city. If you haven’t seen the new decor it is well worth a lunch visit. Just tell them to keep an eye on the foie gras at the back.

Cost: Approximately $130 for two

Restaurant Europea
1227 De La Montagne
514.398.9229
http://www.europea.ca