LUNCH June 25, 2009

Like many Canadians, I find Canadian-Chinese food evocative: chow mein and pineapple chicken are as much a part of my childhood memories as burgers or pizza. Once in a while I really crave the classics of the Canadian-Chinese pantheon but I have to admit that while those plates of General Tao chicken and Singapore noodles can be immensely satisfying, they rarely impress when viewed critically. Although there are exceptions, there is rarely much finesse in this type of cooking. Sweetness and acidity are used with abandon and everything is deep fried and served with some sickeningly sweet bottled sauce. Continue Reading…

DINNER June 19, 2009

For the past couple years, the strip of St-Laurent just north of the underpass at Bellechasse has been gentrification in action. Crackhouses rub shoulders with shiny, new condos and pawn shops and taverns are being displaced by the likes of trendy kitchen stores. One of the leading lights of the transformation has been Chef Giovanni Apollo’s eponymous BYOW restaurant, all glass, stainless steel, dark wood and modern furnishings. While I’ve lived nearby for a few years, I still haven’t worked up the courage to try Apollo as early reviews made it sound like the restaurant served the kind of fussy food I rarely like at prices I never enjoy.

I thought the opening across the street of Apollo Bistro (also a BYOW but more affordable) would give me introductory level access to Chef Appolo. Apollo Bistro is steps from a pawnshop, but feels a world away. Think stainless steel, dark wood slat floors, mirrors and a lot of white furniture  (including a mixed bag of contemporary and Louis XIV chairs). A couple of huge unfinished log pillars, a prominent but empty bar and the open kitchen dominate what is a quite large dining room.  While a lot of attention has gone into the decor, the restaurant still feels unfinished and cavernous. The crowd is not as stylish as the decor: a lot of older people (not necessarily the trendy type) and families with children mixing with your plain vanilla yuppies. Continue Reading…

LUNCH June 16, 2009

As with any tourist haunt, Old Montreal has its share of trendy eateries with sub-par food. But while these tend to cater to the upper crust, the expensive and disappointing fast food niche has been largely unfilled to date. Enter Müvbox,  plopped onto the Quai des Eclusiers at the end of McGill Street, a design-forward, solar-powered “canteen” made out of a recycled shipping container. From a design perspective, it really is quite interesting (the video on their website is well worth a view), but, despite claims of producing”chic” fast food “with gourmet appeal” and a “fresh local menu”, the food at Müvbox doesn’t live up to the promise of the design.

The accent is on lobster from the Iles-de-la-Madeleine, with a short menu featuring chowder, lobster rolls and pizza, including a lobster pizza as well as one with duck sausage and a margherita. Drinks consist of canned soft drinks and there is Bilboquet ice cream for dessert. Lobster rolls, which will run you $10, are served in the traditional top-split hot dog bun, but the lobster is stringy (lacking in the big hunks of meat that are necessary for a great lobster roll) and the mayo lacks acidic bite. Continue Reading…

BRUNCH April 19, 2009, April 26, 2009 and June 13, 2009

In the pre-wedding rush I missed posting about quite a few meals. The best were two brunches at The Sparrow in the weeks leading up to the blessed event. A recent third meal only served to confirm that there is a new heavy hitter on the Montreal brunch scene. The inspiration is apparently an upscale English pub (I refuse to refer to it is a gastro-pub for obvious reasons), although without a liquor licence (as of my last inquiry) there is not a lot of pubbing going on and without children eating bags of crisps, Premiership highlights or snooker, it doesn’t seem very English. The absence of alcohol is never a dealbreaker for brunch, though, and both the coffee and the freshly squeezed orange-grapefruit juice should satisfy the most critical of punters. Continue Reading…

DINNER June 12, 2009

Recently, I was forced to admit that I had, at some point, become a sushi snob. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it happened but I have to believe it is linked to my latest trip to Japan. Before that, I had already started going exclusively to two restaurants in Montreal (Tri Express and Jun I) and then, after the trip which included a great deal of great sushi, I just lost my desire to eat sushi altogether. It had probably been a good six months since I had eaten sushi, which would have been a bit of a mind boggling statistic a couple years back.

When it comes to most cuisines, I’m a bit of a traditionalist. I believe in the primacy of ingredients and I think the best cooks are the ones who make the ordinary extraordinary. Anybody can impress with foie gras or filet mignon. Show me a chef who can knock your socks off with carrots and I’ll show you someone who can really cook. To me, that’s the appeal of sushi. All you have are your ingredients and your degree of mastery of a few basic techniques and those things make the difference between the sublime and the ridiculous. Continue Reading…

LUNCH June 11, 2009

A funny thing happened on the way to French Polynesia. I was minding my own business leafing through the En Route magazine on my flight to New York, when I came across a snippet of an article on veal parmagiana sandwiches. This, of course, was a topic near and dear to my heart as co-worker Danzel had recently dragged me on a wild goose chase around Concordia to find a restaurant he remembered from his childhood that had served a great veal parm sandwich. We struck out that day, but here  was En Route giving me the goods on the best veal parm sandwich in Montreal. Lucky me!

Now, I should probably have been a little suspicious. En Route is a bit of the idiot stepsister when it comes to reviewing the Montreal food scene, but, to be honest, I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that there was a restaurant that nobody in Montreal was talking about where old Italian men in sauce stained aprons made amazing, orgasm inducing veal parm sandwiches. I wanted to bring Danzel to that place and watch him have an Anton Ego moment (see Ratatouille) whilst eating a veal parm sandwich with a tear in his eye. I wanted that sandwich to exist. Continue Reading…