When Les Cavistes first opened a good year and a half ago, reviews were strong and, since I couldn’t get a reservation, I settled for take-out. While I loved the fact you could buy private import wine to take home with your meal, the cuisine itself didn’t mark me. Not that it was bad, it just seemed very expensive for what it was. The shrimp risotto was a little stiff, but the braised octopus with chorizo and boudin noir were quite good (even if served in pretty small portions).

Flash forward a year and my request for a last minute Saturday night table is agreed without even a look at the books.  The cooler by the door that had housed the cheese plates and other take-out goodies needed to legally sell wine for take-out is out of order and the little bowl of sea salt has been used so little it is turning into a salt lick.  It is early but the place feels dead with only a table of lovebirds by the window and a four top that seems to be having a business meeting instead of dinner.  We order mains only and the wait to be served is really, really long. It feels like a restaurant that is going down for the count… and then the food comes.

A bison bavette, topped with a massive homemade onion ring and served on creamy polenta is very well seasoned and cooked. The polenta, vibrant and savory, shares the plate with a ragout of mushrooms, tomato and herbs and roasted cipollini onions. The presentation is neat and everything on the plate works in every respect and works together, from the crisp crunch of the onion ring, the sweet notes of the onion and the pleasant mouthfeel and slight acidity of the ragout. Roasted cod is cooked just as well as the bavette and is served on a parsnip puree with braised leeks and walnut vinaigrette and a little roast potato. The portion is just as big, the presentation equally strong and the elements of the dish as smartly composed.

Was this groundbreaking food? No, but it was very solid and beats the pants off what a lot of other restaurants in the same space are dishing out. At $120 with tip for a couple of mains and three glasses of wine it is probably a bit steep (and it doesn’t include the bottle of wine bought on an impulse on the way out). Still, the Steak Frites St-Paul just a few hundred feet down the street was packed. I can’t help but think that the serfs who flock there would be better served by investing a little more and eating some really good food, but that’s just me. Will I be back? I saw Beef Wellington for two on offer on the (compact) menu. To quote everyone’s favourite Alaskan: “You betcha.”

Les Cavistes
4115 St-Denis
514.903.5089
http://restaurantlescavistes.com/en/home.html

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