Admittedly a little tipsy when we arrived, we couldn't resist a couple of kir royales to get us started, props for the use of a local cassis equivalent. The food began with some bread, we were later served a second lot. Nice salty butter, lot to be deduced about a place by the quality of their bread and their generosity with it.
We asked for the recommended dishes and mostly went for the waiter's suggestions. My starter was the oyster and leeks ($20). Dishes are described by their key ingredients, keeping things simple. I like that in a menu.
Like my recent meal at Story in London, the theme is delicate and pretty presentation. The oysters, free of their shells, and served cold (the whole dish was cold actually) and sprinkled with hazelnuts, also present were slices of apple and balsam fir which google tells me is a tree. Ha. Must have been used in the sauce. I was surprised that it was all cold but it was fresh and flavours were clean.
Sarah's starter was probably the more successful of the 2, the boudin blanc ($15) with kohlrabi, tarragon and raspberry. I went out on my own and selected the pork main course, the waiter suggesting the fish dishes are their most popular.
I was really glad I did this actually, the suckling pig ($30) from a local farm was my favourite dish of the night. Served with cherries, radish, celeriac puree and gale jus (I don't know what this means but it was nice, bit more of it wouldn't have gone amiss) the pork was served in fillet and croquette form. There was some kale dotted on there too. Very good.
Sarah's artic char ($27) would have been my second choice served with rye, fennel, honey mushrooms and sea buckthorn. So far so good, but not wow.
We'd gone with the waiter's recommended white, glass each, to accompany the mains. Another Chardonnay blend, they like those here. To accompany the desserts we had a glass each of Macvin du Jura, Domaine de la Renardiere ($14). It was dark, fruity and rich, almost like a sherry. We had a couple of glasses each.
I have to confess, I was disappointed with dessert. I had super high hopes, which is always setting myself up for disappointment and I ordered badly. I was blindsided by the mention of pistachio which was actually barely discernible. I ordered the kalingo dark chocolate and cocoa meringue ($10).
The green bits were tarragon heavy and fresh tasting, the rhubarb sorbet was lovely, but I don't like fruit and chocolate in combination, idiot! Sarah's Lemon cream ($10) with almonds, honey, ginger foam and lemon sorbet was more up my street.
I do really like their style though, the vibe in the room is nice, there's a long bar running down one side with the kitchen at the rear. I would definitely come back. I still haven't had any cheese in a restaurant here yet, madness! Keen to try some local ones. Service was also lovely, very knowledgeable. Best meal I've had here so far, we paid about $170/£90 each.
Les 400 Coups
400 Notre Dame Est
Old Montreal
8.5/10
p.s we had a front window table and there were loads of cats and dogs lurking about outside the place, at one point we engaged in a lengthy stare out with one of the cats, we won.
1 comment:
pretty nice blog, following :)
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