Jaunted

To keep the price tag out of the stratosphere I inquired by email about the $60 three-course "Chef! Chef! Menu," the daily special featuring the restaurant’s “latest inspirations, daily culinary acrobatics and reinvented flavors.” (You can tell they’d never be so common as to term it a "special.") The Chef! Chef! Menu usually consists of dishes chosen entirely at the whim of the chef, but because we don’t eat any meat other than fish, I specifically asked ahead of time if they could accommodate us. Upon their “absolutely,” we booked our table for a Friday night.

Upon arrival, we discovered that some new friends we’d made at our hotel were booked at the same time, so we took a table for four. I was glad these fun and interesting guys were with us, as the experience was so stilted and formal we needed a little joviality interjected.

The restaurant itself feels like a serious place, designed to the Nth degree, hushed and somber. Service is very proper, all right arms behind backs and super-attentive. It’s clear this place takes its haute cuisine most seriously indeed.

I took points off for serving things like asparagus and strawberries in November in Quebec; food miles much? And instead of asking my husband which champagne he wanted, they simply brought out the most expensive glass by far (Moet, 22 bucks). The waiter’s response when I ordered Chef! Chef! for non-meat eaters? “You eat what the chef decides, it doesn’t matter what you like or don’t like,” he said. Determined not to order off the painfully pricey a la carte menu, I explained that I’d cleared it ahead of time by email. “Well, you didn’t tell me that,” he sulked.

As for the food, it was nice. Our surprise menu led with an amuse of cheese "fondue" with a pear coulis--a little deep fried nugget that would be called a cheese popper somewhere a few rungs below this place. The first course was to be my favorite: salmon tartare with lobster oil and chives and scallop tartare with basil oil and strawberries. Two of each were served on precious little half shells, perched on a pile of sea salt on a wooden plank. The second course was a bit of a mess: The dish contained cod with peppers, quinoa and trumpet mushrooms, a shot glass of butternut squash espume and assorted bit and bobs of vegetables and squiggly lines of sauce. It would've been fine if I liked peppers--but I hate them. The waiter seems inappropriately happy to say, “Well that’s what happens when you order Chef! Chef!” Dessert was fun, a pretty little dish of lemon oil pudding with orange biscuits, caviar of cocoa milk and olive oil ice cream. At first bite I thought "instant lemon pudding" but it got better as I stirred in the other flavors and textures.

Throughout this formal and lengthy event, our dining companions kept us entertained with observations on the precious food. They were actually the key to enjoying this meal. Had we been on our own, I think we’d have felt too stilted and on our white-tablecloth behavior to actually enjoy dinner.

So go, perhaps, if you’re looking for some serious haute cuisine in Quebec. But do take some fun friends.

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· laurie raphaël [Official Site]
· Eating Quebec Map [Jaunted]