During the past few years, this Montreal neighbourhood hidden gem has progressively ascended the ‘ Top 100 Best Canadian Restaurant ‘ ranking list. Currently, it occupies the #7 spots, just behind our Ontario-own Pearl Morissette, Alo, Edulis, 20 Victoria street…etc.
By pure luck, dining options for our relatively large party of 6, required special handling by the smallish and cozy restaurant and its compact kitchen. This resulted in our being offered a fixed price, pre-arranged ‘O
makase’ menu, consisting of communal size dishes for sharing. This menu will be specially crafted in person by Montreal celebrity chef/owner Ari Schor himself! A nice surprise and welcoming privilege!
Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly and graciously by the wait staff and the two owner brothers, Ari and Pablo. After exchanging hand shakes, hugging and verbal pleasantries, we all settled down, ordered our pre-dinner cocktails and eagerly awaited the arrival of our culinary feast.
We were presented with the following dishes:
Appetizers:
- Potato Knish with Imperial Osetra Caviar
- Montadito of Mackerel with sesame, salted butter and horseradish
- Involtini of Zucchini and Swiss Chard with yogurt and pine nuts
Mains:
- Drunken Guinea Fowl and Liver marinated in Sherry
- Tagliatelle served with Chanterelle, braised Zucchinis and Pamiagiano
Reggiano - Gloucester Old Spot Pork chop with creamed corn and black truffles
- Rabbit with Octopus, Chorizo and Potatoes
- Wild Mushroom Paella
Desserts:
- Strawberries with Marsala Zabaglioni and Amaretti
- House made Vanilla Icecream with roasted Pistachios
Our intriguing French and South American Hispanic fusion fare, with a touch of Chinese theme thrown into the mix, was both rustic yet refined. Dishes’ progression was a balanced blend of subtle flavour creations intermingled with some concoctions packed with relatively bold and complex taste profiles.
The Shanghainese scallion pancake taste-alike potato Knish topped with salty caviar was a great overture to our meal.
The Chinese drunken pigeon clone main - ‘Drunken Guinea Fowl with Sherry’ was IMO a clever,masterful touch! The delicious meat, tender and moist……the medium rare, velvety smooth and creamy foie, exceptional!
I am normally not a fan of rabbit, finding it usually overcooked and dry. Yet, Beba’s rendition was a pleasure to eat. The well seasoned meat was nicely seared, flavourful and juicy. Same applies to the pork, which was also perfectly executed, caramelized crust on the outside and moist juicy meat inside. The pile of shaved Black truffle topping was super-generous and the sweet Chilean creamed corn sauce, delightful!
Overall, it was a satisfying and sumptuous meal with generous portions, encompassing some creative, intriguing and unfamiliar ingredient composition and flavour profile
The only downside to our meal was the rather underwhelming, blend tasting and mushy textured pasta dish plus the loud and ‘funky’ background music, which featured African tribal like songs to crackling Caribbean percussion to mellow Hispanic. What a weird mix?!
An evening of good food, warm attentive service and great company! A near perfect total package!
