There’s been more posts about Montréal recently than I can recall so I will add to the theme.
Arrived before the Labour (as they spell it in Canada) Weekend on a wet and rainy Thursday. Our first time back in two years. My gardening has moved north.
We have enjoyed going to Joe Beef for many years. Even before Anthony Bourdain hung out with Fred and David. Couldn’t get a reservation at Joe Beef so we went to its sibling Liverpool House. The place looks nothing like it used to in the early days when it was like walking into an antique store jumble. It’s now much larger and more refined and contemporary. Maybe an outcome of the split between the founders.
It was raining steadily and in the low 60s. We were seated in the outdoor covered patio in the back right next to this. Very cozy.
Crisp pan seared chicken with roasted clams on a bed of succotash. The clams were clams. And I love clams. Chicken was fine. But that succotash was something special. Fresh corn, zucchini, tomatoes, barlotti beans, herbs and a tiny (not) amount of butter. The lovely wife ate more of the succotash than I did.
She had halibut on a bed of greens. Like a nicoise.
I might be in the minority here, but I found Joe Beef to be underwhelming and over priced, I much preferred Le Vin Papillon. Been meaning to try Liverpool house one day, looks good!
You are not the only one my chow fiend!
My meal at Joe Beef last year was over-rated ( people raved about the lobster pasta, which our party found so-so!..just pasta in Lobster bisque with small chunks of lobster meat! ), overly-expensive ( $75+ for mains!! ) and underwhelming.
Yes @THECHARLES , I remember you mentioning that you weren’t impressed and also underwhelmed.
Maybe we were both there on “off” nights .My experience happened a back in 2017, and had the same experience on the same trip at Garde Manger, Chuck Hughes’s joint, also very disappointing. So many better restaurants in Montreal , but to each their own.
I recalled that it was a Special-of-the-day dish. Most dishes were around $50.
However, the couple of thumb-size Norwegian King Crab leg meat appetisers were priced at $55!
My wife & I are still chuckling about her razor clam app order a couple of years ago. Out came a plate with one (1) razor clam. I remember it was a “special” on the board for $15 or so Canadian (which was around 90cents to the dollar back then). The rest of the food was unremarkable.
Joe Beef certainly isn’t getting much love. We haven’t been to Joe Beef since before Covid but when we looked inside after our dinner at Liverpool House, it didn’t look like the same place we remembered. Like LH, the interior has been completely redone. Also our last meal was before Fred and David split so that has to have had some impact. Dave was very garrulous and would come out and talk to us and everyone else in the dining room. From what I read I guess that was a symptom of his problem.
But the spaghetti homard was a thing of beauty in the early days. The sauce tasted of cream and lobster funk. Big chunks of lobster and bacon strewn throughout. It was a gorgeous dish in the days before influencers. It was on the menu at LH but we choose other dishes as we have had it so many times though its been years now and from what I read from other posters here, maybe better to leave it a memory.
I liked my one meal at Joe Beef…Sept 2013! 6 of us tried everything on the menu that night.
I haven’t been back, only because I like trying new restaurants on each visit. I typically had only 8 days in Montreal each year before 2020. It was good, no significant flaws.
There are only around a dozen Montreal restaurants I’ve visited 3 times or more.
I buy the Joe Beef butcher’s blend (spice blend). It’s a staple in my pantry. I didn’t like the Joe Beef BBQ sauce.
I like Jean Talon Market, but I like the Union Square Green Market a lot more! I wish we had markets in Montreal and Toronto with that much choice in produce, especially potatoes and plums.
There was a time, a mere 3 years ago, that I really enjoyed a meal at Joe Beef so I thought I’d link to it here to maybe provide some hope (?). As mentioned in that post, we went back later in the month and had the remembered “razor clam meal”.
By the way, although it’s no longer on their merch web page, back then there was one item that they sold that didn’t have a Joe Beef label & that was Frankie’s olive oil (non Brooklyn folks can disregard this reference).
One of our favorites in Montréal is L’Express. But it’s closed for renovations until the end of September. So we tried Leméac for the first time. Very different neighborhood and space.
After reading some other threads here, we went to Bouillon Bilk. A bit of a sketchy neighborhood if you approach from the direction we did. Walking in was quite the contrast from the street.
Had a martini in a beautiful coup to whet my appetite.
Unlike some of the other posters we passed on the tasting menu and ordered a la carte. Continuing a theme we had oysters to start. There were three mignonette sauces. Two were complimentary the third I could do without.
Then a starter of hiramass. This was beautifully composed and the contrast of flavors and textures were great though the fish was cut a bit thick for my taste.
For dessert we split what was on the menu described as a mille feuille. Didn’t look at all like what we expected but it was delicious combination of various frozen or chilled bits of many different flavors with some crispy chip like layers.
Nouilles Lan Zhou gets a lot of mentions on various Montréal food sites. We weren’t too far from it so I decided to check it out. There was a line 20+ or so people long waiting for a seat so I decided to do takeout as the hotel wasn’t very far. While waiting it was fascinating watching the guy upfront pull the noodles. It’s like a magic trick how he takes a ball of dough and turns it into fine strands of noodles just using his hands. Makes all the pasta machines seem superfluous.
I got my order. Large combo. Came with cucumber salad.
If this is the best of Montreal when it comes to noodles, I was really disappointed. I give it a grade of no better than average or run of the mill if this was in NYC. I asked for spicy. The broth was bland. Not much flavor at all. The noodles were excellent though. So it averaged out to a C. The dumpling place a bit further up the street is way better.
Montreal is a beautiful city. Feels much more European than anywhere in the states. I know there are some posters that dump on Vieux Montréal for being full of tourists. Well when you’re visiting a place you don’t live, I hate to tell you, but that’s what you are. I live in NYC. There are places that tourists visit like where I live. Double decker buses roll down my street. There’s a reason why they come. The West Village is crawling with out of towners on a weekend. The Marais in Paris is similarly mobbed. They’re still fun places to be for a reason. And it’s not always the hellhole you think it is. Not every meal has to be the best thing you’ve ever eaten. Free your mind and go with the flow.
The archaeological museum in the old city should be on everyone’s list. No pictures. But a place to learn a lot about the city. It was surprising to see how much the city has built over earlier layers in just a few hundred years. Fascinating for the history nerd in me.
The city is also great for walking. Lots of outdoor spaces for all sorts of activities.
The Musée des Beaux Arts is worth a stop. There were several exhibitions going on while we were there. I loved this piece. Round peg into a square hole image had me smiling.
And for a final bit of food related matter, I know Dunn’s doesn’t get much love from the supposed food cognoscenti. But I suspect if you just did a blindfolded taste off of just the smoked meat sandwiches against Schwartz and others, you’d be hard pressed to see much of a difference.
.My experience happened a back in 2017, and had the same experience on the same trip at Garde Manger, Chuck Hughes’s joint, also very disappointing. So many better restaurants in Montreal , but to each their own.
