A favourite of the late Anthony Bourdain. Ever since it first opened it’s door over half a decade ago, Montreal’s gastronomic temple, " Joe Beef " has been consistently ranked among Canada’s top 5 best restaurant. This distinction also made it one of the hardest table to score in the country.
With that in mind, when a key ex-alumni of this culinary icon, Chef-de-cuisine, Zach Kolomeir, decided to relocate from Montreal to Toronto ‘for love’ and opened up his own restaurant - " Dreyfuss ", foodies in this city were thrilled and ecstatic. They flocked to this new ’ Best Bistro in Town ’ to pay homage to Chef’s Kolomeir inventive and delightful French cuisine. In the process, making Dreyfuss one of the toughest reservation in town…second only to " Alo "!
With the recent easing of Covid restriction and armed with booster shots, my family decided to resume our regular family dinner gathering. For our first such outing, we elected to try our luck with Dreyfuss. Once again, thanks to my daughter for doing the dirty work on my behalf, she managed to secure a priced week-end table for us, over a month in advance!
A cozy, intimate and narrow space coupled with warm smiles under tight fitting face masks greeted our party of six. Before seating us, a stringent check of our vaccine certificates was carried out. After settling in our snug corner table, small and condense menu containing some intriguing culinary work-of-art were handed to us by a couple of friendly staff. The portfolio of dishes utilized ingredients supplied by well sourced small scale farms, fisheries, smokers and artisinnal cheese makers…etc. Every course were explained individually in detail by our most attentive and knowledgeable server who actually took a seat next to us to make her presentation!
Adopting a communal approach by presenting small homey plates for sharing, our strategy to address this formula resulted in us going berserk and ordered up almost every item on the menu! The only dish we by-passed was a near hundred dollar per person caviar course!
Our evening started off with a range of splendid and tasty appetizer tidbits on plates that ended up covering every inch of our table landscape. They included:
-
House smoked salmon, black trumpet mushrooms, Sauce Diane.
-
Runner beans, raw beef & Louis d’Or.
-
Cold Borscht & poached wild Argentinian Shrimp.
-
Pommes Paillasson & truffed chopped liver
-
Broiled New Brunswick Oysters Rockefeller.
-
Linton Pasture Berkshire Pork Belly & last years Sour Kraut
Only three protein main dishes were offered and they all looked most appealing. Hence, we ended up ordering all three. They were:
-
Roasted Ontario Veal loin, medium rare & Endive gratinee
-
Baked wild ocean Fluke, creme aux delices de lar mer
-
Braised whole lamb shoulder in Red Wine, Frites and Tarragon Garlic Mayo
No compete meal especially a French dinner can end without some sumptuous dessert. For this finale we selected:
-
Mille-Feuille aux Noisettes ( Extra-Large )
-
Olive Oil Cake, Rhubarb & Vermouth
Majority of the dishes chosen managed to wow us with their amazing deliciousness. One can sense a lot of loving thoughts were put into the creation of such tasty and well balanced dishes! For me, the undisputed star of the evening was the Chocolate and Hazel nut Mille-Feuille. One bite and I was lifted into Seventh Heaven. The ultra buttery and super crisp and delicately thin pastry, the smooth and intense chocolate filling…Wow!! So light and fattening and yet sooo gooood!
Too many of the delectable savoury dishes deserve a mention. For me, the ‘out-of-this-world’ tasty seafood creme sauce that paired with the baked Fluke was the definite killer…making it one of the best tasting fish dish I had during these past couple of years! The Pomme Paillasson and Truffed chopped liver was another amazing stand-out. Those crispy potato columns was mind boggling addictive especially when smothered generously with the chopped liver pate. The Runner beans with Beef Tartar was unique and most enjoyable. Great textural contrast and interplay between the beans, the raw beef and the creamy dressing. Another winner was the cold Borscht. Light and refreshing and one of the tastiest beet dish I have encountered! Even the uber-crispy Frites were superb and deserve a stand alone mention…and I can go on and on with my accolades.
Sadly, there were a couple of slight let-downs. First, the Braised Lamb Shoulder. Though fork tender and tasty, the accompanying red wine sauce could be made a bit more complex and intense. The other ho-hum dish was the pricey Broiled Oyster Rockefeller. Pretty ordinary tasting using a New Brunswick oyster variatal that was a tad small. May be a larger, more meaty West Coast Virginicas might yield a better outcome?
Overall, a most enjoyable dining experience though the noise level caused by the back ground music and the patrons’ chatting was a bit unbearable and suffocating at times.
