Day 4:
An egg and cheese bagel for breakfast and a a few crackers with cheese and apples for lunch because, I still cannot believe it, someone’s cancellation and some ultimate timing of checking the restaurant’s reservation calendar last minute got us a spot at Tanière 3. There are only two Michelin 2 star restaurants in Canada: Pearl Morissette and Tanière 3, and Tanière is booking into February.
It was a lovely surprise to round out a wonderful weekend. There is no overt signage of Tanière’s name on the outside of the building, only two plaques indicating Michelin stars and Relais & Chateaux. You are sent an entry code to the front door by text, which you punch in and enter into:
which leads you to the first room for drinks and appetizers.
Tanière only uses Canadian ingredients. If it doesn’t grow here, it isn’t used. Keep that in mind.
We started with a mocktail of pineapple weed, elderflower and wild mint. It tasted like a tropical cocktail. I would not have guessed this combination of ingredients was in it. Served along with it was sashimi quality salmon with a buttermilk foam:
followed by a wild parsnip tart with cranberry and brined cheese:
poached oysters with delicata squash:
duck heart with viburnum berry beside duck gizzard in phyllo:
and venison in bannock bread:
Now, it was time to move to the next room, another beautiful space, for the larger plates:
Striped bass with prickly ash:
Caviar, scallop and an ultra local Raphaelle potato:
Lobster with matsutake, lemongrass and cabbage:
Spicy lobster in phyllo rolls:
Trout, Labrador tea and fermented spruce. First presented in the clay it was cooked in. The hot clay activated the oils in the evergreen branches it was on. The beautiful, piney aroma led into the fermented spruce on the trout.
Quail with anise hyssop and foie gras:
Sourdough to dip into foie gras bits and goose fat:
Venison with kalette, jerusalem artichoke and hazelnut:
There is no picture of the next dish because the chef pulled one over on us and it was consumed before we thought to photograph. The pre-dessert was a creme anglaise flavoured with sweet grass and sweet clover, with fake caviar (caramel bits), and scallop slices (panna cotta slices). It looked exactly like the scallop, caviar and potato dish and the server told us: “The chef saw how much you enjoyed the scallop dish, so he asked me to bring you this.” Sneaky use of words. Well, we really
did enjoy the scallops and were extremely happy to have more, so we dug in with gusto, then shocked surprise and pleasure as we realized this was something completely different and the only picture of the pre-dessert is:
Very clever, chef!
Dessert saw us in the final dining area. It was nice to stretch the legs a little, and this room was such a beautiful, light space:
First dessert featured corn. The corn from the cob is actually ice cream, but I don’t recall what the other dessert pieces were, exactly, though all had the flavour of sweet corn. There was also a lovely cornbread.
The last desserts were presented in such a cute way:
The butterfly featured apricot and beebalm:
The spongecake had honey, chamomile and plum:
And this one threw me:
The nest with the egg was flavoured with coriander, turmeric, and if I recall correctly, lemon verbena. It tasted like a perfect lemon meringue tart, not a citrus fruit in sight. In fact, because there were no ingredients that were not from Canada, it got me thinking a little more “outside the box” when it comes to adding flavour to what I cook at home. I’ll never be a chef of any kind, but I can sure use some of the ideas in a more “at home” way.
All in all, this was a brilliant meal, and I can see why Tanière 3 has Michelin stars. The team at this restaurant has really put together something special.
As before, we waddled back to our suite. Good thing the Frontenac was only a short walk away. What an amazing finish to a wonderful weekend.
