I had dinner at the bar at Bouillon Bilk, a restaurant on St. Laurent Blvd in the Ville-Marie neighborhood, a short walk from the Saint-Laurent metro station. The restaurant is run by owners Mélanie Blanchette and chef François Nadon, who also own the nearby restaurant Cadet. It serves what I think might be categorized as modern Canadian cuisine. In addition to their a la carte menu, they also have a 5 or 8 course tasting menu for C$70 or C$90 respectively. I had the 8 course menu.
menus and bread
The 8 course menu has everything in the list, while the 5 course menu has the items with asterisks around them.
oyster/mullet roe
jalapeno, rhubarbe, daikon, melon
Started things off with a couple delicious little cold bites. A poached oyster with a savory cream sauce sprinkled with some sort of powder, alongside a slice of pickled daikon topped with a slice of sweet melon and whipped cream.
maquerel
calamari, strawberries, cucumber, togorarashi
The mackerel was seared crispy on one side. Perfectly cooked calamari. Very nice mix of flavors with the sweet ripe strawberries and the spicy togarashi topping.
lamb
red bell pepper, garam masala, zucchini, fig
The lamb, which was served like a tartare, had a South Asian flavor profile from the garam masala. It was served with what resembled a thin flour tortilla. I made a taco. Tasty. A nice tomato (or maybe bell pepper?) chutney-like sauce was on the side.
corn
lobster, bacon, apple, mustard, quinoa
Foamy sabayon with a bit of acidity, with little chunks of bacon, crispy quinoa, and delicious lobster. Really good.
ravioli
oyster mushrooms, grey owl, sunflower, poblano
This was a mushroom ravioli in poblano chili sauce that gave it a bit of a Mexican flavor, with crunchy sunflowers and a bit of locally produced Grey Owl goat cheese on top.
beef
beets, plum, foie gras, chanterelles
Next was a delicious beef course. I’m not sure what cut this was, but it was quite tender and also had a good beefy flavor and a good outer crust. I believe the foie was in the sauce served next to the piece of beef. Accompanied by some mushrooms, beets, and plum slices with a buttermilk flavored dressing.
raspberries
celery, bugey-cerdon
First dessert was a refreshing palate cleanser. The Bugey-Cerdon sparkling wine was poured into the glass the rest of the dessert was in. Raspberry sorbet on top of diced sweetened celery and also I believe a celery flavored gelee.
panna cotta
mascarpone, blueberries, lavender, white chocolate
A rich panna cotta with lavender ice cream that went really well with the blueberries. Not too sweet.
This was a great dinner! Also pretty reasonably priced for an 8 course menu. Everything was a hit. Highlights for me were the beef dish, the lobster in sabayon, and the mackerel and calamari dish. Lamb tartare was very nice as well. Really nice flavors and pretty presentations on all of the dishes.
