This restaurant is where the chef and owner is Marc Lépine, who won the gold medal at the Canadian Culinary Championship. Some describe the food as "molecular cuisine", some as "avant garde fine dining". However you want to call it though, it's the wildest, most original cuisine I have EVER tasted. It really takes your mind and mouth on a crazy ride. Unimaginable combinations, extraordinary taste. It's also Canada's 5th best restaurant according to the Huffington Post and vacay.ca (mmhmm)
I believe everybody should try this place once in their lives. It's between 95-110$ per person (depending on which day of the week) for a 12-course tasting menu. There are of course some amuse-bouche and a surprise at the end if it's your birthday.
Make sure that if you want to try this place out, you normally need to reserve about a month ahead of time. They seat about 20-25 people in the whole restaurant and the whole service lasts about 4 hours so be patient. It's worth it though, trust me.
Aside from the wild food, they also have great service and a truly structured restaurant; chef, sous-chef, sommelier, chef de partie.
So, here we go!
Right when you sit down they bring you some amuse-bouche.
First off:
Maple cream-sicles with carrot and pollen dill sauce.
This was SO good. It tasted kinda sweet and creamy like a popsicle but had a herby taste to it.
Cherries dipped in rum (for months) with a coca cola reduction
This was really special. Tasted like a candied cherry cola.
Wood chipped smoked pork belly
These were actually served under a glass dome that was filled with the smoke! I really like the smokey flavor but the pork belly is too fatty for my taste.
Baguette et beurre
I know this seems mundane, but it's home made baguette and butter! And look at how they serve the butter: in a squeeze tube!
My eternal vino
Let the wine breathe in the decanter.
Yolko Ono
Egg salad with parmesan foam and black truffle vinaigrette, dehydrated onion chips, potato strings and various leaves.
What's particular about this, is that the yolk is cooked throughout by a method called "sous-vide", at 65 degrees for 45 minutes.
Very avant-gardiste way to present the dressing too, no?
And in this corner...
Octopus and smoked eel with sesame dressing, mandarin oranges, black olives and spicy salt.
For the seafood lovers out there, you will fall off your seats. Killer taste combo here.
The Prawnmower
Prawns with pastrami style smoked salmon, butterbut squash purée, fresh herbs and rice chips.
This was so tasty seriously. The salmon is so tender and tastes like smoked meat, the prawns are gigantic and the purée is delicious, sweet and creamy.
Give peas a chance
Peas, pea purée, crème fraîche with pea meringue, apple cider slush, sliced grapes...
With cooled pea soup
Sounds like a lot of peas and green stuff, I know. But it is seriously so good because it's the perfectly ripe, sweet peas that they use.
Black and green
Tempura halibut with peanut sauce with corned peanuts (and stuff I don't remember - too much wine at this point).
The halibut was sort of peppery and went really well with the peanut sauce.
The Codfather
Cod with a bread crumb and green pepper crust served with white asparagus velouté
Once again, I missed some of the stuff the waiter told us. BUT it was delicious.
Little Bird
A quail party with quinoa and mushrooms: quail leg en croûte with a quail breast.
Indian Summer
Braised lamb with vegetable pakora, mint yogurt and corn purée.
Tastes just like India. The mint, yogurt, curry flavors just go so well together.
Wagyu-shi
Kobe beef sushi style with teriyaki sauce and wasabi mayo, dehydrated mousse of something...
I forgot a lot of what he said because as you can see, there's a lot going on here. This was my favorite dish of all so far. It was so good, I can't even describe. Party in my mouth.
Lulolemons
Lelo lemon pears with vanilla crème fraîche, dehydrated chocolate mousse and vanilla pears.
Pears are amazing when used in desserts. I love this.
The last straw
Delicious dessert with strawberries, almond curd, meringues and fresh mint leaves.
Water shot
Watermelon juice in a salt rimmed test tube with a piece of dehydrated watermelon.
Such a genius idea! The watermelon-salt combo is to die for. Who would've thought?
SURPRISE!
It was my dad's birthday and sister's early birthday celebration so here's what they did.
They came out with a bucket of liquid nitrogen, and two mini buttercream cupcakes. They put the cupcakes in the liquid nitrogen and they froze almost instantly.
Then, they crushed the frozen cupcakes.
Here you go!
And of course, they only give you the menu at the end. With some home made chocolate almond truffles.
This was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it.
However, there is, as you can tell, a lot of seafood in the menu. Therefore, if you do not like seafood, you could ask them for substitutions. But I don't think it would be the same.
For all you foodies out there, this is a must.
As always,
Eat away!
M.
