Sherbrooke Met La Table: Bistro KapZak

The fall events have officially started here. I have some fall colors coming up next week which is a little delayed. The food events are trickling in and to be honest, it is quite exciting to have a reason to head out and find some cool restaurants. Sherbrooke Met La Table started last Thursday (October 20th) and runs till October 30th. Sherbrooke is about 1.5 to 2 hours away for us so this becomes a little day trip and a little tradition we started last year. This year’s choice is Bistro KapZak, a polish fusion experience.

For this event, Bistro Kapzak offered two different three course menus at $25 and $35. I ended up taking the $25 and my husband took the $35. You will see both choices in each section.

Bistro KapZak

Drinks

We started with drinks. My husband got a blond beer and I got a white sangria. The sangria mix is actually one of the better ones I’ve tasted with a good balance of soda and alcohol with fruity taste but never overpowering.

Appetizers

Beef brisket with fresh herb chutney

Grilled Pork Belly with Warm Vegetable Dressing

Both appetizers were quite good. The beef brisket had very nice spices to augment the flavor. Matched up with some crunchy dehydrated vegetables (I believe might be mushrooms or some root vegetable) and the chutney, it was delicious. My husband took the grilled pork belly. That would be the more rare choice to have available in restaurants however it is prepared incredibly well although I didn’t try the salad with warm vegetable dressing. It looked creamy and also one of the reasons why I didn’t take this meal even though they offered to make modifications. I believe a course should be eaten as it was meant to be as much as possible. With that said, the grilled pork was done really well. My husband is not a fan of the texture while I absolutely am and we both agreed that the flavors were all there.

Main

Roasted cod loin with a crust of wild mushrooms and wine braised red cabbage

Beef shoulder filet with Ratte potatoes and smoked almond sauce

My main course was the cod loin adorned with some pickled cucumbers and red cabbage. There is a weird mixture of tastes here but seeing as a lemon is usually paired with fish meals, it isn’t hard to imagine this more acidic vinaigrette and vegetables paired up. The cod was done good. It only had the pop of flavor from the spices/crust of wild mushrooms on the top. While the first bite felt a little odd, the taste builds with a few more bites and it actually has quite the unique flavor. My husband got the braised beef shank. This was his favorite of the evening. He isn’t quite used to medium rare meat but it didn’t stop him from loving it.

Desserts

Paczkis with apple sauce

Banana bread pudding

My meal came with Paczkis which as explained to us, is a Polish doughnut, or perhaps a doughnut hole. The apple sauce itself was a little too tart but balanced with the bits of doughnuts covered in powdered sugar, it was rather delicious. My husband’s meal came with the banana bread pudding with whipped cream. Somehow it said ice cream? But a minor detail. My husband in general isn’t much of a fruity dessert kind of guy so to him, this was a banana cake topped with whipped cream. I didn’t give this a taste since I wasn’t certain whether they used milk since from my memory, I think bread pudding does use a little bit.

Overall, Bistro Kapzak is a great place. With their cozy rustic decor and nice music playing in the background in the backdrop of a quiet city looking out into the street, it was quite the evening out for us. We enjoyed the environment as much as we enjoyed the food. Plus, the waiter we had was a pleasure to talk to and helped us understand the menu and was very accommodating. Definitely a place we’d recommend. A few items on their regular menu did also peak our interest so we will definitely be going again.

***Note: If you do want to try Bistro Kapzak while it is still in this Sherbrooke location, you need to go before Oct. 30th because they just announced this weekend that for rental negotiation reasons, they will have to move to a new location in Granby. I’m sure lots of Sherbrooke and Eastern Townships goers are less than enthused by this news but for us, it is a lot closer so we will try to head out and maybe bring some friends when this new location opens in 2017 (according to their announcement).

Food Review: Skyview Fusion Cuisine (previously called Cafe Cogo)

As I’m away from home this weekend, I still feel a bit bad that I don’t have any recipes prepared for everyone.  So I’m going to do some food reviews from Toronto restaurants that I visit.  Coming to Toronto for me is opening my horizons to the awesomeness of Chinese cuisine that doesn’t exist in Montreal. I’ve mentioned before that for health reasons, my body doesn’t digest the Chinese food at restaurants in Montreal, which is why when I get to anywhere else like Toronto or Hong Kong, I go crazy eating.  This time, we’re with a bigger group than my usual company of 2 and with someone else who can give us suggestions, we arrived in a restaurant that originally we thought was called Cafe Cogo.  Upon arrival, we learned that the restaurant had recently changed their name and its now called Skyview Fusion Cuisine.

The whole group didn’t eat together but we did have a decent group of 7 people (including me) dining together which gave us more choices to order.  We ended up have 5 dishes plus an appetizer soup to start off and ended with a sweet soup.

Our soup appetizer was a Chinese soup with some lean meat with apples and white fungus.  What made them different from other restaurants is the fact that they separated the contents of the soup onto a plate as a side dish.  Not everyone likes the soup contents because all the flavor is already in the soup, but some people do like to munch on it and this fulfills everyone’s needs.

Stir Fried Eggplants and Green Beans with Minced Meat

First up is the Stir Fried Eggplants and Green beans with Minced meat.  The seasoning on this was really delicious.  I usually eat this with just green beans and I’m not really a big eggplant fan but this one was good because the eggplant was cooked not too soggy.  It had a stiffer texture. However, someone had mentioned that was also something that was preferred for others.  So this is definitely a personal preference.

Stir Fried Beef with Chinese Broccoli

Second dish that came was stir fried beef with chinese broccoli and it also had a bit of chopped up vegetables on the side.  I love Chinese broccoli to death.  Its probably my favorite vegetable and they made this pretty decently.  Its a rather common Chinese dish and the addition of the side extra vegetables added a different touch.

Fried Chicken with Walnut and Taro Crisps

We chose the option of half a chicken as to not have any leftovers. I didn’t get a chance to try the Taro Crisps but this is super original and everyone who did try it said that it was really good.  On the right side you can see walnuts enrobed in sesame.  This was a huge hit and I’d assume that its something signature here because it was also offered on the complimentary dishes when we sat down.  However, Chicken is the star here.  I love eating chicken.  Its my favorite meat.  A lot of times when they make fried chicken in chinese restaurants, it becomes too dry but this one, they captured the moist texture of the chicken and captured the taste in the meat itself.  It was so scrumptious!

I’m sure you all know what fried rice is.  This one here seems so different.  Next up is the fried rice above.  It had eggs and some crispy fish, pieces of big shitake mushrooms and the extra special was the little bits of caviar.  It added this nice little extra taste to it.  This meal is starting to look like its all with food I love.  I actually really like fried rice and I tend to eat it whenever I travel and see how other restaurants make it different.  It was a huge hit with our whole crowd.

Chinese ham, mushrooms and tofu

Last plate to come is the one including the Chinese ham which is a delicacy of Chinese cuisine.  When eating this, it should be as a whole with all three ingredients together of as shown here, mushroom, ham and tofu. I’m not a big fan of tofu.  The best part of this was the sauce.  It was very special.  It was pretty good.

Red Bean Sweet Soup

Last up is the complimentary dessert, Red Bean Sweet Soup. Chinese desserts usually come in sweet soups a lot.  I’m not a big fan of red bean sweet soup.  This one tried to be different by adding little bits of coconut shreds.  Even with that, the aroma was very delicious, however, the dessert wasn’t too good. It was missing something that made me feel that it was complete.

This restaurant is definitely a place that I’d go back to. I feel like there is so much more fusion dishes that could be tried and tasted here.  If you are in the area, you should try it out.  Fusion cuisine is definitely the new concept which Montreal is trying to get into.  Skyview definitely has a lot that other restaurants could learn from.