Restaurant: Nom Nom Cantine (Montreal, Canada)

You can see the last visit to Nom Nom Cantine recap HERE.

Nom Nom Cantine

I recommended Nom Nom Cantine as our co-worker lunch spot last week and we ended up going there. I’ve never had the lunch menu before and only been there once before. The restaurant decor was still the same and the atmosphere is still very relaxing.

Appetizers

Chicken Dumplings

The most impressed dish I had in my last visit was the dumplings so this time, I came back to try them again. These ones are steamed and the sauce is a little sweet and a think maybe a tad bit spicy. While I don’t have pictures, my coworkers also took dumplings. One of them took the pork and the other took the vegetarian. The latter is fried. I actually liked the chicken dumplings the best while the other two are pretty good also.

Main Meals

Chicken Poke Bowl ($19)

General Tao Chicken (They have another name but I can’t remember it)

Two of my coworkers ordered these two meals and shared it between them as they both wanted to try both of them. While I didn’t try the poke bowl (which wouldn’t matter since I’m not sure what its supposed to taste like as I’ve  never had it before), I did help them finish up the General Tao Chicken. The chicken here is done really nicely. There’s a nice flavor to it and a good texture in the bite of the chicken.

Shrimps Soba Noodle

My other coworker and I ended up getting the Shrimp Soba Noodles which had some interesting ingredients like lemongrass and such that gave me the impression that in a soup, it would have this refreshing taste to it. Plus, its supposed to be pretty popular dish at Nom Nom. This noodle bowl did taste good and was quite the comfort food. The shrimps are done perfectly and the soba noodles done in a soup bowl is the first time that I’ve had it this way. Usually its served cold in my recollection. However, it was a little disappointing because the soup lacked a bit of flavor. It leaned a bit more towards the blander side. For myself, I’m used to it so it didn’t bother me too much but my coworker also didn’t quite like it as much because of that. On top of that, the disappointment came with the fact that it lacked all those flavors it seemed to have promised and turned into a very normal bowl of soup noodles.

After Lunch Tea

Green Tea

I forgot to take the desserts that my coworkers ordered but I got myself a tea. Its always nice to see the care taken to present the tea and in this case, they had this whole thing. I believe the tea was sencha tea and had a fantastic flavor to it.

Overall, Nom Nom Cantine is still decent. It hasn’t really changed how I felt about it the first time around. The service is pretty good. The waiter was helpful and very friendly. The food presentation is very attractive. The flavors were mostly good except for the slightly blander soup base. The selection of food isn’t a huge amount but its a good idea to limit the options but offer a good quality of food in my opinion.

***As an ending note, the waiter did explain that Nom Nom would be changing form into an Italian restaurant later this year  because the restaurant was always meant to be more of a pop-up concept. You can see their first form was as a French restaurant called E.A.T. where we did go to in this post HERE.***

Goodfood Recap #25

Time for the next Goodfood recap! Its been a while that we’re doing something non-movie related. I’m sorry for it all. Fantasia Festival and work combined simply ended up ruling my life despite wanting to do other posts. Anyways, Fantasia is over and while I still have some little things left to wrap up, we’re back to normal programming!

This was last week’s box and it was a tough one to go through because of the fatigue and scheduling and overtime all combined together. Luckily I did two of the recipes and my husband helped me out with the other ones and we managed to get it done.

Let’s check it out!

Togarashi Chicken
with Blistered Shishito Peppers & Crispy Rice

If you like spicy food, this Togarashi Chicken is right up your alley. Luckily, we’ve been getting in the hang of having some delicious spicy seasonings and I was really excited to try out this recipe. I’ve never had shishito peppers but it was pretty good and it had to lovely balance of textures and flavors with the crispy rice and the chicken. I have to say that we’ve had a few meals with the crispy rice and its a great way to make it. Its fairly decent to make also so that helps. Although to be honest, I would get some normal bell pepper pieces or some sweet peppers instead since it can get a little overwhelming.

Grilled Steaks & Sherry-Mustard Sauce
with Fresh English Peas, Baby Kale & Barley

We don’t eat steak a whole lot so this is a treat. We did end up replacing the baby kale with our own homegrown kale because it wasn’t looking too nice. We don’t usually have a lot of issues with the freshness and the weather has been really hot so even our garden isn’t doing great so it was nice that we had some backup. It was kind of our fault to have waited 2 days before using it, which usually is fine. Either way, just a point and not really a complaint. However, the meal itself did turn out really well. Barley is one of those ingredients we don’t have our house so whenever we get these boxes, we learn a little more how to use it. With the flavors here and everything, it blended very well together. it was an easy meal to put together, the shortest in this box if I’m not mistaken and it worked well for the busy and crazy week that I had gone through.

General Tao Cauliflower
with Spinach Chips & Garlic Rice

Starting these next two, my husband was the one who stepped up and took over to cook because I was just swamped with everything. Lucky because especially this one, it was quite technical and I’m not great with any flour batter and fried sort of meals. However, I honestly loved this meal a lot because of the cauliflower and how it was done. Combining that with the sauce (which was the only part I made along with the spinach chips), it actually was so delicious. It worked with some delicious jasmine rice and a crispy spinach chip along with a tasty cauliflower to just have enough crunch to make it so great together. It a tie between this meal and the chicken for my fave in this box for sure.

Spice-rubbed Pork Chops
with Plum Chutney, Charred Kale & Black Rice

Last up is the spice-rubbed pork chops. Its kind of weird to think of plum chutney and I only eat black rice when my mom uses it in this special sweet congee that she makes. Suffice to say that I’m not skilled at eating it. This one was a little toss in the air to just fill up the last meal and it turned out as a pleasant surprise. I can’t say that I’d want to make it again but the plum chutney came out really great. The charred kale is good as always and keeps it healthy. Black rice has a different texture and is a bit more chewy but it also has a nice flavor. This one does come together well enough.

Overall, that is our recap of the Goodfood from 2 weeks ago!
A little behinds schedule but better late than never!
We have a new box coming in this week so things will be back on track..in probably a non-movie related way as I take a little break (after two more Fantasia reviews).