Next up on our food adventures was just two days later on a Monday evening after work to a restaurant relatively close to my work place! The next few are all in Old Montreal actually, now that I think about it.
Restaurant Verses offers French cuisine and the menu looks relatively decent. I’m a little nervous about a few parts of it but it does also say that it’ll offer other options (which they did). The menu had extra options in both the 1st and 2nd service.
Excuse the blurry photos. The lighting here gave me a lot of issues with the focus on my phone. I’m taking my DSLR for the next two.
MTL a Table: Restaurant Verses
Cocktails
La Marronnier & Dolce Vita
I had the Dolce Vita and its a mix of Amaretto, Captain Morgan spiced rum, pineapple juice, egg white, cinnamon, “bitter fumé”. It tasted absolutely awesome. It wasn’t too sweet or too sour and it had a nice balanced flavor. My friends had the other one. I believe they said the espresso bits were mostly for taste and it had a peculiar taste. Not sure if thats a good or bad thing.
Chef’s bonus: something to do with bison, radish, gravlax (I think), and mayonnaise
1st service
New fashion fish soup
Beef gravlax, chocolate truffle, brioche
Mushroom ravioli
I had the New Fashion Fish Soup. So okay, this time we hit a little bit of a snag. This soup has a few seafood bits, I think gravlax and fish mousse. Fish mousse was put to the side because it has cream in it so I didn’t want to risk it. The soup itself had a peculiar taste between being salty and bitter in a way. However, with the gravlax bits, it tasted a lot more balanced. My friend tried the fish mousse with the soup and said it balanced it also. I’m guessing if I didn’t have to remove the fish mousse and had the soup as a whole, it would taste a whole lot better.
I also took a little tasting of the beef gravlax and it had a really refreshing texture that I liked quite a bit. My friend found the chocolate truffle a little too sweet but she also enjoyed the beef gravlax.
2nd service
Icelandic cod, cipollini, passion fruit, carmelized apples, baby potatoes, Sherry veal jus
Mac n Cheese with orzo, peas, mascarpone
Honey and thyme butter glazed sweetbread, root vegetables, potatoes, juniper berries
I had the Icelandic cod and it was done so good. The fish was cooked perfectly and especially tender. The sauce was a nice mix. It did feel a little schizophrenic with the flavors. There were some bits where the pepper was really strong and then some where it was rather salty. The fish and the sauce on top was great. The veggies were fine.
I had a little tasting of the sweetbread as well. My friends compared it to this sweet and sour pork while it did taste a bit like eating some sort of liver that I had tasted before. Its not a bad blend. The glaze tastes really good. Its just the texture of the meat makes me hesitate but that is a personal preference.
Finally, the Mac n’ Cheese was something I couldn’t try but my friend couldn’t finish it. It wasn’t that it was not good but rather that it was a little heavy. Her guess was it was a mix of cheese. Instead of macaroni, it was orzo (which I find usually fills me up quicker). Plus, there was mascarpone which is rather heavy in itself. I know that from before my lactose-intolerance days.
3rd service
Deconstructed carrot cake
Pear and chocolate sponge
Strawberryand lime sorbet with assorted berries
For our last service, we’re at the desserts. I had my lovely extra choice because of lactose intolerance issues yet again. The mixed sorbet and berries was awesome. The raspberry was really sour but every thing else was great. My friends always choose the opposite to make sure to taste more of the menu. They all have wonderful appearances. Not a lot of feedback about how it all tasted though.
Overall…
The restaurant is very lovely situated on St Paul street which is where a lot of activities go on and right behind the Basilique Notre Dame. The set up and the seating was very comfortable. The service was extremely thorough. They made the effort to try to accommodate to my allergies as much as possible and remembered to mark down everyone’s allergies to make sure even a slight chance of it being in our food would be eliminated. The meal itself (at least mine) was really nice. The cod was definitely the best part of the entire meal. The service is a little slow and relaxing. We spend almost 3 hours for dinner. We did take a bit of time to order but it still took longer than I had expected.
Tranquil Dreams 