MTL a Table: Bonaparte in Old Port

We’re ending MTL a Table in absolute style.  This time, we’re in for a $41 menu at Bonaparte.  Bonaparte is French cuisine located in Old Montreal very close to where I work.  The menu itself was probably one of the most anticipated in our little foodie adventure event.  Also, we didn’t realize but this is a five service meal (including tea and coffee). The restaurant is attached to the Auberge Bonaparte where you go in from the cozy reception area to enter the restaurant itself.

Are you excited? I know I am!

MTL a Table: Bonaparte

Table decoration/ambiance

Drinks & Bread

From tallest to shortest: La Presque “Made in Quebec”, Le Old Timer, La Sour D’Automne

Mine was the La Presque “Made in Quebec”.  It has Ungava Gin, Cassis Monas et Filles (a blackcurrant based wine), maraschino, lemon.  This one was quite good.  It did feel a little strong but the mix was rather tasty.  Not too fruity but a stronger taste.  One of my friends described as cough meds. So I guess the cherry and blackcurrent might give that sort of taste if you don’t like it.

Le Old Timer was my husband’s choice.  I cannot remember what it had.  I think its spiced rum, ice cider and lemon(?). He liked it quite a bit.  That one was even stronger than mine in taste but still rather refreshing.

My friend’s husband took the “Autumn Sour” (in translation). It was a fruity mix among at the three.  I can’t remember at all except that it had egg whites in it and some fruity addition.  It was the lightest out of the three in taste but maybe not in content. You know, cocktails tend to be heavier the sweeter it is 😉

Delicious bread and fantastic presentation

I haven’t posted any of the bread offered at the previous 3 restaurants in MTL a Table but bread is an important part of the menu as well. It starts our meal and sometimes, its important that its appealing to eyes as well.  Bonaparte inspires confidence just because an eating experience also includes a visual one from every angle.  Even its bread not only tasted delicious and fresh and had variety of multigrain and normal baguette but also was presented so beautifully. It was hard to resist eating it.

1st service

Lobster bisque enhanced with ginger

Mixed green salad with pine nuts (and parmesan shaving*)

1st service encountered an issue for me.  I couldn’t eat either of the dishes.  In retrospect, I shouldn’t taken the green salads with the parmesan since my friends and my husband shared the dish after their lobster bisque.  What I can’t eat, they now know to share their opinions with me.  Mixed greens salads was great with the addition of the pine nuts adding a nice twist  and it was very fresh.  My friend’s husband preferred the salad over the lobster bisque but my friend and my husband liked the lobster bisque.

2nd service

Homemade smoked salmon with truffle oil

Warm goat cheese and almonds in phyllo dough

Duck foie gras creme brulee with sauteed apples

My choice was the Homemade Smoked Salmon.  This was absolutely delicious. I kid you not. I’m not a huge smoked salmon fan.  I tolerate it and it has a nice texture and all that but this one blew me away.  I took my first bite and was like “Wow!”.

No one was a big goat cheese fan so my friend’s husband took this one.  I’m not sure if goat cheese has lactose but apparently they say it doesn’t.  I think he enjoyed it although there was more discussion on the former topic than the dish itself.

The last choice here had the most conversation between us. My husband and friend both took this one. Duck foie gras was fantastic however, each of them had the same conclusion.  The bread offered to pair it was a little too crumbly, rather, they ended up using the baguettes and multigrain bread offered to us instead. However, the star, duck foie gras creme brulee was a sure winner and possibly a highlight of the meal.

3rd service

Dover sole fillet seasoned with Meuniere style fresh herbs and pine nuts

Rack of Lamb and port wine jus

Beef filet mignon seasoned with five peppercorn and cognac

Breast of duck flavored with maple syrup and wild berries

Its nice to say that all the meals were done great.  We all loved our own meals.

My friend took the sole fillet.  I had a taste and it was fresh and had a great texture.  The herbs and especially the pine nuts added an extra to the meal itself.

My choice was the rack of lamb.  It was tender and very tasty.  I’m not usually a fan of port wine jus but this one was really well matched with the meat.  Plus, the veggies were a great side.  Every dish had similar vegetable sides.  The sweet potato mash was fluffy and so delicious.  Also, we had an assortment of carrots with the white and the purple sort.  They both were very good since its the first time I’ve tasted it.

My husband chose the beef fillet mignon.  That peppercorn and cognac sauce was key to making this piece of meat just melt in my mouth. I had one bite and while I’m not a huge steak sort of fan.  This cut was amazing. I loved it and he loved it!

My friend’s husband had the duck breast.  I had a little tasting of this as well.  The wild berries sauce works really well with duck.  Berries seem to be the best way to match with duck meat and its definitely a winner.  They suggested this choice as the highlight dish.  I can definitely see why.

4th service

Fruit Salad

Symphony of homemade desserts: Creme brulee, cheesecake, raspberry torte, chocolate mousse

Typically there is only one choice and its the symphony of homemade desserts which is like a taster dish.  The winner of this one is the creme brulee that everyone liked a lot. A very close second was the cheesecake.  That was the general consensus. Obviously, I couldn’t eat this so I got a very appealing diced fruit salad. First of all, I always find fruit salads to be a cheap replacement to my neighbors who are having this fancy array of desserts. But, what made me feel a little better about this was that they had mangoes in their fruit salad which pretty much increased the value of it.  Plus, you add mango to anything and I’m in love so good move on Bonaparte.

5th service: Tea and Coffee

Sorry, I was on baby duty at this part so I didn’t take any pictures.  We had a proper teapot with Four O’Clock tea.  There was a variety of choices. Mine with Green Tea and my friend took Camomile.

Overall…

$41 at five course meal is very decent.  When we flipped through the menu, there was a degustation menu which had two more services and was priced at $74.  Plus, the service was great.  The food was very enjoyable and appealing.  They had a few little details that we didn’t enjoy or some pairings some of us couldn’t get passed but overall, it was a delicious meal.  The presentation and the taste, especially in our main course (3rd service) was a winner for all of us. I tried all the plates and each one was like it melted in my mouth and made me feel so happy. A nice way wrap up our MTL a Table outing!

Definitely an event worth going to! We made some really good discoveries in this year’s MTL a Table week and I look forward to what next year has to offer. My only suggestion to have restaurants always offer something that is allergen free of some sort, whether its gluten-free or at least the basic lactose-free.  It really helps to get the full experience without having to feel left out or guessing what was set to balance it.

MTL a Table: La Maison du Magret in Old Montreal

Next up, we’re going to La Maison du Magret. This place is all about dishes featuring duck.  Duck is a huge delicacy here especially for the Brome Lake region. The menu for this one really intrigued me and I’m pretty excited to go. Again located in Old Montreal, this time right across from the Congress Centre of Montreal (or the Place d’Armes metro).  Also, its a restaurant by itself and not connected to a hotel.

And the (mostly) trusty DSLR is back in play so expect some better quality pictures 😉 No more of the blurry nonsense for the most part.

MTL a Table: La Maison du Magret

Wines along the wall decor

1st service

For everyone: Rillette de Canard amuse bouche

Perigord Tourain Traditional duck soup

Duck Gizzard salad

First service was a well rounded beginning.  We all started with the amuse bouche which we ate with some hot baguette.  That was super delicious.  The texture of the duck and the gentle flavors worked so well together.

After that came our appetizers.  My friend and I chose to have the traditional duck soup and this was made up of duck broth, onions, duck meat, tomatoes and shaved foie gras.  It was a very enjoyable soup.  The balance was fantastic.  I liked it quite a bit. On the side we had a piece of toasted baguette seasoned with rosemary and butter (not sure if it was garlic or not). That was really tasty as well.  Something I actually want to try at home eventually.

My friend’s husband chose the Duck Gizzard Salad.  He said that it was very good as it was fresh.  The duck gizzard was done well.

2nd service

Duck magret, *foie gras sauce, with French fries and vegetables

Duck confit, served with French fries and vegetables

Duck burger with French fries

My meal was the Duck Magret.  It was done well.  Duck always seems to be made a little salty so while I thought it was salty, it didn’t bother me so much. It didn’t help that the foie gras sauce has cream in it so it was exempted from my dish.  I think that might have balanced it off a a little.  The fries absolutely delicious. As you can see, all the dishes are adorned with rosemary. We came to a conclusion that maybe the key to making good duck dishes is rosemary. Something to think about if I ever do make it at home 😉

Next up, I also got to try my friend’s Duck Confit.  It actually was not as intense in the flavors as my magret.  While I’m not a fan of duck confit, it had a really nice taste and texture to it.  My friend found it not tasty enough but I think it all comes down to your tolerance and desire of salt and seasoning.  However, she really enjoyed the roasted vegetables.  They were perfectly cooked.

Last one was an additional choice offered at the restaurant menu with the duck burger served with fries. Not a lot of feedback. I didn’t try it so I can’t say.  My friend tried this dish her husband chose and said it wasn’t exactly for her. I do wonder what a duck burger would taste like.

An additional note, we saw when we left the restaurant that the French fries were à volonté, meaning all you can eat. We barely could finish our plate.  We all left a portion of the fries there.  I can’t imagine even being able to eat more fries.  Maybe thats just me and my fatigue that evening talking…

3rd service

Chocolate Basque Cake

Homemade “Tatin” style apple pie with ice cream*

Ice Cream

Grand-Marnier homemade Creme Brulee

Last service was the dessert. First up is the Chocolate Basque Cake. I don’t know if my friend’s tolerance for sweets are less or it was actually sweet since I refrain from chocolate unless its lactose free products or whatnot. She said it was incredibly sweet and ate half of it and had to ask her husband to finish it.

I had the homemade “tatin”style apple pie.  Two comments: yummy apples, too heavily buttered crust.  Look, I like butter and for my lactose intolerance, butter works fine for me but it was so much that I could taste it and it gave this really weird heavily butter pastry taste.  I’ve experienced that feeling a few times and I’m not quite the fan of it. So by about half my pie, I just ate up the apples and ended it there. The second part of it was ice cream and it was set to the side because obviously, I can’t eat it.  My friend did eat it for me and she said it was really good. I do wonder what the flavor was.  I forgot to ask her.

Her husband had the Grand Marnier homemade creme brulee. I believe they were both fans of it.  The crack on the top was great, the Grand Marnier was apparent (because they both commented about it) and it seemed like it had a nice texture to it.

Overall…

La Maison du Magret has a good location and a comfy environment.  This place is also something of a rugby joint.  It had rugby on TV and jerseys on the wall.  My friend’s husband remarked on that. I don’t know anything about rugby.  The decor was nice and along the wall, the seats were cushioned and really nicely laid out.  The food itself was pretty much a successful.  Sure, we had a few issues here and there but it was more a personal preference than the food at self being at fault.  The presentation was nice and the flavors were well balanced and all there. The higher notes of this meal resounded to me. Plus, I’d go back to check out their cocktail with hibiscus.  I was low on energy already and had to public transport back so I chose to stick with water but its definitely something that intrigues me.

Do you like to eat duck dishes?

One more restaurant to go for MTL a Table! Remember to check back! 🙂

MTL a Table: Restaurant Verses in Nelligan Hotel (Old Montreal)

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.

MTL a Table: Le Petit Opus Café at Omni Hotel

We’re in MTL a Table now! Can you believe it? Events and events, right? 😉

This MTL a Table event, we have 4 restaurants, which I think is one more than last year.  I’m not sure but I think so. We also have a little six month baby in tow as well so our restaurant choice had to be very careful.  It took us a while to plan it all out but these 4 had very interesting menus, fit my allergy restrictions and also was a tad more baby friendly. We’re in business.

First up was on Halloween night.  We made our choices carefully because we feared for parking, which ended up not being too much of an issue as we found a spot in a side street across from the hotel where this restaurant was at.  Our restaurant of choice is Le Petit Opus Cafe in the Omni Hotel on Sherbrooke West with North American cuisine.

Hotel Lobby decorations

Halloween decorations in restaurant

What we usually try to do is order everything on the menu so that we can get a good look at what it is. Its better with more people but we were four for this one and we managed to see everything. There was one item on the menu that was removed in the 2nd service but its all good.

MTL a Table/Taste MTL: Le Petit Opus Cafe

Wine

Dreaming Tree, USA

Our meal was paired with certain sorts of wines to match it but this one intrigued me the most and everyone thought it looked interesting so we had a bottle. I’m sure you can get why I like it 😉 It had a very smooth texture: a little sweet and not dry at all.  Which is exactly how I like my Riesling 😉

1st service

Pan-seared scallops with *green pea and butter puree, apple chutney, bacon and maple vinaigrette

Chicory and endive salad with blue cheese, walnuts, poached pear and white balsamic vinaigrette

*my entree was without green pea and butter puree as I’m lactose intolerant

The scallop was super delicious.  The mix of the apple chutney was great.  Only one of us took the salad and he seemed to be okay with it.  I think its very strongly based on how much you like blue cheese.

2nd service

Deer osso buco, pimbina and Labrador tea risotto with hazelnut and orange zest gremolata

Beef bavette with vegetables

Nagano pork chop with *garlic mashed potatoes, Brussel sprouts with bacon and pecans, sauteed apples and apple cider sauce

*Garlic mashed potatoes were removed due to lactose intolerance and in its place, I had more vegetables.

Nagano pork chops are awesome.  This one was done perfectly and it was super tender and tasty. It was too fat either but it just melted in my mouth.  The vegetables were perfect as well full of variety with some green beans, asparagus, Nantes carrots and baby turnips.  The bacon was so delicious and added a nice extra taste.

My husband had the beef bavette with vegetables.  This choice is not on the menu but we had remarked that one of the choices, specifically the mixed grilled plate which looked fantastic,was removed and the waiter was no aware so he asked and they accommodated with this one.  He liked it except he didn’t ask for it to be cooked well enough but it was tender.

I had a taste of the osso buco which I considered getting also but the risotto would have had quite a bit of change with the milk removed and whatnot so my friend’s husband took this one.  The piece I tasted of the venison was very good. It had a nice braised meat sort of texture and quite flavorful.

3rd service

Warm apple tarte tatin served with *french vanilla ice cream and local carminée apple reduction

Paris-Brest

*French vanilla ice cream was changed to raspberry sorbet

I had the apple tarte tatine and it was really good.  I’m a huge fan of apple flavored desserts.  Its sad that I couldn’t try the french vanilla ice cream. That is quite original but I do like raspberry sorbet.  This one was perfectly sweet but leaving a bit of sour/tart taste.  It worked really well with the apple reduction on the side.

My husband had the Paris-brest.  In case you don’t know, Paris-Brest is a French pastry made with choux pastry and praline flavored cream (Wikipedia).  He thought that it was rather maple flavored and thought it was okay.  I wonder if it was too much for him.  He wasn’t very specific.  He enjoyed it okay.

Overall…

My meal for all three services were pretty great.  I liked all of it really well and the taste was rather spot-on.  I think what I love even more than the food and would make me come back is the service.  Its hard for restaurants, especially during the MTL a Table set menu to make changes on the spot but they were fantastic and knowing my allergies, adding in the lactose intolerance and modified every service so that I could eat almost all the choices without an issue.  That sort of service is actually quite rare so I appreciated it a lot. Part of a great eating experience is the service and this place is really  awesome.

A great way to start this food festival!
Look out for the next restaurant visit on Sunday! 🙂

My Weekly Adventures: Wrap-ups, Beginnings, And Reviving Updates

Welcome back to another My Weekly Adventures.  I should change this to biweekly adventures, right? I will, for the next one. I probably won’t be scheduling anything more than every two weeks.  We are in a huge update post today!

I’ve been thinking about the blog a lot lately.  Well, I always think about the blog but its nearing the end of the year and my choices of how to continue the blog become more prioritized than the past few months of the year.  Especially  now that the wedding is over and everything is settling down, I’m really getting back to feeling a little more myself.

So let’s jump into the updates!!

1) DONE: Halloween Marathon!

Can you believe it? It was shorter than expected but we got the entire highlight series done and reviewed.

There was two horror-ish book review posts, and two movies from Netflix A-Z (4 if you could Nanny McPhee as a witch and wrap up into the Halloween-ish thing). And then a few other movies.  Along with that, our podcast over at That Moment In was all about Halloween as well.  We covered Tremors (which I also did a review for) and 28 Days Later. Then we ended it with having some fun more casual posts.  One was about Halloween as a celebration (not the franchise) and Scary Moments in movies. Overall, I rather success month of horror (even if it was technically like 3 weeks or so).

If you missed any posts, check it out at the page HERE!

2) Halloween Haunted House!

Since Halloween marathon is pretty much done and I’m being lazy, I’m going to skip doing an entire post on my Halloween activities.

We did something different this year and other than doing the MTL a Table with friends, we also headed to visit some haunted houses. I did one of them and the other one, I skipped because I wasn’t sure if I’d survive it 😉

1st : Westmount area of Montreal

I kid you not, this house was pretty much pitch black outside and inside was eeriely designed and full of movie referenced rooms from newer ones like Cooties to older movies like The Ring and I think, Christine.  Maybe even some Halloween/Michael Myers thing.  It was a last minute decision and this place has been putting up 41 years of haunted houses on Halloween.  This is its final year so it deserved a visit and it was so worth it! 🙂

Second one was a little closer to my place on the suburbs in La Prairie area and it was done a lot more “Hollywood”-esque as my friend called it.  More noise, more lights, more people dressed up during the walk.  I didn’t do this one because I wasn’t sure if we’d go through the house and they had some funky designs up in the windows.  Look up..yup, zombies? Excuse me…*shakes head* no.  That’s all I’m saying.  And they even had this ending where they had a zombie with a briefcase walking down the alley.  It was crazy. Huge applaud to the efforts.  My friends thought it was a bit loud but got startled a few times.

That was my Halloween nights. Did you do any Halloween haunted houses?

3) BEGINNING: NaNoWriMo!

With the end of the Halloween marathon and waving goodbye to October, we arrive at November.  For some of you who have followed me for the last few years, every year since 2012 or so, I’ve been joining into NaNoWriMo.  While I seriously contemplated giving it up this year, I just couldn’t because I honestly think I finally have a really good idea.  Maybe you may have had brainstorming hints in fifties over at my other blog, Days Nights & Daydreams. If you haven’t, I have been working on three storylines so far. Which did I choose? Well, that’s a secret 😉 If it becomes something I like, I’ll probably edit it and release it chapter by chapter at my other blog though.

I haven’t had such a charged idea or ideas in a long time.  Usually they leave my mind and then I get lost while I’m writing.  I feel really enthusiastic about any of these plots. It’ll be fun! I’m absolutely psyched about it!

Its GO time! The goal this year (as it is every year): STAY ON TRACK! 😉

If you are doing NaNoWriMo, Best of luck to you! Happy writing! 🙂

4) RETURNING: Projects, Baking, Cooking!

Going back to the thought of thinking about the direction of Tranquil Dreams.  I’ve been focussing a lot on movies and books.  Its great and I love it! Talking movies and books with all of you is fantastic.  But my roots are photography, baking, cooking and artsy crafty things. Moving and being disorganized has honestly stopped me from catching up on these things. The house is finally getting organized and the last room to do our own organization is the kitchen where I can get all my baking stuff in one spot and in cupboards that I can reach.  Its still a work in progress but we added this little baking counter to solve a good bit of my problems!

And I have baking and cooking projects tentatively scheduled to go up.

First priority goes to the Disney Baking Project that I haven’t done much with.  What I will do is post up a few more reviews for Disney movies and move through the baking side accordingly. Its a little more creative so I need to give a little more thought before diving in.

Fact is, I feel a little lost without simply baking.  I’m a little more stressed and more worried about everything without it.  Its weird that baking takes me into that space of sweet joy.   Everyday I think about it and then realize how I’ll get frustrated because everything is gone and vanished and it’ll take triple the time it used to to make something as simple as banana bread or cookies, so I stop and sit down to do something else.

But, things are picking up and we’re reviving all of those things.  I even want to do a little drinks section.  Its a desire at most now.  We’ll see what happens 🙂

Tranquil Dreams is heading back into the days of Glow in the Dark Cupcakes and Cloud Cakes and Hamburger Cupcakes.  Are you excited? Because I sure am!

5) WordPress: Home of Tranquil Dreams for 5 years!

This is nothing official.  I didn’t start using the blog and making it active with posts until January 19th or something so thats my actual blogiversary but I always love seeing WordPress notify me every October 23rd of how long this has been my blogging home. The friends I’ve made and the posts I’ve read.  The inspiration all of you and this space has been in my life.  I’m evening getting the opportunity to branch out into doing podcasts.  It seems like this 5 year milestone is marking a lot of new beginnings and it makes me love every bit of it more.  As you can see, I’m revamping the blog a little for 2016 right in time for the official 5 years celebration.

With all that up there, I may be planning 2016 and there might probably be some changes.

6) Events this month!!

In November, I like to prove that I’m superwoman. What can I say? Somehow, this year, I’m rather pumped up about it. So, I might end up skipping Le Grande Degustation.  We’ll see the scheduling.  All depends on my husband since I refuse to drink THAT much wine tasting by myself. At a certain point, it won’t be enjoyable anymore.

However, we do have plans set for MTL a Table (which has already started) and we will likely be heading to Sherbrooke mets a table.  This is probably the equivalent of the MTL a Table food festival but in the Sherbrooke/Eastern Townships area.

If there are any other festivals, it’ll be a surprise 😉

UPCOMING:

• Resuming Netflix A-Z: next letters Q, R, S, T (at least)
• Disney Baking Project
• Music Obsessions & Pinterest Therapy

MTL a Table: 1000 Grammes Bistro Glouton et Traiteur

Onwards with the next MTL a Table (aka TASTE MTL) to the next restaurant last night!

After work , I had a bit of a boot crisis and had a little time to do some shoe shopping before walking down St Catherine street from Complexe Desjardins all the way eastward to around Beaudry metro station and past another block in the Village to get to this cozy, casual and dimly lit restaurant called 1000 Grammes.

The first thing you go in is the atmosphere of the restaurant.  The decor is very nice.  There’s a little cuteness to it.

Starry Traveler’s husband was there before her as she was held up at a meeting.  Since I wasn’t sure when she was being there, I decided to order a glass of Rose wine: Domaine de Gournier ($6.50 a glass).

The set 3 course meal at 1000 Grammes was $19.  The service was extremely friendly and welcoming.  They came by to give us bread two times.  It would’ve been nice if the bread was warm but it did have a nice chewy texture.

Lets look at the meal. Other than the 25 sorts of desserts available that I couldn’t show here.  We all chose different items so that we could try it all 🙂

APPETIZERS

Mini meat pie with chutney

Close-up of mini meat pie

My appetizer was the mini meat pie with chutney.  This was melt in my mouth delicious. The taste is very well for the meat inside the pie.  It was a really good start to the meal.  I don’t eat raw, so I passed my salad over to the man of the table.  The chutney was quite good as well made from tomatoes.

Snails in puff pastry with mushroom sauce

MAIN COURSE

Seafood lasagna with white wine bechamel

Goulash

Old-fashioned pork roast

Old fashioned pork roast was my main course choice. The veggies were done perfect, not that whole crunchy half-cooked business that I absolutely hate.  It was soft but not overcooked.  It wasn’t seasoned a lot which was a good balance to the salty and chewy pork roast.   Not exactly my favorite pork that I’ve tasted but the veggies made up for the high sodium level in the pork.

DESSERT

Choco-Praline Cake

Cheesecake (forgot what type but looks like pecan)

Apple Pie (made in restaurant)

I always hesitate a little when it comes to desserts because even if there is 25 choices, some places don’t carry even one dessert that is lactose-free.  I’m lactose intolerant so I can still eat butter.  Its really just milk products that slaughter me.  My choice was only with apple pie, after chatting with the man who makes the pies made in-house.  Such a friendly and charismatic man.  The apple pie was delicious! Just so perfect.  It wasn’t too sweet, the pastry was yummy.

If only I could make a pie from scratch and have it look (and taste) like that.

Overall, appetizer and dessert were fantastic.  I had little issues with the main course but kudos to make perfectly cooked veggies. The service was nice, the atmosphere was good.  One thing I had issues with was the heat.  I was sitting under this halogen spotlight and I was burning up.  Its not hot outside and actually pretty chilly and I was sweating like crazy.  LED lights are your best friends.  These investments will work in the long run. Just a friendly suggestion 🙂

Are you dining at any of the TASTE MTL restaurants? Any other events in Montreal that peaks your interest?