Once a year Montreal goes from being a place with great food and restaurants, to absolutely busting at the seams with haute cuisine. From February 18th to 28th the tastes of the Eastern Townships will be somehow combined with Portuguese wines, New Orleans spice, 40 Quebec artisanal cheese producers, table d'hote dinners, lunches, cooking demonstrations and happy hours across the city, all under the direction of guest Portuguese chefs and our own local culinary miracle-makers. It's basically like the joy of Christmas has come again in the form of the most gourmet food and talent the city can offer or import, without the stress and ridiculous knitted sweaters.
After salivating for days over the event schedule, crying at the ridiculous prices, sighing over the impossible array of options, and analyzing how to make the most of the event, here are my festival top picks:
Dinner at Restaurant Julien Feb. 18th or 19th ($50, or $57 including a glass of wine)
Lunch at Europea Feb. 18th, 22nd-26th ($29.50, including a glass of port)
Tapas at Vertige Feb. 18th or 25th ($35, or $49 including wine pairing)
Brunch at Cocagne Feb. 21st or 28th ($45, or more with wine)
Cooking Class (Non-participatory) at Europea Feb. 18th-26th ($35, including a glass of wine)
Happy Hour at Pullman Feb. 18th or 19th ($45)
Bargain Lunch at Restaurant Douro ($13, or more with wine)
(Tax and tip not included)
Don't see what you're looking for? Here are a few more options and a bit more information on the choices above:
For Everybody (Complexe Desjardins)
1. Micro Festival of Quebec Cheeses (Feb. 17-20th). 40 Quebec cheese producers set up shop surrounded by Portuguese wines. Expect long lines, but delicious samples.
2. The Crossroads of Flavour (Feb. 23rd-27th). Local producers and artisans kick the cheese-makers out, or into the milk store. Featuring a bakery, a boutique, a specialty liquor store, milk and milk products store, and a general store (reminiscent of a quaint Quebec village) alongside tastings and and culinary workshops.
For the Big Spender: Festival Feasts
Yes there's a $300 grand dinner...ridiculous.
For diners looking to splurge a little: Festival's Finest Tables
No dinners at the festival are really affordable, but here's a list of the top picks under $60 (not including wine, tax or tip). See below for lunch or brunch options, but the stars shine at night. These restaurants are set to impress with special evening meals (not Sunday/Monday) featuring invited chefs, mostly Portuguese, French or local cuisine, and Portuguese wines.
Bistro Le Repertoire Feb. 18th-17th. 6 courses of Portuguese standards.
$45 before wine, $65 wine included
Reservation: 514 251-2002
La Fabrique Feb. 22nd & 23rd. Guest chef Danny St-Pierre only had to come from Sherbrooke, not Portugal, but he's a guest and should be treated well as such. He's also got the CV that demands attention. French-trained, he worked at Toqué and Laloux, so if you can't make it to his home kitchen, Auguste, in Sherbrooke, now's a good time to check him out.
$45 before wine, $75 wine included
Bu Feb. 23rd 24th. Skip the tasting menu and buy something à la carte to accompany your six carefully chosen wines. Bu is all about the wine anyway.
$34, sampling of six Quinta do Portal wines with the purchase of one dish
Chez Queux Feb. 26th
An even better deal, depending on the quality of the wines, the owner of the Dona Maria estate in Alentejo, Portugal will be in attendance to serve tastings of his own vintages.
$Free, with the purchase of dishes à la carte! I assume this means the tastings are free...not entrance to the restaurant and watching this man is free.
$37.50 before wine, $64.50 wine included
Le Jolifou - Sri Lankan Night Feb. 18th-27th
One of the only non-Portuguese dinners, but it looks like one of the most interesting.
$55 before wine, $85 wine included
Decca77 Feb.19th. The deal includes five shared dishes (Shared with who? Tapas style? Or big plates buffet-style? If you go, let me know what this means...)
$30 before wine
"After winning the 2006 Créativité Montreal award, the restaurant is opening its wine cellar and inviting you to partake of a buffet of oysters from near and far."
$20 before wine, who knows how much after
DNA Restaurant Feb. 27th
What would happen if the Sommelier took control of the kitchen (because he's Portuguese) and the chef took over the wine pairings? This could be interesting. It could also be just decent, and not worth the money...but that's what makes it fun. It's apparently for diners "with a sense of adventure":
$45 before wine, $85 wine included
Le Samuel de Champlain Feb. 22nd-28th. 5 courses, Quebec and Portuguese seafood
$38 before wine, $50 one glass of wine included
Les Cons Servent Feb. 23rd. New Orleans cuisine!
$55 before wine, $95 wine included
Les Deux Gamins Feb. 18th-20th
Pan-fried black cod, La Belle Excuse sauce vierge, braised veal cheeks, Porto reduction... France and Portugal emulsified in seven courses!
$55 before wine, $85 wine included
L'Inconnu Feb. 19th-20th. The Sherbrookian "bistronomy" of Geneviève Fillion's Le Bouchon takes over the unknown kitchen.
$55 before wine, $85 wine included
Restaurant Julien Feb. 18th-19th. BEST deal on Louisiana cooking. This guy, Brian Landry has served multiple Presidents at his home restaurant, and won a slew of US Cooking Awards)
$50 before wine, $57 one glass of wine included
Tapas
Vertige Feb. 18th and 25th
Six tapas per person in two courses. A mixed bag of appetizers and then another mixed bag of appetizers. Cross your fingers. It could be good, especially since the wine is relatively affordable.
$35, before wine, $49 wine included
Cocagne Feb 21. The most decadent brunches you've ever eaten...
$45 before wine - "Fish and Seafood"
Feb 28
$55 before wine - "Truffles and Foie Gras"
$32 before wine, $43 wine included
La Porte Feb. 18th-26th
4-course French/Portuguese meal including a glass of wine.
$32, one glass of wine included
Europea Feb. 18th, 22nd-26th (selling out fast because it's one of the best deals around). A 5-course portuguese lunch
$29.50, one glass of port included
Cocagne Feb. 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th
$25 before wine, and while tax and tip is not included, an aperitif is! You just have to trust the chef...and have no food allergies and not be a picky eater, because it's a set menu with no exceptions.
Cooking Classes:
Italian Cooking Class
Sapori Pronto - Feb. 22nd & 23rd. 5 courses with Portuguese wines, but you're paying to watch your dinner be made. Kind of like an open kitchen where you get play-by-commentary and can ask questions. If you're just there to enjoy the food, wine and company, it's not such a great deal.
$55 before wine
Dessert Workshop
Europea - Feb. 18th-26th 10:30am, 2:30pm, 4:30pm. Watch award-winning pastry and dessert chefs craft Portuguese and International delicacies. Includes a glass of port and goodie bags. Just watch the creating, though. Don't play. This is not participatory...
$35 including a glass of wine
Happy Hours!!!
Ristorante Sapori Pronto Feb. 22nd-27th. The festival's most affordable happy hour features 3 Portuguese wines and Italian snacks. I'm not sure we're talking polenta diamonds and tramezzini triangular tea sandwiches here, but you never know.
$25, wine included
Koko Restaurant and Bar Feb. 22nd-24th. Wine aficionados can have a relatively affordable glass of wine by a highly-esteemed wine maker. He'll apparently be around to pour you the glass himself.
$10 for a glass of wine. Hope you don't get hungry.
Feb. 25th - Want something stronger? The wine maker will leave on the 24th and in comes the Port.
$12 port wine cocktails
Le Samuel de Champlain Feb. 18th-28th. 3 course meal or happy hour tapas...your choice. This seems more like a meal with a $5.50 glass of wine, but it's listed under the Happy Hour category of the festival.
$24.50 before wine, $30 one glass of wine included
Pullman Feb. 18th-19th. Wines from the Quinta do Mouro estate. Tapas included.
$45 for an undetermined amount of wine. This is probably not about the tapas. As usual at Pullman, focus on the alcohol.
February 20 and 27: Port, from savoury to sweet
February 23 and February 24: The Douro Valley
February 25 and February 26: Vinho Verde
$40 for 3 wines and tapas
Festival's Lunch Menus: Feb. 18th-28th. This is different from the lunches that are part of the Festival's Finest Tables. They're the only representatives (Besides Lebanese...?) of cuisines that aren't either French, Portuguese, Quebecois, Italian or Cajun. The festival could almost justify it as places upon which the Portuguese had some influence, and where their cuisine and culture has been fused into traditional dishes. Really, it just shows that the whole festival is only using Portugal and the Eastern Townships as a loose theme to the good food in the city for a few weeks. These lunches are also a whole lot less expensive, and still not always worth it. Here are the the places where you're getting a good deal on a $13 prix fixe meal, even though you're free to go at any other time of the year for a very similar culinary experience:
La Khaima (North African/Moroccan), Ong Ca Can (Vietnamese), Restaurant Douro (Portuguese), Mogador (Moroccan), Rumi (Middle Eastern)
0 comments:
Post a Comment