355 St. Jacques St. W. (in the St. James Hotel ); 514-841-5000; www.xolerestaurant.com; All major cards; no wheelchair access; free valet parking; vegetarian-friendly; price range: $$$-$$$$.
Published on Mar 31, 2009
Photo John Kenney/THE GAZETTE
XO's magnificent dining room
You know what’s on the “out” list these days? Ostentation. This hit home big time as I sat in XO’s plush dining room, a room known as “Banker’s Hall.” Perched on a Louis the somethingth chair while fingering the Christofle silverware, guilt swept over me. Suddenly I was not restaurant reviewer wearing a decade-old cardigan, but a Merrill Lynch CEO rethinking the office decor or an AIG exec planning where to stash the bonus
311 St. Paul St. E. (near St. Claude St.); 514-878-2232; www.chezlepicier.com. no wheelchair access; vegetarian friendly; reservations essential. Price range: Starters $$$-$$$$.
Published on Dec 11, 2008
Photo The Gazette
Chef Laurent Godbout
With a serious interest in food, a love of cooking and first-hand experience working in front of or behind the swinging kitchen doors of a restaurant, I think a reviewer is qualified to evaluate whether a fine-dining experience is one that should be praised or criticized.
Praise is lauded on the people who do things right: a bistro with fabulous steak/frites, an innovative restaurant that offers truly novel menu items, an authentic Italian restaurant that sees beyond red-sauce pastas and veal scallopini. That's the easy part.
479 St. Alexis St. (near Notre Dame St.); 514-303-0479; www.restaurantlorignal.com; major cards; no wheelchair access; price range: Starters: $$-$$$.
Published on Sep 30, 2008
cool business card!
If Sarah Palin is ever stranded on the presidential campaign trail between Alaska and Washington, do I have the restaurant for her. It's right here in Montreal, it's called L'Orignal, which translates not to "original" but to "moose." Despite what you may be thinking, Palin's favourite moose burgers are not on the menu. Instead she can sink those pearly whites into lamb burgers, braised wild boar, and a bison rib steak only slightly smaller than Dick Cheney's ego.
355 McGill St. (near Place d'Youville); phone: 514-876-2823; www.restaurantvauvert.com; no wheelchair access; reservations essential; price range: $$$
Published on Sep 01, 2007
Photo Vincenzo d'Alto, The Gazette
Chef Pascal Leblond
Black and white with fairy lights all over, Vauvert is the third restaurant to set up shop in the trendy St. Paul Hotel. Judging by the meal I enjoyed there last week, it looks like third time's the charm. But then again, the first and second incarnations were awfully impressive as well.
Back up to the summer of 2001, when the space was first opened as Cube. With its austere decor, featuring concrete-gray walls, square mirrors, thick white drapes and fortysomething fashionista crowd, this contemporary restaurant provided the ideal backdrop for chef Claude Pelletier's bold, modern cuisine.
116 McGill St. (corner Wellington St.); phone: 514-876-0116; open: Lunch, Monday to Friday 12 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner, Monday to Saturday 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. ; no wheelchair access; reservations essential; price range: $$$
Published on Feb 23, 2008
Photo Vincenzo d'Alto, The Gazette
Graziella Battista
I have so many good things to say about this restaurant that I'm afraid you'll think its owner is bribing me, blackmailing me or is my second cousin once removed. None of the above. The reason I enjoyed it is because it fits what I like about food now, at a time when the restaurant scene is polarized by two distinct styles: molecular cuisine, which is complex, verging on the overly fussy, and fancified comfort food that features pure flavours and simple cooking techniques. As a fan of the latter it isn't a stretch to say that if I imagined my fantasy restaurant, this could be it.
355 Marguerite D'Youville St. (near de la Commune St.); phone: 514-287-3362; www.dnarestaurant.com; wheelchair access; price range: $$$
Published on Apr 19, 2008
Photo Phil Carpenter, The Gazette
Chef Derek Dammann (left) and Maitre d' Alex Cruz
You know what's lacking on the Montreal scene this year? Fresh blood. I love Quebec chefs, but I often think my job has become more about reporting on their comings and goings than turning readers on to something positively new.
Well, people, good news. This week, I have a doozy, a restaurant run by a newcomer with talent, style, and a shock of red hair that could give Conan O'Brien a run for his money. His name is Derek Dammann, he's a Victoria native, and he rules the kitchen at one of Old Montreal's best new restaurants, DNA.
740 William St. (corner Queen St.); phone: 514-397-7737; www. rest-lelocal.com; wheelchair access: one step; reservations essential; price range: $$-$$$.
Published on May 24, 2008
Photo Phil Carpenter, The Gazette
Reviewing a less-than-month-old restaurant is something I promised I would never do. It's despicable, really, or as a restaurant owner said to me, "questionable." I was invited to lunch with a fellow critic at Leméac on the day it opened, and when the owner saw us walk through the door, I thought he would have a heart attack. Instead, he walked over to our table and said, "the wrapper is still on the oven" - which, of course, was an exaggeration, but there was a point there he was eager to drive home.
Anyhow, I did not intend to visit this week's restaurant exactly two weeks after it opened. But there was a last-minute glitch with the restaurant I had booked, and two other attempted reservations got me nowhere. In a bit of a panic, I dialed the number of Le Local, garnered a 7:30 reservation, and vowed that if the stickers were still on the stemware, if the waiters kept bumping into each other, or if the bathrooms lacked sinks, I would hightail it out to some bring-your-own-wine-bistro-tapas palace.
298 Place d'Youville; Phone: 514) 282-1837; www.gibbys.com; wheelchair access; reservations essential; free valet parking!; price range: $$$$
Published on Mar 04, 2007
Photo John Mahoney, The Gazette
If you're a Montrealer, chances are you've eaten at - or at least heard of - Gibbys. In fact, if you're a tourist who's been to our fair city you might also have frequented this beloved Old Montreal steakhouse, for today, as when I last wrote about Gibbys five years ago, a last-minute reservation here is probably the toughest to garner in the city.
900 Place Jean Paul Riopelle (near St. Antoine St.); Phone: 514-499-2084; www.restaurant-toque.com; wheelchair access: reservations essential; price range: $$$$
Published on Jul 14, 2007
Photo Pierre Obendrauf , The Gazette
Chef Normand Laprise with (from right) sommelier Pascal Paradis, chef de cuisine Charles-Antoine Crête and Christine Lamarche.
In 1990, I sat down to dinner with a 19-year-old chef friend who had invited me to a new restaurant whose chef, he said, was quickly shaping up to be the guy to beat. The restaurant was called Citrus and the chef, of course, was Normand Laprise.
I remember him stopping by our table to greet my friend, and how pleasant and humble he seemed. French, but not French from France like most of the chefs at the time, Laprise was a Quebecer whose food, beginning with a foie-gras terrine with blueberries, bowled me over that night. He was indeed the chef to beat in 1990. Today, he still is.
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