I just read this article today in The Star about great restaurants in Montreal, and Lemeac was on their list of places to try.  Coincidentally, our Montreal coworker also told us about the same restaurant so we decided to go there for dinner.

We had a reservation for 9pm, but we got there at around 8:30pm and they seated us right away which was lucky for us.  The restaurant serves traditional french food, so I decided to go for duck breast, while my coworker went for a Cornish hen and the other decided to go with the short ribs.  When our meals came, the waitress served me a duck leg confit instead of the duck breast that I had ordered, so she had to take my order back to the kitchen.  My coworkers ate their tasty meals – and I know they were tasty, because they looked it (Sorry, I couldn’t take pictures cause they ate them so fast!) – while I waited another 10 minutes for my duck breast.  Medium-rare ended up being a little too rare for me, so I was left a little disappointed after our main course.

I wasn’t too worried though because this place is well known for their French toast dessert which is like a loaf of bread 3 inches high topped with caramel and ice-cream.  To our surprise, my waitress gave us the dessert special on the house since she got my order wrong.  The dessert special was a short cake with fresh berries.  It turned out to be fantastic!  The short cake was warm and fluffy and the vanilla cream was made fresh with vanilla beans.  I’ve never had short cake made like that before!

And for the show stopper, the French toast was by far the best dessert I’ve had in Montreal.  I didn’t know bread could be made so crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  It was so buttery, and paired perfectly with the ice-cream and caramel.  The desssert alone deserves a 5-star rating!0

Update: crazyPyxo – December 3, 2009

Following crazyDiva’s recommendation, I gave this restaurant a visit the last time I went up to Montreal.  Great find crazyDiva! Their french toast is definitely something special.  All the flavors and texture blends together perfectly.  The warm crunchy bread mixed with the cold and creamy ice cream mixed was something to die for.

For the appetizer, we ordered the foie gras pate.  Even though I can’t stand the taste of foie gras, I had to try a small sample.  I would never think to pair pineapple with bread and the pate, but it worked really well.  The sweet pineapple contrasted the strong flavors of the foie gras creating a whole new flavor.  I would recommend it for those who enjoy foie gras.

My main dish was steak fries.  When the dish came, I was in heaven.  There was this sizable bowl of the best shoe strings fries I have seen.  It was cut into fine thin pieces which was fried to the perfect crispiness.  Even without the steak, I would of given this dish a 10/10 based on the fries alone.  As you can tell, fries are one of my favorite food of all times and that’s why I go crazy for them.  The steak itself was good, but it was nothing compared to the fries.  Next time I go back, I will have to get 3 separate orders of those fries.