Over the Victoria Day long weekend, a group of girls and I went to Las Vegas for my friend’s bachelorette bash.  Well, you know the saying, “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”  So, I’m not allowed to disclose any details in this post, but I will share with you some of the things that I loved…food and shopping! Read the rest of this entry »

Since I fly Air Canada every week, I get excited whenever there is a new enRoute magazine in the back pocket of the seat in-front of me.  This month’s issue had an article on Montreal.  A lot of times, this is where I get my food sources from.

When I saw that Le Chien Fumant (The Smoking Dog – not the cigarette kind of smoke, the flaming kind of smoke!) was mentioned in the magazine article, I decided to look it up for some reviews.  The reviews, the chalkboard menu, and the whole look of the restaurant looked promising.  Even the house cocktail of brandy, sugar water, sparkling wine and lemon juice boosted our expectations for a great meal.

I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed by the food, but more so by the long wait time for my food.  We ordered Cajun-style crab cakes to start, followed by baby-back ribs.  They also served dishes such as deep fried Cornish hen cooked Southern style, lamb filet, lamb shank with pasta, and clams in black bean sauce.  With our appetizer, we got a free order of Chinatown calamari.  Both tasted very good, but I didn’t get to snap a picture of the calamari.  The food doesn’t sound like conventional bistro food at all which gives this restaurant a distinctive twist in the menu.

While we waited impatiently for our mains to show up, they served us another free appetizer, the beef carpaccio cut thick.

Here’s my ribs served with tamali and corn.

The food was pretty good.  We had to wait but at least we got free food and enough food to pack lunch the next day!

It’s been so many years since I’ve last visited Quebec City, and this was my first visit ever since I started working out of Montreal a year ago!

Based on reviews from Trip Advisor, I decided to book a room at Auberge Le Vincent.  This is a very comfy boutique hotel with 10 rooms for you to choose from.  We stayed in room 10 for a reasonable price and free breakfast.  The hotel owner was super friendly.  He showed us exactly where we should walk in the old city and recommended a great local restaurant for dinner. Read the rest of this entry »

After reading about the Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships win by the chefs at Kitchen Galerie, our team has been meaning to try out this restaurant for months, and finally found the time last night to pay the tiny restaurant a visit.

We were served by owner/chef/waiter Mathieu Cloutier who explained their menu consisting of a three-course meal created fresh daily with whatever ingredients are available at the close-by Jean-Talon Market.  Given choices of several different types of foie gras, oysters, pork belly, scallops, and short ribs, the team had high and hungry expectations for an unforgettable meal.

My foie-gras-loving coworker jumped on the dishwasher foie gras bandwagon as soon as the chef introduced it to us.  I was a little skeptical myself because I couldn’t get around the idea of a piece of foie gras being literally poached in a jar inside a dishwasher…I much prefer pan seared foie gras myself, so I opted for the porsciutto bits, melon and arugula salad as my appetizer.  It turned out that the dishwasher foie gras tasted much like a foie gras pate, but my arugula salad tasted awesome.

The chef recommended that I “super-size” my scallop main dish with black truffle shavings, so you could smell the wonderful scent of truffles from a mile away.  The vegetables were cooked with big chunks of bacon, so needless to say, they tasted amazing.

We were disappointed by the dessert though.  It pretty much eliminated Kitchen Galerie’s chances of becoming one of the restaurants in our top-3 list.  The desserts were simple and unintriguing.  I had the creme brulee and I’ve had better.

Recently, I made a short trip to Hong Kong to visit my dad and brother because they underwent surgery.  Besides visiting the hospital during my short stay, the rest of the time I spent on eating, drinking and shopping!

Here are some of the places that I tried out:

Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a while since I blogged about restaurants in Montreal.  That’s because our team hasn’t really been actively going out for dinner lately.  Last night we tried a new French restaurant in the Plateau area called Monsieu B.  The restaurant is a cozy little spot and you can bring your own wine.  For the price of the food, it is definitely worth a try, but make sure you make reservations as the place is quite tiny.

With your meal you will get a free cup of soup.  The one we had was a curry carrot soup.  It tastes better than it looks.  I’ll take it if it’s free!

For my appetizer, I ordered the tomatoes done three ways ($9): bloody caesar shot with oyster (it was a small oyster so it didn’t show up in the picture), polenta with sundried tomatoes, and yellow tomato with mozzarella.  I really liked the presentation of the dish and it tasted great!

For my main I went with the good-old beef tartare ($20).  It was a huge meal so I barely finished half of it.

For dessert, we tried the cheese cake which came in a glass.  It was very rich and creamy.

After many failed attempts at visiting the Hoof Cafe due to Chinese New Year and other conflicting priorities, I finally completed the mission to try out the new brunch hot-spot downtown this weekend.  And the food turned out to be phenominal!  Since it was our first time there, we tried out the must have dishes:

Brioche French Toast with a slab of Foie Gras ($9 + $14):

The seared foie gras tastes so good with sweet syrup, and it adds a creamy texture on top of the fluffy French toast.

Suckling Pig Benny ($13):

 This is definitely recommended for somone who prefers something salty for breakfast.  The pulled suckling pig is very tender and I like the added touch of the arugula salad.

Bone Marrow & Strawberry Jam Beignet ($5):

These were sweet and salty and chewy all packed into one bite.  I wish they would make them a little bigger like a timbit though.

Large French Press Coffee ($7):

This pours about 4 cups of coffee, so it’s perfect for sharing.

Overall, it was a great brunching experience.  The food was great and the wait staff was very friendly.  However, I would only recommend this place for small groups of 2 or 3 because the restaurant is really small!

Can’t wait to try the Black Hoof across the street for dinner next time!

This week my coworkers and I are trying out Le Westin, Montreal and I’m super excited about my heavenly bed!  This is what my deluxe room looks like:

If you love the heavenly bed too, you can purchase your very own for $1,950 to $1,770 USD.  I don’t think I would mind having one of these babies in my home.

We checked out the hotel restaurant Gazette as well, and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food and service.

I had mushroom ravioli with veal brisket in a porcini and tomato cream sauce.

For dessert, we had the Trio de Brulee (espresso, green tea and maple).

Everything was mm…mm…yum!

Poutini opened up a few months ago but crazyDiva and I didn’t have to time to try it out until mid december. Located at 1112 Queen Street West, it was a relatively long drive since it is located pretty west.

With the weight that I’ve been putting on from my assignment in Montreal, I really should feel guilty and ashamed when writing this post, but I don’t!  I mean, what is a foodie supposed to do when placed in a city with so many great restaurants, except to go out and try a new one each week, right?

Thanks to one of the locals, this week we tried out Cuisine et Dependance and were pleasantly surprised.  This hip bistro on St. Laurent offers a fresh menu daily, written on this big scroll of paper on the walls, as well as some classic items that are on the menu all year round. 

The amuse bouche to start us off was a vegetable puree.

We got the charcuterie plate and some fries to start.  All the meats on the charcuterie plate are organic and so delicious.  The fries were great as well, but the mayo seemed like it would give us a heart attack!

For my main, I got the halibut special with homemade pasta.  My coworker got the guinea fowl with risotto.  Both were amazing, but they looked like they were seared in animal fat…

Dessert was a buttery cake with poached apples.

Your reasonably priced bill will come with some heavy weight brownies.

Ok, time to hit the gym for 6 hrs this weekend…