I have been wanting to go to Au Pied de Cochon for years. I was in Montreal over 6 years ago but I wasn't able to get a reservation then and I've always had it on my mind since. It was shockingly easy to get a reservation this time around and I was ready to royally indulge as they are famous for gluttony and excess. Obviously the big thing here is foie gras and meat so if you're not interested in either, don't bother coming here but if you love both, you will be in for a treat.
The decor was much more cozy than I expected - it had a very Quebecquois feel to it as it was heavy on the wood and even had flannel shirts hanging from the ceiling. We ordered a bottle of wine and noodled over the menu - unfortunately, this is where is went downhill service wise. Our original waiter said someone else would be with us shortly to review the specials since he seemed to be slammed with other table, so we waited and waited. It took them 30 minutes to get someone to talk to us about the menu and then we waited again to place our order. I knew service in Europe and the Caribbean was slow but apparently you've got to put Canada on that list too. Luckily they redeemed themselves in a big way. The GM (or so I assumed based on his behavior and interaction with everyone in the restaurant) came over and immediately gave us 2 expensive glasses of champagne and then also brought over these amazing freshly sliced pieces of saucisson that were moist yet still had the dry cured texture to it. He said the pigs had been fed peanuts as their last meal and you could taste it in each bite which was so cool yet sad at the same time. I was almost annoyed that we got it because it was so good but it was filling up space in my stomach for our actual meal. As I mentioned the menu is extremely meat focused and the specials were no different. Several of the specials sounded amazing but too much food for 2 people, so we settled on tartare temaki ($15 CAD), foie gras terrine ($25 CAD), duck in a can ($44 CAD) and mashed potatoes ($8.50 CAD). The exchange rate was awesome, so everything was essential 20% cheaper when you converted it to USD.
The tartare was of the beef variety which was totally fine by me although it would have been nice to try a different meat since they have different versions sometimes. It's served in a nori cone and an adorable raw quail egg that you pour into it. Jesus, talk about melt in your mouth. The nori was perfectly crisp and the tartare itself was fantastic. I loved every bite of it and could have had 3 more cones. This alone was worth the visit for me.
Next came the foie gras terrine which was basically just a giant square of foie gras, complete with a huge layer of fat and toasted bread. But the best part of this dish was that it came with this out of control maple butter. So sweet and delicious. The combination of the sweet maple and foie gras on crunchy bread was truly decadent. I was super bummed that we were in Montreal before sugar shack season (starts in Feb) and eating this maple butter made me even more sad because if the food in the sugar shack is anything like this butter, I would die and go to heaven. But as with any foie gras dish, it's really hard to eat too much of it without feeling a little bit guilty plus I was trying to save room for the duck in a can.
The duck in a can is their most famous (and most gimmicky) dish. I was on the fence if I wanted to order this because it felt like such a touristy thing to do but you know what? I'm a freakin tourist, so whatever. It's essentially half a duck shoved in a can which they pour out in front of you table side on to a plate what has a smear of mashed potatoes and toast. In addition to the duck, the can also includes foie gras (of course), cloves of roasted garlic, braised cabbage and some demi-glace. Talk about gluttonous. The presentation is eh but you're not really here for presentation. We had also gotten a separate side of mashed potatoes which was genius and ridiculous at the same time. The duck was nice and tender although it kind of felt like less than half a duck in there. There was so much going on the plate that it was hard to really find the lobes of foie gras but after eating half a plate of it earlier, I wasn't too sad about it. Now as for the mashed potatoes, they were amazing. They were super buttery but it had this glue like texture which I'm not saying in a bad way just that it was thicker than a traditional mashed potato dish. When the GM came by again to ask how we were doing, we asked what was in it and he said it's made with 25% cheese curd. Well shit no wonder it was so good and gooey.
At this point, I felt like I was going to burst and we had been drinking all day too, so there was no room for dessert which was a bummer. While the night got off to a rocky start with the slow service, they definitely made up for it with the freebies, apologies and indulgent food. I would say that if anyone wants to come here, it's worth going with a larger group so that you can try a bunch of different dishes or at least some of the larger format dishes that is really just impossible for 2 people. This was definitely worth the 6 year wait but probably not much more than that! Total bill: $94/pp with tax, tip and a nice bottle of wine
Photo Credit: Yelp
Breizh Cafe 3991 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC H2W 1Y4, Canada 4 Forks
Kevin and I were all set to get poutine for lunch on New Year's Eve but lo and behold the 2 places we went to were both sadly closed. Since it was literally -10 degrees outside, we couldn't walk any further and ducked into this warm creperie as our back up plan. It was not a bad back up plan at all.
One of the things I love about Montreal is that it's still got a lot of French influence from the language to the culture to the food. And what could be more French than crepes? Despite majorly overeating the night before, I was pretty hungry by the time lunch rolled around. They had a good lunch special which included soup, 1 savory crepe and 1 dessert crepe for $24 CAD. How perfect - no need to decided between the savory or sweet. The soup of the day was a creamy carrot puree which hit the spot on such a cold day. For my savory crepe, I got the Nordique crepe which came with smoked salmon, swiss cheese, spinach and dill cream, all on a buckwheat crepe. It was a really hearty dish and everything about the crepe was done right. The batter wasn't too thick and there was the perfect amount of filling to crepe ratio. I wanted to get a more breakfast-y one with egg and cheese but after last night's meal, I had to get something green to eat and eating fish felt healthy too. While this was a pretty filling meal, I was super excited for my sweet crepe. I went basic and got it with homemade red fruit jam which was basically raspberry jam. So yummy and a nice compliment to the salty crepe version.
The waitress was super sweet and nice. This was just a comfy place to warm up after being on the brink of hypothermia for the last hour. It's definitely nothing extravagant but it had a nice homey feel to it and if I lived in the neighborhood, I could see myself coming here often on the weekends to relax, eat some crepes and read the paper. Total bill: $32/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
Maison Publique 4720 Rue Marquette, Montreal, QC H2J 3Y6, Canada 2.5 Forks
This review hurts to write a bit because it was our New Year's Eve dinner and I had scoured the internet looking for a good place to go. This place was written up in several blogs as a top 10 restaurant in Montreal which is a big compliment. I didn't want to go to some fancy prix fixe place so going to a local gastropub ordering a la carte sounded great.
It was slightly off the beaten path which I usually like but it was kind of not near anything else which was fine for us but if you wanted to make a night out of it, I'm not sure there is much else to check out. I had made a 9pm reservation and when we walked in, I was expecting a bit of a wait since it was NYE, but we still ended up standing around for quite a while. It wasn't because they were super packed, it was simply because there was no one there to tell that we were here. We told the bartender that we had a reservation and he completely ignored us. This was the sign of things to come.
The menu is simply a board on the wall and it's all in French, so Kevin and I had to pull out the google translate a few times. The waiter came and took our drink order but we weren't ready to order food just yet and asked him to come back. By the time we got our drinks and he came by to take our order, it was almost 10pm. WTF?! While we weren't in a super hurry to go anywhere, we had thought about checking out the fireworks by the river, which started at midnight. When I made the 9pm reservation, I figured 3 hours was plenty of time to eat but apparently not.
I got the oyster appetizer and Kevin got the Welsh Rarebit to start and then we would share the gnudi with deer ragu and lamb. The waiter asked how we wanted our meal to come out and we said it didn't really matter - they could bring out the oyster and Rarebit as appetizers and the other two dishes as entrees or whatever came first.
The oyster was one large oyster that was chopped and then baked. Even though it was only 1 oyster, it was a pretty hearty dish although maybe not for $14 CAD. I tried a bit of Kevin's Welsh Rarebit and it was ok - it was giant Texas style toast covered in cheese, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. It was fine but nothing mind blowing at all. Then this is when things went totally south. Kevin asked for a beer menu, which they didn't have and the waiter wouldn't/couldn't just tell him the beers they had and told him to go up to the bar and look at the fridge instead. Then when we asked about our entrees because it was past 11pm, the waiter had said if we wanted it sooner, we should have said something to him and he could have tried to expedite it but really, we shouldn't have to do that.
The food finally came it was shocking that what we saw took over an hour to make. Gnudi is a gnocchi like pasta that's shaped like a fluffy ball and stuffed with ricotta and semolina. It's usually denser and chewier than gnocchi which it definitely was here. It wasn't really mixed in well with the deer ragu and without it, it tasted kind of plain. But with it, it was a nice mixture - there just wasn't enough of the ragu to gnudi. The lamb was nicely cooked medium rare but there wasn't a lot of garnish to it to really accentuate the dish. It was a totally fine piece of meat but probably not worth the $30+ CAD.
We had originally really wanted dessert but we were afraid didn't have enough time, so when the lamb dish came out, I asked them to bring a clementine tart right afterwards. I wish we had more time to savor it because it was actually quite good. It had a nice tang to it and it's such a different flavor to the usual tart.
I felt a little bad because the waiter was trying to appease us but honestly there was nothing he could have really done to make up for it. They did comp us for the beer and dessert which was nice and I appreciated that but it was an overall let down for a New Year's Eve meal. The good news is that we still made it in time for the fireworks downtown by 10 minutes! Total bill: $63/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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