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| - The restaurant offerings in Ville St-Laurent are pretty limited, so my husband and I visit this little Italian place a couple of times a month, often before heading next door for a movie.
My husband starts with the mussels marinara and although the marina sauce is always deliciously flavorful, the size & quality of the mussels is very inconsistent. Once in a while he'll luck out and get large, tasty mussels, but most of the time they are small and many of the shells are empty. My starter of choice is a tomato & bocconcini salad. Note that this is NOT listed on the menu, but if you ask your server for it, they will happily make it for you. They overdo the greens on the plate, but it's pretty hard to screw up tomatoes & cheese, so I usually don't have any complaints ;-)
What I do have an issue with is the stale bread that they bring to the table with the dipping oil. They try to disguise the staleness by serving the bread warm, but if you let it sit for a couple of minutes it hardens into something more akin to a brick than a bun. Two of our past three visits we could not even bite into the bread - the third time I didn't want to risk my teeth by trying...
When it comes to the main course, they do redeem themselves. I tried a variety of the main dishes, but once I discovered the chicken avocado I knew I had found the winner. This grilled chicken breast (skin & bone in) is cooked to perfection with a delicious creamy sauce that makes it melt in your mouth and topped with a perfectly ripe 1/2 avocado. I have never had such tender and juicy chicken before. It is served with mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables which are... meh... I've never been a fan of grilled & soggy eggplant, zucchini or peppers. My husband usually has the grilled trout, served with rice and steamed vegetables. Luckily he IS a fan of the grilled veggies that come with my main dish, so we swap those out and are both happy.
Service is always courteous and quick - and we now have a regular server who we really like (ask for Lipon, he'll treat you great!), so that always makes the experience more pleasant. The restaurant is never crowded, which makes the atmosphere quiet and relaxing. If only the kitchen could be a little more consistent I would have rated it 4-stars, but since it's really a hit or miss with the food, I had to give it a three.
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