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| - When ones hears of All-You-Can-Eat Chinese, you tend to automatically think about dingy looking places in strip malls where everything is fried and the tables are covered in plastic. Well, the people who brought us Big in Japan last year ventured into this space with the opening of Maison June Rose just around the corner of their restaurant.
First thing, this space is just beautiful. A beautiful ornate wall welcomes you when you walk in and then your eyes focus on all the lanterns above you. And while the look is certainly old school Chinese, the sound certainly is not. A mixture of classic oldies played throughout the evening. Service was quick and attentive as well.
The format at Maison June Rose is pretty simple - 25$ per person for the All-You-Can-Eat menu. The portions are Tapas-size so pretty small but the service is quick so you can have a steady stream of dishes coming to you. Looking at the dishes, you will notice that most of the items are definitely not of the classic "Chinese" variety that most of us are used to and also the plating is pretty nice for what is an All-You-Can-Eat place.
We were first presented with an amuse-bouche of prosciutto with pear and pickles. A nice combo of fat, sweetness and saltiness.
The chilled Won Ton soup was an interesting idea for the season - a warm pork ravioli in a cold broth. Nicely sized and fully stuffed with pork, I loved the ravioli. The cold broth was okay. The temperature change didn't work for me.
The scrapple Imperial rolls were served with a roasted peppercorn vinegar. One of the big hits of us - a nice crunch on the rolls and good meaty goodness inside. I also really enjoyed the dipping sauce - a cool mixture of pepper and acidity that added an interesting component.
The duck rillettes is okay. Nothing that special and frankly the use of jalapeño overpowered the fatty duck. The use of a very large rice pancake also made it impossible to eat in a single bite which seemed to be the point in the first place.
The BBQ Char Siu pork was served with hoisin sauce. Thinly sliced, I enjoyed the flavour of the pork but the hoisin sauce was way too sweet to be used more than once in my case.
Our first vegetable was the Wok-fried Chinese broccoli. Perfect texture to the broccoli as the leaves were wilted while the stems stayed a bit crisp.
The mustard greens were exactly as one would expect - strong mustard like taste but cooked down enough to have a softer texture.
The braised eggplant and pork was another favourite. Nice soft but slightly firm texture to the eggplant although the pork here was only crumbs in the sauce which was not what we expected when it arrived. Larger portions of pork would have been nice.
The salt and pepper tofu was a real surprise. I hate tofu. My girlfriend as well. Neither one of us could believe how this preparation gave the tofu a nice crispy exterior while the interior was soft but not the mushy kind we both despise. Served on some wilted fried spinach, the surprise hit of the night.
The salt and pepper smelts were essentially the same preparation as the tofu but with fish. That gave this dish more saltiness and fattiness than the tofu.
The Kung Pao chicken had strong flavour although a touch too sweet perhaps. The fried texture was perfect as well although the fact that they were small bones to contend with, while having been warned by the waitress in advance, may this less enjoyable to deal.
Black vinegar cloud ear mushrooms were very vinegar in flavour which I enjoyed however texture wise, the addition of the egg folk made this dish almost gelatinous which wasn't as much of a hit.
The Singapore curry rice noodles were exactly what you expected and wanted. Noodles were perfect, the mixture of onions, celery and scallions worked well and the scrambled egg put it all together.
Orange Beef served with a caramelized orange was a slightly disappointment. Very thinly sliced cold beef was good but I didn't get the orange flavour I expected.
Shepherd's pie with sweet and sour sauce. This was awesome. The use of a sweet and sour sauce really made this an Asian play on a classic Quebecois dish.
Roasted salmon head was something I never would have ordered if it wasn't for the fact this was All-You-Can-Eat. Some good fatty meat to grab hold of there but definitely not a favorite.
At the end, we then treated to the combination of fortune cookies and oranges where the pulp had been pureed and placed back on the rind. A cool approach that worked pretty well.
After all of that, I am ambivalent about June Rose. Love the look and feel of the space so much. However, when it comes to the dishes themselves, there were only a couple of items that were true hits to me. The vast majority were good but not enough to make me really want to order them again. And there in lies my issue. I enjoyed Maison June Rose enough to know I could have a good meal there but I'm not sure I would go out of my way to visit again.
Cheers!
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