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| - For my second Happening Gourmand meal of the year, I found myself at Suite 701 in the Place d'Armes Hotel - a place I have gone by numerous times over the past few years without trying it and a spot that I will be revisiting shortly for my best friend's wedding. Regardless, one of my friends was sufficiently intrigued by the table d'hôte that he organized a lovely Saturday night meal - and I am certainly not one to say no to that!
Suite 701 is probably best described as a lounge with a full dinner menu - the decor and ambience is certainly more lounge in nature. High ceilings with ornate mouldings, huge windows with large drap-like curtains, beautiful wooden tables and chairs with a few leather banquettes, a glorious long bar, low lighting using mostly chandeliers outside of the purple accent lights, the otherwise all white color palette... Suite 701 is definitely a looker. The live DJ - playing for the most part great old R&B/ soul music - was definitely too loud though. When it is hard to hear the conversation at the other end of 5 person table, you are probably a little too close to bar/supper club territory than you should be as a lounge.
Menu-wise, Suite 701 describes itself as modern brasserie which, when I see that, strikes me as a catch all term for a menu that is quite varied. That seems to fit the bill here - the menu was definitely interesting but an strange mix of dishes. First up, the table ordered two platters of their homemade charcuterie with mustard, grilled chorizo, deviled eggs and chipotle dill pickle. A nice mixture of blood sausage, porchetta, salami and prosciutto. You can never go wrong with good charcuterie.
Next, I got to try the organic salmon tartar with celery leaves, granny smith apples, grapefruit and mild wasabi cream. Presentation was nice as was the execution. I hate grapefruit so while I understand the desire to add some citrus to the tartar, I wish it had been something different. The fish was nice and fresh with every other element working well for the dish. I particularly enjoyed the subtle heat from the wasabi cream.
The other starter I got to try was the roasted eggplant, tomato confit and marinated zucchini pissaladière. None of us had any idea what a pissaladiere was... but we figured why not? The rest of the dish description seemed worth a try. Ended up looking like a spring roll - which isn't what a pissaladiere is according to my web searches but regardless - and tasted pretty good. The pastry was nice and flaky and the eggplant/zucchini combo had great flavour.
Moving on to mains. I could not resist the duck so I went with the duck magret with pomegranate gastrique, charred farro risotto and braised kale. The duck was perfect - rich and fatty, cooked rare as it needs to be. The risotto however was a bit off to my liking. The use of farro, unknown to me prior to this, instead of rice was interesting but created a much firmer texture to the risotto than I was expected - I will mark this down to wrong expectations on my end.
The other main I tried was the pan-seared black bass with Jerusalem artichoke purée, black olive sauce and braised endives. The black bass was beautifully flaky and slightly salty. The artichoke puree and endives paired nicely to the fish. I skipped the sauce as olives really aren't my thing.
Dessert-wise, there were two options - a mocha cake with blood orange compote and a white chocolate mousse with raspberries. I hate mocha so I didn't try it but it seemed to be a hit at the table. My choice was the mousse which was well executed texturally - wonderfully smooth - but good lord was it sweet... too sweet to be honest which is saying a lot coming for a guy who absolutely loves his desserts. The tartness of the raspberries were not enough to offset the sweetness here. It almost needed a cookie or dark chocolate bites to offset the extra sweetness.
Suite 701 was a nice evening overall with a few minor issues that didn't make it an amazing one food wise. I definitely see coming back for a cocktail hour with a bite or two - which ironically is what will happen at that wedding I mentioned earlier - but I don't have a strong desire to return for a full dinner. For a lounge, that is what one would expect so on that account, Suite 701 probably hits its objective. Worth considerable to start an evening in Old Montreal at the very least.
Cheers!
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