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| - (This review is for their "Montreal à Table" prix fixe menus). The quick low-down: welcoming, friendly staff; subdued, old-school Paris bistro lighting, hit-or-miss dishes.
The set menu included choices of:
- scallop sashimi or marinated trout
- wine poached egg with beet, bacon, grape salad or beef tartare
- chocolate cake & frothed caramel "earthquake" with coffee ice cream or caramel profiteroles with vanilla ice cream
Though not overly remarkable visually, all the dishes were well presented.
Unfortunately the scallops weren't well cleaned before plating and contained bits of sand/shell which provided an enamel-grinding crunch. Overall the plainness of the undressed scallops could've used a little boost of fleur de sel & pepper at the least.
The wine-poached egg with salad was a curious dish. The egg, besides its color, wasn't remarkable. It didn't take on a particularly interesting flavor from its bath in vinho tinto, but the salad nest around it was quite good in all respects.
The seared beef tartare on the other hand, was pretty damn spiffy. The searing added a steak-like flavor to what I normally find a pretty plain-jane raw beef, texture-focused dish. Marinated mushrooms tossed into the mix bumped up the umami quotient to tastebud teasing levels and the dense, crunchy crouton-like bits tossed in provided a texture contrast to the normal meat-mush-a-thon.
The desserts were both good. The chocolate cake / frothed, caramel brittle looked like an 8.8 on the Richter scale of dulce-de-cocoa upheaval (check out the photos). Profiterole cream burgers, with a heavy drizzle of bittersweet caramel rounded out the browned sugar one-two punch.
The noise level is on the high-end at full swing. For a quiet conversation, I'd recommend Birks Café, with its open mezzanine/sound-escape setup.
The sandy scallop affair was likely a one-off issue and the red-wine egg bath was likely created for the MTL-à-Table menu, so overall this a 3.5 star rating.
Even with the missteps mentioned above, Laloux's still worth a try if you're looking for more classic-style French bistro fare.
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