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| - I'd been wanting to try Mezcla for sometime now, actually since I'd read Lesley Chesterman's 2013 article in the Gazette on "Best New Restaurants" in Montreal. I'd twice tried to get a last minute reservation to no avail, so with a weeks planning I was looking forward to trying this joint, known for Latin American flavored tapas with a twist.
We arrived at the restaurant about fifteen minutes early for our 7 o'clock reservation - I was jetlagged and starving. It was mostly empty with only 2-3 active tables. Then the hostess (who spoke absolutely no english, which shocked both myself and my francophone date - we later made an educated guess that she was dating who appeared to be a manager/owner as she left with him very early), attempted to seat us at a shared table with other guests who were already dining. This is where my first objection took place - An almost empty restaurant and you try to sit us at a shared table? Annoying for us and the already doing couple. She gave us an annoyed look and but still proceeded to seat is at our own table. After this incident, the service excelled, in both official languages, with well-trained and professional wait staff (well, until the very end, but we'll get to that).
Mezcla has a great wine list, very diverse and affordable - we selected a great Portuguese white, a blend of three different grapes and it was midrange at only $46.
The menu is very appealing, particularly in the seafood and fish department, which prior to dinning there, I'd assumed would be their forté. They offer a 5 of 7 course chefs tasting menu for $40-$70 alternately, a great deal, and we'd originally planned to get this. However we were disappointed to read the fine print on the menu and find guests are unable to specify allergies or preferences and as such should order a-la-carte - not really geared towards folks with allergies, perhaps kosher/halal, pescetarians or the ever-growing gluten-intolerant among us!
We choose instead to get three starters and a main to share. Deciding on the octopus, molecular, and shrimp starters and the pork chicharron's main. Even though we specified we'd be sharing everything, the octopus and molecular starters arrived simultaneously, and they had to hold off bringing the shrimp as we were still finishing our second plate. The octopus was good, well cooked and a nice texture added when you got lucky and had a crunchy piece of corn alongside a bite - but there was too much of the heavy sauce in our opinion. Next the molecular seafood starter, which combined again octopus, salmon, tuna and a whitefish in a ceveiche-like marinade - this was delicious, and definitely our favored starting dish; the marinade/sauce was spicy and fresh and those delicious corn kernels again. Finally the shrimp came, it was really a huge prawn circle-wrapped in layers of ribbon-like batter. This was tasty as well, though we both found the brown sauce too sweet, but the alternate green corn source flavorful - our complaint here was with the presentation and serving of this dish on a cutting board. It's an extremely messy dish, and I love messy food, but the cutting board isn't suited for a dish as such, with bits n' pieces flying everywhere (I've included a picture of some of the remains). Instead I think a dish with some kind of edge, to be used as a border against the flying debris, would be better.
The pork chicharron's main ended up being the highlight of the meal - but we're lucky we shared, as this would've been far too much for a single diner. Delicious and melt-in-your-mouth pork covered in a tasty sweet & tangy sauce and topped with crunchy julienned apple slaw.
Finally, the service slipped again when we had to wait about fifteen minutes after requesting our bill. They also don't take Amex, which in my opinion is fine for a low cost restaurant but not really for places located in major cities with allusions to fine dining.
All-in-all, Mezcla is a thoroughly "OK" joint.
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