I think I was wrong to assume that if 'steak frites' was the name of the restaurant, it would be one of the BEST steak frites I would ever have.
We arrived around 5pm-ish for an early dinner. The space was a gorgeous second floor restaurant with a floor to ceiling window that overlooks the street.
The menu was pretty straight forward offering a choice of 5-6 appetizers and mains. Ofcourse, I had to have the name sake so I ordered the 9 oz. steak ($23) with frites. A 7 oz. steak is also available for $20. In addition to the steak, we ordered a duck confit main ($22), grilled shrimp appetizers ($14)and a side of mushrooms ($5) for the table.
Each main came with a nicely dressed salad and fresh hot buns which were both excellent. Off to a good start. The steak came on a bed of crispy green beans and all-you-can-eat fries. Our first round of fries were cold and not that crispy. A choice of sauce on the side comes with each order of steak - pepper, mushroom or dijonnaise. I chose the mushroom. The steak itself was pretty flavourless and blah, even though it was ordered medium rare. It just lacked any wow factor. A second round of fries came which were fresh and hot. I had a taste of the duck and it was excellent, a tad salty but infinitely better than the steak.
Service was alright, a little slow at times. We waited a long time for our second round of fries and had to flag the waiter down for things like ketchup and mayo.
We liked that we could bring our own wine with no corkage fee, and there is a SQA very close by.
I'm pretty sure Montreal has better steak frites out there so I'll definitely be seeking out other places.