I happened to be up in Montreal for my birthday and wanted something truly special to celebrate. When I was poking around on Yelp looking for a place I saw Bar & Boeuf and my favorite two little words: "tasting menu". Decision made.
Our very friendly and generally attentive waitress greeted us and hooked us up with menus and water. She didn't offer a cocktail and I didn't take the opportunity to just ask for one, which meant I did not have a manhattan on my birthday (sacrilege, I know!). It also meant it violated one of the best rules for life I've ever heard - every great meal should start with a great cocktail. That said, we glanced at the menu mostly because it was there, but we knew what wanted going in - bring on the tasting menu.
Unfortunately I can't remember each delicious dish we had, but I can say every one we had was an absolute hit - almost always triples and homers. The one thing that I did find odd about the overall experience was there were 7 courses but only 5 wine parings. While the dessert was just fine without it (a dish featuring an ice cream that defined the word creamy), the cheese course lacked a wine pairing and it was noticeably absent. The best dish by far was probably the appetizer, which was a "deconstructed caprese" for lack of a better way to describe it - a nice soft whipped buffalo milk with cherry tomatoes and basil - just outstanding.
The only small issue we had was as Anglophones in a predominately French speaking restaurant everyone kept trying to speak French to us before remembering that we only spoke English. I don't think this was an attempt to be snooty (snobby), more just they weren't expecting us. But the experience was still fantastic from start to finish, and it was a perfect way to spend a birthday.