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| - This was a great experience, from beginning to end. My boyfriend had gone to Montreal (from NYC) for a bachelor party a while back, and being foodies, the boys had tried to get a reservation, to no avail.
So, when we headed up to Montreal with friends for Labor Day, we made reservations three weeks in advance for Saturday night.
Located in the Fairmont hotel, the restaurant itself looks less fancy than I would have thought - very hotel restaurant-y. Yet the service and food was excellent, from beginning to end.
Appetizer: They first brought each of us a small bite of salmon, which was unexpected, and as good as a small, uncooked piece of salmon can be. For the actual appetizer, I ordered the asparagus wrapped in goat cheese. It was TINY but unbelievably good.
Main: Two of us ordered the blackened cod, which was excellently cooked - the fennel puree, carrots and asparagus on the dish were delicious (and I've never had a delicious carrot before). My boyfriend had the arctic char, which came with a sauce so good that we were almost licking the plate at the end. The veal, ordered by our fourth, was also excellent (or so he said).
Dessert: In between our entrees and dessert, they brought out a little fruit cuppy thing, which everyone was split on. Not the best, but certainly not bad. If anything did detract from the experience, it was the desserts. We had a tiramisu (which was good), two types of chocolate cake (both just really okay) and a strawberry mousse cake that some enjoyed, but overall was not a big hit.
Coffee came with 3 different types of sugar, shaved chocolate and delicious whipped cream. I was in heaven.
The waiters, maitre d and sommelier were wonderful and seemed to genuinely enjoy having us there. As we were leaving (we were the last group to leave), they wrapped some chocolate orange peel in a napkin for us, while one waiter profusely apologized to us - it took a while to realize that he was upset that my boyfriend at one point picked up our wine bottle to pour us another round and that he himself hadn't been quick enough on the draw.
Overall, it was a wonderful, delicious experience.
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