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| - This was our favorite restaurant (of 4 we visited) in Montreal. As others have noted, the menu emphasizes local Quebecois ingredients with contemporary French technique and lots of creative farm to table choices. There's a small but well curated list of wines by the glass (my husband barely drinks, so I can't comment on bottles). The location in Old Town is convenient to many hotels and sights, but the restaurant itself is on a quiet street, and the outdoor terrace, tucked behind an iron gate, is a very sweet place to sit.
I was puzzled by the complaints about service--we visited early-ish on a Friday night, so things were not too crowded, and we had consistently excellent, friendly, attentive service. The woman who took our orders may have been the sommelier--she was very knowledgeable about the wine list and recommended a pairing that was fantastic, just right for everything we ordered. I can't emphasize this enough, in response to the other comments: At least when we visited, SERVICE WAS THE BEST WE ENCOUNTERED IN MONTREAL, FROM THE START TO THE FINISH OF OUR MEAL. And this in a town where restaurant servers seem, on the whole, to be a pretty professional bunch.
We ordered four dishes: a cheese plate with two local cheeses that were terrific, a generous green salad that we easily shared, sweetbreads in a coffee-based sauce, and the house-made agnoletti wth guinea hen confit. All were fantastic. I consider sweetbreads to be a true test of a kitchen's abilities: they are delicious when well prepared but an obvious disaster if the chef cuts corners on the prep or doesn't know what s/he is doing. These were spot-on. Ditto the housemade pasta, with a light but creamy sauce and that fantastic confit guinea hen. Portions are closer to the tapas end of things, but given their richness and flavor (and the crazy super-sizing of meals at some other Montreal places we visited), that was fine with us.
We ordered two desserts: a plate centered on a delicious, deeply flavored rhubarb semifreddo, and another featuring white chocolate, lime and sesame. The latter was a little subdued for my husband's taste; more acidic notes would have livened things up a bit, but it was still delicious, just subtle.
Highly recommended. I think this place deserves another look, and would be willing to bet they have taken Yelpers' service complaints to heart. This is great food, fairly priced, with a terrific front of the house staff.
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