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| - I finally got around to eating at L'Académie this Friday. The restaurant gives off this air of Zen grandeur and European opulence at the same time while serving a fusion of Italian and French fusion cuisine. What it is really is a lot of pretentiousness and posturing, form over function, appeal over taste.
To begin with I couldn't believe the menu or more to the point how 30 years ago it was. What self-respecting fine dining institution with any sense of modernity still serves Coquille St-Jacques, Escargot with garlic butter and Parmesan Fondue as entrée? Really? In 2008? Tortellini Cardinal is not fine dining it's now been reduced to cafeteria food. All good plates when well prepared, but preparations that are passé and no longer original.
I started with the Insalata Italiana or Italian Salad.
Lovely greens, very fresh and some cherry tomatoes that tasted just awful and sticks of Parmesan Regiano with a nice Balsamic vinaigrette. Most restaurants drown their salads in vinaigrette, L'Académie seems to fear this very same thing by not putting enough dressing on the salad and the salad tasted dry.
Then as my Primo Piatto, or Plat de Resistance
I went for the Filet Mignon with a Port reduction. I'm just a sucker for steak. It was served with potatoes that had been fried whole and some veggies. The only thing that was remotely good was the Port reduction. Ok maybe the corn cob which tasted a bit funny because it was obviously not from Québec soil.
The Broccoli bouquet was undercooked and completely tastless. The carrot was also seriously undercooked. There's a difference between Al Dente and undercooked; a chef should know such a simple difference.
The Potatoes... how can a chef screw up a staple like potatoes? We all eat potatoes, we can expect better than fried whole potatoes that have absolutely no seasoning or taste, are dry and crunchy; just so wrong.
Last but no least on the hit list, the Filet Mignon. Now correct me if I'm wrong because I'm no steak expert but I eat enough steak in steakhouses and consider myself a bit of a connoisseur, but Filet Mignon shouldn't be marbled with fat and nerving right? Well I had to chainsaw this Filet Mignon and after three bites I was done.
That was it. Three bites of my steak and one half of a potato and I couldn't eat anymore. I was beyond disappointed. I knew I wasn't stepping into a high end restaurant, but it does hold up a promise of fine dining. This was ridiculous, flavourless and pretty much revolting.
Desert... there was no desert;
I couldn't take any more disappointment this evening. Why is it restaurants or chefs can't prepare simple things like a steak? This is Montreal, a world renowned steak town and this supposedly fine dinning restaurant can't prepare a decent steak? When I try out new restaurants I go for the simple items on the menu, because that's the true test of a chef. If I go to an Italian restaurant and I order the ever classic and simple Alfredo and I can taste that it comes from a starch filled envelope, when it's quite possibly the easiest sauce to prepare, I will never set foot in that restaurant again; as I will do with L'Académie.
A generous 1 outta 5.
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