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| - Quelle dommage... as the French would say. Like watching a gorgeous souffle collapse before your eyes, this was the experience at Queue De Cheval. Brace yourselves.
A business partner in Montreal wanted to take some colleagues and me to dinner after a particularly successful event we co-sponsored. He was quite proud to take us to this steakhouse proclaiming it to be the best steak in the city. We walked in hungry and wide-eyed, the smell of the cigar bar pleasantly (really) entering the lobby/butcher shop in the front of the restaurant.
The first thing I took note of was the meat case that sold filet mignon for $79/lb. Outback steakhouse this is not.
We were seated upstairs. The restaurant seemed relatively empty for 9pm on a Friday night, so we got a very nice table by the front window overlooking the bronze horse statue (queue de cheval is French for The Horse's Tail after all). The decor and ambiance is beautifully done. Acres of rich woods. 'Bookcases' piled to the ceiling with wine bottles. Artwork adorned the walls that befit the restaurant's name. The centerpiece is a huge stainless steel funnel that encompasses the cast-iron grill on the main floor. A spiral staircase encircles this chimney to get you to the dimly lit, warm and rustic second floor.
Our pleasant waiter handed us our menus and then brought our first round of drinks. He went on to explain the steaks on the menu like any other high end steakhouse. They have corn fed beef from Colorado, grass fed beef from Nebraska and 'kobe' beef from Australia. Kobe can only be from Japan, so I was a little suspicious. He showed us several cuts of beef on a platter as well as what can only be described as a mermaid tail. Jamaican lobster tails that were 2lbs on their own. They also have Maine lobsters starting at 3.5lbs and going up to 6. Price of entry for these? $65/lb.
Enjoying our beers, our garcon came back and took our orders. The table ordered 3 Canadian filet mignons ($38) while I ordered a grass fed, bone on NY Strip ($53). At the waiter's behest, we ordered 3 sides for the table - Asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. The sides were from $12 to $15 each.
Standing on ceremony, Pablo brought us our uncooked steaks to look at, telling us they would be served to us in about 30 minutes. Yep, they were steaks. Thanks bro.
Finally, our food arrived. A steak on a plate, adorned with nothing but a split bulb of roasted garlic. Nothing more. Here is where things went horribly, horribly wrong (well, relatively - no one died). I cut, nay, SAWED into my steak. I was not entirely impressed with how difficult it was to get through this meat. At first I thought it was overcooked, but it just turned out to be tough. More shocking were when the sides arrived. The asparagus plate held 8 small spears. The garlic mashed came in a small cast-iron urn holding perhaps two small servings and lastly a cup of wet looking mushrooms.
I took my two allotted spears of asparagus and meager tablespoons of potatoes. The asparagus was simply grilled. TOO simply grilled. Unseasoned, bland, and shockingly overcooked. At $2 a spear, pretty ridiculous. The potatoes were genuinely good. The best thing on my plate. And that's sad. I didn't have any mushrooms as they just didn't appeal to me.
I continued to fight through my steak. The flavor was fine having been cooked to my requested medium-rare. However, It was woefully underseasoned and I added salt. But overall, it was tough, gristly and disappointing. If I were paying for the meal, I would have sent it back. I probably would have sent this steak back at a diner. I bit my tongue and smiled as I did not want to embarrass my host and his restaurant choice.
We left after coffee and this morning, my colleagues and I had breakfast and discussed the previous night's meal. I was glad to find I was not the only one wholly dissatisfied with their food.
I live in NY and have been to many a high end steak house there and elsewhere. They're all better. Hell, The Keg in Old Montreal was much better. I can fire a much more mouth watering steak from Whole Foods in my own backyard. Queue de Cheval seems to rest on pomp and circumstance, and sky high prices. It lacked substance entirely. I think some people will brainwash themselves to think they are eating amazing food just because the price is inflated. They should rename it The Horse's Ass. I've given them a single star. A reasonably priced restaurant with the same quality food, I would have given two. If you want to feel like a rock star, get a steak dinner at The Keg and then spend the money you would have squandered getting bottle service at one of the swank clubs nearby.
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