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| - Overrated could best sum up my experience at this restaurant. Let's start with the good. The decor is really nice, with a true feel of a French bistro. From the bar top to the booth, the ceiling to the tiles on the floor, the bottles of Ricard neatly lined up on the walls, this place looks, smells and sounds like a true French Bistro.
Now the food. It's not that it's bad. It's just that it lacks vibrance, and there are tons of little details which are wrong. For instance, I took the foie gras as an appetizer. I can not say it was totally bad, but it had a number of problems. First, it was glistening when I received it, as if the slice had been put into some kind of invisible jelly before being served. That definitely altered the texture which was more smoochy than a true foie gras that's been homemade (there is no way this one was, or the guy who made it should go back to cooking class). It was also a bit acid, and I have to say, lacked taste. My impression is that the chef ordered big foie gras ( more than 400g) which have a lot less taste and generate more loss than smaller ones.
My next dish was the sweetbread. One word: miserable portion. I cook sweetbread at home when I have people coming over and I know how much it costs here to buy them at butcher shop. Nothing like the price in France where it's considered an expensive meat. Here it's about one third the price for the same quantity. So it is beyond me why my plate only contained 3 little pieces each could be eaten in 2 times. This was a joke. The sauce was good (yet too salty) and the accompanying vegetables excellent (mushrooms, bok-choy and potatoes) but the meat was definitely missing. I hate that when a restaurant tries to hide that they're running out of a dish or don't serve decent portions.
Deserts were OK if uneventfull.
Service was not great. At all. Whoever the hostess is, she sure got one thing right from the French (I'm one, trust me I know my kind): she managed to get that face where she's smiling and look grumpy and positively unenchanted to see you. I watched her come and serve some tables during the lunch and she was seriously not happy to be here, yet managing to put that fake smile on herself that grumpy French waiters manage to get. The waiter we had was positively bored of serving and almost took offense when we asked him to give us water glass without ice. There is something screwed up in the work atmosphere of this restaurant and it has gotten to a point where patrons are beginning to notice.
The last, and the worst part of the meal, was the price. I am not shy to paying hefty prices for superior food. I go to gastronomical restaurants several times a year because I enjoy good food. Of course, I knew where I was going when coming into this place and knew it was not that kind of restaurant, however knowing the price tag in advance, I was expecting better. This place is absolutely over-rated. Their quality is so-so, the quantities are very small (when I order sweetbreads, I don't want a plate of vegetables, no matter how good these are) and their by-the-wine glass is a joke. What other place offer wine by glasses of 3 oz for the prize of a 5 oz (and of course the 5 oz is as much more expensive). The owner has understood that "French" in Toronto was a goldmine if you offered the ambiance and a minimum of know-how in the cooking and he's milking that cow like crazy. I have friends in the restaurant business and I know what small portions, sub-par quality and disgruntled staff means: either the place is in trouble to meet the rent (I'd be surprised here) or the owner is a voracious vulture who wants to make more money than the average restaurant economical model allow for and he's cutting on the patrons. That's what is happening here I believe.
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