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| - As recommended by our hotel concierge, La Fabrique was very much the exact restaurant we were looking for visiting from Denver, Colorado.
Our request to our hotel concierge of ANYTHING in Montreal needed to meet our criteria: Local, non-tourist, new, the perfect feel for Montreal, young, hip, swanky but not snobby, and fair priced - but not cheap.
We made reservations for 6:00pm as we wanted to make it to the fire works for the Montreal High Lights Festival that Friday evening downtown.
We parked our rental Yaris on the street right out front on St-Denis. The interior was of modern browns, plastic fishing boat seats and exposed red brick blending very well together. The open central kitchen organized of silver cooking utensils, blackened cooking grills and clear plastic containers of fresh ingredients filled the narrow restaurant with a wonderful aroma.
My girlfriend ordered a Shiraz - 25cl of wine [about two glasses] and I ordered their Quebec Wheat Ale. Very good recommendations.
Before our appetizer arrived, complimentary grilled French bread with a large jar of sweet pickles and homemade butter is what we nibbled on. As I love pickles, I was already in seventh heaven.
As we were not able to read the French menu, our waiter helped running to another waitress for translation. Soon, our wonderful dinning neighbors also stepped in to decipher the menu. We settled on the stuffed pigs feet type egg rolls as our appetizer. The inside was a sweet hot creamy mixture on a bed of julienne apples. Just enough for two.
My girlfriend ordered the Veel Cheeks on thick perfectly cooked turnip slices. Topped with whole steamed carrots and a very nice gravy/sauce. I ordered the Special: Pork and Scallops with mashed potatoes, a potato type bread and a wonderful gravy/sauce. Both of our dishes were perfectly prepared.
The atmosphere was casual and full of conversation. The large back area and table filled with a surprise birthday party followed by the group singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy.
Our waiter, waitress and neighboring patrons made our "outsider and visiting" experience more of a local and welcoming experience. Everyone was very helpful and the food was better than expected. I really hope my Non-Canadian experience helped with deciding to visit La Fabrique. I really really enjoyed it.
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