French – ohdenny

Marché de la Villette – Montreal Series

January 9, 2015 Posted in Canadian, Food Reviews, French, Montreal, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Marche de la Villette was recommended by my sister because of their soupe à l’oignon (aka French Onion Soup) so we had to give it a try. Located in Old Montreal, this eatery is super popular. We travelled down to Old Montreal twice on our visit and even in the late afternoon, there was not a spare seat in sight. Having a little patience, we found a table.

Their French Onion Soup comes in this cute bowl, with the cheese oozing on the sides. The soup itself is rich and creamy, and very flavourful. I’m not fond of very creamy soups but sharing amongst the three of us it was just enough to go around.

We also ordered the Quiche Lorraine, the pastry is nice (although harder than I’m used to) but the filling was moist.

Keeping it a bit light, we also ordered Pate Sandwich, being in Montreal and all I had to order it. Coming in a baguette roll, the pate was delicious although I’d prefer if the bread was warm or toasted as it was a chilly day on our visit.

Impressions

To be honest, it wasn’t amazing but above average I would say but it definitely a lovely dining experience in Old Montreal.

Marché de la Villette (Menu)

Baguette & Cie – Quebec City Series

September 26, 2014 Posted in Canadian, Food Reviews, French, Quebec City, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

We came across Baguette & Cie along our way back to the hotel on our last day in Quebec City. It was absolutely freezing that day, wind chill and even flurries. As we were a little bit famished we saw this cozy looking bakery, what actually attracted us to this place other than it being conveniently just minutes away from our hotel was that it sold hot soup. Soup on a blistering cold day is all you would ever want and is it ever so satisfying.

Their Clam Chowder is creamy and yet still smooth to the taste and has a lovely aroma to it. Flavour-wise it’s delicate balance of ingredients makes it the perfect winters meal. The only thing I guess I would have liked is if the bread was toasted/warmed just a tad.

If you’re looking for something a bit lighter, the Vegetable Soup also has amazing flavours. The chunky vegetables make it a pretty satisfying meal or snack (if you prefer).

Impressions

Baguette & Cie not only serve soup but of course bread as well and in addition they offer muffins and pastries, hot drinks, sandwiches and desserts plus their apparently renowned chilli! I’d definitely recommend stopping by.

Baguette & Cie
217 rue Saint-Paul
Quebec QC G1K9K9

Café Buade – Quebec City Series

August 29, 2014 Posted in American, European, Food Reviews, French, Italian, Quebec City, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Café Buade was our first meal in Quebec City, after arriving by train from Montreal. Already lunch time, the Old Quebec City was packed full of people and tourists (like me!), we finally found a restaurant that looked quaint and food that was reasonably priced.

Service here was great actually, and even though they do speak in French initially (of course), they do respond in English without much hesitation. Probably because it’s a tourist hotspot, but it puts us at ease nonetheless.

The food here has a mix of Italian, French and your burgers, steaks and grills.

We ordered one of their grills, which comes with coleslaw, fries and topped with a BBQ gravy and peas. The gravy was quite bland on first impressions, and it was in dire need of pepper. The fries were also a tad on the dry side of things, although super crispy as you can see. Overall, I found it to be a very average dish.

Their Salmon salad is quite fresh , with their salmon, capers and onions with a dressing. Not particularly my type of dish but it’s not bad if you like salmon and capers.

Their Hamburger steak, served with sautéed onions, vegetables and your choice of a side and sauce (I chose mash and gravy) was a decent meal. Hamburger patty moist but the mash potato was lacking in pepper, creaminess and smoothness you would often find in a good mash. It doesn’t leave a lasting impression but it does fill you up.

Impressions

Overall, our dining experience at Café Buade can be summed up with just a few words. Very average. From our meals, I couldn’t think of any highlights or anything that stood out in anyway, other than that you’d get a decent feed here. If you’re here for a limited time, like we were, I’d probably suggest finding another restaurant to dine at.

Café Buade (Menu)
31 Rue Buade
Quebec City QC G1R

Eggspectation – Montreal Series

May 30, 2014 Posted in Canadian, French, MontrealLeave a comment

From our hotel on a mission to find somewhere good to eat, we somehow ended up in front of Eggspectation. As their name suggests, eggs are their specialty and they have quite a diverse selection of dishes to choose from even beyond just eggs of course. Such as sandwiches, salads and burgers for breakfast and lunch. Somehow when we decided on our breakfast meals, we all ended up ordering almost the same dishes with slight variations.

The Veggie Omelette looked great, and has wonderful flavour from the mushrooms, spinach and onion. It’s served with Lyonnaise style potatoes which is a French originated dish with pan fried thinly sliced potatoes. I found the potatoes to be warm but not hot that seemed to possibly have been left on the plate waiting for omelettes to be cooked.

I love how most North American restaurants allow you to choose how the eggs are cooked. I find it quite scarce in Melbourne to find a place like that as it’s usually just offered as scrambled. The Eggspectation’s The Classic comes with two (any-style) eggs with the Lyonnaise potatoes and a choice of bacon, sausages or ham and served with baked beans and toast. As pictured, we ordered the sausages and they are quite stock standard sausages. Scrambled eggs were moist but needed a bit of salt and pepper to give it life. Otherwise, I’d say it was a decent meal.

Being in Montreal, you have to try their famous Montreal Smoked Meat, so we ordered the Montrealer which comes with your choice of two (any-style) eggs, the famous smoked meat, pickles, toast and fruit and of course potatoes which were noted as french fries but they came out similar to the Lyonnaise potatoes served in the other two dishes (*shrugs*). I found the smoked meat to be fantastic, along with the oozy poached eggs that just need a sprinkling of black pepper. Again the potatoes were a bit cold, but other than that it was a great meal.

Impressions

Eggspectations’ Second floor is wonderful in its atmosphere, with a industrial like feel but modernised. However, I found their service though is a bit sparse. Food-wise, the dishes were about average which was a slight disappointment for one of our few breakfasts’ in Montreal but you never know until you try.

Eggspectation
1313 Boulevard De Maisonneuve West
Montreal QC H3G

Cafe Crepe – Toronto Series

March 8, 2014 Posted in Food Reviews, French, Restaurant Reviews, TorontoLeave a comment

Cafe Crepe on Queen St, Toronto was highly recommended to me by my sister and it appears very popular amongst the locals. I love crepes because you can eat them with something sweet or savoury but also because they are like pancakes but ultra thin and light but with a hint of sweetness and buttery flavour.

Other than their specialty crepes, they also serve Breakfast Baguettes which are basically baguettes with egg, tomato, lettuce, basil and bacon with tomato sauce as a side. It’s quite lovely, with the lightness of the egg and overall feels fresh for breakfast that doesn’t bog you down.

The Europa Ham and Egg crepes are on the salty side but light and delightful. I love the thinness of the crepes, just a bit crisp and although the filling isn’t as generous as I would like, I still found it satisfactory.

I love spinach and feta so I had to order the Spinach and Feta cheese crepe, again the crepes are just perfection. Not too floury or buttery and thin enough. The saltiness of the melting feta balances against the fresh spinach. Again, it’s not a heavy breakfast but it does fill you up.

Impressions

Cafe Crepe isn’t the most generous with their dishes but they are incredibly tasty and that’s why people keep coming back. If you want fantastic crepes, of the savoury or sweet kind, this is the place because they have so many varieties to choose from.

Cafe Crepe
246 Queen St W
Toronto ON M5V2Z5

A La Bouffe Bar & Bistro

November 29, 2013 Posted in European, Food Reviews, French, Restaurant Reviews, South YarraLeave a comment

A La Bouffe on Toorak Rd, South Yarra is one of the many French restaurants around these parts of town. I was trying to pick a good one for a special occasion and was deciding between France Soir and A La Bouffe but saw a string of negative comments surrounding France Soir lately. Not particularly due to the food itself but the service being subpar. With A La Bouffe also offering a Lunch Specials menu where you can order two courses (a pick of Entrees, Mains and Desserts) for $27 or $35 with a glass of wine and coffee it seemed too good to pass up.

A La Bouffe is a small, stylish restaurant that feels cosy yet sophisticated. Their menu is extensive and although the lunch specials menu opts for a smaller selection from their menu, it offers a diverse range of meals to cater to all.

Feeling a bit lucky we ordered the Soup Of The Day (Soupe Du Jour), on the Sunday that we dined on they served an Asparagus Soup. Creamy, but more so subtle taste of asparagus that lingers on the tongue. A pleasant soup, and with a sprinkling of black pepper it makes it pop. The asparagus pieces still have some bite to them which adds texture. Some may prefer it to have a bit more salt seasoning on it, but I find that sometimes withholding salt makes for a very nice starter.

The Huîtres de Coffin Bay aka 3 Natural Oysters from Coffin Bay was fresh, and tasted like the sea. What appears to be a vinaigrette of some sort or a balsamic vinegar in the little cup isn’t something I’ve tried with oysters before. Interesting taste with it but probably wouldn’t do that again.

The Saumon De Tasmanie or otherwise known as Oven Baked Salmon with Crispy Potatoes & Pesto Vinaigrette was a lovely main course. I adore Pesto, it’s a fantastic marinade, flavouring, sauce etc because it’s just so fresh and having it with salmon always goes down a treat. The slight downside to the dish was I found the salmon to be a bit overdone, it was cooked all the way through. I definitely prefer my salmon to be a bit undercooked so the inside can slowly cook whilst you’re eating and then it won’t taste as dry. On the bright side, the salmon skin was extra crispy which was lovely. A fresh dish that was unfortunately let down by the salmon.

A La Bouffe’s Hachis Parmentier (French Sheppard Pie) comes out straight from the oven, steaming hot with a side of salad. I couldn’t quite tell what’s the difference from an English Sheppard’s Pie or any other countries version. The fluffiness of the mash potatoes was certainly the highlight, along with the cheesy top. The mince meat deep inside was flavourful, maybe a tad under salted (a bit of pepper would be great too). Very filling I must say.

The waiter recommended the Poulet Basquaise which is basically chicken cooked in a tomato, capsicum and garlic sauce served with a side of pesto mash. The tomato based soup was fantastic, packed full of flavour that worked so well with the chicken. I could really have that sauce on anything it was so good. Again, unfortunately it has a big downside, the chicken was definitely overcooked. I know sometimes restaurants like to be safer than sorry and especially with poultry but I don’t remember a time when I’ve ordered a piece of chicken that had been so dry. Luckily they were generous with the sauce as it was definitely needed to complement the chicken but it really shouldn’t happen in a place like this.

The pesto mash was stunning. Creamy, buttery and that pesto flavour just exploding in your mouth. A mash that I would like to find a recipe of because it was cooked to perfection.

For dessert we ordered the Crème Brûlée A L’orange & Cointreau. Translation, Crème Brûlée with orange and Cointreau that is torched on your table for that extra effect. For $15, it’s asking for a lot but it feels worth its price. The custard base is so silky smooth and creamy with the hint of orange flavour and the nice crunchy sugar topping gives it a nice crunch. One of the best Crème Brûlée’s I’ve tried but that’s not really saying much as I haven’t ordered that many before!

Impressions

A La Bouffe’s dishes are tasty and might be worth it’s price for the lunch specials. Points are knocked off for the overcooked salmon and chicken. I could overlook one overcooked dish but two were definitely way over which was a bit disappointing. I’d like to say we dined on an off day as many diners have had better experiences that we have had but I really don’t know. The flavours of the dishes are highlights for me. Would I dine again? It’s a maybe for now.

A La Bouffe Bar & Bistro (Menu)
268 Toorak Rd
South Yarra VIC 3141

Le Lapin Saute – Quebec City Series

September 6, 2013 Posted in Canadian, Food Reviews, French, Quebec City, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Le Lapin Saute is this little cafe/restaurant/brunch eatery on rue du Petit-Champlain just on the outskirts of the inner walls of Old Quebec City. They seem to specialise in Rabbit cuisine which I’ve never really tried previously so it made it all the more tempting to try. We ate here for breakfast/almost lunch and it’s a very cute homely shop on this small but bustling street.

I ordered a rabbit dish (of course) that comes with scrambled eggs, rabbit rillette, crisp potato slices, cheese, mushrooms, bread, homemade jam and fruit. This was a large dish, probably best shared between two.

The rabbit has a light texture, and similar to a pate, it’s wonderfully soft and shredded very thinly. A delight to eat, and probably not very good for you. The scrambled eggs were also light and just cooked to perfection, buttery and simply how it should be. The hard cheese melts ever so slightly against the just cooked eggs, but still retains its shape, and eating those crunchy chips as well. Wonderful. My first experience trying rabbit and rilletes and it leaves a positive impression.

The mushroom soup here is also packed full of flavour (I think this was the soup of the day), creamy and fantastic on a nice cold winters day. Not too creamy though as some soups can be. Really tasty.

This cheesy little thing is their Casserole au Gratin with scrambled eggs, rabbit, bacon, onions confit, potatoes, hollandaise sauce, and of course cheese. I loved this, just out of the oven nice and warm. Perfect for winter, and absolutely satisfying.

Impressions

Le Lapin Saute is simply a gem in Old Quebec. I’d put this as a must visit during your stay there. Rabbit as its specialty but everything else is just wonderfully delicious as well. I can’t recommend it enough for a Canadian-French meal.

Le Lapin Saute (Breakfast Menu)

52 rue du Petit-Champlain
Québec QC G1K4H5

Le Chic Shack – Quebec City Series

August 16, 2013 Posted in Canadian, Food Reviews, French, Quebec City, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Le Chic Shack in Old Quebec is one of those trendy Burger joints aka gourmet fast food. In the old part of Quebec City, I found it pretty difficult to find a reasonable priced meal for dinner. That and it was too bloody freezing to take more than half an hour to look around at whats good. We eventually stumbled upon le Chic Shack and after checking out the menu it seemed like a decent place to dine in. Like a Fast Food eatery, you order at the register. Menu is painted on the walls, along with menus at the tables and at the register. We weren’t particular hungry so opted for smaller, lighter options.

As you can see they add stickers to their dishes, this particular burger at le Chic Shack is called the La Chic Poulette, which includes Grilled chicken breast, cheddar, arugula, red onion, tomato, pickles, remoulade and brioche bun. The bun here is a tad well done, but crunchy it is. The chicken is well cooked, not tough like some grilled chicken can be and the dressing is much needed otherwise it’d be a big too dry for my liking. Overall, it’s a great little burger but definitely on the pricier side of things at $11.

Pardon my memory but I believe this was the Le Shack aka Beef, Gruyère cheese, Red-ale braised beef, tomato, pickles, red onion and horseradish aioli with their brioche bun. The cheesy goodness on the beef is mouth watering. I love it. A typical burger but made to near perfection. $11

You can order chips as a side, $4 for small or $6 for large with a choice of normal or sweet potatoes. I’m not a big fan of sweet potato fries because they are commonly too soft and not crunchy enough for me to consider them chips, so it’s more than likely I’ll order normal potato fries. The fries here are salted well, not too much. Some places will over season chips with their salt and it’s a majorly off putting. The chips here are nice and crunchy, and just the right size. I love crispy chips and here they are done reasonably well.

Being Quebec, I couldn’t not order their poutine. What they call La Fumee is basically their thick cut chips mashed slightly (crispy still) accompanied by smoked meat, chic sauce, cheese curds, swiss cheese, pickled onions and fresh herbs. Their sauce is this kinda sweet, mayonnaise like sauce. I loved their chunky bit crispy chips and eating them with the smokey tender meat and stringy cheese it just works well together. Looking at it, you may think for $11 + tax, it isn’t worth it but I can say it is very satisfying because of all that starch, carbs and protein. Adding just a little bit of tabasco, as you do, is all that is needed to liven up what is already a great meal.

Impressions

I liked Le Chic Shack for what it is, serving burgers with interesting ingredients and some sourced locally and of course, great tasting! I do recommend it, probably more so for lunch. I prefer their poutines to their burgers but that’s just a personal preference because I love me some chips (Potato head)

Le Chic Shack
15 Rue Du Fort
Quebec QC G1R3Z8

Juliette et Chocolat – Montreal Series

June 14, 2013 Posted in Canadian, Desserts, Food Reviews, French, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

On our last day to Montreal, we didn’t really know where to go so we just walked around. After a couple of hours exploring, we found Juliette & Chocolat. It wasn’t even near lunch time, but this place seemed so inviting for morning ~~tea~~ cocoa. Juliette et Chocolat specialises in all things chocolate, and they certainly do it well and with flair.

Being Montreal, we had to try some crepes, and with chocolate, bananas and peanut butter, this sounded like a dream come true.

The crepes were very thin and light, with the creaminess of the peanut butter and rich chocolate. It was simply fantastic. The slightly sweet bananas gave it a freshness and well it doesn’t cut through the richness, but it certainly doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed by the sweetness. I loved it.

I had to order the Passionfruit petit pot, I was thinking about the Hazelnut pot but I really do love the blend of passionfruit and chocolate. It’s simply amazing. As you can see it’s multi layered, with the passionfruit layer on top, then a layer of cocoa ganache, and at the bottom a dark chocolate and passionfruit mousse. It’s so light and just melts in your mouth. Fantastic mousse. The passionfruit coulis was sweet as expected but the flavour of it just works so well with the mousse and ganache. Ah, it was chocolate heaven.

As a drink, we ordered one of the warm hot chocolates with whipped cream. It was definitely creamy and rich but oh so chocolately. I think after this we had an overdose of chocolate but very satisfied in the end.

Impressions

Juliette et Chocolat was definitely a highlight for places to try in Montreal. It does chocolate very well, their crepes, desserts and drinks. It really is fantastic for chocolate lovers. I’d definitely make time to try other things on the menu if I ever go back to Montreal.

Juliette et Chocolat

3600 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Montreal QC H2X2V4

Luxbites

December 7, 2012 Posted in Confectionery, Desserts, Food Reviews, French, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews, South YarraLeave a comment

I heard so many good things about LuxBite that I had to force myself (not too hard, obviously) to make my way to their South Yarra location. LuxBite serves primarily sweet desserts and confectionary, but they also serve coffee, breakfast and lunch too! What makes LuxBite slightly different is that they have a slight Asian influenced to some of their desserts, for example one of their macarons has a Kaya filling. Kaya is a Malaysian term for Coconut Jam and homemade Kaya is absolutely delicious.

Their store is quite close by to South Yarra station, so it makes it convenient for those without cars or car-averse.

In the above picture, hopefully you can see their selection of macaron flavours. There are your popular flavours such as Salted Caramel and Hazelnut have more interesting flavours like Rose and Ribena Lemonade.

Their store has quite a number of sweet delights to choose from, with many having that French flair ala Elcairs as shown at the bottom of the image.

It was really hard to choose a couple of desserts to try because they have so many on offer! We were still heading towards the city for the day so I couldn’t choose anything that needed to go to the fridge quickly so that helped.

As shown above, we chose the Chocolate Hazelnut Macaron. It’s this plus sized macaron with chunks of hazelnut pieces and a hazelnut and chocolate ganache. I quite enjoyed the macaron, it’s as you would want from a macaron. Crispy, slightly chewy and sweet. The hazelnut flavour of the chocolate and nuts really helped blend everything together. A real treat.

We chose the interesting Lemonade Ribeena and Kaya Toast macarons. The Kaya Toast macaron has kaya as it’s filling. I think it’s homemade, but their kaya was unfortunately too sweet for my liking. I would even have preferred the Kaya jam jars you can buy from an Asian grocer with pandan. Even that jam is less sweet. For those that haven’t tried Kaya before may like it though but for me it lacked the coconut flavour and was way too sweet to be enjoyable.

The Lemonade Ribena on the otherhand was very interesting. It has this cream based lemonade flavour filling but inside there is what I believe (or remember) a small Ribena jelly cube. The Ribena jelly was delicious and made that macaron one of my favourites because it had such a pleasant flavour and was different to things I’ve tried before.

Last on my list was LuxBite’s Lychee Raspberry Macaron. I love all things Lychee too so I couldn’t help to be intrigued by a Lychee and Raspberry Macaron, plus it looked amazing.

Inside this macaron, there is a whole lychee, but the salmon pink filling as you can see in the image was also slightly Lychee flavoured. The combination of the sweetness of Lychee along with the sourness of the icing sugar dusted Raspberries worked a treat. It melded together really well as the freshness of the Raspberries cut through that sweetness of basically everything else. A joy to eat.

Impressions

LuxBite impresses with its well crafted pieces that look amazing and taste great too. It’s no wonder people keep coming back for more. I really do recommend giving LuxBite a try.

LuxBite (Menu)

38 Toorak Road
South Yarra VIC 3141