Barbie's Bar & Grill

Note: This post will be one of my shortest. This restaurant is not worth my time!

During Christmas vacations, there was this huge snow storm that left us all stranded in Lachine at my mom's place. Anyhoot, we decided to eat out for dinner and well, Barbie's is a 3 minute walk so we went there. Bad, BAD idea.

Anyhoot, apparently, my cousin (who eats at good restaurants...) has been there a couple times because her and her husband have friends that live in Lachine. She never warned us :p

I won't go into details. We were all, I believe, disappointed. We ordered a pizza and the crust was not cooked through. The nachos had a tiny amount of store bought guacamole and salsa. Also, the ingredients leave a lot to be desired. Everything is frozen and thawed instead of being fresh. And it's not like they don't have the clientele!!! That place is pretty much always at least half full!!! And with the deck, they have at least 100 to 120 places in there. It's unfortunately quite the institution! Weird. 

The service was not much better. The water took a while to get to our large table. The food also. The waitress was also quite on the impolite side of thangs and obviously that was not appreciated! I'm sorry if you had a bad day, that sucks. But smile when you get to my table por favor!

Anyway, now, the scores.

Food: 4,5
Service: 5

Even if you're in Lachine (or Dorval), just please spend an extra 10$ and go to one of those nicer restaurants along the boardwalk  :)

Dans le noir

What??? It's pitch black! Hehehe!

A very good friend of mine invited me to eat there because she had bought coupons (oh, how I love coupons!). I was confused at first because I was thinking of going to O.Noir on Ste-Catherine but it was really Dans le noir ... also on Ste-Catherine. 

Anyhoot, you get there and there are two people behind a desk with cash machines, taking reservations and also, most importantly your order. This room is very bright. And then, your blind server comes to get you and asks you first if you want to go to the bathroom. So we did. And it's still lit enough for you to know where you're peeing :p Then: complete darkness. Like, complete.

It was a really weird experience! Obviously all your senses are heightened: everything is louder than usual. It was weird to hear so many voices and not see a soul.

I had the crab cake to start with. It didn't taste homemade, it was most likely bought frozen but still tasty. Then, I had the shrimp. THAT was homemade and very good. Cooked to perfection. It's rare that you get shrimp cooked so well in a restaurant, I find. For desert, I had the chocolate mousse. Again, it felt and tasted like it was store bought but it was still yummy!

The service was great, as you can see by the score. Our server was very nice and came by every chance he got to see how we liked the food, which was nice and well appreciated. He would touch your shoulder and tell you how to either give him your plate (and drink) or how to receive it. I was waiting for at least one boob graze but nothing! Hahaha! Good.

You definitely don't go there for the food, even though it's quite tasty. You go there for the experience! And what an experience it was! Eating your food, and having to touch it to see what's left on your plate is weird. But what to do when it's pitch black? You touch your damn food!

And now, the scores:

Food: 6.5

Service: 9,5

All in all, a great experience but personally, I don't think I'd go back. It was freaky in the dark. And touching my food wasn't my fave thing. It IS a great place to try though!

Sushi Crescent

Another lunch with my dad :) Yay! I was just going to enjoy lunch and not write a review but then, when the service started going waaaaaaay down, I just HAD to!

Anyhoot, this place is located on 2 floors, on Crescent near Ste-Catherine and has about, I'd say, 140 seats ish. It's very loud in there so I would suggest skipping it altogether if you're looking for some romantically romantic time with your better half (or just a date!).

To start off, it's so damn hard to park on Crescent. I'm sure most of you who have been ON Crescent know this seeing as it's always so darn busy! My dad actually got a spot right in front of the restaurant (lucky him!) but then turns out the guy in front of him was taking up two spots and so my dad payed for the wrong meter and tralala.... 8 years later, we actually got to go IN the restaurant :p

We were actually pretty lucky to get seats as it was lunch rush hour at 12:30. I had a great view: dirty windows. Ah man, it just gets to me when a restaurant dsont clean their windows! I mean, come oooon! Don't clean them at home, I don't care, but please clean them in your resto!

As I was saying, we sat down quite quickly and got our water glasses right away, which is a must in my book! The menu is pretty elaborate, with nigiris, cones, makis, hosomakis, tempura this, tempura that, etc. It has a lot of variety and that's great since, at lunch, you're paying 15,99$ to eat, well, all you can (I always take it as a challenge, which never turns out very nicely for my stomach). I found that the nigiri were really good and pretty much melted in my mouth. Always a good sign. The tempura shrimp (when they arrived, 5 years later, apparently they had a problem with the fryer...), were crispy and rather fluffly, which was great! I also really enjoyed the mango and avocado roll, the mango was really present in the maki and in my mouth! The fried zucchinis were good but not as good as other sushi places, namely Kanda, where I've been before. The teriyaki chicken and salmon were not very well presented but tasted OK. The other rolls were fine but with some, the seaweed was a tad hard and therefore it was hard for me and my teeth to chew through.

The service, wow, the service. And in this case, 'wow' is a bad thing. Shiz. They were good at first, meaning they got our first (out of something like 11) order right but then it went downhill. You could hear them around you: 'did you have this, did you have that?'. And of course, no orders were right. They might have gotten the table numbers mixed up, who knows... But it was a bad experience all around. At the end, it took us three (yes, THREE) tries to get our nigiri order (easy, 3 snapper) and finally... about 15 to 20 minutes later, they brought us those plus 2 salmon nigiri. And I was like whaaaat? We told you like 8 times what we wanted and you still manage to get it wrong? Pffff.

And now, the scores:

Food: 7
Service: 5 (they should definitely number the tables!!!)

It's good sushi in general, even though it's an all-you-can-eat but dsamn people, get the service right!!!

Satay Brothers

I convinced my cool (I LOVE her!) english teacher to write a review on her latest restaurant venture. This is what she had to say about Satay Brothers...

St-Jacques West is not exactly known for its trendy eateries, but the recent opening of the off-season location of the Satay Brothers’ might challenge this assumption.  During the summer months, the Satay Brothers operate an outdoor stall at the Atwater market.   Thankfully, curious customers and converts alike can now enjoy their carefully crafted buns or their tangy papaya salad during the cold months as well.

Although the space was probably not originally meant to welcome customers - this is the Brothers’ production kitchen after all - a fresh coat of paint and a few interesting posters give the space a certain flair.  There is just enough room to fit a little more than fifteen customers, and you might indeed have to share a long table with strangers.  This does make it feel strangely homey, yet it is also possibly not the best place for a romantic Friday night with your loved one.  Large curtains obscure the view, which gives the place a closed in feeling.   Urban renewal has not exactly reached this part of St-Henri , however, so the outside view consists in patrons lining up and a desolate looking park across the street.

The Satay Brothers’ menu is a mix of Asian inspired snacks and street food classics, along with a few weekly specials to keep things interesting.  On our first visit to this location, we sampled a few of the “classics”: beef and shrimp satays, pork belly buns and a papaya salad.  The seasoning for the shrimp is simple yet flavourful; the same can be said of the beef satays.  I would personally have loved to have a little bun on the side to layer up the satay, cucumbers and the spicy peanut sauce to get it all in one bite.  Ah! This gives me a reason to go back again!

The pork belly buns are THE dish that you should not miss out on.  The bun is shaped like a flat bread, but feels more like a steam bun you’d find in Chinatown.  It is light and fluffy, which clearly elevates this simple dish to another level.  It comes with a sauce that is reminiscent of hoisin and a few cucumber slices to give it a little crunch.  There is also a tofu version available, which is probably a great way to turn people on to tofu, though we have yet to try that.

The papaya salad is made of shredded pieces of green papaya with a lime dressing.  A few pieces of freshly chili pepper are added to give this dish a little quick or, in my case, to remind me that I’m very much of a white girl and that I can’t eat chili peppers without my eyes getting watery.

There is a short list of desserts, which unfortunately for me, all seem to contain coconut (not a fan!).  My guests seemed to enjoy their desserts, although both their taste and appearance were somewhat unusual.

The service is friendly and enthusiastic.  It seems that these guys enjoy the food produced in this kitchen and are more than happy to provide recommendations.  Customers are encouraged to order in several rounds, dim-sum-style, without the screaming cart ladies (phfew!).  It is occasionally difficult to attract the service staff’s attention, though this would not have been a problem if we hadn’t insisted on having just one more bun!

Food: 9/10

Service: 8/10

Given how this place quickly fills up, it may be a good idea to go for an early dinner unless you are planning to catch up with a long lost friend while waiting in line.  It is not possible to make reservations ahead of time.

Le Cercle

On the before last day of my internship at COOP HEC, my bosses decided to bring me to Le Cercle, the fine dining restaurant on the sixth floor of the HEC on Côte-Ste-Catherine. Thank you, bosses!!! It was such a nice surprise and such a great way to end my 6 week internship! Just lovely, really!

I would compare Le Cercle to Bistro Olivieri mainly because the menu changes every day and I think those are the two restaurants where you'll eat really well in Côte-des-Neiges. The decor is certainly not the same though: Le Cercle automatically feels fancier when you go through the large wooden door. The ceiling is quite high and the place is surrounded by huge panoramic windows, giving you a view of at least half the city.

I had the coconut cream with safran oil. Turned out to be very tasty but a tad granular. But still amazing! I would recommend it to anyone who loves coconut like I do. Then I had the beef stew. Very nice presentation in this little cast iron pot. It was maybe a tad too salty but very good nevertheless. It was surrounded by this little balls of goodness called acini di pepe and some very well seasoned button mushrooms. The tiny little pasta balls were just little pieces of heaven. Heaven I say! I was actually sad when I was done eating them :) I must say that I had ordered the duck at first but 5 minutes later, the waitress came back and told us there was no more of that.

The service was great, even with a full house (ok, I obviously did not take this picture at that time). The waitress came as soon as we sat down with some water and I didn't have to ask for it for the rest of the meal. She was very present, which was nice.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8,5

Service: 9

So little people know about this lovely restaurant in the HEC on Côte-Ste-Catherine. It's great!  Bring whoever you want to impress!

Chase

I met Isa at her work on Monkland one night this week to go to the restaurant. I knew what was coming: she wanted to go to Tavern again. I LOVE Tavern, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to try something different. So we walked a bit on Monkland and found Chase, a Lebanese restaurant with a terrasse.

The place itself seems very nice, with a two level terrasse and quite a lot of seats inside. Unfortunately, many smokers felt free to...smoke on the terrasse and well.. that wasn't fun during dinner! Anyhoot, at least I got her to want to eat elsewhere :p

We sat down and as soon as we did, we had water served, which is always appreciated. She also brought us a little appetizer (some marinated radishes, hot peppers, olives and pita bread). May I just say that the pita was served in a plastic basket from Dollarama!!! Oh, that was good. But so not :( How ghetto!!!

We already knew what we wanted by looking at the menu before coming in: the Machawi. It's a huge plate for two with salad, rice, 5 brochettes (2 shish taouk, 2 kafta kebab and 1 shish kebab) with some babaganoush and hummus. All of this for 31,99$. Not too bad. Actually very affordable for 2. I got the impression that the salad and the rice took too much room on the plate but isn't that always the case?

We waited quite a while for the food but in our case that wasn't so bad since we both had had late lunches. Anyway, the babaganoush was very tasty and well seasoned. Perfect, really. The hummus was good and silky but Isa thought it was a tad too salty. I thought it was perfect! We both agreed that the rice was blend but, really, when is it not. Ok, that's not true but, you know, when you order dishes like these, the rice is usually blend, no? The chicken was a tad on the dry side but the two other brochettes were great, very well seasoned and moist. 

The service was OK but not great. I mean, come on girl, wear something else than leggings and a tank top please! On top of it, she wasn't super friendly and was bitching quite a bit about having tod to move tables or when more customers came in. 

And now, the scores!

Food: an average of 7,25

Service: a generous 6

A good resto to go on a small budget and if you feel like lebanese food. Don't expect great service though.

Vua

I was talking to my friend Losalie about going to eat somewhere REALLY cheap and she suggested Vua on St-Denis. This is a relatively new resto since, you know, I haven't noticed it before. Hehe! It's right smack in the middle of quartier latin and all the action. It's a tiny place but packed with good flavours! There are about 10 seats inside and 14 outside. There's also a second floor I did not go and see.

You go in and it's full of people. FULL. But them vietnamese girls are quick! OK, I'm not saying us north americans are slow but come ooooon!!! It's like BAM here's a sandwich, BAM here's another one (yes, I'm aware I say 'Bam' a lot). You choose what kind of Banh Mi or sandwich and you can add extras like bacon or avocado for example. And it's so cheap. 7 inches=3,25$ and for 50 cents more, you get a 10 inch sandwich. Nice. That's my kind of lunch! Good and cheap ;) You don't like Banh Mi type sandwiches? That's ok! There's sushi, eggrolls, spring rolls and a bunch of other lovely asian dishes to choose from. I looooves me some asian food :)

I had the pulled chicken mix on a 7 inch Banh Mi. Th3 3,25$ includes onions, coriander, carrots, radishes, mayo and soya sauce. I thought the bread was a tad on the dry side but the whole thing was just so good and fresh tasting. It was like eating a salad in a sandwich :) As mentioned before, there are a lot of customers so everything is very fresh. They have a very high turnover so they don't really have a choice, which makes it all the more fresh!

I also had something that looked like a pogo. I hate pogos but this one seemed to be screaming out at me. Well, for one thing, it mentioned something about having shrimp in there. It was shrimp and chicken on a sugar cane. Meh. It was more dry than anything else and not super tasty. I tried taking a bite every 5 minutes or so to see if it'd get better, but sadly, no. I think once I started sucking on the sugar cane, I realized I should have just bought that; a sugar cane! 

We had a seat outside so it was really pleasant with the nice weather and the people passing by :) And it was also kind of weird that there's a Subway right beside it. It's like 'Asian Subway' and American Subway' :p

And now, the scores!

Food: 6,5 Damn, it's because of that darn asian pogo stick!

Service: 9 Quick and efficient, but we all know it's not a 'real' restaurant setting.

Go there for a quick bite and/or if you're poor ! Hahaha!

ps: I've decided that if I can't take pictures, I'm not posting any. I'm sick of taking someone else's pics or having to go on the restos' websites and 'stealing' theirs.

L'entrecôte St-Jean

I wanted to try a new resto with my dad when I met him for lunch the other day. He said he liked this place so I went along. It's very well located on Peel corner Maisonneuve and I think we saw 1 Lamborgini, 5 Porshes and a Mazaratti pass by. Needless to say, with all the expensive cars and the tv celebrities, this was a hotspot for people watching!

As soon as you come in, the owner immediately comes to say hello. She turned out to be VERY present.  Maybe a bit TOO present. You're done your water, BAM she's there. You're done your plate, BAM! I mean it's nice to have someone care for your needs in a resto, don't get me wrong, but it was a tad too much I think.

OK, so L'Entrecôte St-Jean has the simplest menu I've ever seen: either you have the table d'hôte, which is the soup or salad, the entrecôte and the fries (which they call 'pomme allumettes-excuse me!) and the profitéroles OR you have the spécial entrecôte which is just the salad and the main. We had the latter. OK, let me just say that for me, a quarter of a boston salad and 8 nuts does not consist a salad. And having to cut said salad is quite unpleasant. Why, WHY would anyone serve huge chucks of lettuce? WHY I ask!!! Anyway. The main was quite delicious. Very basic but good: entrecôte and fries with a great mustard sauce. The sauce was perfect and the fries were good as well. The beef itself was a tad too thin and a bit overcooked but still enjoyable. The plate was cold though, which is a big no no when you spend 80$ for 2. The wine was good, at 9$ a glass.

The service was almost too good. The waitress was watching over our table like a hawk and since we were close to the door, the owner was ever so present. It was also quick to pay which is always nice!

And now, the scores!

Food: 7/10... and that's because of the huge chunk of lettuce we got.
Service: 8/10 .... a tad annoying but still good.

All in all, a good resto and a very simple menu. If you want to people watch, go there and get a table by the window!

Cartel

A couple weeks ago, we were celebrating the fact that a friend of ours was back from Kuwait for 6 weeks (yay!) so we were heading to Voro. Turns out, it was all reserved with about a 45 minute wait. I don’t think so. So, we walked along Fairmount and found Cartel in the Mile End.

There weren’t many people in there so we were hesitant at first but still went in (actually, there were about 5 people). The place has a loungy feel to it. It had ‘happenin’ music’ with about 100 seats. Oh and there seemed to be a couch on the ceiling ?! Weird.

The menu was all over the place: quesadillas, lobster rolls, meat, poutine. It was a mix of Mexican/Japanese/Canadian.  I usually don’t tend to appreciate mixed restaurants (I’m SO restaurantIST), but this one turned out to be ok. And their theme was ‘street food’… so the mix of different foods was understandable. 

I had the duck quesadillas. I see duck on a menu, I have duck. It's that simple. The duck turned out to be a tad dry but there were really good flavors in there and amazing guacamole! Careful, the hot sauce (on the side) is damn hot. I was happy with the portion: it was quite big, for my big appetite!

The service was good. The waitress knew what she was talking about and opened the wine very well (I always look at this part of the service, don't ask). She was friendly and knew her shhtuff. On top of it, when we asked for the bill, it took about 3.5 seconds to get it. I guess the fact that there were about 12 people when we left kind of helped!

And now, the scores!!!

Food: a generous 8
Service: 8,5

Don't be fooled by the fact that there's no one in this restaurant. It's worth a try!!!

SuWu

OK, hold the phone....I actually got invited to a restaurant opening! ME! I  mean, it's never happened to me before, so I was pretty darn excited (and still am, as you can see). Anyhoot, I invited my friend V. We had quite a hard time finding the place. I thought it had replaced Juliette et Chocolat but turns out it actually took the place of one of my friends and I old breakfast spot, Cafeteria. I must say I had a tiny tear when I saw that Cafeteria was gone but I also must declare that I was kind of thinking that that place was passed its prime.

We got there at around 8 to, you know, be fashionably late and it was full. Like, full full. Meh. But forget that, I got to say that I was from Eating out in montreal at the door and she checked it off her list. I felt...special :) As I mentionned, it was packed in there. It was funny, I could spot my fellow bloggers who were writing notes either on their IPad or on a...pad. The place itself doesn't look anything like it did before: large plants line the windows (from outside, it looks like a jungle in there!), lots of wood everywhere, nice long wires with lamp bulbs hanging haphazardly from the ceiling, fake vines (ew), a big wooden bar near the back of the restaurant and the open kitchen right behind it. I found it a tad funny that there were stools at the kitchen, as if people would want to drink and chat right in front of the cooks. Weird. Speaking of cooks, apparently, two of them worked at Toqué!, so that's cool!

The vibe was great, but then again, it was the opening so that could change. I have a feeling though that it will quickly become one of the McGill students' fave spots. 'Café Campus and Vol de nuit whhhhat---we're going to SuWu tonight!'

Ok, so we took a spot at the bar (not sitting yet....there were no chairs available :/) and a couple minutes later, the bartender who had seen us from the corner of his eye, brough us drinks. Turns out, the drink was called a Wu-Tang (sake, lemon vodka, lime, lychee and grapes). It was good but the lychees and grapes were not very noticeable and the alcohol level could have been a bit higher (WHAT??? I like boozy drinks!). V did not feel like drinking that so she gave it to me (yay, double drink!) and bought herself an overpriced (or so we, non going outters think) beer (8$).

As for the food, between 7 and 9 was 'media' time (well, hello, I'm media) so the food was free. I loves me some free food! Anyhoot, a couple people were going around with food like their 'famous' mac n' cheese grilled cheese and yummy ribs. The first was weird enough but still was enjoyable. The pasta was well cooked, which is the way I prefer it and it was well seasoned. Not sure if I'd want to have this as a meal though. There was this lovely homemade ketchup on top that added a certain je ne sais quoi to it. It was fresh and went well with the bread, cheese and pasta. The ribs (OH, the ribs) we're DAMN good. And if I say that ribs are THAT good, it's because I've had the chance to eat a lot of those and I know what I'm talking about! Simply put, they melted in your mouth. I just wanted more and more still.

Now, let's talk a tad about the staff: half of them kind of sucked. Sorry! I know it was the opening and maybe that was the factor but meh. I think two of the guys who were passing around the food were the owners and they were very nice and knew who to give the food to (ME!). On the other hand, the bar tenders... Ok there was this girl that we called 'side boob girl' because of the obvious side boobage. It was just annoying. Oh and she kept on texting which is SO uncool! Another one didn't really look like she had anything to do (but there was a LOT to be done) and one of the guy was running around but not doing much.

And now, the scores:

Food: 8
Service: 6, but this one is hard to say, since it was the opening after all

All in all, a great new place. Very vibrant. I just know the Mcgill crowd will enjoy it!