We stumbled upon Be Bap when the restaurant from our original plan was closed for vacation. I would have never known Be Bap …even less when it’s located on Amherst.
There’s something mystical about this place, that I’m charmed right away. It could be the decor…it could be that the business is run by a Korean family ( Seeing an older woman gave me a hint…) or something more.
A warning: Be Bap service is incredibly slow.
Every meal is served with a soup. I am happy that the MSG was very minimal.
Seafood pancake
It’s in the smaller end compare to other restaurants, but it costs less as well. So far, it is ranked in the middle of all seafood pancakes I’ve eaten.
Side dishes
These come with some of the main meals, tofu, kimchi and beanspout. I always wish that Korean restaurants in Montreal are more generous about their side dishes.
The Gourmet Bibimbap
The egg was almost cooked but I prefer my egg more raw so I can still mix it with my rice. The bibimbap is called gourmet because it has 3 types of meat. I believe chicken, pork and beef. When all mixed together, I cannot differentiate the meat. The only flavor that really stood out was the sweet mushroom. It’s my first time that this was served with the bibimbap. Overall, the bibimp wasn’t that good. I don’t know what are factors for a successful bibimbap. I personally find the rice too wet, missing the nice texture of Korean rice.
Bulgogi
Although this is not the typical cut of meat for Bulgogi, the taste is spot on.
I think Be Bap is more adept with their grilled dishes than their Bibimbap. Despite the food is mediocre and the service is very slow ( 15-30 minutes before we get to order, and 30 minutes before we get our meal), I enjoyed my experience. It is a quiet and cozy place fusing modern and oriental decor.
Known for its gelato, La Fontana is a small Italian restaurant on the 2nd floor at the Etoile bulding in Dix30. I am here to spread the word that La Fontana serves good food too.
This is not my first time visiting La Fontana. It always had a sweet spot in my heart because I just love the spot too much: with a terrasse on the 2nd floor overseeing Dix30, amazing dessert choices, impeccable service and chic ambiance. What’s not to love?
Ok…maybe just the bathroom is a bit of a turn off…anyways.
Let’s just put it this way, it’s a type of restaurant that is sort of lacking in Brossard. Just fancy enough that you could dress up a bit without appearing out of place. However, no worry, you can dress in jeans and no one would judge you. I see family dining there as well, but I would think it’s more suitable for dates, or girl’s one on one dining.
Bruschetta
We had an appetizer on the house…for no apparent reason at all, since we didn’t even wait long for the food to come… My theory is that they are trying to empty their bread inventories because it is close to expiry date… It’s not baseless as the bread was way too hard for my liking ( could be explained that I had the thickest bread of the three…not really an excuse because a good restaurant would know to cut the bread in equal size to maximize texture). The toppings were flavorful.
Tuna Tartare
This my main course. It does look tiny, right? I told myself quality over quantity – plus, usually restaurant serves way too much. I think this is the portion that we are suppose to eat usually.
At first, I was hesitant to order the tartare because I was scared it wouldn’t be fresh (as sadly, La Fontana isn’t as popular as other restaurants in Dix30, which is also my goal to spread the word that this place needs a bit more recognition). Fortunately, the tuna was fresh and very delightful to eat as it is paired with some very sweet mangoes.
The portion is just perfect; it allows me to order dessert without guilt!
Mr.Butter had the panini with sausage and eggplants. I wasn’t expecting much when he said he wanted that…until I had a bite. How does he always order dishes with such surprising flavors! It wasn’t a typical panini. This one heavy but in a good way. Salty but tamed by the wrap.
The sweet potato chips were really addictive. I would have preferred that it was less drenched in oil ( I am not kidding, half of the chips were like polished by oil). However, this did not stop me from eating. So thinly sliced and crispy! I would buy these chips if they came in a bag!
I helped my mom ordered risotto. I regretted my choice, not because it was awful but because it was very heavy ( a bit heavier than the average risotto). I had 2 small scoops, delicious for the first scoop and heavy for the 2nd scoop, although it was expected as it was made with goat cheese. I should have ordered something else for my mom.
I cannot go to La Fontana without any dessert! Be it their cake or gelato. I had my favorite cheesecake at La Fontana: White chocolate cheesecake. So gooood. I will have to admit that La Fontana is my favorite place to have cheesecake other than traditional cheesecake (which is La Premiere Moisson). Mr.Butter had coconut and Mocha gelato. They were lovely!
La Fontana has it well balanced and has a je ne sais quoi which allows it to creep into my top places to dine in Dix30.
Allo Mon Coco has been popping everywhere and always so packed! Must be fantastic right? Nope, these people’s taste buds are crazily miscalibrated.
I remembered my mom telling me that she tried Allo mon Coco and it was “rubbish”. I’m sorry that I doubted you! However, I wouldn’t say it’s rubbish, but let’s just say there are a lot more better options out there! Here is why…
Special Papy
Sounds an amazing dish on the menu: waffle, pancake and french toast with fruits and english cream!
No need to choose between waffle, pancake or french toast! All 3 in one plate, how perfect is that? Well, it was until I noticed the weird english cream and my first bite on the waffle…
Let’s begin with the waffle. I don’t like soft waffles, and this is exactly what is being served. Not good.
English cream…unless I’ve been introduced to the wrong English cream, I never had english cream like thick. It’s not even liquid! It tasted like whipped cream.
The only sort acceptable thing was the french toast. Slightly crunchy and the raisin bread helps the flavoring quite a bit!
And the pancake? I can make better at home…
So there you go, Allo mon coco is not great, although their menu offers many interesting options. What’s the point if they aren’t delicious?
Best description I can give, Piazza Pizza is like the twin sister of Breakfast Club, both sharing the same floor plan. Instead of serving Breakfast, it serves lunch dinner. Their menu is also available on the Breakfast Club side.
Piazza Pizza specializes in their Masonry oven pizza. I always have good experience with their pizza, but this is not the reason I come here. Wait – I will tell you soon enough!
I chose the table d’hote, where the price is very friendly, serving salad, coffee/tea, and dessert. Because I forgot to take a picture of the dessert, I’ll say it right away; HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! Why? it was like a super thin piece of cake and I wasn’t given the choice of which cake I want either! If I knew it was like that, I would have opted for a single dish…
Typical caesar salad, included in my Table d’hote.
Do not order the nachos! It was so badly made…The art of nachos should be that every piece I take should have cheese and a bit of toppings. Not only was the cheese hardened easily, the topping was nearly not there. There were green olives and random broccoli pieces and some other random vegetable pieces. Just weird.
But at least, my main dish is incredibly amazing and the reason why I come to Piazza Pizza!!
Yes, mussels! These are mango cream mussels. Hmmm~ The sauce is so perfect. I had the choice of fries served on the side or pasta, I chose pasta because the sauce is too perfect! First of all, the portion is incredibly generous! A lot of mussels and at least a good 2 portions of pasta! I had enough to pack it for next day’s lunch! The mussels were big too! They just know really well how to cook their mussels. I could taste the bits of mango here and there. Very interesting combination.
I don’t think anyone who likes mussels would be ever displeased. I have yet to taste bad mussels from Piazza Pizza!
Who knows after my first experience at Shogun in the States from a few years ago I finally stepped my foot into the Shogun right next to my place.
A few bloggers and I were invited for a meal as a token of gratitude to review their salad dressing soon to be available in the market. It was my first time to actually meet other food bloggers. I think Shogun is the perfect spot as it allows no awkward silence and perfectly breaks the ice for you! How is that? Well, Shogun offers great entertainment while preparing the meal right in front of your eyes. The chefs are amazingly entertaining and know how to interact with the crowd. I was very impressed every chef knew how to adjust their jokes accordingly.
The vegetable soup. Oddly, we were explained that the soup base was duck (or was it chicken…or pork…) – my point is it is meat base. How ironic.
Although it was a clear soup, it tasted rather heavy and made me even more thirsty. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
The salad is very basic, but the salad dressing changes everything. Sadly, there was just too much dressing, drenching the cabbage. I wasn’t able to appreciate the salad nor the dressing.
Little note, my opinion on this salad dressing is not conclusive. I will be reviewing it in another post 🙂
This is my favorite dish of the evening. Baked lobster tail with cheese, scallop and crab stick.
And the show began!
I like how the chef can hide nothing from us! we know exactly that goes into our food, which can also be bad sometimes, especially if you are a picky grease eater like I am.
The shrimps. Tasted like over buttered stir fried shrimps, which is basically how they cook the rest of the meal. If you love butter, you won’t mind! It smells incredible, but the amount of butter that was put in it just gave me heart attack (you can just tell but how shiny it is). But I assured myself that most restaurants do the same, but this time, I can simply see it in real action.
Stir fried vegetables. You saw the fire in the picture above. Well, there was a great amount of oil to create that fire, and all that oil was in the onions. Fun to see fire…but I rather not too keen on consuming the onions.
We were given a thick piece of steak! I was extremely excited to try because the chef was explaining how this particular part of the meat (I could not understand which part it was exactly) was especially tender. He seemed very knowledgeable with steaks, explaining in great details how to cook them. However, I was greatly disappointed…
The steak was way too cooked for my taste, but remained very tender. This is especially good for people who love their steaks medium well to well done.
All seafood lovers know that seafood should not be cooked well done, and these scallops were just borderline over cooked. Luckily, I was still able to enjoy the scallop texture.
We finished the course with a very refreshing vanilla and orange sorbet.
Shogun may not offer fancy cuisine, but it really does offer a unique experience unlike others. The staff is very friendly and they know how to personalize every table, so that we feel very special. They even took a picture of our table and then quickly printed the picture for each of us. This is perfect for group diners and birthday parties.
Follow Us!