restaurant review

Happening Gourmand: Taverne Gaspar

Taverne Gaspar was voted by the majority this year as the restaurant to try. (although Verses was my first choice…no one seemed interested as we already tried last year).

Just let me get right into the drinks and food as I don’t have much to say about the service and environment as they are all mediocre.
I would show different kind of drinks and food we ordered. After introducing all the items from one category, I would draw a general conclusion on which one to order.

Old Fashioned
Maker’s Mark, sugar, Fee’s Brothers, Cherry Bitters 
Perle Noire
Sailor Jerry, Ginger syrup, Lime, soda
I chose this as the ingredients were similar to a Dark & Stormy – I am still in the search of the amazing Dark & Stormy I tasted at Blizzart. It was sour and sweet. Not bad…but I wouldn’t order it again.
???

I forgot what my friend had but it wasn’t something on the cocktails menu. It tasted incredibly sweet – like candy in liquid form. For now, just enjoy the picture 🙂
Appletini?
Not quite there…It was bitter. Although, who am I to judge, I never had an appletini if I remembered correctly…
Bellini a la mangue
Did not like this one. But I can’t remember what it tasted like. I just remembered it was more in the bitter side.
From all the drinks we ordered, I would suggest the Perle Noire if you like sour and sweet drinks.
Beet carpaccio, Arugula, Parmesan Shavings
According to my very picky friend, this entree was up to par. I did not taste it, I cannot add more. But usually, we agree on food.
Onion soup with bone marrow
I did not order but it seriously looked real delicious. With all the cheese and onions! I could tell my friends really enjoyed it!
Warm tomato tart, goat cheese
This entree was surprisingly good. The tart was just warm enough. Very soft and is layered as like a croissant. 
Raw oysters
They were selling their oysters for 2$ each while if we ordered with the table d’hote, 6$ is added to the price. For my entree, I opted for raw oysters as none of the offerings interest me. If you look at the left most oyster, IT WAS SO TIIIIINY! Other than that one, the others were in decent size. They were fresh. 3 types of dips were served with the dish. 2 types of vinegar, which I like none of it. and then lemon, which I normally use. 
Worth the extra 6$? Hmmm…no regrets, I would put it.
But I would suggest to try the onion soup or the tomato tart in all of the entrees.
BBQ Bourbon burger, bacon, french fries, coleslaw
Mr.Butter found the burger not bad. I had a bite and I would to say the same if not worse. We had better burger… I would suggest to skip this. Le Fumoir and Le Gros Jambon have much better hamburger… Mr.Butter agreed with my statement as well afterwards. kekeke
Roasted salmon, lentils from le puy, sauce vierge
According to my friend, she said the salmon was quite tasty! I did not have any of it, so I could not comment. 
Baby back ribs, Jim bean BBQ sauce, french fries, cole slaw
To my surprise, they gave a very generous amount of baby back ribs! I thought for the Happening Gourmand menu, they would chop off the amount. But not at all! They were perfect cooked. Not to the point that the meat falls right off the bone (to the point they don’t give you a chance to bite), and not to the point where you have to use your teeth and tear it off like no tomorrow. Just perfectly cooked!! But I would have to say that Le Fumoir bbq sauce is so muuuuch tastier than this one!
Rosemary braised lamb shank, potato fondant, braising juice
What a disappointment! and I was looking forward to this dish! The lamb was way too light. Tasted like it was used in a soup already that all the flavor has been flushed away. Just boring and bland. 
In all the dishes we ordered, I recommend the ribs – the other dishes were merely passable…
Pudding Chomeur, Caramel ice cream
To avoid if you cannot handle overly sweet dessert. This pudding chomeur can become quite heavy to take in. But delicious if taken one scoop only.
Fine Quebec cheese platter
This plate needs 4$ more. I did not try it but my friend seemed to enjoy the rich flavor of the cheese after the deception of the lamb.
Molten dark chocolate cake, pistachio creme anglaise
Ok, when I read the description, I imagined this incredible image of a molten dark chocolate with melting chocolate and pistachio inside. Well guess what? It’s nothing like that. You see the liquid stuff? It’s the PISTACHIO! OMG seriously? They put that tiny sauce that you can barely taste anything pistachio?! Why even bother to add it in the description. Might as well add raspberry to the description too then! But aside from the pistachio frustration, the cake was quite pleasant. It was just so misleading the description…
From the desserts, I would suggest the chocolate cake. 
Is a Taverne Gaspar a must try? Not really. It is a good time to go if it’s on your restaurant wishlist to benefit from the great discount.
Taverne Gaspar on Urbanspoon
Zuuchini

Happening Gourmand: Modavie

Modavie is one of the restaurant in Happening Gourmand. Its main attraction is that it plays live Jazz music – which is a total disappointment for me because I did not see any live band playing, but only heard jazz music playing from the speaker. It could be that the live band is played on the 2nd floor while I was sitting on the ground floor.

The bread was warm and delicious – just like Premiere Moisson.
Beef Carpaccio, truffle oil
I love my raw meet! therefore choosing this dish was a must. If we look at their usual menu, this dish would cost already 9$ ( although the portion may vary?). The beef was fresh but I think the truffle oil was making it taste bitter, which I am not very fond of. Wish they would simply put lemon drops on the beef instead, or simply something non-bitter.
Striped bass, agrodolce sauce
It came with vegetables (more like ratatouille style) and very light risotto. The ratatouille was very mediocre – something very easily reproduced at home. The risotto was good, perfect for those that cannot handle rich risotto. And then the bass. I think the bass could be handled better. It’s not the best way to cook bass. Grilled or even seared would be the best way to enjoy a bass. But i guess it’s because the meat is so flat that they did not use that way to cook it. Not saying the fish was bad…I just wish they would do something better so my tastebuds would go a bit more excited.
Tiramisu
Fine. This tiramisu tasted very good actually. No complaint here. BUT, I was eating at Modavie right? I should expect some kind of nice dish presentation, right? But look at the plate! It’s just a puny cake with some kind of chocolate powder all over the dish. 0 plate presentation. Anyways…these are details. 
I don’t think Modavie is a restaurant I would revisit again. The staff wasn’t friendly – sort of had an attitude. Their plate presentation was very weak (my friend had a large piece of fish skin on the side of her plate when given to her). 
Agreed. their food was not horrible. But for this kind of money, you can get something much better.
Modavie Wine Bar Live Jazz on Urbanspoon
Zuuchini

Paulo & Suzanne: Most successful irregular poutine!

I think Paulo & Suzanne has already established quite a name locally. It’s known for opening 24hrs. Perfect for those that need a late night meal. Surprisingly, it’s not like the other 24hrs restaurant where they offer you crappy food, Paulo & Suzanne actually delivers good quality fast food.

Once entered, we see served from the counter / eat at the counter style! The staff there are super friendly. I even scrutinised every corner to see the cleanness of the kitchen. Quite impressive, i tell you.
So how does the food go?
Obviously, I ordered a poutine. BUT, not the regular poutine. Surprised eh?! (as those who don’t know, I usually like my poutine the traditional way…). I actually ordered their special HUGE poutine!
Philly Bomb Poutine
Look at the picture! Look at all the steam! Look at the fancy bowl it is served in! (it looks like those asian fancy noodles bowl) This poutine has philly steak, green and red pepper, onions Italien sausage. All goodness! I was so pleased with this poutine. The fries were not soggy at all. I was expecting it to be since i saw all that sauce on top of my fries. But nope! Crispiness of the fries are well maintained. 
This is officially my first irregular poutine that I actually am satisfied with!
Mr.Butter ordered…
You can’t really see with all those fries covered right? Let’s try again!
Ultime Burger
According to Mr.Butter’s expert taste buds for burgers, he said that the burger is placing 2nd to 3rd on his list! That’s a big claim there! Although the burger was nothing fancy, he said the simplicity of the burger makes him remind of the good old days of burger or even home made burger. So go figure, this burger evaluation is highly biased with memories. lol.
Verdict? Paulo & Suzanne, I love your poutine! But sorry, Benny’s is still top of my league in poutine!
Paulo & Suzanne Open 24h on Urbanspoon
Zuuchini

Paris Pho – Why Paris?

Don’t even get me started with the name of the restaurant. I have no idea why would they name it Paris Pho… But hey, a name’s a name. It’s not an indicator of the food quality!

Inside the restaurant

I have this feeling that it is chinese owned. The menu sort of hints me that (menu does not only offer pho, but like always cantonese noodles dishes or similar dishes like that).

I got the Beef specialty soup. It has beef blood hmmmm! The broth was very tasty, but not spicy enough. Good thing they have lots of chili pepper sauce on the side that I slightly abused to make my soup spicier! The only thing I have to complain is that they did not use the usual thin rice noodles. This one has thick round noodles, which are good…but I prefer the thin ones for my pho!!

This one I am not sure of the name. But the broth is made with coconut. A few shrimps in the soup too! Although this one tastes good as well, I prefer my soup over this one.

This place is not bad at all. Good place to go if you are craving for pho and you are just around the corner.

Paris Pho on Urbanspoon

Zuuchini 

Le Fumoir Rubs Smokehouse – Amazing drinks

Le Fumoir Rubs Smokehouse is known for their ribs, but I think they should be better known for their drinks! Their drinks really impressed me.

The night we visited Le Fumoir Rubs Smokehouse, we arrived at an early hour, a bit later than 5:30 PM to be on time for a concert showing. The staff reassured us that the place is not this quiet usually – we were the first clients of the evening. Little by little, the place was receiving more and more customers. The staff is very attentive and explained in great details. Super friendly too – do not know if we were the only clients in the beginning had any impact. But, I did notice that the owner does go table to table to make small talk.

Ok back to the FOOOOD.

That night, we ordered 2 drinks. God, do I want more!

The first drink: Mexican bulldog.

Other than the visual effects of the drink (that surely captures anyone’s attention, a corona served upside-down WHAT!), the margarita drink is very “citrusy”. I could barely taste the beer. I really like this drink.

The other drink: Mr.Beam.

It’s a dark beer, bourgonne. Very sweet! I like it just as much. I really cannot decide which drink I like more.

There are other special drinks too – they sound just as good as these ones, i really want to go back and try them when I get the chance!

As for the food… it did not hit me as hard as the drinks.

Before our main dishes, we were served some bacon bits! THEY ARE DELICIOUS! and smell incredible too.

It is just spicy enough and crunchy enough from the outside! I think it’s the perfect bite-size food while watching a game.

and here comes our dishes

Baby back ribs. Side dish: Man n cheese with gouda cheese and sweet potato fries.

The ribs sauce are veeery delicious. Very smokey. I would even call it excellent sauce for ribs! But, the sauce does get a bit heavy after 3 ribs. And do not expect the ribs that fall off the bones because they don’t. I know many people like their ribs that way. But personally, I like my ribs meat stick the bone and using my teeth to bite them off.

The mac n cheese with gouda cheese was interesting, but really…not that fascinating. The sweet potato fries are just sweet potato fries…

Smoked burger. Side dish: coleslaw and apple slaw.

I took like 2 bites of the burger (because I do not like burger much in general). But I do have to tell you, I’m actually surprised that the burger does taste good to me! Mr.Butter said it was actually a very good burger – he’s a much burger knowledgeable than me; he’s actually doing his own hunt for the best burger. So, to have his approval of this burger does say much!

The coleslaw again…was just coleslaw…

All in all, my visit at Le Fumoir Rubs Smokehouse was a very pleasant one. My return would certainly be because of their drinks! I love them very much!

Le Fumoir Rubs Smokehouse on Urbanspoon


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