The Cosmopolitan Blog

This is my no1 favorite place. Period. The fact that this Iranian / Persian restaurant’s main clientèle are all Persian should tell you something: it’s not a tourist trap or a hyped up commercial venture. It’s a hole-in-the-wall place, but just walking in makes you so hungry, the smells coming from this family-run restaurant and kitchen are amazing… The menu has all the essentials. It’s hearty, large portions, perfection!! …and it’s so cheap, you have a complete meal for $10!! (and i’ve taken some home for lunch the next day, cuz i had too much on my plate).

it’s like going home to your mom’s for dinner (and i’m not even Persian!!)

The rice is so savorful, with the saffron and melted butter, i’ve not tasted anything like this before in any other Iranian restaurant. The dish you MUST try is the Crazy Chicken (seriously, that’s what it’s called). Ask for the boneless version. It’s grilled, but has saffron and lemon and it’s so moist it melts in your mouth. When they ask you if you want soup or salad to start (yes, it comes with every main course), say soup, regardless of if it’s summer. I’m not a big soup fan, but this is SO good. It’s very hearty and thicker than your average soup, but it has lentils and noodles, and a hint of vinegar and it’s so tasty, it’s really, like the best comfort food you could get.

I’m so lucky to have this place next door to me.

Edit - 16 July 08: Thanks to my loyal readers for pointing out the lack of an address… DUH!… Here it is:
820 Avenue Atwater - Montréal, QC - Tel: (514) 933-0933.

You’ll spend on average $10-$16 per person. There are soft drinks, but no alcohol, and you can’t BYOB. They take cash only, i believe. You can also order take out, and if you ask nicely, they’ll call a cab for you and deliver it to your place (you pay for the taxi, obviously).

A group of us went to this restaurant because of the all-you-can-eat buffet, and what i find is this: know what to expect and you won’t be disappointed. This is the ideal place for a large group with various tastes and budgets. What this place will NOT offer: a grand culinary experience, a trendy atmosphere, service excellence.

But it’s a decent meal out if you plan on concentrating on the company of your friends / family.

Ok, so about the food. It’s a good size buffet, there’s a chinese food section, with about 20 different warm choices, and 20 appetizer choices, as well as about 4 choices of soup. I recommend the schezuan shrimps, the crispy chicken and the soups. Then there’s the sushi section. I consider myself relatively educated in matters of sushi, and if that’s how you consider yourself, then don’t go there for the sushi. There’s your basics only: california, kamikaze and a couple other combinations. There are about 2-3 vegetarian rolls, and your basic nigiri sushi: salmon, shrimp and eel the day i was there. The quality of the fish is mediocre, to give you an idea, it’s just one cut above the boxes of sushi you find in the grocery stores.

And if you haven’t stuffed yourself enough, there’s a full salad section, and a full desert section. Personally, since i don’t have a sweet tooth, i would have liked to see more choices in main courses or sushi, rather than desert, although everyone seemed to recommend the jello

Service is decent, and fairly efficient. Note that on groups of 6 or more, then added a 12% service charge straight onto your bill. The prices are what makes this place worth it: buffet is $10 at lunch (less seafood choices) and $15 for dinner.

1240 Stanley, Montreal, Quebec H3B 2S7 - (514)871-8099

Located on trendy McGill Avenue, just on the edge of Old Montreal, an area I really don’t know that well, but really want to discover, it really has the latest and hottest places to wine and dine.

So Holder is trendy without over doing it. It’s a french brasserie style place, high ceilings, lots of wood, noisy, lots of activity, cute waiters offering efficient service with an accent and wearing the typical french towel/apron over their black pants, fancy dishes and beautiful plating… I went on a Tuesday and it was bustling. They have a bar, and what i liked about it was that the bar wasn’t to one side, it was right there, in the middle of the hubbub… I recommend their Kamikazes, super lemony, not very french but oh so yummy.

So we had a couple drinks, and then moved on to our table. Great thing about this place is that it’s really, really busy, and yet, they didn’t seem to have problems seating us, once we were ready to go to our table, they were ready to show us there.

The menu is not extensive, 4-5 dishes in each category (appetizers, soups, salads, fish, meat…), but some classics. Presentation & plating of each dish was impeccable. The only negative, which i found out later, was that our waiter forgot to tell us about the specials, they were actually up on a big black board on the wall, but too far for us to read, and, had he told us about them, i might have actually tried the entrecote out.

One of my friends had the beef cheek (sounds weird, but it’s a super tender part of the beef) in bourguignon sauce, a twist on a french classic, very nice. Another person had the salmon, the menu said “on a bed of mashed potatoes” (oh, sorry, no, purée potatoes ;-)), and they weren’t kidding, it really was a bed, very generous portion. Another friend had the seared tuna, I can’t remember the description on the menu, but he wasn’t as excited as we were with our dishes. He was expecting something very saucy, but like i pointed out, tuna rarely is in sauce, and this seemed really good, it was lying on a bed of lentils, peppers and other grilled vegetables, and again, a generous portion there. My dish was the lobster ravioli, it was delicious. Good portion, very rich (but not too rich), and i appreciate that they kept the sauce to a minimum, it really brought out the lobster flavor.

Oh, i should talk about the appetizers. I had the goat cheese, and I recommend it, seriously. It was perfect warm temperature, and filled our mouth in a way that only goat cheese can. It was on a crispy biscuit, and was served with a delicious and very generous portion of olive tapenade. Very yummy. Other apetizers around the table were, the classic and Holder favorite steak tartare. Being 1/2 french, i’m used to having the waiter prepare it table side, but here, they don’t. They take your order and ask you if you want it spicy or not, and then it comes already plated. This would never fly in France, but then France can be snooty that way. This was efficient and perfect.

A note about deserts, we were all so full by then, that we could only go for one desert to share. We chose the trilogy of creme brulées, and what a good choice…. Very yummy and good for sharing, just ask them for extra spoons. I saw on the menu they had a selection of french and Quebec cheeses, which was tempting too.

Wine list was very decent, wines from all over the world, with no specific emphasis on France (just how i like it). All the cocktails you could want from the bar. Pricing is extremely reasonable, my lobster ravioli was $19, the beef cheek was $22 i think.

Only thing i can suggest for improvement is the sign on the door. The door is actually the entrance to the office building 407 McGill, but it’s not at all obvious that it will take you into the restaurant as well… You have to actually walk up the couple steps before realizing they have a tiny sign there. But hey, if that’s the only nitpick, then really, shows what i great time i had… I’ll definitely be back.

Holder -407 McGill - 849-0333 - $30-$40 per person for 3 courses, not including tax or drinks.

Hello girls and boyz! Yes, i’m still alive… went under the radar for a while as a restaurant superspy which is why i’ve been so silent (ok, fine, that’s a lie, i was just lazy!!)…

so i’m back with a couple quick reviews, first, this restaurant, A Taste of India, was recommended to me by at least 2 people.

So, let’s be structured here, first, the positives (absolutely outweight the negatives, BTW):

- Very nice decor, not over the top, but still, there’s a design feel, which is more than I can say for many restaurants in this price range, nice size, quiet and intimate, but bright for summer, with a nice patio on a wide sidewalk.

- I went on a Wednesday night, so I will concede that this was probably not their busiest night, but still, we were greated immediately, with a smile, given a table for 4 even though we were 2, we got our water and little munchies right away, and the menus

- Munchies were poppadums and a little onion relish, very yummy.

- Menu had all the classics, a good 8 pages. The best thing about it? The last page, if you’re not a connaisseur, they put together combination menus for 1 or 2 people. For 2 people, you get 2 appetizers, 2 meat dishes, one veg dish, rice and naan bread, all for a total price of max $32 (there’s cheaper), which, really, if you added all the individual items together, you’re saving anywhere from $5 to $15! And it saves you from trying to figure out what to order… There are 8 combination menus possible in total i think. Oh, and they each have complimentary dessert!!

- The service was awesome, great smiles, everything was “yes of course”. Also, the manager is this nice much older gentleman, he comes to check if everything is ok, and just generally adds an extra touch of “genuine” to it all

- Excellent food, not too spicy, not too bland. The main courses come on a little heater thing, so they stay warm.

Honestly, you want a great place to eat “mainstream/North American” Indian food? This is the place to go, there’s nothing to say against it…

So negatives? Well, if you read carefully, they’re really not… Like i said, you want mainstream food, this is the place to go. BUT, well, i’m biased, because indian food is what my family makes at home (well, one side of my family, anyway!!) so i know what real “homey” indian/pakistani food is… So i’m not going to list negatives, I’m going to say, if you want authentic cuisine like you would get in any house in india/pakistan, i can tell you were to go, but it won’t be as pretty a place, you won’t get help picking your dishes, you won’t find butter chicken on the menu, and well, the spices will have a whole different dimension to them… but it’s not for the faint hearted!

So you want a pleasant evening, entertaining and eating indian food in a perfect setting and not have to worry about the service? I recommend A Taste of India, it’s the best i’ve had in Montreal yet, and the reason i know this is because, contrarily to other places, even when you’ve stuffed yourself with more food than you can handle, you don’t feel like you want to curl up in a ball and sleep under the table… proof that the ingredients are not just filling cornstarch, instead real skill and authentic ingredients go into it…

Happy eating, Montreal!

A Taste of India / Goût de l’Inde: 6127 Monckland, corner Beaconsfield. Average $15-$30 per person. All info can be found here: http://www.tasteofindiarestaurant.com/

i guess u have to have been to Switzerland to appreciate Swiss food (yes, there’s more to it than fondue!), but for those in the know, this is the best type of comfort food there is!! On the other hand, if you’re someone that thinks vegetables are an essential part of an everyday diet, then you might want to give this one a miss…
Swiss food is mainly about the cheese (well, DUH!), and yes, generally, it’s melted, whether it’s in a pot for fondue, or in a puddle on a plate for raclette (see my post on the Raclette War).

So i went to Alpenhaus, on the corner of Ste Catherine and St Marc. From the outside, there is a feeble attempt at having the side of the building look like a Swiss chalet, but seeing that they’re right next to a scruffy-looking depaneur, there’s not much of hope of that being successful. Having said that, back in 1967, when the restaurant opened, this was probably a lot more noticeable.

But then, you walk in, and all thoughts of Montreal disappear. The decor is all wood logs, cute curtains, doilies, fireplaces, different little rooms, low ceilings, nooks and corners, hanging cowbells, men wearing funny looking pants and women wearing traditional Dirndls, their national dress. It sets the tone right away. And i liked it, it was a little over the top, but i had been missing the Swiss culture for so long without realizing it, that i felt like i was coming home! I was so excited to see the menu, it was a good 4-5 pages of traditional dish after dish, and i was trying to figure out a way i could order all of them. They have the Viande des Grisons: typical slices of dried beef with spices, they have palm hearts and artichoke hearts, they have Rösti potatoes (grated and fried potatoes, sometimes with cheese or onions), they have Wiener schnitzel (breaded veal escalope) and Geschnetzlets(veal in cream sauce), they have various sausages, lots of dishes with gruyere cheese or emmental cheese, and of course, all the various fondues. A note about raclette: they don’t have any, preferring not to serve it, rather than serving it wrong. Instead, they have a Croute au Fromage, which, i suppose, is a large plate of melted cheese. Apparently, when it’s the season, they even have a fish called “Goujon-Perche” (ruffle, in English).

I was so happy i was there with 5 other people, because i got to tell everyone what to order, and we all tried each others’ dishes. Maybe it was because i had been craving the food so badly, but every single dish was delicious. Swiss cuisine could never be described as fine and delicate, but again, it’s sooooo good.

The wine menu was extensive and expensive, but because they were some really good wines from the Swiss, French, Austrian and Italian regions. The have a great menu of imported beers as well. The deserts are highly recommended too, yep, they even have the apple strudel, and once you’ve done all of that, the only thing really left to do is curl up by the fire somewhere and fall asleep!!!

I’ve never seen Alpenhaus full, but i definitely think it’s one of the undiscovered wonders of Montreal, i highly recommend it, and I encourage you to try it, you won’t be disappointed.

You can find their menu and pictures on their website: http://www.restaurantalpenhaus.com/

I’ve lived in Switzerland for many years, and I truly believe that if there is a heaven, that’s what it looks like (ok, minus the city of Zurich, there’s nothing heavenly about it), but the rest, the mountains, the lakes, the snow, the quaint little villages and chalets, the trains, the chocolates, the watches (actually, i don’t think there’s watches in heaven…)

Two of the most famous dishes in Switzerland are Fondue and Raclette, the first is the most popular, but i’ve always preferred the latter.

So now here i am in Montreal, a city with some of the most amazing restaurants, and i am pleasantly surprised to find that there are a lot of restaurants that serve Fondue, and they’re pretty close to those found in Switzerland, there’s the cheese ones, the Chinese one where you cook your own meat, the chocolate ones… So, after a few years of innocently enjoying swiss fondues in montreal in a couple of great restaurants, one day, I suddenly decided to actually read the menu, and to my amazement, i find that they serve raclette too!

Side note, at this point, I have to explain what my expectations were, by telling you what a swiss raclette is. So, imagine this really, really big round cheese that you cut in half, and the “open” side, you stick under a special raclette grill. The inside part starts melting and bubbling, and then, the chef (well, this is the swiss version of a barbecue, so in switzerland, it would just be the dad of the house probably) scrapes off the melting part that falls like a little puddle into your plate. You put a few little boiled new potatoes on the plate, as well as a few of those tiny little green pickles and tiny round white pickled onions, and you eat it by drapping your cheese over your potatoes. The puddle of cheese that had landed on your plate was little, because, just like a barbecue, the point is that you are supposed to keep going back for more, i’ve seen people go back 15+ times. Also, no good swiss host would go without telling you that you should only eat this while accompanied with a good swiss or german white wine, and to never, never gulp down large amounts of iced water, because with all the melted cheese in your tummy, it probably won’t be pretty sight later on…
So raclette is a very social thing in Switzerland, and even if it’s served in a restaurant, usually, they have the raclette machine, it always upholds the tradition of getting up and being served the next “puddle”, and it always comes with potatoes, pickles and onions…

So, back in Canada, here I am, waiting for my raclette, wondering where it is i have to go to get my next portion… and then this HUGE plate is brought in front of me… And it’s completely covered from edge to edge with thick melted cheese that seems to be drapped over something, and after investigation, i find that it’s creamy sliced potatoes, meat, mushrooms and a lot of other stuff, i think there may even have been a vegetable or two… and there’s definitely no puddle, it’s more like one entire industrial-size cheese on a plate! The problem you ask? Well, after 5 minutes of slowly working through this mass of cheese, it’s really no longer light and melted… and with all the meat and cream, i’m feeling sick and i’m not even 1/4 of the way through…

I thought maybe it was someone in the kitchen getting creative, but when i asked a work colleague the next day, he said, yes, that’s what raclette is… *sigh* So it appears that raclette means different things to different people… Raclette “à la Suisse” is definitely one of my guilty pleasures, the Canadian version on the other hand, hmmm… well… ’nuff said!

Miso has only been in existence for about 2-3 years now, but has become a popular eatery. Even though it’s across the road from a more famous and more expensive sushi place, what sets Miso aside is the fact that it really delivers on its claim of offering Fusion Asian food.

The Food
They have an extensive sushi menu, with a choice of preset platters as well as an a la carte mix-and-match where you can pick your favorites. Their sushi chef is extremely creative and talented, and it’s worth considering sitting at the sushi bar if it’s sushi you came for, and order some of Miso’s own sushi creations… or even ask the chef to create a plate for you.

The creativity goes all the way down to the dishware, the plates themselves have very different shapes, one in particular, designed to increase the romance of a tête-à-tête, the plate is in the shape of a curved bridge that goes from one end of the table to the other.

For those not interested in sushi, there is an extensive Asian menu with all the classics like Chicken with Peanut Sauce or Fried Calamari. This is what makes this a great place for large groups, because of the extensive types of Asian cuisines, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese… something for everyone!

So that’s the good news. The bad news is that, having been a regular since the restaurant’s opening 2-3 years ago, I find that their success has gone to their head a bit. As an example, the Peanut Chicken (one of my favorite dishes, even know, their peanut sauce is truly divine) used to be priced at a reasonable $15 or so, and as now increased to closer to $20, BUT with a reduced portion size. Another example is the fact that they used to give you a free bowl of edamame (soybeans boiled whole in their green pod and served with salt) as you sat down, but now, you have to order it and pay for it as an appetizer.

On a side note, I highly recommend their tiramisu, but beware, it has nothing to do with a real tiramisu, yet it’s a chocoltey minty piece of heaven!

About the Service
Service is great, has never disappointed me in the 6-10 times I’ve been there. On Fridays and Saturdays, the sushi might take a little while to get there, especially if they chef has to get creative, but the atmosphere is enjoyable enough that you won’t get bored. Ordering from the regular menu is really quick.

More Info
Drinks-wise, their wine list is extensive, but i recommend their warm sake, the large portion is VERY large, an entire bottle for a reasonable (not cheap) price. For those in the area, you can order online straight from their website (so, no delivery charge), they just call you to confirm your method of payment. I live close by and got my sushi platter in under 25 minutes on a weekday evening.

Prices: $30-$45 per person, excluding taxes and tip, more for specialty sushi.

Hours: Sat-Sun: 11:00am-3:00pm, Mon-Fri: 11:00am-2:30pm, Sun-Wed: 5:00pm-10:00pm, Thu-Sat: 5:00pm-11:00pm - Terrace available during the summer months.
4000, rue Ste-Catherine O corner Atwater, Montreal, Québec H3Z 1P1 (Westmount)
514-908-6476 Tel.: 514.908.6476
www.restaurantmiso.com - info@restaurantmiso.com

For now, I’ve settled in Montreal, and it’s a food lover’s heaven… It’s got the best of London and New York at a much more reasonable price. There’s trendy, there’s fast, there’s slow, there’s I-go-there-to-be-seen, there’s ugly, there’s delicious and not so delicious. There’s every cuisine you can dream of, and generally, there’s very, very good service… Most Montreal waiters haven’t yet discovered that they work in a trendy enough city that they can have some attitude ssshhh, don’t tell them.

So I’m gonna post my restaurant reviews here, although I do usually have them published other places too… I’ll place the links as I get them.

If you’ve been to one of the restaurants I’ve reviewed and you agree with my review, then great, let me know. But if you don’t agree, then PLEASE tell me, there’s nothing I want more than a reason to go back to a restaurant to prove you wrong!! I’m kidding….