the cube

[guru]

I still don't really know what to say about last night's dinner. It was my first time and i had heard so much about it since its opening that i would have liked to leave with a better impression. My friend started with two pieces of veal sweetbread and a grilled shrimp over a fruit ketchup while i had a half lobster with some salsify roots, spring onions and lobster jus. Then my friend had a plate of Quebec venison. One part was a braised short rib and another was a roasted piece of the leg. I already don't recall the accompaniements. My main dish was a piece of Quebec lamb over some flageolets and chanterelles. We continued with cheeses and had no desserts.I am not saying that the food wasn't good, though the grilled shrimp was over cooked and we had to leave it aside because of its burnt taste. My general comment would be that the portions are extremely small and that the real show is not in the plate. Food was o.k. . Considering the price i paid (230.00$), i would have liked more sparkles. I thought the wine list prices raised rapidly. It would have probably itched less if i had paid in american dollars. I'm really sorry to say it didn't live up to my expectations.

[cabrales]

guru -- Thanks for your report. Of the price you paid (in C$?), what very rough amount related to the food, as opposed to wine?

[Lesley C]

Guru, What were your expectations?

How did you hear about Cube? And what besides the overcooked shrimp and portion size bothered you about the food? I quite liked Cube. I thought the service was poor, but the food was good to very good when I was there last summer. You should have tried the desserts. The coffee/chocolate plate is amazing.

[guru]

(for Cabrales) Actually i drank a pretty good bottle of St-Joseph that i paid 80$ but in that range, there wasn't a lot of choices. You had to go around 120$ for something a little bit serious and you could easily go till 150.The food is quite cheap and that impressed me.We took two glasses of white with the apps but they where offered by the house since i knew a few people over there.(for Lesley) Since the restaurant opened last year i was intrigued by the name of the establishment then by its look and specially by the look of the hotel. After seeing the dinning room, the tables, the cuttlery, the plates, i was hoping to see a new way of doing things in the kitchen. If you're trying to change things that have been accepted since Escoffier or further, why not go all the way. Is the personnel capable of that? Not the wait staff. Some of them seemed to be bored. The food itself was everything a good cook can do. Some small details could have given a few accents and make the dishes more complex and more enjoyable.For example the salsify roots with the lobster should have been roatsed instead of being just blanched. The whole dish would have benefit of that. Like i said, the food was o.k. but i expected more of that chef(it's almost been a year since the opening, things should be tuned up by now).

[Lesley C]

Ah yes...well sometimes it's better to get to a restaurant right after the opening when everyone is in peak-effort mode. I know there have been a few changes in the kitchen but Claude is a very solid chef. I completely agree with you about the service.

[guru]

Lesley, i once was in that same position of opening a restaurant and i completely understand what it means but i don't agree on the idea that you should review a restaurant in its "opening effort". I'm sure the food we serve now is more precise and closer to the ideology that we try to follow. I'm also very sure that a lot of people said bad things about us back then but it would be very hard to find these "mistakes" now. I still think that the food at Cube was very ordinary.

[Lesley C]

Oh I know what you mean. But in this case, I'm familiar with the cast of characters and I know they were gunning hard thoses first few months.

Funny though, I didn't find the food ordinary at Cube, I found it "cheffy." Pelletier was making trio dishes last year, salmon three ways... veal three ways...foie gras with apple three ways. Did you have the hot foie gras? Last year he was serving it with a julienne of green apple, applesauce and a Granny Smith sorbet. It was very very good, the ideal way to eat foie gras in the summer. I think he makes the best foie gras dishes in the city. Often better than Toqué!

[guru]

Unfortunately, i didn't have the foie gras cause i cook it myself every day. Cooks tend to be tired of it once in a while.It'l come back.I often order non-luxuous dishes when i go to a restaurant,like i said, being in the business myself i try to see what other chefs can do with everyday ingredients and i was specially amazed by chef Jean-Paul Giroux of Le Saint-Augustin. But then again, you don't pay the same price at his place. That's why i say that with a certain price category comes a certain expectation. I don't expect the same thing when i'm paying 30$ or 70$. Like l'Express and Les Caprice de Nicolas. I also heard that he was doing a lot of "three ways" last year but there seemed to be none this time. People talked a lot about the veal dish and we thought that the plate called " Le Cerf Dans Tous Ses Etats" would be something similar but it wasn't. Maybe i should give it another try. I thought Claude was great at Mediteranneo and was hoping for something much higher at the Cube. Maybe it just wasn't a great night(we all have them).

[Lesley C]

I'm glad you mentioned Le St-Augustin, one of my favourite restaurants and a real deal (guru are you from Montreal and if not can I ask how you heard about Le St-Augustin?). Did you have his cheese course? His meats are also superb. That place is a real find, especially considering the quality of ingredients and prices. Mr Giroux is also a very nice, humble Frencman. Claude is pretty low-key as well.

I also preferred Claude's food at Mediterraneo. I think he's trying to change his style, and that could take a while to gel. I had a wild mushroom and cheddar tart there that was out of this world AND the sea bass was terrific. The veal and salmon trios didn't quite do it for me.

[guru]

It's just that i happen to work in Montreal.

I think Jean-Paul's food is great. He would probably be the best example of an outside- born chef who has learned to work with the local ingredients. He understands more than a lot of people what TERROIR(the land) means. It's also very cheap for what you are served. It's really worth the drive.

[Lesley C]

Hmmm ... you work in Montreal. Care to share any clues regarding where that might be?

[Patrice]

This is becoming exciting...

[guru]

I guess i'm not ready to say who i am since the main subject is on a restaurant in my own town, but a few things i can say is that you reviewed us this year and that you weren't very impressed. Maybe you should give us another try since you really liked what i was doing before. Enough said, BYE NOW!

[Lesley C]

OK, you could be a number of people

I do have a guess though.

Are you the chef who did a stage at Gagnaire, worked at Toqué! and disliked An American Place?

[guru]

Not Gagnaire but somebody else. The rest is correct.

[Lesley C]

OK gotcha! The stage was with Loiseau!

Welcome welcome welcome!

I won't "out" you but to everyone reading, guru is one of Montreal's top chefs.

And yes, I will have to give your restaurant another try. There's a lot going on there.

By the way, I adore your foie gras as well.

[guru]

Hello hello. Since going out to have a good bite was my reason to add this topic, what places can you suggest. I don't go out very often now mainly because i hate to be dissapointed(who likes that anyway). Is Le Lutecia really a "must"?.

[Lesley C]

Drive out to St.Rose Laval and go to a place called Le Saint-Christophe. The food is on classic side, but the service, "cadre," and wine and cheese selection are great. They also have these beautiful modern-style Laguiole knives that I'd never seen before. The place is family-owned and feels like a "real" restaurant. It's as though you're in a one-star in France. I'd do the romantic meal thing there in a minute.

La Lutecia is worthwhile. The chef makes some interesting food but there are a few glitches and the noise and smoke from the bar downstairs is unreal. I also had horrible service, which is surprising because the service there is usually quite good.

If you get down to Old Montreal again, go to S in the Saint-Sulpice hotel. They serve a yellow gazpacho with a lime sorbet in the middle -- quite amazing -- and the desserts are wonderful. The chef, a fellow by the same of Steve Lemieux, was sous-chef at La Chronique and Chez L'Epicier (maybe Patrice knows him). There are other surprises at S and the service is great (interesting wine list and free valet parking, which means a lot in Old Montreal). It's expensive and half of the menu is grilled meat or fish -- pretty basic but, for that genre of restaurant, very good.

[guru]

Thanks. Have you been to DERRIERE LES FAGOTS?

[Lesley C]

Yes.

The service and setting are great but the food could use sharpening up a bit. It's a notch below the rest. I thought Le Saint Christophe was better for food and the wine list and service were just as good. That lost little street in Old St Rose is starting to look like the most interesting restaurant destination -- besides Laurier Ave. of course

[Patrice]

I worked with Steve at Chez L'Épicier and also when I did a stage at La Chronique. He's a very good chef with a lot of interesting ideas. I will have to see what he's doing at S.

[guru]

Well, thank you very much. I'll be checking those soon and i'll share my opinions.

[riboflavinjoe]

ill be going to cube tonight. i will get back with a review later on... ribo

[riboflavinjoe]

looks like i resurrected an old-ish thread. but i found this thread on cube, and since i just got in, i figured i would toss in my two cents worth.

well, it was good. not mind blowingly good, but it was good. i really dig the décor of the place, i'd like to have an apartment decorated the same way, but alas, im living with my mom for now, so what can i do?...

the acceuil was fine, we got our table for three on time, as soon as we arrived, and the staff was smiling and friendly. a little disappointing for me was the fact that the other two i was with were a bit rushed, so i couldnt really study the menu like i would have liked. i feel like i didnt really get a chance to see what the kitchen was all about.

but we all ordered the foie gras d'oie - goose foie gras - prepared the same way as the duck foie gras, apple three ways and muscat wine sauce, probably samos. very good. the apple three ways was, as lesley mentioned, apple julienne, apple compote - sauce - and green apple sorbet. i really like the variable textures and temperatures in the plate. the foie gras was the highlight. i could not see much difference between duck and goose foie gras. both seem equally as luxurious, creamy, and rich. very good, everyone agreed.

next came a little amuse bouche of cold roasted redpepper and tomato soup, which was quite refreshing and cleansing. a good transition to the main plate, which was magret de canard for me and my friend, while his wife took the veal sweetbreads-moucheron (what the heck is a moucheron?). when the magret came, i think we all kind of looked and thought, well this is small. it was a bit of a small portion. the veg were cauliflower, rapini, farro, and passion fruit. it was the first time id eaten farro, (which as i understand is spelt?) and i got a kick out of its texture. it was like pure wheat, i guess that what farro basically is. it has what i called a bouncy texture. but the rest of the plate was kind of ordinary. i mean, yeah it was good, but like guru mentioned earlier, "The food itself was everything a good cook can do." my friends said the same thing. i have done several dinner parties with them, and my pal told me kind of with a low voice, "just between you and me, we could do this at home!" and i got the same feeling. and i could not really taste any passion fruit onto the duck.

we proceeded with cheese, (well, its cheese, it was served properly, it was standard), and then dessert. the dessert person must have forgotten my friends "grande finale" but somehow remembered to make my marscapone charlotte. strange. anyways, it was okay, nothing to knock your socks off, as both my companions agreed. dessert and coffee were offered, since they forgot to make my friends grande finale. a redemption, of sorts.

overall, a good experience. not great. it was a good experience, but i dont know if i would go and do it again. if i want to spend that kind of money, id go to toqué! or try something else like la chronique, club des pins, or ferreira café.

btw, lesley, i tried savannah the other night, after reading your article, and got a good kick out of that place. i enjoyed it tons (had the foie gras with apple tarte tatin and wild boar bacon, then the scallops with truffle mash and collard greens). service there was spot on the money. i over tipped because our waited totally wins the war on drugs. ribo.

[Lesley C]

Are you sure about the goose foie gras? Only duck foie gras is produced in Quebec. Also, I have never seen goose foie gras served hot, either here or in France.

So, overall, did you prefer Savannah to Cube? Did you have anything breaded at Savannah? Their breading was awful. Maybe they fixed that.