The Rabbitz spent Hallowe’en weekend-ing in Montreal…

I faithfully did my restaurant research and made a reservation at Le Club Chasse et Peche well in advance of our stay, but by the time Saturday 9:00 rolled around, we were feeling a little ambivalent about dinner. We’d stopped at Narcisse Wine Bar in Old Montreal for 6:00 pickies and between the vino and Mr. Rabbit’s over-indulgence in the free cheese our rez found us not-so appetitive. Plus, winter had settled in and the thought of leaving our cozy, fire-lit room for a freezing and perilous (for Rab) walk over the cobblestones in stilettos was not entirely attractive. But we did manage to motivate ourselves, and had a fun and interesting meal. It was by no means note-perfect, but I would recommend with certain caveats. And speaking of caveats, all of our Montreal pictures suck - we blame this on dim lighting and the fact that we were almost always a little wine-y by the time food arrived.

The interior at LCCP is a little dark and basement-y, but they’ve funked it up and appropriated the space. Old-man club chairs, low lights, and hunting/fishing paraphernalia make for a fun room. We were slightly early for our rez, so the hostess pointed us toward the tight bar, but before we could get comfortable our tables was ready. 

The menu at LCCP changes weekly and it’s an imaginative and interesting read. The menu lists the various ingredients in each dish, but it’s not always clear how it will all come together. For us, this was part of the fun, but it could also be perceived as annoying, especially since the slight language barrier made it difficult to ask questions about the menu (we are aware that this is Quebec and we didn’t expect perfect English!). We ordered a bottle of Portuguese red and debated the merits of the wine list while deliberating about dinner. The red was big and fruity, just the way I like it. Priced at $49, I thought it was a bargain and reflected LCCP’s attempts to offer a good number of value priced bottles. Mr. Rabbit was busy complaining that their Bordeaux was over-priced, but he always does this and never orders Bordeaux in a restaurant anyhow because he can’t stand to pay restaurant prices for what we already have in the cellar.

We started with a something described as duck prosciutto, butternut, persimmon, ricotta, balsamic. What appeared was a small tower of squash stuffed with the duck and ricotta, resting amid a puree of squash, and garnished with a few drops of balsamic. We weren’t clear whether the persimmon was in the puree or the ricotta mixture since it’s flavour was very subtle (rather undetectably so). This app was served cold, and something about it didn’t work. It reminded me of a very imaginative but failed Top Chef creation. We left half our food and surprised that nobody asked about our obvious dislike of the dish. Meanwhile, we had to ask for bread, which materialized as one sparingly allocated slice of crusty loaf per person. I was awarded the hell (Freudian typo, but interesting enough that I’m keeping it), leaving a me a tough rind of bread to deal with —not entirely pleasant.

Mains were better — actually, mains were quite good. Mr. Rabbit ordered the “braised veal & sweetbread, bacon, artichoke” while I opted for the “lamb two-ways, upside down goat cheese, olive puree.” The lamb presented as a pink and succulent loin plated with a quenelle of really delicious olive puree with a sweetness reminiscent of figs or mincemeat. The goat cheese production involved layers of thinly sliced lamb, spinach, and roasted red peppers all topped with a thik frosting of goat cheese. The initial forkful was fab, but the cheese layer was de trop and tended to overwhelm after that first delectable bite.

Mr. Rabbit was very pleased with his meal, a large blob of lightly breaded sweetbreads and a veal short rib both in a jus avec veg including mushrooms and green beans.

LCCP really soared with their “vegetables with panache,” a constant on the menu varying weekly to reflect seasonal ingredients. Our plate presented a thick slab of potato topped with mushrooms and cheese, essentially an upscale “potato-skin.” This was the least favourite. The snow peas with pork hash and little cockscrews of sunchoke was the star, with great flavour and texture. An eggplant puree was delicious, but the accompanying won-ton style chips were too heavy and oily for the delicate dipper. Finally, a salad of multi-coloured beets, sweet potato and arugula dressed in a raspberry vinaigrette was also a winner.

The dessert list is as intriguing as the main menu, and while we deliberated over a caramel tart (with salt and chocolate sorbet) or an apple tart with cheddar, we finally opted for the ginger shortbread with white chocolate ice cream and cranberries. The shortbread was light, subtle and offered a delicious pairing with the sweet ice cream and tart berries. The dessert tasted best when it got melt-y and a touch sloppy, accidentally morphing into a deconstructed ice cream sandwich. We finished with two coffees, nicely prepared.

Service at LCCP was casual, sometimes forgetful, and it had a tendency to be slow. Also, there was a language barrier. Rabbit, deliberating between the lamb and the elk, actually got the wrong dish - an error we attribute to this communication breakdown. We did not report this to our server, but there was some momentary grieving because the elk looked so tempting.

Finally, the bill… one starter, two mains, one dessert, one bottle of wine — $167 (with tax, before tip). This was entirely reasonable, perhaps even a bit of a steal for a restaurant of this caliber. Note that lax service issues (the low point was when our server kept wiped the lip of our wine bottle with his hand after pouring!!) would have grated at any other time but we were on vacay and prepared to appropriate it as a bit of local charm.

www.leclubchasseetpeche.com

 Two Little Note on Things-and-Stuff: 

Pizz’Ancora (Atwater Market)  - The single best thing we tasted in Montreal was probably the pizza at Pizz’Ancora at the Atwater Market. Pizz’Ancora drew me in with their thick, square Sicilian slices. I had a large square with tomato sauce, zucchini, sundried tomatoes and olives avec just the right hint of cheese. Warmed in their oven, it was the perfect lunch and big enough that I took a square home for afternoon snacking. Mr. Rab put back his entire triangle of vegetable pizza loaded with sweet peppers, cheese and greens all on top of an excellent crust. We were too hungry to care about photos and too smitten to remember the camera once snacking! Highly, highly recommend!! 

Narcisse Bistro et Bar a Vin - Rabbitz stayed in Old Montreal and we stopped at Narcisse for wine and snacks to welcome Mr. Rab to town (Rabbit had arrived two days earlier for a nerd conference). This place is noteworthy because i) there is free cheese at happy hour (at least this makes it notable for Mr. Rabbit) ii) the fish soup is good (a happy surprise!) iii) Saturday evening jazz makes this a particularly nice place for an early weekend cocktail.  Sure, it’s a little tourist-y, but you could do worse for a glass of Rhone in Old Montreal.

Posted on November 4th, 2008 by rabbit
Filed under: Montreal, Restaurant Reviews