Let's start with what's wrong with this restaurant. The list will be long and painful. OK! Here we…read morego. The restaurant is a bit loud and a bit dark (I like to eat with my eyes also).
And
That's
It.
Because everything else about L'Ardoise is outstanding. The food is sublime; the service exceeds expectations. I could stop here and just tell you to go; now... you are still here? GO!
Nevertheless, I'll get into a little of the details.
I wanted to take my girlfriend out for a good meal to celebrate our 6th anniversary, somewhere where we could eat great food, get some drinks and come home satiated and happy...
Made reservations for 20:15 but the drive to the restaurant took considerably less time than anticipated - living in Montréal, you kind of expect traffic and construction work to halt your progress - and we got there half an hour early and were seated immediately.
Looking at the menu, I was pretty disappointed and let down. I had selected the restaurant through suggestions on Yelp! and Facebook and the pictures let on to a more elaborate menu than what I was looking at. Befuddled, we picked and chose from the menu, until I noticed the huge blackboard above the open kitchen - bonus. Blackboard, translated into French is an Ardoise, hence the name of the restaurant, hence the menu. The server explained that the menu was the Pub part of the menu and the blackboard, the Gastro part of the gastropub menu. DING! DING! DING! The blackboard menu opened up the more elaborate part I mentioned earlier. The Pub menu was still awesome. Sliders, merguez corndogs, duck wings, burgers with foie-gras, Shazam! But the blackboard menu was simply mind-blowing.
My girlfriend went for the corn-flake crusted fried shrimp as an entrée, I had the Steamed Pork Buns, and we shared a bowl of duck wings. I cannot eat seafood but they looked amazing. The duck wings were outstanding and by outstanding I mean just as good - but different - from the duck wings I had eaten at La Cabane du Pied de Cochon. The kind of awesome where you want to order a bucket of dem wings. Really that good. Not to fatty, not to dry, sweet. It was sided with a coleslaw I suspect, was made with rice vinegar instead of wine vinegar or "table" vinegar, it made for different kind of slaw and it was perfect. However, the clear Entrée winner was the Steamed Pork Buns. Well GAWWWWWWDAMN. I can't explain properly what an almost out of body experience they gave me. I could have eaten 15 of those and called it a day. The bun a pillow with a slight hint of sweetness and the pork stuffing, well shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, it's indescribable.
With an opening volley like that, the follow better be some kind of nuclear detonation. My girlfriend hit the Philly Cheesesteak and boy did that deliver a bang. Now don't get me wrong, Tony Lukes, this was not - but then again nothing is, believe me, I tried. But it's a gastropub-ish take on a Cheesesteak and it was fantastic. Made with skirt steak, well-seasoned peppers and onions served on a flaky bread with cheese. I coulda eaten it all week and never got bored.
I was torn between the Duck Confit Fettucine with pesto, and Foie-Gras - the only thing missing was pork belly and the Holy Meat Trifecta was complete - and the Smoke Beef Macreuse with celery rave and speck. So I let the server pick for me.
Duck Confit Fettucine with pesto, and Foie-Gras it was and boy did it deliver. However, more sedate in flavor but only in the sense that it wasn't a flavor bomb like that the Pork Buns, the richness taste and softness of texture more than made up for that. The duck confit morsels were enough to make you close your eyes to experience it more, the noodles were perfectly al dente - which can be a rare find in restaurants these days and the Cipollini onions. The only thing negative to say of this plate was that it was a portion. Mind you there was plenty but my inner-glutton wanted more because it was that good but we need room for desert, do we not?
Now at this point, I don't think it would get better. It did
There were four deserts on the Ardoise. We took three of them. Their take on strawberry shortcake was traditional and visually not innovative but the taste, unequalled. I had the lemon pie. Lemon pie is one of my favorite deserts because, lemons but my expectations in restaurants are usually low. I was so wrong. So very wrong. Lemon custard like no other, whipped cream and meringue, topped with a raspberry coulis and with a sprinkle of matcha (a fine powdered tea). It just made me wanna bang my head on the table. We brown-bagged some doughnuts to go - equally awesome, with a cherry (I think) jam.
After all that, we were stuffed like Thanksgiving Turkeys. They also have a better than decent selection of Scotch Whiskey both single malt and blended. Though no Lagavulin - my favorite - and nothing in the 16 year olds. But that's easily forgiven and the Macallans I had were of course perfect. They have some better than d
