S'Alright.
Came here for a birthday dinner for 2 of our gfs, we were a group of 15 and most of us showed up on time for our reservation at 7pm on a Friday evening in October. The place had quite a few tables occupied at our arrival, though no new arrivals and slowly, table by table, we became the last ones standing. By 10:30pm they were very anxious to get rid of us lol.
It's not entirely our fault, you see, there was a chansonnier there for the evening and he kept egging us on. We became quite the boisterous crowd for the fancy little italian bistro. You kinda can't take us anywhere...and you certainly shoudn't encourage us, that just makes it worst lol. (One of our 2 bday girls felt it was a fantastic idea to show us all her bra in the middle of the resto..and that's just one example lol..)
It's quite pretty inside, but not too too fancy. You could show up in jeans and a nice shirt and not feel underdressed. (Or show your bra and not feel like you've committed a faux pas). Though it's nice enough that if you showed up in elegant attire you still woudn't feel out of place.
The menu options are typical italian bistro menu choices, pizzas pastas veal etc. Everything ridiculously overpriced for fin-bout-de-nowhere ste martine. This is not downtown and you're clearly popular enough to not hafta jack your prices just to stay alive, so no excuses for this one here.
Service was iffy at best. Especially for me who seemed to get the worst of our table's experiences. I waited over 20 minutes to be offered something to drink despite being the 4th to arrive. I ordered an artichoke and goat cheese pizza...and received a salad and then got attitude when I told him that was not what I ordered (he insisted on taking my order from across the table instead of coming next to each of us in turn like he should have). I received a scalding hot fresh pizza within minutes of the error so no biggy but the attitude was not appreciated. And then, when I go to pay, he charges me for a full bottle of wine and I must wait another 5 minutes while he fixes that mistake too, I was driving so only had 1 glass of wine. So yeah, I definitely got the worst of it, but it wasn't horrible service.
The glass of red wine I ordered also left me unenthused. I asked our waiter for a glass of red wine, he decided not to bring me a red wine menu but simply ask me what kind I want, fine. I like recommendations, I excitedly state I usually like cabernet sauvignons or similar and would be willing to try anything, he states simply "surly" (?) And walks away returning 5 minutes later with a glass of red wine he explains is called "surly he thinks" when I ask him the name of the wine. It was ok. My guess would be an 11-13$ bottle from the SAQ: For 10$ a glass in ste-bout-de-nowhere: it's offensive.
The artichoke and goat cheese pizza with pesto and olives I ordered was just ok. I was expecting to be wowed with the woodfired pizza in the adorable fancy bistro, but it tasted exactly like the sum of its ingredients, no wow factor here. Goat cheese check, artichokes check, olives check, red peppers check. Pesto? Hmm not sure I tasted that in there. And to be perfectly honest I didn't remember olives being an ingredient on the pizza I ordered but at that point I didnt care lol. It was fine. Good, not great, nothing fantabulous or worth going out of one's way for. I think if I had to come here again I would go for the insanely priced pastas instead. My gf let me try a bite of her tortellini which was quite nice (it was supposedly Gigi style, but I didn't really notice the sauce so much as the freshness and al dente cooking of the tortellini).
The chansonnier was a bit cheesy and corny (karaoke type machine while he played along with a guitar and sang various songs), but he was sweet and funny enough and got our group dancing and having fun so if it weren't for him I probably wouldn't have enjoyed my night here as much.
Plenty of parking, but turning off the highway into it may be an issue, I recommend using a GPS to make sure you know when the entrance is coming up.
I would go again and not b*tch about it if I had to (read: someone else's choice for a special occasion), but I most certainly wouldn't choose this myself nor recommend going out of your way for this. You wont hate it, the food's decent, but you won't love it either I don't think. read more