Driving to Montreal from Toronto isn't to far of a drive, 6-7 hours tops. My friend Sarah and I were headed to Old Montreal for a night before heading off on a road trip around Canada's east coast. we were making it there in such good time and right as we are about 15 min away from our hotel (says my IPhone GPS) and BAM traffic jam....we still had 3 hours before our dinner reservation so we were both at ease thinking that we could still check into our hotel, shower, nap and get ready with plenty of time to catch a cab and hit the restaurant. I have never been more wrong...we were stuck in the same kilometer of road for 2 hours and 53 minutes before we finally got on our way. We ran into our hotel threw on our dresses and heals and flew back out the door to catch a cab to the restaurant.
Apparently catching a cab in Montreal is not as east as catching one in Toronto...it took us 15 minutes to catch a cab for a 4 minute cab ride.
the cab dumps us off on a busy side road and says that we are right outside the restaurant...we pay our fare hop out and he speeds off. but where is the restaurant? we look up and down the street, pop our heads in and out of multiple restaurants ask dozens of non English speaking folk where this place is and still we have no clue, almost ready to give up we try one more door...from the outside it looks more like a pub but we think what the hell we can grab a beer instead....defeated we walk into this pub and what do we see? the sign for "Garde Manger" the place we had been searching for all along.
We are welcomed with smiles and sat at our table, our server was so pleasant and welcoming I wish I could remember her name. The atmosphere is rustic, dim lighting and very laid back. chalk board menus and a partial open concept kitchen.
She brings us bread and dip while we decide on our dinner selections. We decide to share the Jerk Crab Legs as a starter. Let me tell you the next morning Sarah and I left Montreal and spent the next 15 days traveling Canada's seafood abyss....and not one place on the east coast came close to the pleasure I felt when I ate the jerk crab at Garde Manger, the seasoning had the perfect tang and heat and the crab was cooked to perfection, so moist, it danced in your mouth.
After finishing up what we thought to be the climax of the meal we received our mains. we ordered the duck breast with fois grais that was impeccable. The duck itself was bursting with musical notes but then the fois...perfectly pan seared and complimenting the duck amazingly, I now cant imagine those two being eaten separately, it would be like taking Kurt Hummel from the Glee Club...it just wouldn't work. And then the second main, a perfectly light pink bone in pork chop served with braised cabbage, apple and a potato latka. Now I wouldn't normally order a pork chop at a restaurant, to be honest most places don't put them on the menu...so I was intrigued...I had to know what was so special about this dish that Chef Chuck Hughes had to put it on the menu. I am so glad he did. I keep using the word perfect but there is no other way to describe it.
For dessert we shared a deep fried mars bar which was goopy, and melty and messy and a perfect way to end this impeccable meal.
We finished our meal with one more glass of wine and stuffed like Cornish hens, we made our way back to our hotel.
I will say that the pictures below do not do the food justice, I am in no way a professional photographer, but if it means anything I would drive all the way to Montreal and sit through 3 hours of bumper to bumper traffic to have dinner there again.
Way to go Garde Manger
Until tomorrow readers :)
No comments:
Post a Comment