Food Review: PINO (Montreal)

On the busy street of Crescent Road, an Italian corner restaurant namely, PINO, grabs my business on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon in Montreal.

The menu is quite extensive. You have all the normal dish categories. The menu looks very generic and not all too appetizing, but who knows, maybe when it comes out it'll look good enough to eat.

Sitting up in Pino's "L" shape patio on the second floor, we get a pretty good view on Crescent Street.

I opted for the special brunch menu. And boy was it big. For $18.00, this is what you get. First they start you off with a mimosa. Second item is a HUGE fruit plate (which can easily feed 2-3 people). For the main entree, I went traditional and got the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict. Lastly, they give you a dessert and coffee. But I was way too stuffed, so I just try the dessert with no coffee.

Mimosa & Fruit plate (photo above)

The Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict was not to the best, or very good. I like having my eggs run a little, so this was just slightly overcooked for me. The potatoes were just alright. The hollandaise sauce was not as bad as "Sunnyside Grill" (in Toronto), and the richness was there, but barely.

And lastly, they called it a "crepe" dessert, but this is what it actually was:

That is..... a pancake. Perhaps to them, (French-Canadians) crepe means pancake. Anywho, it was a little disappointing since I haven't had a crepe in ages and was really looking forward to it.

Would I go again? Perhaps. I did enjoy their patio atmosphere (on the second level), but due to the high traffic, it was very slow service. The food was definitely on the large side, but the food might still have some work ahead of them. 

Food Review: Vallier (Montreal)

At the most west edge of Old Montreal, I stumbled upon a very cute looking french restaurant called Vallier.

Just off of McGill Street, My friend and I head over to Vallier for a late dinner.

It's a dim-lit restaurant with very classical light decorations. The space looks quite large, but at the time, there weren't many patrons as it was after 9:00pm.

I've always avoided french food only for the fact that it's so expensive. However, being in a french city, it seemed crazy not to try out a couple of their traditional french restaurants. The prices weren't through the roof, but it was above the usual. 

We decided to order an appetizer, entree and a dessert together. (It was more than enough as well very very rich tasting)

My friend is a lover of chicken wings, so we got a a plate of Ailes de poulet avec sauce BBQ-Jack Daniels (6 for $8/12 for $14). Somehow, I simply skipped the dipping sauce and ate the wings. The wings were lightly salted and very crispy without all that oil in my mouth. 

For our main meal, we had a very rich entree. It's Raviolis de Portabella, canard effiloche confit, jus de viande, creme, echalote grise, champignons de paris, haricots verts, parmesan, roquette a l'huile d'herbes (otherwise known as: Portabella raviolis, pulled duck confit, meat juices, cream, gray shallot, mushrooms, green beans, parmesan, arugula with herb oil, $27).

This was a very very creamy dish. I loved it! It felt so delicious in my mouth that I have no words to best describe it. The pull duck confit with the meat juices and the greens made for a perfect combination of great tasting flavours. The duck was tender and the greens were well cooked. The sauce was probably the main ingredient. It definitely upstaged the whole dish. A++ 

And for our decadent meal, we topped it off with a very special dessert, a favorite among many... the cheesecake. =0)

It's called Le meilleur cheesecake en ville, servi avec caramel au beurre sale et coulis de fruits (translation: the best cheesecake in town, served with salted butter caramel and fruit coulis, $8)

This was no light, fluffy sweet, it was, like the entree, thick and creamy with a very sweet taste from the caramel and fruit coulis. It was a very good cheesecake.

Service: 3/5

Location: Old Montreal

Taste: 4.5/5

Atmosphere: Quiet, intimate, romantic setting

Price: $$$

Overall, I had a very tasteful meal. I would go there again!