By Michael Minorgan for Curtains Up minorgan@yahoo.ca
Le Maistre or The Master would, by definition, indicate someone in control and a master of whatever he or she was involved with, always striving for the best.
Le Maistre has been a staple on the popular and ‘trendy’ Monkland Blvd for quite a few years serving French cuisine in the same location well before the influx of restaurants and cafés now found on this street. I have eaten here a few times in the past and each time I must say I enjoyed the food ,but was never really blown away by it.
This time I was drawn back with the purchase of a ‘voucher‘ offering a four course gourmet dinner for two. As with all these ‘voucher promotions’ I am always a bit hesitant as to how clients are accepted and treated at the restaurants involved in these marketing schemes.
We arrived on a recent Saturday night and were immediately seated on their small, but attractive terrasse facing Monkland Ave. All the tables were nicely laid with white linens giving a wink to their French dining roots. The menu at Le Maistre is largely French inspired offering such iconic French dishes as Escargots, Mussels, Rack of Lamb, Confit de Canard, Steak and Frites, but it also has a few incongruous dishes such as the decidedly Italian salad of Tomatoes, Boccocini and Basil and BBQ Ribs thrown in for good measure. Appetizers are priced from $6 to $13 and Main Courses from $15.95 to $33.
We chose to go the Table d’Hote route which gives you a choice of four servings (Soup, Appetizer, Main Course, Dessert).
We both started with a cauliflower soup which sadly arrived lukewarm and had a rather ‘off putting’ grayish hue to it. It also suffered from a heavy hand on the black pepper. It could have done with a bit more cream and perhaps some fresh herbs to give it a more accustomed velvety finish.
For appetizers, I chose the Betteraves aux Pommes which consisted of a tian of pickled purple beets garnished with small cubes of pickled apple and a dollop of sour cream. Again an ‘okay’ dish. Surely when there are so many varieties of fresh beets now available in the markets you could have been a bit more creative and used a more colorful version incorporating some of the deliciously sweet yellow and orange varieties. My companion chose the Fried Calamari. They were cooked perfectly and tender, but their breaded crust was a bit oily and had started to fall off the rings. Calamari are hard to get right ,you either cook them very quickly or braise them over a longer period of time to ensure their tenderness.
When the server cleared our appetizers we were asked to keep our dirty cutlery! Mine was covered in beet juice and sour cream and my companions’ with the creamy calamari dip.. If you purport to be a ‘fine dining’ French restaurant why in God’s name would you not replace the cutlery for the main course? How hard is it to wash a knife and fork!
My main course of Grilled Salmon with a Dill Sauce was well cooked and moist and the dill sauce light and well seasoned. It was served with a mélange of seasonal vegetables including a cauliflower floret that was unfortunately almost raw. I appreciate al dente vegetables, but this was stretching it! My companion chose the Confit de Canard. The duck meat was, as expected, rich and luxurious, but the skin should have been seared much better to achieve the crispy texture that one expects with this dish. It was served with the same vegetables and some roast potatoes.
Would someone please whisper in the chef’s ear that when he or she is garnishing a plate make sure that the garnishes used are eatable. The two uncooked strands of whole wheat spaghetti artfully placed across the food didn’t cut it. Cute maybe, but entirely amateurish.
We accompanied our meal with a refreshing light and dry Italian Pinot Grigio.
For desserts we chose the Crème Caramel and the Nougat Glace. The brulee was good ,but decidedly run of the mill and the Nougat, served in a small mason jar topped with a few blueberries and cream, was a bit overly dense and sweet for my taste nothing near the soft and chewy texture I am used to when eating a nougat.
Our meal to this point was just ‘okay’, but certainly not inspired and falling short in many ways that could easily be avoided and improved upon.
Service during the meal was almost non existent after out initial order taking and opening of our wine, a bit hard to understand as there were only a handful of tables occupied for the entire time we were there.
Unfortunately, when it came time to pay the bill, I was issued the final insult of the evening with someone having scribbled on the bill a ‘suggested tip of 15% with the actual dollar amount shown alongside. I certainly understand that some people who use ‘vouchers’ do not, as expected, tip on the actual total of the bill before the voucher discount, but this is no excuse for this practice. It’s the nature of the business, you win some, you lose some. Having worked in the food service business for many years I almost always leave a 20% tip unless there is some glaring reason not to. Not this time!
In the extremely competitive Montreal restaurant business Le Maistre needs to quickly step it up and pay attention to details both in the kitchen and front of house if it expects to remain profitable in this often very unforgiving market.
