What’s in s name?
This may be a somewhat unconventional way to start a restaurant review, but I was intrigued from the outset with the choice of ‘Le Filet’ as the name. Having owned a few restaurants in my career I know the importance of selecting a name for your restaurant. It has to be short (preferably one word). It should accurately reflect your cuisine. It should be a catchy name for marketing purposes. And in Quebec it must avoid the intrusive glare of the OLFQ!
Le Filet, literally translated as “the net” seemed completely incongruous until we enquired of our waitress. It then became immediately aware to us. Le Filet is located on the lower level of a group of greystones at the western tip of Mount Royal Blvd where it meets Park Ave and immediately across from the public tennis courts in Jeanne Mance Park where their ‘nets’ can be seen flapping the breeze.
Their tennis analogy follows through even with their logo designed like a ‘tennis’ badge and their menu, divided tongue in cheek, into sections titled: Game, Set and Match.
Le Filet owned by former associates of Le Club Chasse et Peche is a long rectangular shaped room sporting large swathes of black interspersed with panels and strips of stainless steel and wood. It has a definite ‘classy’ bistro ambiance replete with a long lacquered black sit up bar and an attached open kitchen stretching past the bar to the back of the restaurant.
The ultimate success of any restaurant depends on a multitude of things coming together in harmony every single night. Two of these are the service and the food, if one is lacking a restaurant is in deep trouble.
Le Filet serves up aces with both. Service was outstanding from the moment we entered until we left with warm greetings at the door. Our waitress was thoroughly professional, attentive and extremely knowledgeable of both the food and the wine menu which is extremely extensive and also very fairly priced.
She made our evening complete in every way.
The food at Le Filet, centered largely around fish and seafood, is definitely French based with creative licks of Asian and other cuisines expertly infused. I am not usually a big fan of small plate presentations, but I have to admit in this case I didn’t even notice. We both enjoyed almost every single bite and left feeling completely satisfied.
We shared all our dishes and started with one selection from the Game section Rillettes de maquereau fumé, huile citron, toast ($11), two from the Set section Tartare de thon, oeuf confit, nori ($19) and Pieuvre grillée, couscous israélien, citron meyer ($21) and two from the Match section: Morue poêlée, topinambour, yuzu, fond de veau ($27) Canard fumé, laque d’érable, châtaignes, raisins ($29).
The mackerel rillettes served with crisp wafers was delicious, dense and perfectly seasoned with wonderful smoky undertones, a great way to wet our taste buds. The tuna tartare was once of the best I have tasted. Sometimes this much used dish is served way over seasoned. This one was perfect, wonderfully fresh and garnished with shards of crisp sesame studded wafers and an egg confit. My dish of grilled octopus was the one let down of the entire meal. As mentioned in previous reviews I am a sucker for octopus on any menu. This one however disappointed. The octopus was a bit on the tough side and it definitely lacked the accustomed smoky flavor from the grill. It was served with well cooked Israeli couscous ( larger grains the regular couscous) and garnished with a creamy sweet and sour drizzle of Meyer lemon.
Our choices from the Match section were equally superb. My pan seared cod was perfectly cooked with a wonderful crisp top garnished with thin shards of Jerusalem artichoke chips . It sat on top of a bed of an addictive puree of the same Jerusalem artichokes loaded with an umami punch. A drizzle of rich and robust veal jus surrounded the cod. I loved every bite!
Our other dish, a generous plate of perfectly rare and tender slices of duck breast each sporting a sweet maple lacquered skin and garnishes of poached chestnuts and plump raisins had us begging for more.
We accompanied our meal with a light and fruity Côtes du Rhône ‘les grillons 2014 clos des grillons ($58)
Desserts at Le Filet definitely do not take a back seat. Our choices of a Mango Pudding ($10) and a Pistachio biscuit ($10) were equally outstanding and capped off a meal to remember.
With nary a net ball or foul throughout the entire meal I must admit that Le Filet served up an ‘advantage server’ meal.
Le Filet is by no means inexpensive, but if you’re looking for a totally enjoyable night out with fabulous food and service it would be very hard to beat
Our meal, including taxes cocktails came to $234.00
219 Av Mount Royal O
514 360-6060
Tues – Fri: 5.45pm – 10.30pm
Saturday: 5.30pm – 10.30pm
www.lefilet.ca
Some images courtesy of www.urbainecity.com
