My first stop this year for Mtl à Table, the magical restaurant week of prix fixe menus, was Invitation V, a vegan gastronomic bistro on rue Bernard in the Mile End. “Wait, wait, wait…” you say, as the oxymoron rings in your ears.
“Gastronomic bistro” and “vegan” in Montreal? Mais oui!
I chose Invitation V out of the more than 150 restaurants offering these special menus for the week-and-a-half fest because you never see tempeh as a main course – unless it’s sandwiched between a hamburger bun or chapati with a slice of lettuce and tomato (and maybe some housemade, sugar-free ketchup).
“Nudding wrong widdit,” (as my mother would say…) but I was much more interested in what the restaurant could do with “layers of marinated squash in a crispy tempeh crust.” Plus, the whole menu was gluten-free! I could eat triple chocolate cake! OR squash and quinoa pudding with pumpkin cream! There was a choice – an anomaly for gluten-free-ers. So I went with a celiac friend and we got to try each of the two appetizer, main and dessert options.
Here’s how it went:
I started with the Burmese chickpea soup.* It’s a whole lot of shallots in a lot of spices, topped with crispy fried shallots, fresh cilantro and a grilled half lime on the side. You squeeze the lime over top of it all (or individual bites) and the flavours pop. It’s a whole lot of onions, though, with a fair bit of oil. So you might pay for it later. But still, it’s very comforting. And that lime is a great touch.
My dining partner got the other appetizer, the Invitation V salad. This Mexi-Cali-French creation includes greens and crunchy quinoa in a balanced sweet-and-vinegary dressing with a salsa fresca of diced tomatoes on avocados. The bowl is lined with sweet and crunchy fried Jerusalem artichoke chips and a thick circle of hummus. The wine pairing – a vegan New Zealand Chardonnay – didn’t add anything to the plate, but it was fine on its own. And it’s great to know that there are no animal products added, because, yes, that’s an issue.
I loved the name of this next dish: “Marinated tofu coated with sesame seeds, wrapped in teriyaki yuba, on a sushi rice futon.” Who wouldn’t want their rice on a futon?
Since you don’t really see the futon above, here’s what the dish really was: Three slices of sesame-crusted tofu next to vinegary marinated mushroom and carrot maki roll pieces topped with a thin teriyaki sauce and diced scallions. Also accompanying are charred onion slices, more sauce, and fermented vegetables. As a home fermenter and someone who tries to eat healthy, I loved that the side of veggies here weren’t pickled in a ton of vinegar. I think there were lacto-fermented, which is more work but is actually good for your gut, helping all those good bacteria fight the bad ones.
My favourite dish was my main. That squash and tempeh creation. It tasted like Thanksgiving dinner without the turkey or cranberry sauce, and was 100% savoury. This ultimate comfort food included a thick purée of celery root topped with a pan-fried dome of tempeh stuffed with squash, all topped with an onion and peppercorn sauce. The roasted carrots were tender and sweet and the dish was incredibly filling.
Okay, so it looks more like a cream puff than a cake, but the layered (or stuffed?) creation is a triple chocolate cake for people who, like my high school boyfriend, like their coffee like they like their women: bitter and dark.
And finally, my dessert. This black quinoa pudding was topped with a pumpkin cream that our serer said was blended for twenty minutes. I’m thinking Thermomix. It was perfectly smooth, very sweet, but strangely salty. You have to dig for the quinoa, which seems to have fallen in a less-than-epic battle at the hands of the overwhelming pumpkin cream.
I wish Invitation V had more gastronomic offerings on its menu, but maybe what most people in the area want is inexpensive vegan takeout? And that’s sad, really, when we can do so much better with tempeh. So E for Effort, Invitation V, and I hope to see more of your creative menus in the future.
Invitation V
254 Bernard St. W.
MTL à Table – $31 prix fix
Regular hours: Tues-Sun 6-10pm
Website: www.invitationv.com
*This soup is also on the usual menu, which is much more casual. The restaurant even has a take-out menu of sandwiches and pizza. What happened to gastronomic bistro fare?
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