Where to Eat at Montreal en Lumière: The Best Dinners, Lunches, Brunches and Booze From Feb. 18-March 5, 2016

Montreal en Lumière…

…It’s the most. Wonderful. Time. Of the year.

No, this has nothing to do with Kylie, but I find this version a little less inappropriately Christmas-y than the Andy Williams original.

What this is about is a city of great food taking a bleary week-and-a-half at the end of February and turning it into a gastronomic high season. It’s the time when restaurants figured they needed something to get bums in seats, so years ago they starting choosing a guest country, a guest North American City, a guest wine region (there isn’t one of these this year – it’s a free-for-all) and a guest area of Quebec and throwing a big party. Heck, they even tossed in a Nuit Blanche.

But who cares about an all-night contemporary art thing when Laloux is serving dim sum in honour of Shenzhen, China?

Not I.

Besides, why spend your evening pushing through crowds of drunken revellers when you could be slurping high-end dumplings? Throw in a little foie gras while you’re at it, thanks. Because that’s what Montreal’s all about – a little indulgence and just enough of a guilt-free attitude to enjoy it.

Now the only problem is choosing which of the many gastronomic events you’re going to check out this year. The festival is on from Feb. 18 to March 5 and covers a lot of gastronomic territory.

There are the mostly free Friday, Saturday and Sunday events at Complexe Desjardins and the Jean-Talon Market, which include free samples of Quebec cheeses, lamb from Laval, everything sea buckthorn and a cider competition.

And there are some lunches inspired by China, the guest country.

There are happy hours that have nothing to do with China and sometimes (but not always) something to do with Boston beer and crab cakes (the guest North American city, a handful of whose chefs will take over Montreal restaurants for a couple nights during the fest).

And there are the events that really make no sense at all, theme-wise, but could still be delicious – tiki style happy hour and all-you-can-eat raclette…not together. That’s just indigestion waiting to happen.

And then there are the heavy hitters – the $300 honorary president’s dinner (Chef Anthony Dong, the executive chef of Futian Shangri-La in Shenzhen who specializes in Huaiyang cuisine. Who in Montreal even knows what Huaiyang cuisine is?)

So to make your decision easier, here are my choices for the fest. I went through every food event (there are maybe 100?) and chose the ones where the bang for the buck, the novelty and the flavours seemed the most interesting. I took into account the Montreal restaurant that has to share its kitchen with the visiting chef (in the cases where there is a visitor) and I checked out the restaurants of those chefs to see what we might expect.

What you need to know for Montreal en Lumière 2016:

1. Guest city (international): Shenzhen, China
Guest city (North American): Boston, US
Guest Quebec region: Laval (previous years: Outaouais, Charlevoix)

2. Some meals run for the entire week and a bit, while others are one-night-(or day)only.

3. Tax and tip is not included in the price. Often wine isn’t either. For wine pairing dinners, expect to pay a heap more than the listed price unless the cost of the wines is listed too.

4. Some events are already sold out, so get your reservations ASAP.

Best Guest Chef dinners:

Tim Cushman of O Ya (gourmet Japanese) at Boulud – $165

This dinner gives me the good kind of shivers. Cushman’s tasting menu at O Ya in Boston is like nothing available in Montreal.There, 17 courses of heaven include:
legs & eggs tiny maine lobster legs, black river ossetra caviar, tomalley aioli*
salmon unfiltered wheat soy moromi*
kinme dai ume, japanese plum vinaigrette, shiso*
kyoto style wild morel mushrooms bianchetti truffle
foie gras miso, preserved california meyer lemon
tennen madai white soy ginger, myoga, lemon oil*
santa barabara sea urchin & black river ossetra caviar*
dayboat scallop perigord black truffle, sake sea urchin jus, chervil*
shim aji leche de tigre, momiji oil, cilantro, cucumber*
ebi tamago garlic, shrimp, tarragon
foie gras nigiri balsamic chocolate kabayaki, raisin cocoa pulp*

Barbara Lynch at Pullman – $75

Barbara Lynch is the Normand Laprise of Boston. She inspired the next generation of chefs to do things better. Many of her kitchen offspring have gone on to open their own lauded restaurants and win tv show comps. When you throw in some stellar reds from the cellar at Pullman, how can this not be awesome?

Lydia Shire at Auberge St-Gabriel – Italian food, chef from Boston

When it comes to refined, thoughtful and creative Italian in Montreal, there’s Nora Gray. That’s it. So if you want to see how the hometown fave stands up to Boston’s Italian heritage, this one’s for you.

James Beard Award-winning Seafood Chef of Island Creek in Boston – $85 – Verses

Island Creek is one of the places to be in Boston if you love anything that swims.

Local Chef Dinners:

Seafood mezzes at Ikanos – $84

This one’s here mostly because I haven’t been to Ikanos yet and if you’re going to buy properly cooked, gently seasoned (lemon and olive oil) fish at a fine dining restaurant in the city where you might even get the thing filleted table-side, then it’s going to be here (or Milos).

BYOB at Le Margaux for 4-course seafood – $45

We are not a fish city. But Boston is. I’m hoping that since this one is inspired by Boston, maybe the chefs will go out of their way for some great seafood beyond the usual suspects that we do source well here: oysters, mussels, Nordic shrimp and clams. It’s also one of the cheapest dinners, thanks to the BYO. Bring something decent.

Five courses of Rabbit at Chez Chose

I’m thinking paté, a braise, a sear or grill, and the rest is intriguing enough to make me want a reservation. $55 for an exploration of rabbit? Sold.

Game meat – $75 – Le Balmoral

A whole meal of game meat! I’m thinking boar and venisen and elk and caribou. But the real question is where’s bambi in the dessert?

Homage to two Boston chefs at Lili Co. $80

I really wish this one were gluten-free. The problem is you don’t get the menu in advance, so I called and, alas, the menu isn’t gluten-free, dairy-free friendly. Most crab cakes and clam chowder are pretty off limits for me, but that just means more for you! Jerk.

Healthy and creative five-course dinner at Bistro Accords – $65

Here’s another one I called about. Not gluten free, unfortunately. But the nutritionist planning the meal has your health at heart, which is a weird enough phenomenon for a food festival that I wanted to try it.

Lunches:

Asian chef from Boston, Tru Lang, at Laurie Raphael – $50

The lunch menu won’t be as extensive as the dinner, but at $50 versus $120 for dinner to try the work of a master, it’s a steal.

Europea’s five-course lunch for $35
Two dates of this week-long even are already sold out. Five courses at this temple of gastronomy, at this price? No wonder.

Three-course Boston-style lunch at État-Major – $22
If you ever needed a good reason to try a place a little off the beaten path, here’s one. Clam chowder, shrimp rolls, crunchy crab cakes and tacos from this French bistro helmed by an up-and-coming chef should be a good reason to go a few extra metro stops.

Le Quartier Général’s Chinese three-course lunch – $25
Aren’t you sick of people saying how much they love Le Quartier Général? Non? Me neither. So to jazz it up a bit, watch chef Jonathan Rassi create a three-course ode to Shenzhen. Who knows what that means? But it’s half the fun.

Brunch:

Dimsum at Laloux

$8-$18 per plate. Chef Jonathon Lapierre-Réhayem is my hero. He’s going to use gluten-free tamari and make a gluten-free option for us wheat-free-ers! I haven’t had dimsum in years. I think I might cry. You should too.

But first, make a reservation. What to expect: Chicken and corn soup, dim sum, maple-glazed pork spare ribs, soft shell crab, General Tao sweetbreads, dragon’s beard candy… and fortune cookies.

Wine pairing dinners where it’s really about the wines:

Niagara wines at Les Cons Servent – $90

These are supposed to be pretty funky wines. Bit of a cult following.

Sicilian wines at Le Local with 4-course meal

$40 plus 4 wines, so about $100 all-in, probably.
If you’ve never explored Sicilian wines, you should. You can find a handful at the SAQ these days, but if you want refreshing, balanced mineral whites and sunny but sleek reds, here your chance to try them paired masterfully with a gourmet meal.

Freebies: Cheese and lamb. The cheese thing happens every year, but is fun and free, and the lamb is cool because it’s from Laval (and I’ve so far neglected to suggest you do anything Laval-related, and there are a bunch of other local specialties to try on the upstairs part of the Jean-Talon market in case lamb isn’t your thing),$20: The ciders are a new addition happening on the second weekend of the festival at Complexe Desjardins. $20 gets you a tasting glass, a day of access (you can go sober up and come back if you want) and 10 tasting coupons. But anyone who’s been to a tasting event before knows the trick is to try the whole line of someone’s ciders and be really interested in how they’re made, where they’re from (note I said “be really interested,” not “pretend to be interested), etc. And if you go the ice cider route, even 10 tastes will have a juggernaut on the floor. Word to the wise, start dry and go sweet. It’ll minimize the headache. The highlights of this event include blind tastings, speed tastings, cider-based cocktails, DJs, a gourmet tasting table of cold cuts, oysters and foie gras (though it probably requires coupons).

Montreal en Lumière
Feb. 18-March 5, 2016
montrealenlumiere.com

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