A few weeks ago, I felt the need... the need for meat. It was a hunger that could be satisfied with fish, chicken, any form of pork not even bacon. It would only be cured by a good piece of red meat steak. Instead of going to the grocery store and pick up something for dinner as usual, we deiced to head out to town to try a new restaurant on the weekend. We settled for the
Vieux-Port Steakhouse as an experiment. I hoped that it lived up to its name of a steakhouse. I really did not want to suffer the itch for another day. And thank god, I didn't.
Photo from Vieux-Port Steakhouse
The restaurant was very busy that night. I thought we weren't going to get a seat. Unbeknown to us, it had 2 floors and is VERY spacious. It seems to be a great place to entertain a large crowd. We followed our hostess to a small table on the second floor. She was back in a few minutes to fill our water glasses and took our wine order. I would make a note of it but I really can't recall what I ordered and how it was. Remembering or noting down the wines is something that I need to work on. Memory of food comes much easier to me, almost photographic. It is perhaps a weird obsessive disorder.
For appetizers, we ordered the
soup of the day which happened to be cream of mushroom and the
snails with garlic "au gratin". The mushroom soup is creamy with actual mushrooms in it and the right amount of salt. (Don't get me started on overly salty soup at restaurants.) However, since trying out that
38oz mushroom soup recipe, other mushroom soups pale in comparison. The snails were good but not great. There was not a grain of sand in any of them (thank god), but they were a little dry and not served hot enough. I was probably nip picking or having unreal expectations given they were snails and we were in Quebec. I would give a 3.5/5 for these two appetizers.
Our main courses were the
two tenderloin medallions and the
Arctic char. The medallions were wrapped in bacon served on top of some shiitake mushroom sauce with a side of mashed potato and steamed vegetables. The arctic char was topped with a white sauce and served with a side of roasted garlic spinach and wild rice. The medallions were cooked to perfection. It was rare as I requested with a nicely charred crust. It was juicy and didn't bleed as I cut into it. It was so soft and tender that the lady at the table next to us was cutting into hers with a butter knife. She probably didn't even notice she was using the wrong knife as the meat offered no resistance. I cannot give as high a praise to the Arctic char. It was good as far as fish goes but it was not anything spectacular. The surprising part about the dish was how fantastic the roasted garlic spinach tasted. I think I will try to make mine at home that way as well. It brings out the flavour of spinach much more finely diced garlic. On my completely biased scale (due to craving and dislike for fish), I give a 4.7/5 for the medallions and a 3.5/5 for the char.
They have a pretty standard dessert list at the
Vieux-Port Steakhouse. They offer a choice of custards, chocolate cake, cheesecake, pie, fruit platter, and cheese platter. He selected the chocolate mousse cake and I went for the crème bûlée (classic vanilla) as I always do at restaurants. I figured that I should always get the thing that I do not make at home. The day that I have my own torch will be the same that that I stop ordering this at restaurants. (Come to think of it, I really should give the broiler function a try...) The chocolate cake was a heavenly dark chocolate bliss. It had a moist cake base with a rich mousse layer on top. It was also the perfect size so you would feel satisfied and still want more at the same time. The crème bûlée was served in the most gigantic size that I had ever seen. That was not the concern and never would be when it came to dessert. However, this had to be the worst crème bûlée that I had eaten at a restaurant before. It had a good sugar to custard ratio but the crème part of the dessert was anything but creamy! It was more flan like than I liked with little bubbles in the custard. There were either too much egg white or too little cream. Definitely, a 5/5 for the cake and a 2/5 for the crème bûlée.
It was a great evening with wonderful service and food. I would definitely return to this restaurant again in the future. I just hope they are consistent in their cooking. I would hate to be disappointed by a poorly made steak on my next visit.
Vieux-Port Steakhouse
39 Saint-Paul Street East
Montreal (Quebec), H2Y 1G2
514.866.3175
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