I stumbled onto this restaurant as I was looking for a special Montreal restaurant for my partner’s birthday. This came up as I was looking into gastronomy. The ingredients and menu looked interesting in that it had some whimsical tones to it, but also being a restaurant that had stood the test of time for at least a decade. In 2018 right before the pandemic, it was voted as the best Canadian restaurant. In 2016, it was voted 50 on Canada’s 100 Best. Reviews of the chef and restaurant have gone all the way back to late 2000s.
The restaurant entrance is located on the street side.
From their website:
A unique culinary experience awaits you in the sprawling, ultra-contemporary dining room of Montreal’s Europea restaurant, right in the heart of Quebec. The brainchild of Jérôme Ferrer, it immerses you in the best and finest of Canadian gastronomy. With dishes that inspire and surprise, the renowned chef takes you on an unprecedented journey through each of the country’s provinces.
Ambiance & Service
In the room that we sat in for this tasting experience, there was a lot of blue lighting. It felt like you were in a tall, modern room with a European club-like vibe. Luckily, it wasn’t too noisy.
The service itself was pretty good, though there were definitely some misses. The first course left a sour taste in my mouth in how everything all came out at once, and you couldn’t really absorb what was happening. There was also some mishandling by the waiter while they were doing demos for us. Nonetheless on a Michelin scale, I do not see this restaurant getting a star necessarily since the food palettes are more on the experimentation side.
Just a note about Montreal taxes that they also charge a TVQ (Quebec Province tax - 9.975%) and a TPS (Product & Services tax - 5%). The total at this time of writing was 14.975%.
Food
We ordered the 8-course gastronomic experience menu at $185 CAD (~$139 USD) instead of the 10-course. The primary difference is that the 10-course will include every single course, whereas the 8-course offers the option to choose for the third and fifth course. There was a lot of food in our opinion for the 8-course, so you really can’t go wrong with that.
The Above the Cloud (left - $24 CAD, ~$18 USD) came with Vodka Ketel One cucumber-mint, lemon, sugar, elderflower tonic, and wild blueberries foam. This was very fruit and summer forward, especially with the cucumber and mint accents. It was very refreshing, and didn’t feel like it had much alcohol.
The Le bon, la brute et ... (right - $26 CAD, ~$20 USD) came with Bourbon Bulleit, Campari, smoked whiskey, cordial apple-rosemary-nettle, passion fruit, lime, and soda. To my surprise, I was expecting a more tan color, but this came out completely clear. My partner could not taste any of the bourbon at all, and the drink itself was very good with hints of citrus and tree fruits layered in it all.
Before we could even take a sip of our drinks, the staff bombarded us with a ton of little canapes. The next few amuses, I took pictures really quick because they didn’t really give us time.
The leaf came from sage and parmesan cheese.
The Onion Soup came with chowder consistencies, puffed rice, and a white wine broth within a scooped out onion. It’s an interesting vessel for this. The chowder tasted fine.
This little bite I couldn’t hear what they said this was, nor do I remember exactly what it was. I remember it had some dense meat in it. They had 2 of these on a platter, and they offered them to us to quickly grab and eat.
The scallop came as a ceviche, with yuzu, lime juice, and topped with mango, pineapple, and topiko (flying fish roe). This was decent.
The final amuse, jerky was actually pretty good. It had a sweet and pleasant texture. We each got 2 pieces. One piece was more lean, but had overall good flavors. The other was more fatty and tasty. This gigantic log decoration has a hole that leads to a spout. They poured some water into this hole, which not only activated the smoke, but also wet some towels at the end of the spout that we can use to clean our fingers. It’s one of those playful theatrics that reminded me a bit of Alinea.
The next course was soup.
My partner (top) received pumpkin with truffle. This tasted exactly like a pumpkin puree.
I (bottom) received lobster cappuccino with truffle. This was actually pretty good.
On the side in the box, they gave us with parmesan and citrus on it, that we can eat with our little soups.
They gave us some fresh bread that was really delicious. They gave us olive oil or truffle butter as an option. The bread itself was warm, fluffy, and very soft like a brioche.
For the third course, I chose the duck with the sweet bill. This was poached foie gras dumplings and buna shimeji glazed with maple butter, truffled artichoke mousseline, and seasonal flakes. The dumpling was very meaty and dense, and the sauce was tart. It was incredibly small for what it was, but it was decent.
For their third course, my partner chose the signature calamari. This was a squid tagliatelle with yellow wine, squid ink emulsion and cream, and a minute poached quail egg. Imagine your calamari cut into noodle widths, so you get that crispy texture but not much doughy bounce to the bite. I thought this was just OK overall, but I can see how the Chef was being playful here.
For the fourth course, it was the shack at the table which was an arctic char cooked in a casserole with hay and served with pork chops with boreal spices and spreadable condiments. They roll a cart next to your table and demonstrate the packaging of some of the dishes. There was a demo here where the waiter used two pieces of utensils to pick up the fish and transfer it over to a bowl. Unfortunately, they broke the piece, possibly showing their lack of delicate handling of the fish. In the can, they have large pieces of fried pork skin. They ask that you take some of the pork skin, lather some of the sauce, and lay some of the arctic char meat on top. Then eat it like a toast. The sauce was made from ketchup, fruit, caramelized onion, and spicy mayo. Again, I think this was just more on the playful side, but all the food in general didn’t really speak much volumes in terms of flavors or uniqueness.
Around this time, I ordered a glass of Roero Arneis ($26 CAD, ~$19 USD) which came from Paitin, Elisa, 2022. The wine was floral, not sweet, dry, had good minerality with tree fruit sensations. It was flavorful to the tongue, and it finishes with a bit nutty sensations.
For the fifth course, I ordered the roasted lobster tails, which was wild lobster tails cooked in three stages:
- Poached, roasted, and caramelized in their shells, and then smoked over glowing embers
- Confined in garlic butter over a basil and candied lemon gremolata
- Served with a decadent lobster chowder, yukon morels, and vegetable butter
The lobster meat itself was quite good, and it definitely was a different lobster type. The green thing that was layered over the lobster had pesto flavors, but the texture of it was a bit hard, almost like a hard fruit roll-up. They put a piece of charcoal under the shell that kept burning, and it was a little annoying because the smoke was getting into my eyes. The broth in the back was light with lobster flavors, and it had some additional lobster chunks in it. It was definitely a bit too watery for my preference. Overall, the idea behind this was moderately executed, and the flavor and texture profiles had some hits and miss.
My partner for their fifth course ordered the Appalachian venison, which was venison loin, juniper berry sauce, candied cherries, chestnut mousseline with hazelnut butter, and salted chestnut. The venison had some cacao on top. This tasted just OK as well. The venison meat quality was good, but some of the side garnishes like the hazelnut butter just didn’t pair well with the meat.
For the sixth course, the chalet was a short stroll to digest and immerse ourselves in childhood memories. We were very surprised by this interaction. They came to us with little Chinese takeout boxes and asked us to vacate our table. My partner wasn’t sure to bring their purse, but the waiter assured us it’s fine to leave all of our belongings. They brought us to the second floor to a backroom where they have a lot of glass containers with nuts and meringues stuffed to the brim. They asked us to fill the Chinese takeout boxes with whatever we want from this room. In this room, they had a mixture of different candied nuts and flavored meringues. Once we filled everything up, we made our way back to our table only to find that they have completely removed the table cloth. It was a fun and entertaining transition going from entree to dessert.
The seventh course was confections which was a chocolate “palet”, candied orange marmalade, caramelized puffed rice, and minute milk chocolate ganache. They suggested we think of it like a “Pim’s Cookie”. This was pretty decent, though some of the flavors seem to clash in my palette.
They gave us a huge maple cotton candy just for our table. There was no way we’d finish this, but it basically tasted like maple syrup.
The eighth and final course was Guilty Pleasures which was Calvados-flavored “pomme d’amour”, with litchi espuma, lime zest, sparkling sugar, and apple vanilla granita. The apple based mousse had some lychee flavors, and they dabbled some crackling sugars. Those crackling sugars when you put them in your mouth make popping noises just like “Pop Rocks”. The dessert overall was just OK due to some of the flavors being more muted than not.
At the top of the picture, they gave us some bite-sized finger desserts (left to right):
- marshmallow on a stick
- pie crust with chocolate
- very concentrated jelly nugget. This was like biting into a super bold jelly.
This birthday cup was basically a chocolate with some subdued flavored mousse in it.
I’m not sure what the reason or if this is normal, but they gave us a takeaway bottle of 375 milliliters of lobster oil. We originally brought only carry-on luggages, and it was because of this we had to check in one of our bags. The lobster oil when we tried at home was actually really good. It works great as a dressing finisher. You get very bold flavors of lobster shell.
They also gave us a small box of gold covered candied nuts to take home as well. These are marinated in the same seasoning as Guilty Pleasures course.
Final Verdict
The first thought that traversed through our head is that the whimsy nature of the restaurant reminded us of a lesser executed variant of Alinea. The food here had its highs and lows, but it definitely overall was just OK. There was nothing that really excited us in flavors, but as a night out, we thought the theatrics coupled with the food were entertaining.
Yelp Jabs
At some point you want the spectacles to stop and you want something yummy. It was like food porn on max. Everything taste great. Everything looked amazing. Every single dish entertained and contributed to the story unfolding.
The food definitely looked nice, but some of the ingredients were a little single dimensional. Compared to NYC, I don’t think this restaurant would really be a popular destination.
I have traveled around the world to many places and always looked for the top rated restaurants to try. I’ve been to many Michelin 2 stars restaurants in Europe, America and Asia. Was impressed by many but nothing like my experience here in jérôme Ferrer… Having been to so many great restaurants, I’m confidence to say this is one of the best restaurants I’ve ever eaten at and it’s not just about the great food but the whole package: The experience.
This Elitist definitely hasn’t eaten around much, let alone even develop a reasonable palette. If you try many of the 2 star restaurants in NYC, this restaurant is nowhere close in terms of food quality. Sure, the theatrics are something to speak about, but at the end of the day, taste needs to be held with a higher bar.
Revisions
- Dec 29, 2023 - Initial revision.