Showing posts with label lobster bisque. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lobster bisque. Show all posts

Cafe Lunette (Halifax)


Visiting Halifax in July means a greater chance of good weather and lobster season. The time when these tasty crustaceans are at their prime and the reason Café Lunette offered a special Ooh La Lobster ($54) three-course menu.

But to start, an oyster ($3) to sample Nova Scotia’s array of seafood. It had a sweet finish, the restaurant using a lemon herb mignonette studded with chives, which wasn’t too pungent and just lightly flavoured the oyster.

It was a much better starter than the lobster bisque that had a bitter aftertaste. At first, I thought the bitterness stemmed from the Pernod, an anise liqueur, used in the soup but finally tracked it down to the crackers of all things. Once you scoop those out, the remaining soup was a bit salty but edible and incorporated a lot of lobster throughout.

The lobster spaghetti uses thicker strands of pasta and sauce, so everything sticks together well. The spaghetti had a great chewiness and while it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of lobster, the seafood was cut into small chunks and sprinkled throughout so each bite had a bit of lobster. It was a great main.

You can see the seafood in the truffled lobster and mushroom roll, but the truffle oil was too overpowering. I only had one bite and already my mouth was flooded with so much flavour that I can’t imagine having an entire sandwich. If you love decadence, you’ll want to try the lobster roll.

No lobster was used in the dessert but there was seaweed in the lemon posset. While it’s an interesting maritime addition, the seaweed does add an earthiness to the posset that’s an acquired taste. The consistency of the dessert was nice, almost like a panna cotta but thinner since it doesn’t incorporate gelatin.

The sea salt caramel crème brûlée was very rich and somehow both very sweet and salty. It’s a bit much on its own but when combined with the lemon posset the tanginess earthiness of that counteracts the flavours of the crème brûlée nicely so we ended up eating the desserts together.

Café Lunette’s cute atmosphere made us feel like we wanted to stay there and chat forever, the dining room is open and airy but there’s still a sense of privacy as ample space is given between tables. They are also so friendly – much like Halifax’s general populace – our waiter coming by to say goodbye as they were handing off shifts for the evening. We had a wonderful night and what a sad ending when we finally had to bid the café and its delicious lobsters au revoir

In a nutshell... 
  • Must order: lobster spaghetti or oysters
  • Just skip: lobster bisque

Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Halifax, Canada
 Address: 1741 Lower Water Street


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Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


Is That It? I Want More!

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CLOSED: Ici Bistro (Toronto)

Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 538 Manning Avenue
Type of Meal: Dinner



Ici Bistro has a chef that certainly sounds French – Chef Jean-Pierre Challet.  Having been born and raised in Lyon, it’s refreshing to eat creations from individuals who have actually lived and breathed the lifestyle.  At Ici, the menu offer classics with a twist of fushion – think flavourful sauces and rich ingredients synonymous with French cooking but also additions of guacamole, ginger and Asian pear.


To begin, an amuse of salted cod and butternut squash fritters were presented.  Served warm, the fritters were soft, doughy and had a nice brininess from the fish.  






Ici has a fairly limited menu but each dish can be ordered as a small or large portion, allowing you to customize what you want as a starter. With the exception of the scallop, all dishes and prices listed below are for the small option.  Although many of us opted for two small choices (rather than one small and one large) we were more than satisfied as the dishes are so rich that it’d be hard to eat more of it.


My starter of avocado fritter, crispy squid and guacamole ($15) was very tempura like with the various nuggets of fried goods.  The guacamole was extremely citrusy but leant itself to being paired with the fried squid helping to cut through some of the oiliness.  The avocado “fritters” were actually just pieces of avocado battered and fried so I wouldn’t actually consider them fritters.  They were okay, but a bit much when there’s already guacamole on the plate, a different vegetable would have been preferred.


In tasting my friend’s lobster bisque ($16) I found it was very gingery from the minced pieces they put in the oil topping the soup.  It was calmed down once my friend had the chance to mix it into the bisque.  The presentation was nice with the crème fraiche foam (?) and the fried shrimp on top.


Duck is one of those proteins I love but never cook at home.  So, when I’m out and it’s on the menu I love to get it.  The breast in Ici’s duck magret ($22) was rendered well giving it a thin layer of toasted skin while the meat was a nice medium and tender.  The cherry wine sauce covering it was tarte and delicious, I just wished everything could be hotter (although it’s likely because they had to rest the duck prior to cutting). On the side, was a plump duck confit ravioli, though based on the thin wrapper is more like a dumpling, which was filled with flavourful confit meat.  Another strong tasting element was the truffle croquette; as soon as you broke through the bread crumb coating an ooze of chopped up truffle with cheese/cream flowed out.  The creamy truffle mixture actually went well with the slices of potatoes and green beans, the sole elements of the dish that were more neutral tasting.


My friend’s scallops ($36) were exquisitely presented in a tower form, cut in half with a layer of king crab in between then sandwiched in slices of crispy Asian pear.  Overall, was delicious with the scallop cooked well.  I found the pear accompaniment intriguing but the scallop’s flavour was masked by the other ingredients.  On each side of the scallop were a poached lobster claw and a potato and spring onion (?) risotto.


Having been slow cooked for four hours, the braised beef ($21) was tender despite the lean cut of meat. Sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes with a vegetable medley on the side the small portion was still quite a substantial meal.  Little nuggets of deep fried bone marrow mixed with slivers of beef were intense despite their size – I had a quarter of one and as soon as it hit the tongue a beefy fat flavour flooded everything (so watch out before you pop an entire one into your mouth).


For dessert we ordered two soufflés ($16 each) to share - grand marnier and chocolate griottine.  They were beautifully risen and each served with a sauce to pour in - vanilla custard for the grand marnier and a dark chocolate ganache with the chocolate griottine.  The only bad element was the pieces of fruit inside the batter - big pieces of orange rind and drunken cherries.  Personally, I hate fruit in desserts (with the exception of sponge cake, cheesecake, pies and crumble). Especially with the light bubbliness of a soufflé, the harsh pieces of fruit somewhat ruined it and I had to pick them out.


Despite having a relatively lean staff, service was friendly and attentive. The only strange occurrence happened when we asked the server a question about the menu; she had to revert to the lone waitress to answer that instead. Really, everyone who works for a restaurant should really know what they are serving.   Nonetheless, I enjoyed the experience and left full and sedated.

Overall mark - 8 out of 10



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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!