There is something special to see a city from high up in the sky. And I love any opportunity to see Montreal from above. The temptation to visit the latest outlet of the Les Enfants Terribles empire, run by restaurateurs Francine Brûlé and Serge Bruneau, was hard to resist.
Located on the 44th floor of Place Ville Marie, Les Enfants Terribles Place Ville Marie, opened in June 2016, has what is arguably the best views in the city.
To get there from the ground floor, we had to take two elevator runs. Once at the reception station we were quickly lead through the crowded place to our window table WOW! Even on a Monday evening, the place was packed and noisy.
There were many groups, large and small, as the restaurant seems to be very popular for birthday parties or to hang out with out of town friends. As a matter of fact, we have acquaintances that two days before did exactly this. They celebrated their son’s 25th birthday with out of town family members.
To start with, we ordered the Torched smoked salmon with Temiscouata Grey Owl goat cheese, burned onion, dill-chives oil, celery, Jerusalem artichokes.
For main we had Grilled octopus, Smoke Show huancaina sauce, Louis Albert potatoes, chimichurri, cabbage and lime salad
Finally, for desert: Tarte tatin, Coconut crumble, vanilla ice cream, for dessert.
The service was what can be described as sporadic. The appetizer arrived with lightning speed, even before we were served the wine.
The salmon appetizer was ok.
Then, the service switched to slow. Or I should say very slow. But contrary to other places, this was good here, because having enjoyed the appetizer and the bread and butter we weren’t starving anymore and it just gave us more time to hang out and enjoy the view while waiting for the main course.
Eventually, a server, not our waiter came with the lamb which we were glad we didn’t order because it didn’t look enticing. Informed of the error she took the wrongly delivered dishes away and we resumed the wait.
The tarte tatin was a lame interpretation of what is one of our favorites French desserts.
Conclusion: Food is average but the view is one of the best in town and it is a chic place to hang out with friends, especially if they are from out of town.
Dan Tomescu
Next stop: Caribou Gourmand
Previous stop: Beaver Hall