Let’s start the new year with a new restaurant! I spent Saturday night with one of my best friends on a gourmet journey at Fieldstone – a little, nondescript restaurant on the Main in Mile End. While lacking in decor, it surely makes up for it in generosity, creativity and charm. My friend and I opted for the eight-course tasting menu, but you can also choose between the three and five-course options. All are more than reasonably priced. If you’re adventurous, then this is a spot you shouldn’t miss.
A feast for the eyes and palate in three, five or eight courses
We were served by Emiliano Rivera, one of the owners who explained the tasting-menu concept to us. The idea behind Fieldstone is to experience a culinary journey by way of three ($35), five ($45) or eight ($60) course tasting menus. So, time and budget-depending, you have three very interesting options. Since we had a lot of time on our hands (it was Saturday night after all), we chose the eight-course menu and started with a Saint-Laurent gin martini.
From start to finish, we were more than impressed by the creativity, unique flavours and textures integrated in each dish. The fact that chef Chanthy Yen came out to see us in between courses was a nice gesture. Each dish was a new discovery, from the appetizer (which wasn’t even part of the eight courses) – a dumpling unlike any I’ve tried before, stuffed with cactus, kimchi and hot peppers – to the contemporary-art-like dessert of foie gras and carob ice cream sprinkled with sugar coral and hidden under thin slices of charcoal meringue (which were a shade of grey that perfectly matched the ceramic plates the dessert was served on). The entire experience was applause-worthy.
Special mention for the seemingly bottomless bottle of Niagara Gamay we ordered – it married well with the scope of the meal. Aside from the appetizer and dessert, other highlights were: a smoked beet tartare with bee pollen, a filet of sturgeon served on a bed of forbidden Thai rice and my pork belly main served with reindeer moss.
After such a decadent eight-course journey, I opted for another type of adventure by walking home in the -20 weather.
If you’re up for a gourmet voyage, then be sure to try Fieldstone! The team is really lovely.
5427, boul. Saint-Laurent (Mile-End)
(438) 387-7197
www.fieldstonemtl.com
