We haven’t seen anything like it in the Mile End since the opening of Le Comptoir – an inviting restaurant with charming staff, creative dishes and, most importantly, a reason to return. Hotel Herman is quite all that, with perhaps room for improvement on some of the dishes, but still a restaurant I would like to try again. Saturday I went with a few girlfriends and high expectations after seeing photos of some of the courses on my Instagram feed. Here are a few highlights and recommendations…
I love what they’ve done to the space! The former Montée de Lait location is now reminiscent of something I would call Art Deco meets industrial sparsity, even though the only thing vaguely Art Deco is the logo and the shapely exposed wood window and door frames at the entrance. The overall tone is warm and inviting with a mix of wood, brick, metal and a multitude of suspended light fixtures. The central u-shaped bar is where you should sit to feel part of the in crowd, or take to one of the bench-lined tables along the right-hand wall for intimate group dinners. My gals and I had reserved the only window seat, which gave us a prime view of both the action on the street and within. We were immediately charmed by co-owner, Dominic Goyet (La Salle à manger and Reservoir) who recommended one of the best wines I’d had in a long time, based on what we said we were in the mood for – Clos Saron, a private-import, natural wine that was a heady blend of Cinsault, Syrah and Roussane. He hit our palate nail on the head!
For starters, we ordered the chilled corn soup with roasted tomatoes, the mushroom salad, and the duck egg (sunny side up with lobster mushrooms, fava beans, shallots and croutons). I enjoyed everything, but the mushroom salad was my favourite dish with its mix of warm, sliced mushrooms, sweet onion purée, tiny salty snails and roasted garlic chips. Delish! For my main (although all the plates are small plates to be enjoyed as starters, mains or all at once) I had the pan-fried halibut served with fennel and dill. It was cooked perfectly and the fennel was an appropriate accompaniment. Since we were all more than satisfied with finishing the Clos Saron in lieu of dessert, I’ll definitely have to return!
My excuse for another visit to HH.
5171 Saint-Laurent Boulevard
514 278 7000
Hours:
Monday, 5 pm – 12 am
Wednesday to Saturday, 5 pm – 12 am
Sunday, 3 pm – 12 am
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