One of the best meals I’ve had in Old Montreal was at Kitchen Galerie Poisson on Notre Dame. It had just opened and I was looking for a place to celebrate my friend’s BIG birthday (ahem, it was a significant number). So, on the Saturday night of his fête, four of us headed to this new resto with a decadent fish dinner on our minds. As we had no idea what exactly to expect, but were prepared to try anything, we gave our server a budget ($50 per person, not including cocktails & wine) and asked him to just bring us whatever the chef chose to serve us. I’ve done this before and really think it’s a great way to try a new restaurant because chefs usually love it when guests don’t have food restrictions and it gives them artistic license to wow you with their talents, so you’ll usually get grandeur for your money! At KGP we were more than impressed and left extremely satisfied and slightly over-fed!
For starters we had the Pot de foie gras cuit au lave-vaiselle ($17) – literally, “foie gras pot cooked in the dishwasher!” Served with toasted slices of baguette and sea salt – that pot went pretty quick! Along with the foie, our server brought us an assortment of eight oysters (normally, it’s 6 for $26). They were fresh and divine. For our first course, we loved the Linguini à l’ancre de seiche et aux crevettes ($18) – squid ink linguini with shrimp – and, the chef did not skimp on the shrimp! For our main course, our server brought out this gorgeous grilled fish on a cutting board. It was the catch of the day (the price varies according to market prices) and although I don’t remember what sort of fish it was, I do remember that it was cooked to perfection and big enough to feed four or even more. At this point, I should let you know that we thought we were done and we were all pleasantly full, but then our server came out of the kitchen with two more plates: a side of beef in its sauce on mashed potatoes served with a giant side plate of grilled seasonal vegetables ($70 for two). Our bellies groaned in protest, but we all dug in just the same.
I’d like to say that we didn’t have dessert after all that, but our chef was on a roll and sent out a lemon tart and something chocolaty. We didn’t have the heart to tell him that we were going to have birthday cake at home, so we put our best forks forward and finished those too.
As you can tell, we had the decadent fish dinner we’d hoped for and much, much more!
Kitchen Galerie Poisson
www.kitchengaleriepoisson.com
399 Notre-Dame Street W.
For reservations: 514-439-6886
Hours:
Tues-Fri 11:30am to 11pm
Saturday 5pm to 11pm
