Dinner: Holder's
Holder Restaurant Bar, 407 McGill (514) 849-0333
Look! It's Laurelle at Holders!
So, I got invited to my friend's birthday party. She's a photographer and a fashionista at heart despite being currently shacked to the pharmaceutical industry. Instead of calling her "Drugsy," I think I'll call her The Fabulous Ms. G (TFMG).
Just so you know, TFMG has great friends. They're hilarious.
So the decision to go to Holder's was like a long and arduous journey. There was a lot of back and forth between me and TFMG and so I'm sure there was a lot of back and forth between her and her great friends. I suggested many restaurants and disparaged many others and finally TFMG settled on one to which I'd never been. Great! Hope I don't get poisoned.
Being without a significant other, I attended TFMG's birthday extravaganza with La Française. She is my permadate and I am hers when she is without testosterone. Neither of us much felt like going anywhere beyond the Starbucks at which we were comfortably ensconced, but neither of us can pass up a potentially good meal and I totally and completely lofe TFMG so I would never have missed her party for the world.
Right.
So TFMG's party was a party of 13. That's actually my lucky number. I am born on the 13th day of December. Good things even happen to me on Friday the 13th. So, this was a good sign. Wait a minute, I think we were actually a party of 12. Crap. Doesn't look so good now.
La Française and I were the first to arrive. How embarrassing. Fortunately, TFMG and company arrived shortly thereafter and proceeded to engage in drink snorting antics. We were amused.
Eventually, this rambunctious party decided to order. La Française and I had the same thing. We split an appetizer and a dessert and we both had the same main meal. We ordered:
appetizer: calamari spiral
main meal: beefsteak with fries OR french green beans
dessert: triple crème brulée
Ok. First, I'd like to say our waitress was just wonderful. She handled our table of 12, possibly 13, very well. Sometimes when you're part of a large group, they assume that you will interact among yourselves so much that you won't notice their crappy service. Not this lady. She kept on top of us the entire time.
Now, the food. Wow! I was shocked at the good quality of this food. Maybe it's because I went in with low expectations. I mostly know Holder's as a 5 à 7 type of place where businesspeople mingle after work. I had no idea that the food would be so good.
The calamari spiral was a two-tiered spiral, so that God we shared the dish. It was the perfect texture. I'm willing to make this my top calamari experience thus far, and I've had a lot of calamari-fueled nights. It came with two sauces: marinara and tartar. The marinara sauce was the best of the two. It was not too tomato-ey and had a good kick of spiciness. The tartar sauce was maybe a little oily for my taste, but I think it consisted of homemade mayonnaise. It was good nonetheless.
When you order the beefsteak, you can have fries OR french green beans, not both. We asked. The waitress said no - it's an either/or deal. Ha! No ordering halvesies, you say? Either/or, you say? Well we sure pulled one over on you. I chose green beans and la Française chose fries. When our dishes came, we GAVE EACH OTHER HALF OUR SIDE ORDER. Suckers! So we DID get half-and-half after all. Holder's, please rectify this immediately. Half-and-half on side dishes should be allowed.
The french green beans came dressed in butter and hazelnuts, I believe. They were bright green (which I love) and just crispy (which I also love). The fries were just fries. They were good, but no better than any other fries that were good.
Now, I know some of you meat-lovers will faint when I say this but I take my beef well done. I mean ashes coming off the meat. I know, I know, I ruin a good cut of meat. I don't care. I don't want any blood with my food. Nothing turns my stomach more than an order of "steak, make it blue." In any case, my beefsteak did not come well done, it came medium well. I didn't complain, I ate it anyway. You know, it was pretty darn good. No, it was excellent. So, maybe in the future I'll order my meat medium well. Just maybe.
Now, understandable, la Française and I were scared that the dessert wouldn't live up to the rest of the meal. The triple crème brulée consists of three small crème brulées of various flavours. They are: sour orange, amaretto and chocolate. La Française thinks the best one was the chocolate, but I say the best was the sour orange. It doesn't matter, they were all good. The amaretto came with a meringue topping that was incredibly tasty (I don't usually like meringue so this is a meal of making me like things that I don't like. In that case, Holder's, bring on the tapioca, jello and roe). The orange sour one had a slightly bitter taste that blended very well with cream. Speaking of cream, the texture of these crème brulées was just brilliant. It was chilled without being cold and nicely creamy. Sometimes, a crème brulée can be too hard, too custardy. This was creamy - nicely solid without being stiff. The chocolate one was like what you would get if you blended chocolate mousse with crème brulée. That's the only way I can describe it.
Okay, I was loving this restaurant, but then the bill came and changed my opinion. I loved it even more! The total on my bill was $32.65, including 4.27 in taxes. The quality of this meal was worth about $60 - 70$ before tax and tip. So, I feel like I got a good deal. They even charged me only half the appetizer and half the dessert on my bill. Nicely organized, Holder's.
So, thanks to the Fabulous Ms. G for inviting me to a great restaurant to which I shall certainly return.
The rating? Four stars. You know, I would have given it four and a half stars, or even five stars, but they brought my meat medium well when I specifically requested that it be well done. And, they should have let us go halvsies on the side order, especially since we both ordered the same thing. It should have been no skin off their backs to accomodate our plates. So, FOUR STARS. But, I'll definitely eat there again.
Hugs and Kisses,
Laurelle
Holder Restaurant Bar, 407 McGill (514) 849-0333
Look! It's Laurelle at Holders!So, I got invited to my friend's birthday party. She's a photographer and a fashionista at heart despite being currently shacked to the pharmaceutical industry. Instead of calling her "Drugsy," I think I'll call her The Fabulous Ms. G (TFMG).
Just so you know, TFMG has great friends. They're hilarious.
So the decision to go to Holder's was like a long and arduous journey. There was a lot of back and forth between me and TFMG and so I'm sure there was a lot of back and forth between her and her great friends. I suggested many restaurants and disparaged many others and finally TFMG settled on one to which I'd never been. Great! Hope I don't get poisoned.
Being without a significant other, I attended TFMG's birthday extravaganza with La Française. She is my permadate and I am hers when she is without testosterone. Neither of us much felt like going anywhere beyond the Starbucks at which we were comfortably ensconced, but neither of us can pass up a potentially good meal and I totally and completely lofe TFMG so I would never have missed her party for the world.
Right.
So TFMG's party was a party of 13. That's actually my lucky number. I am born on the 13th day of December. Good things even happen to me on Friday the 13th. So, this was a good sign. Wait a minute, I think we were actually a party of 12. Crap. Doesn't look so good now.
La Française and I were the first to arrive. How embarrassing. Fortunately, TFMG and company arrived shortly thereafter and proceeded to engage in drink snorting antics. We were amused.
Eventually, this rambunctious party decided to order. La Française and I had the same thing. We split an appetizer and a dessert and we both had the same main meal. We ordered:
appetizer: calamari spiral
main meal: beefsteak with fries OR french green beans
dessert: triple crème brulée
Ok. First, I'd like to say our waitress was just wonderful. She handled our table of 12, possibly 13, very well. Sometimes when you're part of a large group, they assume that you will interact among yourselves so much that you won't notice their crappy service. Not this lady. She kept on top of us the entire time.
Now, the food. Wow! I was shocked at the good quality of this food. Maybe it's because I went in with low expectations. I mostly know Holder's as a 5 à 7 type of place where businesspeople mingle after work. I had no idea that the food would be so good.
The calamari spiral was a two-tiered spiral, so that God we shared the dish. It was the perfect texture. I'm willing to make this my top calamari experience thus far, and I've had a lot of calamari-fueled nights. It came with two sauces: marinara and tartar. The marinara sauce was the best of the two. It was not too tomato-ey and had a good kick of spiciness. The tartar sauce was maybe a little oily for my taste, but I think it consisted of homemade mayonnaise. It was good nonetheless.
When you order the beefsteak, you can have fries OR french green beans, not both. We asked. The waitress said no - it's an either/or deal. Ha! No ordering halvesies, you say? Either/or, you say? Well we sure pulled one over on you. I chose green beans and la Française chose fries. When our dishes came, we GAVE EACH OTHER HALF OUR SIDE ORDER. Suckers! So we DID get half-and-half after all. Holder's, please rectify this immediately. Half-and-half on side dishes should be allowed.
The french green beans came dressed in butter and hazelnuts, I believe. They were bright green (which I love) and just crispy (which I also love). The fries were just fries. They were good, but no better than any other fries that were good.
Now, I know some of you meat-lovers will faint when I say this but I take my beef well done. I mean ashes coming off the meat. I know, I know, I ruin a good cut of meat. I don't care. I don't want any blood with my food. Nothing turns my stomach more than an order of "steak, make it blue." In any case, my beefsteak did not come well done, it came medium well. I didn't complain, I ate it anyway. You know, it was pretty darn good. No, it was excellent. So, maybe in the future I'll order my meat medium well. Just maybe.
Now, understandable, la Française and I were scared that the dessert wouldn't live up to the rest of the meal. The triple crème brulée consists of three small crème brulées of various flavours. They are: sour orange, amaretto and chocolate. La Française thinks the best one was the chocolate, but I say the best was the sour orange. It doesn't matter, they were all good. The amaretto came with a meringue topping that was incredibly tasty (I don't usually like meringue so this is a meal of making me like things that I don't like. In that case, Holder's, bring on the tapioca, jello and roe). The orange sour one had a slightly bitter taste that blended very well with cream. Speaking of cream, the texture of these crème brulées was just brilliant. It was chilled without being cold and nicely creamy. Sometimes, a crème brulée can be too hard, too custardy. This was creamy - nicely solid without being stiff. The chocolate one was like what you would get if you blended chocolate mousse with crème brulée. That's the only way I can describe it.
Okay, I was loving this restaurant, but then the bill came and changed my opinion. I loved it even more! The total on my bill was $32.65, including 4.27 in taxes. The quality of this meal was worth about $60 - 70$ before tax and tip. So, I feel like I got a good deal. They even charged me only half the appetizer and half the dessert on my bill. Nicely organized, Holder's.
So, thanks to the Fabulous Ms. G for inviting me to a great restaurant to which I shall certainly return.
The rating? Four stars. You know, I would have given it four and a half stars, or even five stars, but they brought my meat medium well when I specifically requested that it be well done. And, they should have let us go halvsies on the side order, especially since we both ordered the same thing. It should have been no skin off their backs to accomodate our plates. So, FOUR STARS. But, I'll definitely eat there again.
Hugs and Kisses,
Laurelle
posted by Laurelle St. Laurent at 3:46 AM
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