Dinner: Bières et Compagnie
Bières et Compagnie, 4350 St-Denis, (514) 844-0394
Ok, alright, I'm updating this. What's more, I'm backdating, so some of you who did not diligently check this site will never know for how long I didn't update it. In fact, maybe I never stopped...ahahahahaha!
Okay. It's another little known fact that I turned 32 this week. Today, December 16th, 2005, is not my birthday. However, today, December 16th, 2005, is the day upon which I met some school friends for dinner at Bières et Compagnie.
Actually, this was a joint birthday dinner for myself, Nicole and Amy. We are all long suffering students in the department of Political Science at McGill University. Most of us took time out from an inordinately huge amount of grading to be there. However, I'm about to leave those suckers to suffer on their own!!! I hand in my thesis in February!! I mean...heh, heh...it's great there and happy birthday to them...
Here is the gang attempting to lose their sorrows in beer:
Ok, so there's no beer yet, but trust me, people had beer later on. Unfortunately, I don't drink beer so I can't review that part of the menu. This is bad because half the point of the restaurant is to have beer off of their beer menu, which is as thick as the novel "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." So, if anyone who was present at the party wants to email me their beer review, I'll be happy to guest post it.
The other point of the restaurant is to have mussels. Now that, I did have. Recently, I've come to acknowledge that I love mussels like other people apparently love drugs. However, mussels are good for you and drugs are not, so I'm ahead of the game.
They have over 30 kinds of "moules et frites" on the menu, so it took me quite a while to decide. I was deadlocked between the Ardennoise, the Bourguignon and the Carignan. After conferring with the very friendly waitress, I decided to go with the Carignan. This is a pot of mussels made with wine, bacon, shallots and goat cheese. Here it is:
And, of course, the dish comes with fries. Along with the fries you get a choice of mayonnaise, I chose "Indienne."
What you see there on top of the fries is a couple of chips. I like it when restaurants do this - add a little something, I mean. It makes for a nice surprise. Chips aren't that big of a deal, but it's cool to get a little something extra with you go out.
The mussels were fantastic. So much so that I have been craving them ever since. The dish takes pretty much like the mussels that I usually make at home with white wine, butter and shallots. Except, the bacon adds a nice saltiness and the goat cheese, which is just dollopped on top, adds a weird surprise taste to the dish. And by weird I mean, something good that right now I don't have the vocabulary to describe because I'm a tad tired and I have to pick up my laundry in about three minutes.
The waitress told me that the Carignan is one of their top 5 mussels dishes. And, I found out that some site called "100 meilleurs restaurants" (see link to the right) thinks that Bières et Compagnie is one of the top 100 restaurants in Montreal. So, I figure that I've sampled one of the top dishes in the city. Yay me!
Okay, I know that I jumped right into the main meal here, but I told you, I LOVE mussels. I also had an entrée of three kinds of breaded cheese with salad.
Note: the cheese didn't come all cut up like that. I just wanted to share the cheese with my friends and forgot to take the picture when it was first served, all pristine like. Sorry.
Frankly, the three types of cheeses all tasted the same. They were dry cheeses that should have had more of a bite to them, but didn't. However, the tomatoes and cucumbers were very fresh and tasty.
Of course, they did the ol' happy birthday and here's a free piece of cake trick:
Nicole took that picture. I don't know if the angle is a result of being artistic or being drunk. You be the judge.
So...yeah, I liked the ambiance at Bières et Compagnie. It was a small to medium-sized restaurant in which people were smoking except that you barely noticed it because they had excellent ventilation. I appreciate that. May 31, 2006, you b*tches...May 21, 2006. That's all I have to say.
Three 3/4 stars.
Kisses,
Laurelle
Bières et Compagnie, 4350 St-Denis, (514) 844-0394
Ok, alright, I'm updating this. What's more, I'm backdating, so some of you who did not diligently check this site will never know for how long I didn't update it. In fact, maybe I never stopped...ahahahahaha!
Okay. It's another little known fact that I turned 32 this week. Today, December 16th, 2005, is not my birthday. However, today, December 16th, 2005, is the day upon which I met some school friends for dinner at Bières et Compagnie.
Actually, this was a joint birthday dinner for myself, Nicole and Amy. We are all long suffering students in the department of Political Science at McGill University. Most of us took time out from an inordinately huge amount of grading to be there. However, I'm about to leave those suckers to suffer on their own!!! I hand in my thesis in February!! I mean...heh, heh...it's great there and happy birthday to them...
Here is the gang attempting to lose their sorrows in beer:
Ok, so there's no beer yet, but trust me, people had beer later on. Unfortunately, I don't drink beer so I can't review that part of the menu. This is bad because half the point of the restaurant is to have beer off of their beer menu, which is as thick as the novel "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell." So, if anyone who was present at the party wants to email me their beer review, I'll be happy to guest post it.
The other point of the restaurant is to have mussels. Now that, I did have. Recently, I've come to acknowledge that I love mussels like other people apparently love drugs. However, mussels are good for you and drugs are not, so I'm ahead of the game.
They have over 30 kinds of "moules et frites" on the menu, so it took me quite a while to decide. I was deadlocked between the Ardennoise, the Bourguignon and the Carignan. After conferring with the very friendly waitress, I decided to go with the Carignan. This is a pot of mussels made with wine, bacon, shallots and goat cheese. Here it is:
And, of course, the dish comes with fries. Along with the fries you get a choice of mayonnaise, I chose "Indienne."
What you see there on top of the fries is a couple of chips. I like it when restaurants do this - add a little something, I mean. It makes for a nice surprise. Chips aren't that big of a deal, but it's cool to get a little something extra with you go out.
The mussels were fantastic. So much so that I have been craving them ever since. The dish takes pretty much like the mussels that I usually make at home with white wine, butter and shallots. Except, the bacon adds a nice saltiness and the goat cheese, which is just dollopped on top, adds a weird surprise taste to the dish. And by weird I mean, something good that right now I don't have the vocabulary to describe because I'm a tad tired and I have to pick up my laundry in about three minutes.
The waitress told me that the Carignan is one of their top 5 mussels dishes. And, I found out that some site called "100 meilleurs restaurants" (see link to the right) thinks that Bières et Compagnie is one of the top 100 restaurants in Montreal. So, I figure that I've sampled one of the top dishes in the city. Yay me!
Okay, I know that I jumped right into the main meal here, but I told you, I LOVE mussels. I also had an entrée of three kinds of breaded cheese with salad.
Note: the cheese didn't come all cut up like that. I just wanted to share the cheese with my friends and forgot to take the picture when it was first served, all pristine like. Sorry.
Frankly, the three types of cheeses all tasted the same. They were dry cheeses that should have had more of a bite to them, but didn't. However, the tomatoes and cucumbers were very fresh and tasty.
Of course, they did the ol' happy birthday and here's a free piece of cake trick:
Nicole took that picture. I don't know if the angle is a result of being artistic or being drunk. You be the judge.So...yeah, I liked the ambiance at Bières et Compagnie. It was a small to medium-sized restaurant in which people were smoking except that you barely noticed it because they had excellent ventilation. I appreciate that. May 31, 2006, you b*tches...May 21, 2006. That's all I have to say.
Three 3/4 stars.
Kisses,
Laurelle
posted by Laurelle St. Laurent at 2:20 PM
0 comments
