Overrated places.
Romados. Chicken is tender and juicy. I find the salad that comes with the meal to be better than the soggy fries. The Pastel de Nata is good but on the heavy side. I prefer the less sweet more flaky versions in Chinatown. Good eatery but I would not go out of the way to come here.
Toque. Too snobby. Reminds me of NYC. Also too many fancy unnecessary moves.
I will politely have to disagree on these two.
Romados is still the best Portuguese chicken in town. Over-priced? Yes, a little. But they really get the flavor in there. I've tried all the other places, and the "aggressiveness" :lol: with which Romados flavors their chicken / marinade is still my favorite, for my palate. Ma Poule Mouillée does a fantastic poutine rendition with the chicken, but the classic chicken-fries-salad combo is just not as flavorful as Romados'. I concede Romados' fries aren't the best. But they're not soggy. And they too are flavorful, especially after you re-heat them the next day (I can't finish the whole thing in one sitting anymore).
Toqué is a Montreal fine dining institution. The don. The fine dining equivalent to a Queue de Cheval or Moishes for steak in this city. The predecessor to Pied du Cochon, Joe Beef's and all these other cooler hipster spots that has cheapened the special-occasion feel of white-glove fine-dining service. (That said, Toqué has also surrendered to the casual trend a little, with their waiters annoyingly walking around with sloppy loosened ties. If you're wearing a tie at work, fucking tighten it up, slacker!! :nono
Do you eat at Toqué every week? No. But I take a degustation spin there at least once every year. Just took my friends there on the last trip. For the amount of food you get, it's not a bad deal. 4 grown men, albeit middle-aged office dilettantes, were sufficiently filled. And yes, there are some over-the-top flourishes, but even the
way-way-out-of-style foam was used to delicious effect. The signature princess scallop dish is still to die for - perfection in a slurp - a true signature dish. And to foodie friends, who
are looking for a Perse, Bouley, Le Bernardin "NYC" type experience in Montreal, I comfortably recommend Toqué.
A really great restaurant city, which Montreal is (almost), has great vertical depth - from the really high-end white-glove fine dining restaurants to casual neighborhood eateries, all the way down to cheap grub (poutine, gyros, etc.);
AND horizontal breadth (lots of ethnic options - French, Italian, Spanish, seafood, steaks, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). Montreal is not so strong in horizontal breadth, but fantastic when it comes to vertical depth. Toqué and Romados fill out this spectrum nicely.