Everyone to the table

Salle à Manger aims high and hits the mark

by A.J. Kinik

Montreal’s culinary landscape is not without its mysteries. Take Mont-Royal East, for instance. For some strange reason, Mont- Royal East’s constant foot traffic, fetching storefronts and some excellent green grocers and specialty food shops never really translated into the stunning array of dining options one might have imagined or hoped for. It was almost as though there was too much foot traffic—it made a lot of restaurants painfully unadventurous.

There have been signs of improvement in recent years (Bistro Bienville, for instance), but now, with Salle à Manger, we have what appears to be a real breakthrough: a truly exciting restaurant situated right on Mont-Royal East, right in the thick of the action.

Salle à Manger is the latest venture from Réservoir chef Samuel Pinard, and it’s exactly the kind of audacious outing his microbrasserie menu always hinted at, but never was in a position to fully realize for reasons of space, staff, concept etc. Now, however, with a gorgeous, wide open space, a sizeable staff and an opportunity to start anew, Pinard’s talent and range are in full-view. Actually, that’s not all that’s in full view. With a large kitchen that’s open for all to see, and an impressive windowed meat cooler prominently placed at the back of the dining room (its large picture window proudly showing off its treasures), Salle à Manger isn’t hiding anything.

And once you see the menu, you can understand why. The menu is divided into three main sections— appetizers, mains and deluxe mains meant for a group (lapin royale, anyone?)—and it’s absolutely stacked. How often do you go to a restaurant and have a hard time ordering because there are too many tantalizing options? Two recent visits have covered a fair bit of ground, but, really, my dining companions and I have only managed to scratch the surface.

One of these recent visits began with a flurry of outstanding appetizers. First, there was a venison carpaccio ($15) served on a plain wooden board with a confited garlic mayonnaise, a few leaves of rocket and a few shavings of copeaux de Jersey du fjord cheese—a superb combination, and quite simply the best carpaccio I’ve encountered in town. Next there was foie gras torchon ($14) served on a thin, crisp feuilleté and dressed with a surprisingly subtle chestnut purée and some citrus zest. This version of Pinard’s foie gras torchon (poached foie gras) wasn’t quite as breathtaking as a version I’d had on an earlier visit—that time it had come accompanied by a truly heavenly iced honey sabayon and a honey gelée—but it would have been difficult to match those heights and nearly impossible to top them.

Our first hot appetizer that night was an Asiatic pulled pork steamed bun number ($14), Montreal’s answer to the now-legendary pork belly version at New York City’s Momofuku, and, topped with shaved cucumber, slathered with a hoisin-like sauce and sandwiched between a homemade steamed bun (!), Salle à Manger’s version lived up to its inspiration.

Not to be outdone were the veal sweetbreads “lacquered” with a Spanish sherry reduction and served on top of a perfectly balanced purée of parsnip, leeks and potatoes that had been adorned with tiny cubes of confited apple ($17). I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but these were the kind of sweetbreads that could make a believer out of anyone.

Among the most notable aspects of Salle à Manger’s menu is a tendency towards totally outrageous surf ‘n’ turf mains that capitalize upon Pinard’s insistence on sourcing some of the city’s highest quality meat and some of the city’s freshest seafood. Particularly amazing was a luscious confited pork loin served alongside a generous and similarly luscious hunk of sashimi-grade raw tuna ($24), a capers-laced mayonnaise teasing out the commonalities between the two.

And that’s not all. Salle à Manger was an opportunity for this team to pull out all the stops, and that’s exactly what they’ve done. To wit: a clever, user-friendly wine list that groups wines according to style as opposed to region; a great selection of beers including two of Belgium’s finest, Orval and Saison Dupont; homemade bread; and a daring selection of desserts, including pain perdu aux raisins with sautéed wild blueberries and thyme ice cream ($8), that rank among Montreal’s best.