Gem on Wellington

The tasty and affordable lunch menu at
Mas Cuisine in Verdun is an excellent bet

by A.J. KINIK

Amidst the discount fashion stores, the dollar stores, the pawn shops and the casse-croûtes that line Wellington in Verdun, sits a veritable diamond in the rough. You’ve got to be paying attention to find it, though. Its minimal façade is pretty easy to miss—especially given the riot of signs that surround it—and that would be a crying shame.

Come in off the street and things aren’t nearly so minimal inside—the vivid abstract paintings that adorn the walls make sure of that. But there’s still some sense of a calm within the storm. For one thing, the mix of vintage Van Morrison and early jazzbo-era Tom Waits playing over the hi-fi made a welcome change from the tinny, irritating Top 40 that was being piped onto the sidewalks outside.

The restaurant in question is Mas, the latest gem from chef Michel Ross, of Brunoise fame. And this time around, not only has he moved his operation out of the limelight and into the boroughs, but he’s come up with his most intimate setting yet: just 28 seats. More importantly, Ross’s menu is a stripped-down affair appropriate to his new location, but it’s a stunner.

Given the calibre of Mas’s cuisine, the dinner menu is remarkably well priced, with multi-course dinners starting in the mid- to high-$20s. Even the wine list shows only moderate mark-ups, with every bottle priced between $25 and $55, and a number of excellent selections available by the glass for well under $10. But if you really want a deal, Mas’s lunch menu is where it’s at.

Mas’s lunch special consists of a prix-fixe, two-course menu. On a recent lunch date, there were three appetizers to choose from: a potato salad option, a parsnip soup option and a homemade duck rillettes option. I was curious about the rillettes, but when I found out the parsnip soup came garnished with a little, my decision was made.

My partner had decided to go vegetarian, and her salad was no mere potato salad—it was a gorgeously arranged combination of tender fingerling potatoes, crisp French green beans, fresh arugula and cherry tomatoes, the plate dotted with herbed oil, and the whole thing dressed with a gentle balsamic vinaigrette.

As top-notch as that salad was, it never had a chance, because the parsnip soup was almost beyond comprehension. Take the sweetest, most delicate cream of parsnip you can possibly imagine. Decorate it with minced chives and just the lightest drizzle of fruity olive oil. Place a small mound of your decadent homemade duck rillettes in the centre of the bowl. And then, if that isn’t enough, suspend tiny cubes of poached foie gras in each of the drops of olive oil, before perching one last little cube of goodness on top of the rillettes. Was it a little busy? Yeah, sure. Was it absurdly good? Definitely. All I could think at the time was: This is the lunchtime special?

My partner’s pasta (casarecci) and pesto main ($13) with marinated shiitake mushrooms was both generous and delicious, but with baby spinach leaves, fresh arugula, and cherry tomatoes tossed in, it was a little too similar to her opening course.

I hit two for two, though. Just when you thought every duck confit in town was more or less the same, along comes Mas’s. Frankly, I was leaning towards something else, but when I heard the duck confit ($14) was the house specialty, I reconsidered. Second thoughts have rarely tasted so good. Instead of your standard confit and salad combination, Ross serves his perfectly crisped, perfectly juicy, on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes and adorned with an assortment of sautéed mushrooms with sun-dried tomatoes and lardons, some roasted pearl onions and a hint of sherry vinegar to add a little extra zip.

By that point, we were both besides ourselves. We might have asked our waiter what the significance of the name “Mas” was, but all we could think to ask him was whether he and Chef Ross were brothers (they bear a striking resemblance). He just smiled and said, “No, but we get asked that question a lot. About once a day.”