Korean season

You'll melt for the sizzling barbecues and simmering stews at Restaurant Quatre Saisons

by SARAH MUSGRAVE

St-Henri is not the first place I'd look for a good Korean resto on a winter night. But I was happy to discover that despite its unimaginative name and neon interior, Restaurant Quatre Saisons on St-Jacques is a great place to add some sizzle to the early days of spring.

Although it offers Japanese and Chinese meals at decent prices, you'll want to turn to the back of the menu--past the sushi, Udon noodles and teriyaki--to find the Korean specialities. Many of these are best sampled in a group, where everyone can dig their chopsticks into a tabletop pot. Shared dishes to look for include bulgogi (aka Korean barbecue) and shabu, noodle soups containing a choice of ingredients from octopus to black goat. On the evening of our visit the atmosphere was very authentic--there were several groups of young people speaking Korean and digging into communal hot plates, sending the aroma of meats, garlic and red pepper sauce wafting through the air.

To start you off, the waitress brings six small bowls containing a variety of items. Three of tastiest were the marinated potatoes, the steamed spinach flavoured with garlic, and creamy coleslaw made of white cabbage and carrot in a peppery dressing. The other three bowls were somewhat sketchier for the uninitiated. I liked the distinctive nutty taste of the bright green seaweed and I appreciated the kimchi, an unusual pickled cabbage with a hot kick that is a Korean staple. But when I sampled the bean sprouts dotted with bright red chillies I discovered on my tongue the exact place where exotic meets toxic! If you like the smell of house paint or gasoline, you might enjoy this unusual taste.

If you're going for Korean barbecue, you might opt for one of the combos for two ($26 for beef, chicken and pork plus sushi maki), which you grill over a tabletop burner. My friend and I wanted to try different types of dishes so we chose a simple chicken barbecue for one ($11.95). The chicken and onion came to the table sizzling on an iron platter, encasing the meat in a slightly sweet glaze of soy, garlic and sesame oil. Each bite-sized piece was delicious and fresh.

From another page of the menu simply called "meals" (all under 10 bucks) the waitress recommended a heaping tureen of a satisfyingly spicy beef stew called uk gae jang ($7.95). It was more soupy than thick and meaty, the nicely spiced broth containing translucent noodles, thin strips of beef, bean sprouts and whole green onions that were almost sweet.

We were stuffed after all that plus some Sapporo, so we found it a nice touch to end the meal with a carved orange, perfectly citrusy on the tongue, after experiencing so many foreign flavours.

The staff is very friendly and seemed to multiply every time I looked up, so you'll find no shortage of guidance through what is still for many people an unexplored cuisine. Also recommended were the tofu soup, the kimchi soup and a Korean speciality called bibimbap, a mixture of rice and seasoned meat, vegetables and egg. If you really want to branch out, there's jellyfish, slices of raw meat and even a Korean-style pizza. Vegetarians won't delight in the meaty atmosphere, but there are quite a few seafood choices and a vegetable bokum (stir fry).

You can thank the likes of Quentin Tarantino for making Korean food trendy in NYC in recent years, but you can thank the friendly family who runs this restaurant for keeping it real in MTL.

Restaurant Quatre Saisons

Address: 4200 St-Jacques W. (at St-Henri metro)

Phone: 932-3309

Hours: 11am-11pm (kitchen till 10pm)

Best features: authentic Korean BBQ and soups

Vegetarian friendly: so-so

Wheelchair access: two steps up

Credit cards: Visa and Interac

Alcohol: yes

Price: $15 per person including tax, without drinks & tip

Rating: HHH out of HHHH