Montreal Eats: Dinner at Toqué!

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When Tomiko and I were planning our food tour of Quebec, we knew we were stopping by Montreal. We had just been in June, when we visited for the Formula One race and dined at Rumi and Au Pied de Cochon. This was going to just be a quick stop on our way further into Quebec, so we were going to have one night there. And then we thought, why not try Toqué!, the number one restaurant in Canada!

When we first heard about Toqué!, we didn’t know what it meant. We thought it was a sassy, exuberant way of saying ‘toque,’ the classic Canadian winter beanie. But then in Julian Armstrong’s Made In Quebec,we read that the accent changes the word to mean infatuated, cracked, or just a little crazy.

It was a pleasantly cool evening, and Tomiko and I were the only ones dining outside.

To start, our waiter brought us mini ciabatta buns and some slightly sour sliced spelt bread, both of which were delicious with the creamy butter.

Our amuse-bouche were grissini wrapped with buttery house-smoked salmon and served with creme fraiche, garnished with a tiny bloom.

After a long day of driving, we decided to split a cocktail. Here we have the Justine sour, which is made of tequila, Imbue Petals & Thorns, lavender syrup, lime, and egg white. The lavender added a really nice touch.

When we asked our waiter if we could share the appetizer, he gladly brought out two half-portions of the tuna tartare. It was topped with finely diced vegetables and served with a fried stuffed zucchini flower. We couldn’t tell what kind of vegetables were in the dice, but marvelled at the exact little cubes.

Tomiko had the halibut served with fresh spring peas and woodsy chanterelle mushrooms. The fish was tender and almost sweet, while the mushroom sauce was rich with umami.

I had the house-made ricotta cavatelli served with wild mushrooms, cream, Parmesan cheese, and mushroom foam, topped with basil. This was the first time I had fresh morels and they were amazing! The dish wasn’t very large, but it was enough for me. Especially considering each of us ordered dessert!

A rhubarb cannolo served with honeydew sorbet and some rather strange gels. The rhubarb was soft from cooking and sliced thinly, delicately wrapped around a crunchy tube filled with cream.

For dessert, I ordered the Bahibe Chocolate and Caramel Mousse, which was served with black raspberries, honeymead gel, miso and caramel ice cream. The chocolate mousse was just a really good mousse, but all the accompaniments boggled my mind. The honeymead gel, which indeed was a gel, was unsweetened and had a strange texture. Then the miso and caramel ice cream was another enigma to the palate; it had a clear caramel colour and flavour, but with a hint of miso, a fermented Japanese soy paste that I’ve only ever had in savoury dishes. It was strange.

To finish up our fantastic meal, we were unexpectedly served another plate of amuse-bouche, sweet this time. Tomiko and I each had a delicious mini almond tart, topped with a smidge of jam. But the maple fudge sprinkled with fleur de sel stole the show. Intensely maple-flavoured, it was just a taste of what we were to come across on our Quebec food tour.

Now, I haven’t been to enough fancy restaurants to affirm if Toqué! is better than the rest, but we thoroughly enjoyed our meal made of seasonal Quebecois ingredients. We don’t know if our budget will allow us to ever go back, but we thought it was worth coming to Toqué! at least once!

Visit Toqué!:

900 Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, Montréal, QC H2Z 2B2
(514) 499-2084