Joe Beef in Montreal was OK

One of the most memorable dishes I have ever had was the blue fin tuna and foie gras at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal. That was almost 8 years ago and I still think back to that dish. Fast forward to a more recent trip to Montreal, and I was looking for a new, but similar, restaurant to experience this bliss again. The name which kept coming up was Joe Beef. Lets see how it stacks up. Here was the menu in both French and English:

We started with the snow crab which was not on the menu. We had these at Molenne the night before, which I will write about soon, and I prefer those. At Molenne, the chefs cut the shell well so the meat was easy to get out with just your hands. Here, not so much.

Next, the escargot which was disappointing because they were not in the shell. I also had these at another place in Montreal, served also our of the shell. I don’t know, it may be that the ones in the shell are not available in Canada. Also pictured is the bone marrow custard. It was ok, but I prefer just pure bone marrow.

So far, nothing was mind blowing. The main below was a beef special that was not that special.

Moving on to dessert is where something memorable finally popped up. We had a cake and a kind of donut with foie gras cream. The latter was memorable and delicious. The foie gras was delicate and not overpowering.

Overall, there is lots of debate online on whether this is a “must visit” in Montreal. I would tend to side with the side that advises people to skip it. There wasn’t anything really wrong with it, but there also wasn’t anything amazing. Service was pretty good, food was ok. There are better places to eat in Montreal.